CNN's Amanpour regrets equating Trump with Nazi assault

The Associated Press
November 17, 2020 at 7:50PM

NEW YORK — CNN's Christiane Amanpour says she regrets equating President Donald Trump's tenure to Kristallnacht, an attack on Jews in Nazi Germany seen historically as the Holocaust's launch.

A prominent Jewish organization criticized Amanpour for her remarks, made last Thursday on her nightly interview program that airs on CNN International and PBS.

Amanpour had noted the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht, an attack on Jews, their businesses and synagogues that happened Nov. 9-10, 1938. She said it was an assault on "fact, knowledge, history and truth," and that the Trump administration represented a modern-day attack on the same values.

The American Jewish Committee's CEO, David Harris, said it was odd that Amanpour didn't mention that the Nazi's targets that night were Jews. While she's entitled to her opinion about Trump, bringing up Kristallnacht represented a "misuse of history," he said.

Amanpour, on her show Monday, said she regretted any pain that her remarks caused.

"I should not have juxtaposed the two thoughts," she said. "Hitler and his evils stand alone, of course, in history."

about the writer

about the writer

More from No Section

See More
FILE -- A rent deposit slot at an apartment complex in Tucker, Ga., on July 21, 2020. As an eviction crisis has seemed increasingly likely this summer, everyone in the housing market has made the same plea to Washington: Send money — lots of it — that would keep renters in their homes and landlords afloat. (Melissa Golden/The New York Times) ORG XMIT: XNYT58
Melissa Golden/The New York Times

It’s too soon to tell how much the immigration crackdown is to blame.