Christiane Amanpour (Photo by Kevin Hagen/Getty Images for CPJ) CNN International Anchor Christiane Amanpour is currently being criticized on social media for a seeming comparison between President Donald Trump and the Nazis.
During a November 12 broadcast, Amanpour began a segment pointing out that it was the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass).
“It was the Nazis’ warning shot across the bow of our human civilization that led to genocide against a whole identity,” Amanpour said, “and, in that tower of burning books, it led to an attack on fact, knowledge, history and truth.”
She then pivoted to Trump.
“After four years of a modern-day assault on those same values by Donald Trump, the [Joe] Biden [and] [Kamala] Harris team pledges a return to norms, including the truth. And, every day, Joe Biden makes presidential announcements about good governance and the health and security of the American people, while the great brooding figure of his defeated opponent rages, conducting purges of perceived enemies and preventing a transition.”
Amanpour pointed to a poll showing that 80% of Americans accept that Biden is the projected winner of the 2020 presidential election despite Trump’s claims of voter fraud, and that “there have been no serious protests on the streets contesting the result, while secretaries of state around the nation, Republican and Democrat, say there has been no meaningful fraud, and they have found nothing that would overturn the result.”
Various Jewish and pro-Israel Twitter account denounced Amanpour’s remarks.
“Please stop using the horrors of the Holocaust to justify an agenda,” the Stop Antisemitism.org watchdog tweeted. “Our suffering is not yours to play political ping pong with.”
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. https://t.co/MIW2qKxuHP
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) November 13, 2020
International human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky tweeted, “Shame on you @camanpour @CNN for invoking the Holocaust in such manner. Whatever policy differences you may have with Trump, to compare his Admin. to Kristallnacht is grossly offensive & only demeans the memory of the 6 million Jews systematically murdered in the Holocaust!”
Shame on you @camanpour @CNN for invoking the Holocaust in such manner. Whatever policy differences you may have with Trump, to compare his Admin. to Kristallnacht is grossly offensive & only demeans the memory of the 6 million Jews systematically murdered in the Holocaust! https://t.co/baC898L2Wj
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) November 13, 2020
Morton Klein, who heads the Zionist Organization of America and whose parents were Holocaust survivors, also tweeted: “When Amanpour spoke about The Nazis she never mentioned the word ‘Jew’ but then disgracefully compared the Nazis to Trump. Fire her.”
When Amanpour spoke about The Nazis she never mentioned the word “Jew” but then disgracefully compared the Nazis to Trump. Fire her. https://t.co/B67lniwx3E
— Morton Klein (@MortonAKlein7) November 13, 2020
Journalist Glenn Greenwald tweeted that media outlets need to “stop exploiting Jews and the Holocaust and Nazi camps for your own sick psychodramas and desperate need for attention, purpose and ratings, you divisive ghouls.”
Stop exploiting Jews and the Holocaust and Nazi camps for your own sick psychodramas and desperate need for attention, purpose and ratings, you divisive ghouls.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 13, 2020
CNN did not respond to the Journal’s request for comment.
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