This may have been a line to far for some on the right, surprisingly enough.
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.”
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.”