White House condemns Tucker Carlson’s ‘Nazi propaganda’ interview as ‘disgusting and sadistic insult’

Originally Published: 05 SEP 24 16:45 ET

Updated: 05 SEP 24 17:54 ET

By Brian Stelter, CNN

New York (CNN) — The Biden administration is denouncing Tucker Carlson after the far-right personality hosted a guest on his show this week who suggested the Holocaust happened by accident, calling the interview “a disgusting and sadistic insult to all Americans.”

During Carlson’s two-hour sit-down with Darryl Cooper, a podcaster whom he said “may be the best and most honest popular historian in the United States,” Cooper claimed that Nazi Germany’s mass murder of Jews was an unintended consequence – something akin to poor planning instead of the methodical extermination that it actually was.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Cooper claimed, was the “chief villain of the Second World War” and “primarily responsible for that war becoming what it did, becoming something other than an invasion of Poland.”

Carlson’s platforming of Cooper has been widely criticized in recent days, including by some right-wing figures who have defended Carlson in the past. Elon Musk, who promoted the interview on his social media platform, X, calling it “Very interesting. Worth watching,” later deleted his post.

On Thursday the White House added its weight to the matter.

In a statement first shared with CNN, senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said “giving a microphone to a Holocaust denier who spreads Nazi propaganda is a disgusting and sadistic insult to all Americans, to the memory of the over 6 million Jews who were genocidally murdered by Adolf Hitler, to the service of the millions of Americans who fought to defeat Nazism, and to every subsequent victim of Antisemitism.”

The administration’s statement specifically refuted Cooper’s claim to Carlson that Churchill was the “chief villain” of World War II.

“Hitler was one of the most evil figures in human history and the ‘chief villain’ of World War II, full stop,” Bates wrote. “The Biden-Harris Administration believes that trafficking in this moral rot is unacceptable at any time, let alone less than one year after the deadliest massacre perpetrated against the Jewish people since the Holocaust and at a time when the cancer of Antisemitism is growing all over the world.”

Reached for comment on Thursday, Carlson sharply criticized the White House.

“The fact that these lunatics have used the Churchill myth to bring our country closer to nuclear war than at any moment in history disgusts me, and should terrify every American,” he said in a text message to CNN. “They’re warmonger freaks. They don’t get the moral high ground.”

But numerous columnists have pointed out inaccuracies in Cooper’s remarks, including his assertion that the Nazis “went in with no plan” for housing millions of prisoners of war “and just threw these people into camps, and millions of people ended up dead there.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, denounced Carlson’s interview with Cooper as “truly revolting.”

“The Nazis’ extensive network of concentration, forced labor, and death camps was part of Hitler’s deliberate plan to exterminate the Jewish people. Inmates didn’t just ‘end up dead’ and they did not ‘surrender,’” he said Wednesday.

In the year and a half since Carlson was fired by Fox News, the former primetime host turned internet vlogger has stoked controversy and garnered embarrassment through his web videos and speaking appearances. On Musk’s X and on his subscription video website, Carlson has interviewed radical figures including Alex Jones and others, offering a big platform to fringe voices and seemingly delighting in the outrage that ensues.

Despite the condemnation, Carlson has continued to be embraced by the Republican Party, which gave him a prime time speaking slot at last month’s party convention in Milwaukee.

Carlson is also undertaking a live speaking tour this fall with events across the country. Donald Trump’s vice presidential nominee, JD Vance, is scheduled to appear with Carlson at a Sept. 21 event in Hershey, Pennsylvania, a person familiar with the plans told CNN.

Several conservative columnists have raised questions about whether Vance will move forward with the appearance in light of the Cooper controversy. In a statement, the Vance campaign sought to distance the candidate from the interview.

“Senator Vance doesn’t believe in guilt-by-association cancel culture but he obviously does not share the views of the guest interviewed by Tucker Carlson,” Vance campaign spokesperson William Martin told CNN in a statement.

CNN’s Alayna Treene contributed reporting.

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