NEW DELHI: For a change, presidential candidate Donald Trump’s children were at the centre of controversies instead of their father, with son Donald Jr triggering a row with remarks that some said trivialised the Holocaust.
Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who has been effectively used by his campaign to portray a softer side of the real estate magnate, was embroiled in a spat with Cosmopolitan reporter Prachi Gupta after she was questioned whether her father’s child care policy would benefit gay couples.
Donald Jr sought on Thursday to clarify his remark that the media would be “warming up the gas chamber” if the Republican party behaved the same way as the Democrats during the US presidential campaign, saying it was a reference to capital punishment and not the Nazi-led Holocaust. Nazis used gas chambers during World War 2 to kill millions of Jews in concentration camps. Trump’s son sought to clear the air after the Anti-Defamation League, which combats anti-Semitism, asked him to retract his statement. “Trivialization of the Holocaust and gas chambers is NEVER okay,” the League had tweeted.
Trump made the “gas chamber” remark in an interview with a radio station while complaining about what he saw as media favoritism toward Clinton.
{{/usCountry}}Trump made the “gas chamber” remark in an interview with a radio station while complaining about what he saw as media favoritism toward Clinton.
{{/usCountry}}“Without the media, this wouldn’t even be a contest, but the media has built her up, they’ve let her slide on every discrepancy, on every lie…,” he said. “If Republicans were doing that, they’d be warming up the gas chamber right now.”
Ivanka drew attention after the interview with Cosmpolitan. Asked if her father’s child care policy meant for gay couples, she replied: “So I think that you have a lot of negativity in these questions, and I think my father has put forth a very comprehensive and really revolutionary plan to deal with a lot of issues. So I don’t know how useful it is to spend too much time with you on this if you’re going to make a comment like that.”
Asked how Trump would pay for his proposals, Ivanka cut short the interview and said: “I’m going to jump off, I have to run. I apologise.”