MSNBC and guest Michael McFaul were blasted online over remarks that he made on the network’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” and a tweet that was later posted by the Maddow Blog about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I think people need to remember that we’re talking about cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol and Kyiv, there are large populations there, you know, up to a third and sometimes as much to a half that are Russian speakers and are ethnic Russians,” he said. “And yet Putin doesn’t seem to care about that. He slaughters the very people he said he has come to liberate.”
The Maddow Blog tweeted out a video clip of the remarks, adding: “One difference between Putin and Hitler is that Hitler didn’t kill ethnic Germans, German-speaking people. Putin slaughters the very people he said he has come to liberate.”
The Auschwitz Memorial slammed the segment writing on Twitter: “On a factual note: Hitler did kill ethnic Germans & German-speaking people: those who opposed the Nazi regime, those who resisted, those who did not fit into the ‘Weltanschauung’. He ordered the murder of people with different disabilities & finally the murder of German Jewry.”
Other notable responses included:
- Jerry Dunleavy, reporter: “Hitler ‘didn’t kill German-speaking people’ is an insanely false claim since many of the Jews murdered in the Holocaust spoke German. Pro-Tip: You don’t have to try to play weird word games to try to make Putin seem worse than Hitler — Putin is plenty bad on the objective facts.”
- Drew Holden, commentator: “I promise you, no matter what, you don’t have to favorably compare Hitler to current foreign leaders. If you ever find yourself running down the logical line of ‘well at least Hitler didn’t…’ I promise you, we’ll all be better off if you just stop right there. ‘You know, credit where due…’ MSNBC about actual Hitler right now. Also MSNBC saying that Jews, gay people, the disabled and plenty of others aren’t ‘ethnic Germans’ sure sounds a little bit like…Hitler.”
- Walker Bragman, journalist: “Maybe just delete this one.”
- Noam Blum, journalist: “‘Ethnic Germans’ is a really weird way to get around the wholesale murder of German Jews.”
- Jeet Heer, journalist: “Okay, I’m going to express this calmly. It’s wrong to suggest that German Jews, whose families had lived in Germanic lands for centuries, weren’t ethnic Germans. Also Hitler killed German communists, German Roma, German trade unionists, German handicapped, German queers, etc. It’s possible to condemn Putin without indulging in this ahistorical foolishness. For the record, Hitler killed German Jews, German Roma, German communists, German socialists, German queers, German handicapped, Germans who criticized his regime. In last days he expressed hope Germany would be destroyed for letting him down. He was bad.”
- Pradheep J. Shanker, commentator: “MSNBC arguing the relative moral superiority of… Hitler. STOP IT.”
- Jay Cost, AEI: “This guy was ambassador to Russia. The same position held by John Quincy Adams.”
