Getty White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci speaks on a morning television show, from the north lawn of the White House on July 26, 2017 in Washington, DC.
Anthony Scaramucci’s new media outlet Scaramucci Post has apologized for a “Holocaust poll” that briefly ran on its Twitter page
You can see the poll below, attached to a tweet in which Scaramucci Post explains, “This poll was put up by @lancelaifer without consulting @Scaramucci who is traveling in London. The poll has been taken down.” (Laifer’s profile page on Twitter describes him as “Creator/co-founder Hedge Funds vs. Malaria & Pneumonia, @sohnconf, @sohnideacontest World Pneumonia Day, CEO Old Forge Media.)
The poll asked people to guess “How many Jews were killed in the Holocaust?” and presents readers with four options, ranging from less than 1 million to more than 2 million.
Scaramucci Post also tweeted “The intent of the poll was to highlight ignorance of the basic facts of the Holocaust. I take full responsibility for it” and “This is @lancelaifer and I apologize if anyone was offended by the Holocaust poll.”
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Jake Tapper of CNN labeled the poll as a “Holocaust-denying tweet.”
“Source close to @Scaramucci says he’s ‘furious’ about Holocaust-denying tweet. It will be taken down as soon as possible.. and ‘he’s going to take immediate disciplinary action. At least one person is getting fired,’” Tapper wrote.
Earlier, he had written, “What the actual f— is this, @Scaramucci?” linking to the now deleted Holocaust Poll tweet.
The Anti-Defamation League also released a statement.
“This question is beyond resolved. The Twitter poll was clearly insensitive and could play into the hands of Holocaust deniers. We are glad Scaramucci took it down,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO.
Jonah Goldberg, the conservative commentator, went a step farther in a tweet that Tapper retweeted.
“The @ScaramucciPost’s transition to an all out Nazi rag was so gradual I hardly even noticed.”
Marge Simpson, 2021. t.co/0hKSHdpUiO
The apology didn’t satisfy everyone. Keith Olbermann, the liberal commentator, wrote, “If an apology includes the phrase ‘if anyone was offended’ it’s not an apology. This was antisemitic and trivializing. Delete the account.”
What is the Scaramucci Post? On October 3, The Washington Post reported that Trump’s very brief communications director had launched “his new media outlet, at an event in Midtown Manhattan.” Asked what the Scaramucci Post is, Scaramucci told The Hill that he wasn’t sure.
““we have no idea what the Scaramucci Post is and neither do you. But, we launched it today and we launched with great fanfare and so we’ll have to see how the whole thing unfolds,” he said at the media event, according to The Hill.