CNN faced intense backlash on Friday over a segment that the leftist news organization aired this week that compared President Donald Trump’s administration to the Nazis purging Jews in Germany in the late 1930s.
“Commemorations of Kristallnacht took place earlier this week, remembering the 1938 two-day pogrom during which the Nazis burned more than 1,400 synagogues and Jewish institutions in Germany and Austria,” The Jerusalem Post reported. “While recalling the story of the infamous antisemitic slaughter, CNN Chief International Anchor and host of CNN International’s nightly interview program Christiane Amanpour, compared President Donald Trump’s presidency to that tragic event, explaining there has similarly been a ‘modern day assault’ attacking ‘those same values.'”
The PBS airing of Christiane Amanpour comparing the president's election challenges to KRISTALLNACHT were brought to you in part by Jewish donors. Do they watch the program?
It sickens me that "viewers like me" are paying for these wicked smears. pic.twitter.com/U2KedSN36p
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) November 13, 2020
CNN faced intense backlash over the segment, yet the network did not issue any sort of statement and neither did Amanpour.
Below are a small sample of some of the responses that the network received:
- Dan McLaughlin, Senior Writer National Review: “This comparison borders on Holocaust denial.”
- Allie Beth Stuckey, conservative commentator: “First of all, stop comparing politicians you don’t like & policies you don’t agree with to the freaking Holocaust. Second, it’s not conservatives burning books.”
- Eric Metaxas: “That ‘elites’ of her age have a grasp of history this HEART-STOPPINGLY tenuous is the most telling fact of modern life. If you want to know how we got here, look no further. The Boomers drank the Cultural Marxist Kool-Aid of 1968 & have been intellectual corpses ever since.”
- Mark Broome, journalist: “I know people who spout this ludicrous rhetoric and genuinely believe it’s an honest comparison. Brainwashing. It’s a helluva drug. Amanpour is also one of the most disgusting hacks among disgusting hacks.”
- StopAntisemitism.org: “Hey @CNN @camanpour please stop using the horrors of the Holocaust to justify an agenda. Our suffering is not yours to play political ping pong with.”
- Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council: “Despicable. @camanpour compares verbal fact checking of a POTUS to a Nazi pogrom in which dozens of Jews were murdered. Amanpour uses the book burning of Kristallnacht to reach this comparison thus ignoring the overall deadliness and human cost of the night.”
- Joel Petlin, educator and journalist: “It’s outrageous everytime a journalist compares the Trump presidency to the start of the #Holocaust. The fact that @camanpour does it on @CNN doesn’t give it any more legitimacy. Message to all Journalists: STOP USING THE HOLOCAUST TO SCORE POLITICAL POINTS!”
- Dovid Efune, Editor Algemeiner: “Awful from @camanpour . Using the Holocaust as a political cudgel is the height of insensitivity and disrespect. Did she mark Kristallnacht in previous years? Or only when politically opportune? The memory of the massacred millions is sacred. This segment is a desecration.”
- Ram: “This is what their extreme viewers on the fringe want to hear. Instead of providing news commentary, CNN appeals to the worst instincts among it’s viewers, much like Hitler appealed to the worst instincts among his supporters. In that aspect, CNN is similar to the Nazis.”
- Donald Trump Jr.: “These people are truly despicable.”
- Mike Huckabee: “What a bigoted, ignorant, and utterly false statement. WIll @jack @Twitter yank her off Twitter? In the meantime, it’s not conservatives who are ‘making a list’ to deny ppl employment, ‘mark’ them for harassment or hate.”
- Scott Adams: “Is this report crazy or evil? Hard to tell.”