Calls Amass for DOD Spokeswoman Elissa Smith To Be Fired Over Trump Criticism

Auschwitz-Birkenau
AP Photo/Alik Keplicz
Kyle Morris

Calls for the firing of Department of Defense spokeswoman Elissa Smith, a career official, have ramped up after it was revealed last week that she boosted and shared criticisms of President Donald Trump through her personal Twitter account.

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), one of the oldest pro-Israel groups in the U.S., has joined the calls for Smith’s firing.

“The Zionist Organization of America is urging the U.S. Department of Defense to fire Office of the Secretary of Defense Cyber-Policy spokesperson Elissa Smith for retweeting an outrageous, offensive, absurd tweet likening U.S. border policy to Auschwitz,” senior members of the ZOA said in a press release.

They added, “Ms. Smith wrongly likened the humane U.S. government – which is trying to deal with a border crisis not of its making – to the genocidal Nazi regime. Ms. Smith’s retweet shows a picture of the Auschwitz death camp, and says ‘other governments have separated mothers and children.'”

In an online statement, ZOA President Morton Klein stated:

As a child of Jewish Holocaust survivors who were imprisoned and enslaved in Auschwitz, and who had numerous family members murdered by the Nazis there, and as a proud American, I am outraged and deeply offended that Ms. Smith would analogize dedicated U.S. border personnel’s attempts to protect children voluntarily brought by their parents to the U.S. border to illegally enter the United States, to the Nazis dragging millions of Jewish families out of their homes to murder them in death camps.

The Nazis slaughtered one million Jewish children.  The U.S. government protects children coming across the border – including many children who are trafficked into the United States by persons who are not their parents.  After Ms. Smith publicized such a repugnant analogy, it would be a grave insult to allow her to continue in a position where she speaks on behalf of the U.S. Defense Department.

The tweet questioned by the ZOA, which was reshared by Smith, was originally shared by National Security Agency Director Gen. Michael Hayden. The tweet likened the administration’s family separation policy to that of Adolf Hitler’s Germany.

The tweet reads, “Other governments have separated mothers and children” and included a photo of Nazi Germany’s Auschwitz concentration camp.

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk shared similar thoughts and questioned why she was still a spokesperson for the Department of Defense.

“Why is @SmithElissa still a spokeswoman at @DeptofDefense,” Kirk asked. “She openly hates @realDonaldTrump & voted for @HillaryClinton.”

He added, “No wonder she’s done Amazon’s dirty work on JEDI & dismisses President Trump’s concerns about the corrupt $10 billion.”

Breitbart News reached out to Pentagon officials on two separate occasions for comment on the social media policy as it relates to spokespeople for the Department of Defense, but no immediate response was given either time.

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