Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) called out Vice President JD Vance for posting about Holocaust Remembrance Day, but not mentioning Jews.
Shapiro, who is Jewish, talked about the slight in an interview with NBC News Wednesday, per The Hill.
“Remember that the reason why we memorialize the Holocaust on this day, really, essentially, is to never forget,” Shapiro said.
“And the reason you want to never forget is so that we never live through that atrocity again. Part of never forgetting is making sure that the facts of what happened are recited, are remembered. The fact that JD Vance couldn’t bring himself to acknowledging that 6 million Jews were killed by (Adolph) Hitler and by the Nazis speaks volumes,” he said.
Vance posted on X Tuesday to honor the day.
“Today we remember the millions of lives lost during the Holocaust, the millions of stories of individual bravery and heroism, and one of the enduring lessons of one of the darkest chapters in human history: that while humans create beautiful things and are full of compassion, we’re also capable of unspeakable brutality,” the vice president wrote.
“And we promise never again to go down the darkest path,” he added.
Shapiro added Vance’s past statements reveal he “openly embraces neo-Nazis and neo-Nazi political parties, given the way in which he has offered comfort, really, to the antisemites on the right who are infecting the Republican Party.”
Shapiro pointed to Vance’s support for the far-right Alternative for Germany party. He said it signaled a broader lack of concerns for Jewish people.
“It’s not a shock to me that he would omit” Jewish people from his post, “but it’s a sad day that the vice president of the United States on Holocaust Awareness Day couldn’t address that.”
The White House called Shapiro’s words “hypocritical.”
This is “next level hypocritical deflection from Shapiro, a misguided plea for attention from a political lightweight,” is said.
Shapiro’s post on X did not mention violence against Jews.
“This is an insane standard and a BS attack,” former Trump campaign staffer Alex Bruesewitz posted on X.
“The Vice President literally posted a photo of himself [and] the Second Lady at Dachau. He has been an incredible friend to both the Jewish community and Israel,” he wrote.
