The White House has fired several of former President Joe Biden’s appointees to the board overseeing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum — including former second gentleman Doug Emhoff — and is actively interviewing new candidates, an administration official, granted anonymity to discuss personnel changes, told POLITICO on Tuesday.
“Today, I was informed of my removal from the United States Holocaust Memorial Council,” Emhoff said in a statement. “Let me be clear: Holocaust remembrance and education should never be politicized. To turn one of the worst atrocities in history into a wedge issue is dangerous — and it dishonors the memory of six million Jews murdered by Nazis that this museum was created to preserve.”
The New York Times first reported the list of officials removed, includes Emhoff; former Biden White House officials Ron Klain, Susan Rice and Anthony Bernal; and former DNC Chair Tom Perez.
The board consists of more than 50 presidentially appointed members, who serve for a five-year term, as well as several members from the House, Senate and three federal agencies. The museum is partially funded by the federal government.
With Biden in the White House, Emhoff, the husband of former Vice President Kamala Harris, became the first Jewish person ever to be married to a president or vice president. He emerged as a key voice for the administration on Israel, and to the Jewish community. Emhoff lamented a rising “antisemitism crisis” on college campuses following the Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023. And he hosted six Jewish college students — all with grandparents who survived the Holocaust — at the White House on Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2024.
As the 2024 presidential campaign geared up, Emhoff tore into then-candidate Trump for saying Jews voting for Democrats “hate Israel.”
More recently, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, the law firm where Emhoff is a partner, reached a deal with the Trump administration to avoid White House sanctions. Emhoff criticized the maneuver, CNN reported.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Holocaust Museum did not address the board members being released, only saying ”we look forward to continuing to advance our vitally important mission as we work with the Trump Administration.”
“No divisive political decision will ever shake my commitment to Holocaust remembrance and education or to combating hate and antisemitism,” Emhoff said in his statement. “I will continue to speak out, to educate, and to fight hate in all its forms — because silence is never an option.”
CORRECTION: The date of the president’s action was incorrect in an earlier version of this article.
