White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Monday dismissed criticism of President Donald Trump’s statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day as “ridiculous” and “pathetic.”

Jewish organizations in the United States, including ones affiliated with the Republican party, criticized Trump’s statement due to the fact that it did not specifically mention the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust.

Spicer acknowledged on Monday that the president is aware of some of the criticism from the American Jewish community over the omission of Jews in his statement, but downplayed it.

“He’s aware of what people have been saying, but I think by and large he’s been praised for it,” Spicer told reporters at his daily briefing on Monday, according to Yahoo News.

“The president recognized the tremendous loss of life that came from the Holocaust,” Spicer added. “To suggest otherwise, I mean, I’ve got to be honest: The president went out of his way to acknowledge the Holocaust.”

“To suggest that remembering the Holocaust and acknowledging all of the people — Jewish, Gypsies, priests, disabled, gays and lesbians — frankly, it’s pathetic,” he added. “The idea that you’re nitpicking a statement that sought to remember this tragic event that occurred and the people who died in it is just ridiculous.”

Spicer said the statement “was written by an individual who is both Jewish and a descendant of Holocaust survivors.”

Trump’s statement, issued by the White House on Friday, mentioned “the victims, survivors, heroes of the Holocaust” without specifying.

“In the name of the perished, I pledge to do everything in my power throughout my Presidency, and my life, to ensure that the forces of evil never again defeat the powers of good. Together, we will make love and tolerance prevalent throughout the world,” added Trump’s statement.

The statement was met with outrage by groups such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), but the Republican Jewish Coalition and the president of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) also criticized it.

On Sunday, Trump’s spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, explained to CNN that the White House statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day did not mention Jews or anti-Semitism because "despite what the media reports, we are an incredibly inclusive group and we took into account all of those who suffered.”

Hicks provided a link to a Huffington Post story which noted that, in addition to the six million Jews killed by the Nazis, five million others were also slaughtered during World War II, including "priests, gypsies, people with mental or physical disabilities, communists, trade unionists, Jehovah's Witnesses, anarchists, Poles and other Slavic peoples, and resistance fighters."

Appearing Sunday on NBC’s "Meet the Press", White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said he did not regret the wording of the statement.

“I mean, everyone's suffering in the Holocaust including obviously all of the Jewish people affected and the miserable genocide that occurred is something that we consider to be extraordinarily sad and something that can never be forgotten,” Priebus said.

On Monday, following Spicer’s press conference, the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum issued its own statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored murder of six million Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. Nazi ideology cast the world as a racial struggle, and the singular focus on the total destruction of every Jewish person was at its racist core. Millions of other innocent civilians were persecuted and murdered by the Nazis, but the elimination of Jews was central to Nazi policy. As Elie Wiesel said, ‘Not all victims were Jews, but all Jews were victims,’” said the museum.

“The Holocaust teaches us profound truths about human societies and our capacity for evil. An accurate understanding of this history is critical if we are to learn its lessons and honor its victims,” it added.