#OYVeyDonaldTrump's Rocky Horror Holocaust Statement spins out of control #AmericaHangsItsHeadInShame ( Again and Again and Again)

#OyVeyDonaldTrump's White House ( Or is it already Stephen Banon's taking the Jews out of the completely out of the Holocaust.The horrors of the mid-20th century destruction of European Judaism are indescribable, yet there are many words to describe it. In English, those terrible events are referred to by the word "Holocaust." The term became commonplace after 1978, when a miniseries by the same name aired on American television, bringing the carnage right into U.S. living rooms.Before the term Holocaust was used specifically to describe the organized killing of Jews, however, it was used by writers to describe other more moderate, but still horrific, bloodbaths.


So much for giving people the benefit of the doubt who offer no sign they deserve it. The Trump White House issued a statement on Friday commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the statement didn’t make specific mention of the Jewish people—who were the target of the Holocaust, or Shoah, which is a term devised after World War II to describe the effort by Nazi Germany to eradicate Jews from the face of the earth. After reading it, I thought to myself, “The Trump White House is an amateur operation, understaffed and without much executive-branch experience, and whoever wrote the statement and issued it blew it out of ignorance and sloppiness.”

I won’t be making that mistake again.

The White Statement by the President on International Holocaust Remembrance Day
“It is with a heavy heart and somber mind that we remember and honor the victims, survivors, heroes of the Holocaust. It is impossible to fully fathom the depravity and horror inflicted on innocent people by Nazi terror.
“Yet, we know that in the darkest hours of humanity, light shines the brightest.‎ As we remember those who died, we are deeply grateful to those who risked their lives to save the innocent.
“In the name of the perished, I pledge to do everything in my power throughout my Presidency, and my life, to ensure that the forces of evil never again defeat the powers of good. Together, we will make love and tolerance prevalent throughout the world.”

Jake Tapper of CNN reported Saturday night that Trump spokesperson Hope Hicks defended and even celebrated the White House statement. The decision not to mention the Jews was deliberate, Hicks said, a way of demonstrating the inclusive approach of the Trump administration: “Despite what the media reports, we are an incredibly inclusive group and we took into account all of those who suffered…it was our honor to issue a statement in remembrance of this important day.”
No, Hope Hicks, and no to whomever you are serving as a mouthpiece. The Nazis killed an astonishing number of people in monstrous ways and targeted certain groups—Gypsies, the mentally challenged, and open homosexuals, among others. But the Final Solution was aimed solely at the Jews. The Holocaust was about the Jews. There is no “proud” way to offer a remembrance of the Holocaust that does not reflect that simple, awful, world-historical fact. To universalize it to “all those who suffered” is to scrub the Holocaust of its meaning.

Given Hicks’s abominable statement, one cannot simply write this off. For there is a body of opinion in this country, and in certain precincts of the Trump coalition, who have long made it clear they are tired of what they consider a self-centered Jewish claim to being the great victims of the Nazis. Case in point: In 1988, as a speechwriter in the Reagan Administration, I drafted the president’s remarks at the laying of the cornerstone of the Holocaust Museum in Washington. As was the practice, the speech was sent around to 14 White House offices, including an office called Public Liaison staffed by conservatives whose job it was to do outreach to ethnic and religious groups. The official at Public Liaison who supported anti-Communist groups in Eastern Europe was tasked with the job of reviewing it. She sent the speech back marked up almost sentence by sentence. At the top, she wrote something like, “This must be redone. What about the suffering of the Poles and the Slovaks? The president should not be taking sides here.”

I was astonished, and horrified, and took the document to my superior, who told me to ignore it. “She has a bee in her bonnet about this,” he said of the Public Liaison official and one of #OYVeyDonaldTrumps 's inner inner wingmen..

On another occasion, in an article commissioned by a conservative magazine, I wrote a sentence in which I called the Jews “the most beleaguered people in history.” An editor there objected, and insisted we add the word “uniquely” between “most” and “beleaguered” because there was an element, he said, of “special pleading.”

I bring these anecdotes up to say that the Hope Hicks statement does not arrive without precedent. It is, rather, the culmination of something—the culmination of decades of ill feeling that seems to center on the idea that the Jews have somehow made unfair “use” of the Holocaust and it should not “belong” to them. Someone in that nascent White House thought it was time to reflect that view through the omission of the specifically Jewish quality of the Holocaust.

Now the question is: Who was it?

In those remarks at the cornerstone laying, President Reagan said this: “I think all of us here are aware of those, even among our own countrymen, who have dedicated themselves to the disgusting task of minimizing or even denying the truth of the Holocaust. This act of intellectual genocide must not go unchallenged, and those who advance these views must be held up to the scorn and wrath of all good and thinking people in this nation and across the world.” This was in reference to the new and horrifying field of Holocaust denial. It is heartbreaking to think these are words that can now be applied to the White House in which a Republican successor to Reagan is now resident, only 28 years after he departed it for the last time. Heartbreaking and enraging.

Wanted a New Chief of Staff Email Probe Leaves Future Role of Huma Abedin in Question

Hillary Clinton aide, long seen as a fixture if the campaign wins, may face different prospects if findings are serious

ENLARGE

Huma Abedin, left, stood near Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton after the final presidential debate at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas on Oct. 19.

Huma Abedin has been by Hillary Clinton’s side for 20 years, since she was a White House intern assigned to the first lady’s office. There has never been much question that if Mrs. Clinton returned to the White House as president, Ms. Abedin would come too.

Now with Ms. Abedin again part of unwelcome attention, even some Democrats are wondering if Mrs. Clinton might be forced to rethink Ms. Abedin’s role if she is elected president, and whether a cloud would linger over her if Ms. Abedin were to take a senior White House job, as has long been expected.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Friday it had found additional emails potentially related to the probe, completed this summer, of Mrs. Clinton’s private server when she was secretary of state. The new emails come from a laptop that investigators believe was used by Ms. Abedin and her estranged husband, former Rep. Anthony Weiner, and were found during an investigation of Mr. Weiner for allegedly exchanging sexually explicit text messages and photos with a 15-year-old girl.





Ms. Abedin now finds herself as a central character in a late-breaking drama that has added an unpredictable factor into what many people in both parties saw as an election heading toward a Clinton victory.

Some Democrats said Sunday they had no doubt Mrs. Clinton would bring Ms. Abedin with her to the White House. Others said her future may depend on what the renewed investigation finds. It is possible the emails are purely personal, were already turned over to investigators, or are duplicates of messages already examined, meaning the long-term damage to Mrs. Clinton—and Ms. Abedin—may be minimal.

More serious findings could have more significant ramifications. And the process of reading the messages, which may number in the thousands, will take weeks and won’t be completed until well after Election Day.

Democrats point to Mrs. Clinton’s loyalty to her friends and staff, many of whom have been with her for years. Ms. Abedin, who is said to be personally closer to the candidate than any other adviser, is often described as akin to a second daughter.

“She’s played a central and vital role in this campaign,” Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “And she continues to do that and continues to do her work running our overall scheduling and advance operation, being a confidante to senior people in the campaign, and traveling with Hillary.”On the campaign, Ms. Abedin has been involved in anything involving Mrs. Clinton personally, including speeches, statements, meetings and debate preparation. She manages the candidate’s large network of contacts and serves as gatekeeper, determining who and what gets through to her.

Ms. Abedin wasn’t on the road this weekend, but is expected to return to Mrs. Clinton’s side in coming days.

At rallies this weekend, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump repeatedly mentioned Ms. Abedin by name. “Is she going to keep Huma?” Mr. Trump asked Saturday in Golden, Colo. “Huma’s been a problem. Do we agree? Huma. Huma’s been a problem. I wonder if Huma’s going to stay there.”

The timing of this disclosure, just days before the election, is particularly uncomfortable for Ms. Abedin. But it isn’t the first time she has been under scrutiny, and it is far from her first public embarrassment.

Because she had a personal email address on the Clinton family server, conservative groups have been able to obtain, through lawsuits, all of Ms. Abedin’s correspondence. They have also gotten many of her emails from her State Department account. Several of them show Clinton Foundation officials asking her for favors.

That has led Mr. Trump to charge that there was a “pay to play” scheme at work, in which supporters of the foundation may have obtained favors from the department. Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has said her decisions as secretary of state were unrelated to requests from the foundation and its supporters.

Ms. Abedin also has been under investigation by Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) for an arrangement under the Special Government Employee program, which allowed her to simultaneously work for the State Department, Mrs. Clinton personally, the Clinton Foundation and a private consulting firm called Teneo, which was founded in part by a former foundation official.

The program was created to allow agencies to give short-term jobs to individuals from the private sector with a particular expertise, and Mr. Grassley has argued that using it in Ms. Abedin’s case was an abuse.

The State Department has said Ms. Abedin’s work for Teneo was unrelated to her work for the government, and that her outside employment while at State was arranged so the government wouldn’t be paying her for work she did charting Mrs. Clinton’s post-State career.

But the actions of Mr. Weiner, whom Ms. Abedin married in 2010, are the most personal and likely the most painful public controversy she has confronted. In 2011, the New York lawmaker resigned from Congress after admitting he had sent salacious photos and messages over the internet to other women. Ms. Abedin, who was pregnant at the time, opted to stay with him, and was by his side in 2013 when he attempted a political comeback. During his campaign for mayor of New York City, it was disclosed that he had continued exchanging sexually explicit messages with other women after he left Congress—a story chronicled in a documentary that Ms. Abedin participated in, which was released this summer.

The New York Post reported this summer that Mr. Weiner had sent yet another provocative picture, this time sending a photo of himself in his underwear to a woman while their 4-year-old son was lying next to him in bed. After that, Ms. Abedin announced she was leaving him.

In September, the FBI opened its investigation of him after a report that he had exchanged messages with a minor. It was that probe that led to the discovery of the new emails and, ultimately, to Friday’s announcement, a development that is rocking the campaign of the woman to whom Ms. Abedin has devoted her career.

Wanted a New Chief of Staff Email Probe Leaves Future Role of Huma Abedin in Question

Hillary Clinton aide, long seen as a fixture if the campaign wins, may face different prospects if findings are serious

ENLARGE

Huma Abedin, left, stood near Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton after the final presidential debate at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas on Oct. 19.

Huma Abedin has been by Hillary Clinton’s side for 20 years, since she was a White House intern assigned to the first lady’s office. There has never been much question that if Mrs. Clinton returned to the White House as president, Ms. Abedin would come too.

Now with Ms. Abedin again part of unwelcome attention, even some Democrats are wondering if Mrs. Clinton might be forced to rethink Ms. Abedin’s role if she is elected president, and whether a cloud would linger over her if Ms. Abedin were to take a senior White House job, as has long been expected.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Friday it had found additional emails potentially related to the probe, completed this summer, of Mrs. Clinton’s private server when she was secretary of state. The new emails come from a laptop that investigators believe was used by Ms. Abedin and her estranged husband, former Rep. Anthony Weiner, and were found during an investigation of Mr. Weiner for allegedly exchanging sexually explicit text messages and photos with a 15-year-old girl.





Ms. Abedin now finds herself as a central character in a late-breaking drama that has added an unpredictable factor into what many people in both parties saw as an election heading toward a Clinton victory.

Some Democrats said Sunday they had no doubt Mrs. Clinton would bring Ms. Abedin with her to the White House. Others said her future may depend on what the renewed investigation finds. It is possible the emails are purely personal, were already turned over to investigators, or are duplicates of messages already examined, meaning the long-term damage to Mrs. Clinton—and Ms. Abedin—may be minimal.

More serious findings could have more significant ramifications. And the process of reading the messages, which may number in the thousands, will take weeks and won’t be completed until well after Election Day.

Democrats point to Mrs. Clinton’s loyalty to her friends and staff, many of whom have been with her for years. Ms. Abedin, who is said to be personally closer to the candidate than any other adviser, is often described as akin to a second daughter.

“She’s played a central and vital role in this campaign,” Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “And she continues to do that and continues to do her work running our overall scheduling and advance operation, being a confidante to senior people in the campaign, and traveling with Hillary.”On the campaign, Ms. Abedin has been involved in anything involving Mrs. Clinton personally, including speeches, statements, meetings and debate preparation. She manages the candidate’s large network of contacts and serves as gatekeeper, determining who and what gets through to her.

Ms. Abedin wasn’t on the road this weekend, but is expected to return to Mrs. Clinton’s side in coming days.

At rallies this weekend, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump repeatedly mentioned Ms. Abedin by name. “Is she going to keep Huma?” Mr. Trump asked Saturday in Golden, Colo. “Huma’s been a problem. Do we agree? Huma. Huma’s been a problem. I wonder if Huma’s going to stay there.”

The timing of this disclosure, just days before the election, is particularly uncomfortable for Ms. Abedin. But it isn’t the first time she has been under scrutiny, and it is far from her first public embarrassment.

Because she had a personal email address on the Clinton family server, conservative groups have been able to obtain, through lawsuits, all of Ms. Abedin’s correspondence. They have also gotten many of her emails from her State Department account. Several of them show Clinton Foundation officials asking her for favors.

That has led Mr. Trump to charge that there was a “pay to play” scheme at work, in which supporters of the foundation may have obtained favors from the department. Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has said her decisions as secretary of state were unrelated to requests from the foundation and its supporters.

Ms. Abedin also has been under investigation by Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) for an arrangement under the Special Government Employee program, which allowed her to simultaneously work for the State Department, Mrs. Clinton personally, the Clinton Foundation and a private consulting firm called Teneo, which was founded in part by a former foundation official.

The program was created to allow agencies to give short-term jobs to individuals from the private sector with a particular expertise, and Mr. Grassley has argued that using it in Ms. Abedin’s case was an abuse.

The State Department has said Ms. Abedin’s work for Teneo was unrelated to her work for the government, and that her outside employment while at State was arranged so the government wouldn’t be paying her for work she did charting Mrs. Clinton’s post-State career.

But the actions of Mr. Weiner, whom Ms. Abedin married in 2010, are the most personal and likely the most painful public controversy she has confronted. In 2011, the New York lawmaker resigned from Congress after admitting he had sent salacious photos and messages over the internet to other women. Ms. Abedin, who was pregnant at the time, opted to stay with him, and was by his side in 2013 when he attempted a political comeback. During his campaign for mayor of New York City, it was disclosed that he had continued exchanging sexually explicit messages with other women after he left Congress—a story chronicled in a documentary that Ms. Abedin participated in, which was released this summer.

The New York Post reported this summer that Mr. Weiner had sent yet another provocative picture, this time sending a photo of himself in his underwear to a woman while their 4-year-old son was lying next to him in bed. After that, Ms. Abedin announced she was leaving him.

In September, the FBI opened its investigation of him after a report that he had exchanged messages with a minor. It was that probe that led to the discovery of the new emails and, ultimately, to Friday’s announcement, a development that is rocking the campaign of the woman to whom Ms. Abedin has devoted her career.

God Save America from Donny T... Bill Clinton in the White House ...Soap Operas , Babysitting and Some Ironing?

God Save America from Donny T... Bill Clinton in the White House ...Soap Operas , Babysitting and Some Ironing?

What Bill Clinton Would Do in a Hillary Clinton White House.Uncharted waters for a former President

Drawing on his 40-year marriage with Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton told the nation stories Tuesday night about a remarkable partnership that could make history again—for both of them.

“I married my best friend,” Clinton said of his wife, a trailblazing former First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State. “She figured out what needed to be done and what made the most sense and what would help the most people. And if it was controversial, she just tried to persuade that it was the right thing to do.”

His keynote speech on the second day of the Democrats’ nominating convention in Philadelphia was filled with jokes about his wife’s fussiness over drawer liners and praise for her get-things-done attitude. The touching stories capped a night sagely designed to introduce voters to the Hillary Clinton that her friends say we would love, if only we knew her the way they do.

Read More: Bill Clinton Auditions for the Role of First Guy

If Hillary Clinton wins Presidency, it remains an open question what, exactly, Bill Clinton will do and what roles he will play. For the moment, the job is to be chief character witness for her campaign. But the role would likely expand if he moves back into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue once more.

Clinton occupies a unique place in American politics, and remains one of the greatest political minds in the party, a world-class campaigner and unrivaled strategist. The Presidents since he left office—George W. Bush and Barack Obama alike—have phoned him looking for advice. One veteran of the Obama White House said this week that he was jealous he wouldn’t be working in the same building as Bill Clinton. “Life,” he said, “would have been easier if we could pop over to the East Wing to run idea past Bill.”

America has never before had a female leader, let alone a male first spouse, let alone a first spouse who is himself an ex-President. It’s one thing when Michelle Obama pops over to the West Wing to chat with Barack Obama. It’s another when two presidents live together in the White House residence.

Hillary Clinton has said she would rely on her husband for advice, especially on the economy, and may give him a specific global problem to solve—from a perch in government, as opposed to the family foundation, which he is likely to turn over to daughter Chelsea if her mother wins.

Some Hillary Clinton friends suggest he could be dispatched abroad, where he has tremendous popularity. He has taken some of those missions for other Presidents—heading up Haitian earthquake fundraising and bringing home journalists detained in North Korea.

Bill Clinton is unlikely to take up the more traditional First Lady duties, such as managing florists and catering. Hillary Clinton said she would keep an eye on those more social aspects, something her longtime friends say she enjoys. “Just because she’s dealing with China doesn’t mean she can’t also deal with the china,” one longtime friend said.

Read More: Bill Clinton Has Spoken Over 35,000 Words at Democratic Conventions

For now, Clinton aides are trying to deflect any specific speculation on what Bill Clinton would do if they move back to the White House. It’s premature, they say. Left unsaid: most of these aides don’t know if they are getting gigs in the White House.

When Hillary Clinton asked her advisers’ opinions on her running mate, Bill Clinton was in the room in many ways. Yes, Bill Clinton joined a lunch with Tim Kaine and his family, but aides also repeatedly wanted Hillary Clinton to consider how her No. 2 would deal with having an ex-President in the mix. They cautioned against picking someone who might be jealous of the first spouse’s ability to sway Hillary Clinton during Oval Office meetings or in private moments in the White House residence.

Despite the unchartered territory Bill Clinton would navigate, it’s not like other presidential spouses have been armchairs. Hillary Clinton reshaped the public role of First Lady, taking on an ambitious health care overhaul and being a key player in her husband’s Administration. She took an office in the West Wing and had more senior staffers working for her than did Vice President Al Gore. Her critics pilloried her as overly ambitious, and even during the 1992 campaign, political advisers said polls showed voters sour on her.
HILLARY AND BILL CLINTON'S POLITICAL ROMANCE IN PHOTOS



Courtesy William J. Clinton Presidential Library
Hillary and Bill Clinton have been married 40 years— much of it spent in the political spotlight. Here, Hillary Rodham and Bill Clinton married at a small ceremony on Oct. 11, 1975 - present Courtesy William J. Clinton Presidential Library

First spouses, of course, have always wielded power and influenced their partners in private. Nellie Taft wrote her husband’s speeches and cajoled Teddy Roosevelt into endorsing William Howard Taft. Her power was so great that, in 1909, he wrote a to his wife after she vetoed her husband’s picks for ambassadors to China and to England: “Memorandum for Mrs. Taft—the real President—from the nominal President.”

Similarly, Florence Harding managed her husband’s Senate campaign, Rosalynn Carter attended Cabinet meetings and lobbied House Speaker Tip O’Neill, and Ellen Wilson served as Woodrow’s acting chief of staff.

Bill Clinton is unlikely to have such a formal role, but top Clinton aides half-joke that it’s a toss-up as to which staff will be more demanding: Bill’s or Hillary’s. It’s entirely plausible that Bill Clinton’s chief of staff could find himself or herself as powerful as the Cabinet-ranked counterpart to Hillary Clinton. If Hillary Clinton wins the Presidency, keeping Bill Clinton focused and in his lane will be an enormous task.

It’s also not clear how the public will look on the return of the ex-President. In office, his approval ratings swung from 37% to 73%, according to Gallup. Last year, the polling giant found him at a 59% favorable rating, up from the average 55% he enjoyed in office.

For now, Bill Clinton seemed ready to help his wife make history. In a speech that was remarkably on-message, Clinton urged supporters to roll up their sleeves and send the Clinton—Bill and Hillary—back to the White House.

“For this time,” Bill Clinton said, “Hillary is uniquely qualified to seize the opportunities and reduce the risks we face today and she is the best darned change maker that I have ever known.”