Philippines President Gets In The Holiday Spirit And Apologizes

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte isn’t known for saying sorry, but this weekend he issued an apology specifically to Jewish communities worldwide. Maybe it was the spirit of Rosh Hashanah that moved him or maybe it was the international outrage, though that hasn’t deterred him in the past. Either way, Duterte acknowledged his error in comparing himself to Adolf Hitler. The loose cannon of a president had previously compared his anti-drug campaign – one that has already killed over 3,000 people in three months – to Hitler and the Holocaust, saying he would be “happy to slaughter” an estimated 3 million drug users in the Philippines. Before he apologized, world leaders came together to call his phrasing everything from revolting to inhumane. Duterte might not be the first person to compare his presidency to naziism, but he’s the first to treat it like a compliment.