Elissa Smith, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense, is in hot water after she publicly signal boosted criticism of President Donald Trump equating the government’s treatment of illegal immigrants to the concentration camps in Auschwitz.
Controversy arose on Tuesday after a number of controversial tweets and retweets from Smith resurfaced betraying her hostility towards the President. Some tweets reveal that Smith vehemently disagrees with the policy of family separation on the southern border, while others have her supporting tweets outright mocking the president.
In one instance, Smith signal boosted NeverTrump political pundit Max Boot’s claim that “Maybe the American people in their wisdom should try electing someone who knows the first thing about government.” Additionally, Smith expressed sentiments endorsing Hillary Clinton ahead of the election, which she has now since deleted.
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Elissa Smith's tweets[/caption]
Jewish-American organizations are now calling for her immediate dismissal. “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,” wrote the ZOA in a press release. “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.’”
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.”
“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,” wrote ZOA President Morton Klein.
“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.”
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk and Newsmax’s John Cardillo shared similar sentiments and called for her dismissal.
Since President Trump publicly revealed last month that he was uncomfortable with the potential Amazon/Department of Defense 10 billion dollar JEDI deal and wanted his administration to take a look at it, DOD spokesperson Elissa Smith went on the record to dismiss the President's concerns with the procurement process, and fears over potential corruption from Amazon.
In addition, Smith has strongly defended Amazon and even publicly attacked their rival Oracle.
It’s clear that Elissa Smith spends more time undermining the President than supporting his policies – going so far as to publicly dismiss concerns raised by Trump about the DOD’s contract with Jeff Bezos’ Amazon. Why was someone so hostile to the administration hired in the first place?
Ian Miles Cheong is the managing editor of Human Events.
