CNN International anchor Christiane Amanpour was blasted last week after she compared President Donald Trump’s presidency to the reign of terror that Nazi Germany unleashed on Jews in Nov. 1938, infamously remembered by history as “Kristallnacht.“
Now, the CNN personality is backtracking.
What did Amanpour say?
Amanpour made her shocking comparison while celebrating Joe Biden’s media-declared victory over Trump in the election.
“This week 82 years ago, Kristallnacht happened,” Amanpour said on her CNN show. “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.”
“After four years of a modern-day assault on those same values by Donald Trump, the Biden-Harris team pledges a return to normal,” she added.
This is @camanpour on @CNN comparing Trump’s tenure to Nazi Germany. How the hell is this sort of prejudice to… https://t.co/vHe3KE6drY
— Ben Habib (@Ben Habib)1605208223.0
As TheBlaze reported, Amanpour was widely condemned by Jews, politicians, and media figures for offensive comparison.
Even the Israeli government demanded that Amanpour apologize.
Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Omer Yankelevitch said in a letter to CNN, “Using the memory of the Holocaust for cheap headlines or a political agenda is concerning and distorts the historical and moral truth.”
“Distortion and minimization of the Holocaust are deplorable lies that only encourage the evil voices of anti-Semitism. Employing the memory of the Holocaust for cheap shock value and to further a political agenda is a deeply troubling and offensive spin of historic and moral truths with dangerous implications,” Yankelevitch added.
What is Amanpour saying now?
On her show Monday, Amanpour expressed regret over her comments, but did not offer an apology outright.
“And finally tonight, a comment on my program at the end of last week. I observed the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht, as I often do — it is the event that began the horrors of the Holocaust. I also noted President Trump’s attacks on history, facts, knowledge, and truth,” Amanpour said.
“I should not have juxtaposed the two thoughts,” she continued. “Hitler and his evils stand alone, of course, in history.”
“I regret any pain my statement may have caused,” she added. “My point was to say how democracy can potentially slip away and how we must always zealously guard our democratic values.”
Anything else?
The comparison triggered anger because, as the U.S. Holocaust Museum explains, “Kristallnacht was a turning point in the history of the Third Reich, marking the shift from antisemitic rhetoric and legislation to the violent, aggressive anti-Jewish measures that would culminate with the Holocaust.”
Indeed, on that fateful November night, Nazis pillaged Jewish businesses, synagogues, schools, and homes. Dozens of Jews were murdered, and approximately 30,000 Jewish men were rounded up and sent to concentration camps.