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Leadership

Donald Trump Jr.’s ‘Holocaust Joke’ Gets Called Out on Twitter

By
TIME
TIME
and
Abigail Abrams
Abigail Abrams
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By
TIME
TIME
and
Abigail Abrams
Abigail Abrams
Down Arrow Button Icon
September 15, 2016, 3:16 PM ET
Donald Trump Jr. gestures to a crowd at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
Photograph by Joe Raedle—Getty Images

This article originally appeared on time.com.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called out Donald Trump Jr. on Twitter Thursday for making what it called “Holocaust jokes.”

The Republican presidential nominee’s son referenced gas chambers in a Philadelphia radio interview Wednesday when he said the media has been protecting Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee as they tried to force Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders out of the primary race earlier this year.

“The media has been her number one surrogate in this. Without the media, this wouldn’t even be a contest, but the media has built her up,” Trump said. “They’ve let he slide on every indiscrepancy, on every lie, on every DNC game trying to get Bernie Sanders out of this thing. If Republicans were doing that, they’d be warming up the gas chamber right now.”

The Jewish civil rights group responded by tweeting that it hopes Trump retracts his statement.

.@DonaldJTrumpJr: We hope you understand the sensitivity and hurt of making Holocaust jokes. We hope you retract.https://t.co/jL2ZC9Z8pH

— ADL (@ADL) September 15, 2016

 

The Trump son was also recently under fire for posting an image on Instagram that featured himself, his father and other Republicans alongside “Pepe the Frog”—a symbol of the alt-right movement.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign was quick to jump on the younger Trump’s comments. Clinton’s director of Jewish outreach Sarah Bard called said they showed “just how insensitive, divisive, and reckless the Trump campaign is.

“The bottom line is this—offensive references to the Holocaust are never acceptable, especially from a presidential campaign,” Bard said in a statement.

 

The Trump campaign said Thursday the candidate’s son was not making a reference to the Holocaust.

“Don Jr. was clearly referring to capital punishment to make the case that the media continues to take words out of context in order to serve as the propaganda arm of the Hillary Clinton campaign—something that’s only gotten worse as Trump’s poll numbers have improved,” Jason Miller, the campaign’s senior communications advisor, said in a statement.

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