Texan Congressman Randy Weber apologized on Tuesday for comparing President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler in a tweet related to the Paris terrorist attacks.
"I need to first apologize to all those offended by my tweet," the Texas congressman said in a written statement, which he also tweeted. "It was not my intention to trivialize the Holocaust nor to compare the President to Adolf Hitler."
The tweet on @TXRandy14 read: "Even Adolph Hitler (sic) thought it more important than Obama to get to Paris. (For all the wrong reasons.) Obama couldn't do it for right reasons"
Weber's text message referred to Hitler's tour of the vanquished city after German troops invaded France in 1940, and to Obama's failure to join dozens of world leaders at an anti-terror march through Paris on Sunday.
Robert Singer, CEO of the World Jewish Congress, said: "Whilst the Congressman is entitled to criticize the President for being absent at Sunday’s solidarity march for the terror victims in Paris, putting Mr. Obama on a level with the most evil mass murderer of all times crosses a red line."
In his statement, Weber said that "the mention of Hitler was meant to represent the face of evil that still exists in the world today. I now realize that the use of Hitler invokes pain and emotional trauma for those affected by the atrocities of the Holocaust and victims of anti-Semitism and hate," Weber said.
The White House has acknowledged that Obama or another high-level representative of the U.S. should have joined the march in unity with the French following attacks that left 17 people dead. The absence was widely noted, and heavily criticized by congressional Republicans.
