Former CIA Director Michael Hayden defended his decision to tweet a photo of the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp on CNN’s “New Day” Monday and said America is moving in the wrong direction on immigration.
Hayden tweeted the photo on Saturday and said he was not making a direct comparison between Nazis and the Trump administration, but was only trying to sound the alarm. (RELATED: Alan Dershowitz Says Comparing Illegal Immigrant Detention Centers To Nazi Death Camps Is A Form Of Holocaust Denial)
Other governments have separated mothers and children pic.twitter.com/tvlBkGjT0h
— Gen Michael Hayden (@GenMhayden) June 16, 2018
“I guess I wanted to grab’s people’s attention,” Hayden told CNN. “As I reflected on this Saturday afternoon, this seemed to be a very important matter to my mind. I didn’t choose that picture at random. I’ve been to that camp actually several times, John. I’ve walked down that railroad sighting where the families were separated. And that’s why I used that picture. That’s the scene where families were separated.”
“Now, look, I know we’re not Nazi Germany,” he added. “But there is a commonality there and a fear on my part that we have standards we have to live up to.”
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“New Day” host John Berman said the fundamental difference between illegal immigrants from Mexico and Jews in concentration camps was their freedom of choice.
“The comparison, though, is one that critics latch onto. And they will note, among other things, that the Jews who walked through that door, did not choose to walk through that door,” Berman replied. “The families going to the border, the parents are choosing to go there. The parents crossing the border have committed a crime, whether it be a misdemeanor or a felony … The people who walked through that gate at Auschwitz, Birkenau they had committed no crime. Also the people who walked through that gate, they were killed. The people crossing the border here, that is not what’s happening.”
Hayden admitted things were not as dire as he made them seem and apologized to anyone he may have offended.
“I’m not saying our needle is anywhere near the red,” Hayden concluded. “I’m not claiming that at all. But I am claiming our needle is moving, and it’s not moving in the right direction. And if I overachieve by comparing it to Birkenau, I apologize to anyone who may have felt offended … We need to be careful about our own society and not accept as normal things that are not normal.”
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