Donald Trump Jr. on Friday denied he was talking about the Holocaust with his "gas chamber" comments, instead insisting he was talking about media bias.
"It's essentially capital punishment," Trump Jr., the son of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on the "Good Morning America" program. "I said the same thing two weeks ago and used the term 'electric chair.'"
The choice of the words "gas chamber" was poor, said Trump, but in "no way, shape or form was I remotely talking about the Holocaust. I wouldn't do it. I think it's disgusting. It's not my style. My sister [Ivanka] is an orthodox Jew. Half of my best men in my wedding and the bridesmaids in my wedding were Jewish. I would never do that."
But the hubbub does show that media does twist words, said Trump.
"It's the bias I was talking about," said the younger Trump. "If I say something rather than talking about great jobs plan, they can't attack my father anymore. They've run out of ammo so now they attack me and Cosmo was trying to attack my sister. I understand that's the game they're playing but it goes to show my point which I'm making about media bias. If you're a conservative you don't even get a fair shot. They don't give you the benefit of the doubt and it's really a shame."
Stephanopoulos, though, told Trump that he has faced other criticisms about remarks made through social media, including an Instagram post that included "Pepe the Frog," a symbol of the white supremacist movement.
The photo shows Trump Jr., along with several other noteworthy supporters, as part of "The Deplorables," a play on "The Expendables."
"If I'm glib that's the case," Trump told Stephanopoulos. "I never even heard of Pepe the Frog. I bet you 90 percent of your viewers have never heard of him. I thought it was a frog in a wig. It's getting ridiculous but, again, that proves my point which is that anything that they can possibly latch on to, they can't even attack my father anymore."
Also on the program, Trump Jr. addressed his father's plans for his company should he win the presidency, agreeing that the real estate mogul would not be making any decisions as they relate to the company.
"This would be standard operating procedure for any president," said Trump, but Stephanopoulos pointed out that both Bush presidents, George W. and George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Reagan, as well as Mitt Romney as 2012 GOP nominee, all put their interests into a blind trust, but Trump has not.
"He will certainly do it if he becomes president," his son said, and the arrangements will remain a blind trust, even if he and his siblings are running the business, because "he'll have nothing to do with it."
Friday's interview came the day after an interview with a Pittsburgh television station that cut off suddenly after a reporter asked Trump about reports that Trump had used Trump Foundation funds to buy a large portrait of himself, reports Politico.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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