“This week 82 years ago, Kristallnacht happened. Kristallnacht, also known as the ‘Night of Broken Glass,’ occurred the night of November 9-10, 1938, when Nazis killed nearly 100 people and vandalized thousands of Jewish businesses and synagogues. It was the Nazis’ warning shot across the bow of our human civilization that led to genocide against a whole identity and, in that tower of burning books, it led to an attack on fact, knowledge, history and proof. After four years of a modern-day assault on those same values by Donald Trump, the Biden-Harris team pledges a return to normal.”
This was not a tweet from some far-Left conspiracy theorist. This was not an attempt by a Socialist Democrat to appeal the Jewish population while attacking a political adversary. This was quote from a supposedly objective news anchor on the self-proclaimed “most trusted name in news”: CNN. And it wasn’t said by some random guest on a mid-day show; the culprit here is CNN’s Chief International Anchor, Christiane Amanpour. This is perhaps the most blatant comparison by a mainstream media of President Trump to Adolf Hitler and has rightfully been condemned by many in the Jewish community. Even the Israeli government released a statement demanding the immediate retraction by CNN. As of this writing, no statement has been issued.
There have been those on the Right side of the aisle who have condemned Amanpour’s statement as well, including former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, as well as well as Florida Senator Marco Rubio. As we should come to expect, at the time of writing there have been no condemnations nor calls for a retraction from the political Left, nor has CNN issued a statement on the matter. Anything that condemns President Trump is seen as accurate, regardless of how despicable the statement is.
But let’s take a deeper look at the comparison Amanpour made. I previously mentioned that this is the most unapologetically blatant comparison of Trump to Hitler in the mainstream media - but it’s also a new area to do the comparison: Kristallnacht. Amanpour states that the parts of Kristallnacht that are comparable to the Trump administration are the killing of innocent people, vandalizing businesses and places of worship, burning books, and an attack on fact, knowledge, history, and proof. Not only would I say that President Trump does not exhibit a “modern-day assault on those same values,” but I would go so far as to say that a much more apt comparison would be the political Left. Before I explain why, let me state, for those of you looking to jump down my throat, that I do not believe that there is anyone or any group in America today that is comparable to the evil that was Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. But if you were to cherry-pick the specific comparisons that Amanpour made to the Trump regime, it aligns more with the Left than the Right.
The first section is obvious. This past summer saw a tremendous amount of vandalization and violence perpetrated or at least egged on by those on the political left. Calls to let BLM rioters loot and vandalize led to the murders of a number of innocent people. One “activist” referred to riots as “reparations.” Protesters were given avenues to do what they wanted to despite everyone else being required to follow strict guidelines amid a global pandemic. Politicians and community leaders allowed for the rioters to have space to vandalize and commit atrocious, violent acts throughout the summer. According to The Guardian, at least 25 people died in the BLM riots over the summer.
Let’s move on to burning books. Although there were a few instances of actual book burning over the summer, the modern-day book burning isn’t done with actual fire. In essence, the goal of a book burning is to remove the ability for others to obtain the information written in said books. Today, an actual book burning would be merely symbolic, as the information contained in books can also be found on the Internet. Instead, the equivalent is the modern-day assault on free speech, and more commonly known as “cancel culture.” Only one side of the aisle celebrates and encourages cancel culture, and it isn’t the side that supports Donald Trump. It has become astounding how little one needs to do these days in order to qualify to be canceled. Merely printing an opinion from a sitting United States Senator who disagrees with the Left’s doctrine can get one canceled. Another example came to us last week from Target, who was pressured into removing a book from its shelves that discussed the empirical danger of instilling transgender ideology in children. After a minor outcry, Target removed Irreversible Damage from its stores and online catalog. This is how the Left controls thought: If something exists that they don’t agree with, they don’t try to dispute the idea; they try to have the idea removed from society. Even though Target has since reversed the decision to pull the book, it shows just how much power the Left has when it comes to their ability to burn books.
That leads us to the next point made by Amanpour: attacks on fact, knowledge, history, and proof. The Left loves to think of themselves as the arbiters of truth, the believers of science, the ones who only base their decisions on fact. That’s obviously untrue. The obvious case in point is Christiane Amanpour, who is supposed to be a journalist portraying fact, but somehow compared the president to Adolf Hitler. But further than this lone CNN “journalist” is the entire Left. This is a Left that ignores science when it doesn’t suit their beliefs. Simply repeating “SCIENCE!!!” does not a scientist make. The Left routinely ignores scientific data when inconvenient. They ignore it when it comes to biology as it relates to transgenderism and abortion. They ignore it when it comes to the climate, like when Mayor Bill de Blasio claims that individual weather events are the result of climate change. And since Amanpour mentioned history, they ignore the history of the founding of America when they promote idiocy like the 1619 Project. They ignore the history of socialism when pushing for socialist agendas. The Left absolutely loves to ignore facts, history, science, and proof when it suits them. Note that the Right definitely does this as well, but they don’t claim to be the exclusive party of science the way the Left does.
Christiane Amanpour is a symptom of a larger issue on the Left. She believes herself to be on the correct side of thinking, and therefore everything that pops into her head must be true. This appalling comparison between Trump and Hitler is just a microcosm of how the media views its job in reporting. They no longer think it valuable to report facts. They don’t trust us with facts. It’s now their job to interpret and twist facts and ram the results down our throats.
Izzo Zwiren is the host of The Jewish Living Podcast, where he and his guests delve into any and all areas of Orthodox Judaism.