https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyUp5LqTlEU

Once again, a CNN anchor dabbles in Holocaust denial by comparing the Trump administration to the Nazi regime. The anchor describes the onset of the Holocaust, managing to do so without mentioning that it targeted Jews. But this time it could end up costing the news network big.

CNN Commemorates Holocaust Without the Jews

CNN’s Iranian-British International anchor Christiane Amanpour commemorated the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), a massive nationwide pogrom by the Nazis targeting Jews, by comparing it to President Trump’s four-years in office. Shockingly, Amanpour succeeded in describing the event launching the Nazi’s systematic targeted murder of six million Jews without referring to the Jews once.   

“It was the Nazis warning shot across the bow of our human civilization that led to genocide against a whole identity and in that tower of burning books it led to an attack on fact, knowledge, history and truth,” Amanpour said. “After four years of a modern-day assault on those same values by Donal Trump, the Biden-Harris team pledges a return to norms, including the truth.”

“And everyday, Joe Biden makes presidential announcements about good governance and the health and security of the American people,” she continued. “While the great brooding figure of his defeated opponent rages, conducting purges of perceived enemies and preventing a transition.”

Kristallnacht, considered by historians to be the turning point that preceded the Holocaust, refers to the night of November 9, 1938, when Jewish homes, hospitals and schools were ransacked and demolished. Rioters destroyed 267 synagogues throughout Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland. Over 7,000 Jewish businesses were damaged or destroyed and 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps. At least 91 Jews were murdered with most estimates much higher. 

Reactions: “Obscene and Outrageous”

The Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council called the broadcast “despicable.”

“Amanpour 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.” the OJPAC tweeted. 

Conservative media personality Allie Beth Stuckley tweeted, “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.”

 

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. https://t.co/y6iIzIFgWS

— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) November 13, 2020

In a Twitter post, media critic Steve Krakauer called the comparison “obscene and outrageous”.

‘While Christiane Amanpour enjoys her elite London life and casually throws around Nazi analogies to Donald Trump and his administration, more Jews, Hispanics, Black Americans, LGBT Americans voted for Trump in 2020 than 2016 and for a GOP candidate for president for decades,” he tweeted.

 

.@CAmanpour comparing Trump to Hitler and Kristallnacht, saying they “assault” the “same values” is obscene and outrageous. But Amanpour alone should not be condemned – it took writers, producers and executives at CNN to allow this inflammatory nonsense on the air. pic.twitter.com/uSbDo1V3Va

— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) November 13, 2020

Twitter masked the video as containing “potentially sensitive content.”

CNN: Long History of Comparing Trump to Hitler

This is only the most recent in a CNN tradition of comparing Trump to Hitler. Two weeks ago, Dr. Bandy X (Xenobia) Lee, who has been featured on both CNN and MSNBC, posted a tweet on Monday comparing the president of the United States unfavorably to Adolf Hitler. 

In August of 2019, Dr. Lee participated in a panel when Dr. Allen Frances, claimed that Trump was responsible for more deaths than Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong. Dr. Lee apparently disagreed, downgrading Trump to only slightly more horrific than a mere single murderous despot. CNN did not distance itself from these remarks, though host Brian Stelter. 

Stelter later blamed technical difficulties for not hearing Frances’ remarks in full after the segment was criticized online.

CNN is taking their cue from Joe Biden who, earlier this month,  delivered a speech marking the 3rd (and one week) anniversary of the “events in Charlottesville.” The video of the speech, evoked images of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. 

Karma: CNN Being Sold 

All this association with Nazi history seems to have had a negative impact on CNN as it was reported on Friday that AT&T is looking to sell the network to pay its massive debt.

“CNN does not have Donald Trump to kick around anymore and their ratings will take a hit,” Charlie Gasparino told “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” basing his statements on the assumption that Biden will win the election. He noted that AT&T is $150 billion in debt.

“I’m not a CNN hater. They have a lot of good journalists there,” Gasparino said. “This rumor is rea. AT&T is a screwed up company and … CNN like a lot of media companies, it may have hit its peak, hating Trump.”

Amanpour has been criticized in the past for hyperbolic reporting. During the Bosnian War in 1992, she was accused of being pro-Muslim while spreading misinformation. In January 2015, Amanpour made headlines during a “Breaking News” segment on CNN by referring to the Islamic extremists who murdered the 12 journalists at Charlie Hebdo as “activists”