MSNBC attracted criticism on social media for a segment Friday in which a guest downplayed the extent of Adolf Hitler’s genocide.
Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia and a Stanford University professor, highlighted the controversial opinion to juxtapose Hitler’s reign with the brutality of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“One of the Russian journalists said you know there’s one difference between Hitler when he was coming in and Putin. Hitler didn’t kill ethnic Germans. He didn’t kill German-speaking people. I think people need to remember when we are talking about cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol and Kyiv, there are large populations there up to a third and sometimes much to a half that are Russian speakers and ethnic speakers. And yet Putin doesn’t seem to care about that. He slaughters the very people he’s come to liberate,” he said on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show.
KYIV ROCKED BY ‘NONSTOP VOLLEY’ AS RUSSIAN FORCES ENCIRCLE CAPITAL
McFaul said the “interesting” take came from a Ukrainian show on which he appeared shortly before the MSNBC hit.
A clip of McFaul’s remarks posted by staffers for The Rachel Maddow Show quickly amassed over a million views before the tweet got deleted.
The segment drew swift criticism on social media. Some seemed stunned that the staff on Maddow’s show tweeted the clip after it aired.
For the love of God, you don’t need to absolve Hitler of his crimes against humanity, which included the mass murder of ethnic Germans and German-speaking Jews and others, to make a point about how bad Putin is. https://t.co/oH9a8c7TWw
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) March 12, 2022
Would love to know why you thought this was worth its own clip
— Anthony L. Fisher (@anthonyLfisher) March 12, 2022
In response to the mounting backlash, McFaul took to Twitter Saturday to say he “slipped” and was committed to learning more about the history of Nazi Germany.
After a long of commentary that started with Morning Joe and end with Maddow, I slipped late last night and violated an unwritten taboo– never compare Hitler with anyone. I agree. He was incomparably evil. I won’t do it again. 1/ THREAD.
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) March 12, 2022
Hitler perpetrated massive state-sponsored genocide against Jews, slaughtering at least 6 million Jews and 5 million prisoners of war during the Holocaust, according to the National WWII Museum of New Orleans. Many of the Jews in Nazi Germany spoke German, so Hitler killed millions of “German-speaking” citizens during the Holocaust.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
But he also targeted disabled people, which included ethnic Germans. About 70,000 disabled Austrians and Germans were killed in “Operation T4” between 1941 and 1940, per the museum. His programs also involved medical experimentation on disabled citizens — which led to the creation of the Nuremberg Code. Other targets included gay people, alcoholics, and political rivals.
Hitler’s actions, particularly his invasion of Poland, triggered World War II. An estimated 5.5 million German soldiers and between 6.6 and 8.8 million German civilians were killed during that conflict, per the museum.
