Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is asked by MSNBC anchor Brian Williams to clarify his statements about the Holocaust. (September 2006)

Ahmadinejad  makes very clear that his stance is understood but does not admit that there was a tragedy perpetrated on the Jewish people, but does make a circular argument about the place of the Jewish people in history. He also makes a case for the Palestinians and other groups of people that suffered through the war and died. 58 million of them, civilians, that died. He does not recognize a distinction between Jews and any other group that suffered during the war, though he obviously is a bit less broken up about the Jewish people’s plight. As a politician he wants to speak in the here and now and not be consumed with arguing a past that can not be changed, only debated.