Philly Radio: Donald Jr. Clarifies 'Gas Chamber' Comment

Donald Trump Jr.

Donald Trump Jr. made what critics saw as an apparent allusion to the Holocaust as he accused the news media of propping up Hillary Clinton during an interview Wednesday on Talk WPHT 1210 AM in Philadelphia.

He suggested that if his father, or Republicans generally, had done the things Clinton did, the media would be preparing to gas them, reports philly.com.

“The media has been her number-one surrogate in this,” Trump Jr. said. “Without the media, this wouldn’t even be a contest, but the media has built her up. They’ve let her slide on every indiscrepancy (sic), on every lie, on every DNC game trying to get Bernie Sanders out of the thing. If Republicans were doing that, they’d be warming up the gas chamber right now.”


On Thursday, Trump Jr. told NBC News' Katy Tur the "gas chamber" crack was a reference to capital punishment, and not the Holocaust.

Reuters reports 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 Anti-Defamation League tweeted.  Nazis used gas chambers during World War Two to kill millions of Jews imprisoned in European concentration camps.

Trump's campaign said the uproar over the comment was another example of bias among the media covering the presidential campaign.

"Don Jr. was clearly referring to capital punishment to make the case that the media continues to take words out of context in order to serve as the propaganda arm of the Hillary Clinton campaign," Trump spokesman Jason Miller said in an email.