“I want to apologize to all whom I offended by my use of the word ‘holocaust’ to describe the autism epidemic,” he has now said in a statement about those remarks. “I employed the term during an impromptu speech as I struggled to find an expression to convey the catastrophic tragedy of autism, which has now destroyed the lives of over 20 million children and shattered their families. I am acutely aware of the profound power attached to that word, and I will find other terms to describe the autism crisis in the future.”