Research/Study
Fox News’ history of inappropriate rhetoric about the Holocaust and Nazis
Written by Alicia Sadowski, Helena Hind, Jane Lee & Isabella Corrao
Published
Many Fox News personalities have stooped to the level of toxic Holocaust rhetoric, often invoking Nazism, the Gestapo, and swastikas in wildly inappropriate ways. Here is a list of examples of Fox News downplaying hate symbols, making dangerous comparisons to Nazis, and spreading harmful rhetoric about the Holocaust.
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Making inappropriate comparisons to the Holocaust
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- Former Fox Business host Andrew Napolitano compared Roe v. Wade to “the philosophical argument underlying the Holocaust.” [Fox Business, Freedom Watch, 1/23/12]
- On his radio show, Fox host Sean Hannity declared that the Iran nuclear deal “will result in a modern day Holocaust.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 9/29/15]
- The Ingraham Angle guest Qanta Ahmed said that Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) have “Holocaust envy.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 8/19/19]
- The Ingraham Angle guest Karl Manke compared people who report violations of social distancing to Jews who “would turn in their younger people” in the Warsaw Ghetto. [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 5/26/20]
- Fox host Mark Levin invoked the Holocaust while complaining about coverage of Hunter Biden: “The New York Times, which covered up the Holocaust, covered this up. The Washington Post, which covered up the Holocaust, covered this up.” [Fox News, Hannity, 12/10/20]
- The Five co-host Jeanine Pirro likened conservative social media site Parler being penalized for its failure to adhere to community guidelines “to a Kristallnacht.” [Fox News, The Five, 1/11/21]
- On Fox News, former network host Glenn Beck compared Twitter and Facebook bans to Japanese internment camps and the Holocaust. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/12/21]
- Contributor Jonathan Morris compared the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school mass shooter to Holocaust victims who lacked the “meaning and purpose” to survive. [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 5/25/22]
- Newly minted prime-time host Jesse Watters said that “election denier” was “code for Holocaust denier.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 10/18/22]
- Fox contributor Tulsi Gabbard compared diversity policies to “the very same geneticist core principles embodied by Nazism and Adolf Hitler.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 2/24/23]
- In an attempt to defend Florida’s controversial Black history curriculum, Fox host Greg Gutfeld claimed that Jewish people “had to be useful” to survive Nazi concentration camps because “utility kept you alive.” [Fox News, The Five, 7/24/23]
- A production assistant for Fox News Digital repeatedly posted antisemitic comments on his TikTok page, including claiming that “it is hard to talk about the Holocaust and rising antisemitism without discussing Jewish presence in banking.” [Media Matters, 7/26/23]
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Comparing liberals, doctors, and immigrants to Nazis
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- Former The Five co-host Eric Bolling called Occupy Wall Street protesters “Communist, Nazi, ... pot-smoking, sex-addicted morons.” [Fox News, The Five, 10/19/11]
- On his radio show, Hannity said that Planned Parenthood officials sound like something “you’d expect to hear from a high-ranking official in the Nazi regime.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 7/16/15]
- Then-Fox News contributor Erick Erickson compared Planned Parenthood’s president to the Nazi doctor at Auschwitz: “Cecile Richards is the closest we have come in America to Josef Mengele.” [Twitter, 7/21/15]
- Former Fox host Bill O'Reilly commented on Planned Parenthood's fetal tissue donation program: “Many people feel this is Nazi stuff.” [Fox News, The O’Reilly Factor, 7/30/15]
- O'Reilly also compared pro-choice Democrats to Nazis. [Fox News, The O’Reilly Factor, 8/3/15]
- On The O’Reilly Factor, former Fox contributor Bernie Goldberg likened “liberals on college campuses” to the Nazi “brown shirts.” [Fox News, The O’Reilly Factor, 3/9/16]
- On her podcast, Ingraham and frequent guest Raymond Arroyo called Planned Parenthood “butchers” responsible for a “Black Holocaust.” [PodcastOne, The Laura Ingraham Show Podcast, 4/4/19]
- Former Fox Business host Todd Starnes likened undocumented immigrants entering the U.S. to “the Nazis invading France and Western Europe.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 8/14/19]
- Former Fox Nation host Lara Logan compared Dr. Anthony Fauci to “Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor who did experiments on Jews.” (Logan claimed she was “pushed out” at Fox News for her remark, despite no official statement from the network.) [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 11/29/21; The Hill, 4/8/22]
- Carlson compared vaccine requirements to “what the Imperial Japanese Army and the Nazis did in their medical experiments” during World War II. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/21/22]
- Jesse Watters Primetime guest the Rev. James Harden complained, “We're in the middle of a pro-abortion Kristallnacht.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 6/24/22]
- On Carlson’s Fox prime-time show, anti-abortion activist Lila Rose likened “pro-abortion advocates” to Nazis. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 8/24/22]
- Carlson compared the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Children's Hospital Association to Nazis. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 10/14/22]
- Carlson also predicted liberals will use “Nazi race science” to “certify the racial purity” of Black Americans. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 12/14/22]
- On his radio show, Levin claimed that critical race theory is “anti-white racism” and “Hitler himself would agree with that kind of thinking process.” [Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, 1/23/23]
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Comparing Democrats, government officials, and Black Lives Matter protesters to the Gestapo
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- Former Fox host Andrea Tantaros compared then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s armed security detail to the Gestapo: “Talk about bullies and stalkers. I mean, this is like the Gestapo.” [Fox News, Hannity, 1/28/13]
- Fox host Jeanine Pirro accused special counsel Robert Mueller’s team of resorting to “Gestapo tactics” after the FBI arrested Roger Stone at his home. [Fox News, Justice with Judge Jeanine, 1/26/19]
- Fox host Lisa Kennedy Montgomery accused then-New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio’s COVID-19 restrictions of encouraging the “next wave” of the “real Gestapo that comes in and spies on people and lets the police know” about mask enforcement. [Fox News, The Five, 8/13/20]
- Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo compared Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) to the Gestapo for “her Trump accountability project.” [Fox News, Sunday Morning Futures, 11/22/20]
- Ingraham praised anti-mask restaurant owner Tony Roman and aired a clip in which he called public health officials “dictators” and “enemies of freedom” with “legions of mini-Gestapo.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 7/28/21]
- Former Trump adviser and right-wing podcaster Steve Bannon said on Fox News that the FBI is “the Gestapo.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 8/8/22]
- Ingraham claimed Joe Biden is using the IRS as his “new Gestapo.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 8/9/22]
- Ingraham complained that top universities removed SAT requirements “after the George Floyd riots and the demands made by the BLM Gestapo.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 1/20/23]
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Downplaying or dismissing swastikas used by right-wing protesters
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- Gutfeld attacked Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for criticizing swastikas at a social distancing protest by claiming they were being displayed ironically: “There’s a distinction, the protesters were comparing her action to fascist dictators. It wasn’t that there were Nazis there.” [Fox News, The Five, 4/17/20]
- After swastikas and Confederate flags were seen at Canada's “Freedom Convoy” trucker protest, Gutfeld suggested that the extremist flags could have been planted to make conservatives look bad. [Fox News, The Five, 2/10/22]
- On America Reports, anchor John Roberts asked Toronto Sun reporter Joe Warmington to clarify the “real story” of the Canadian trucker protest after Confederate flags and swastikas were used to “paint literally everybody who is involved in this protest” as extremists. Warmington said that flags “were most likely props that were put in to try to quell this thing.” He added, “I smell a rat on that.” [Fox News, America Reports, 2/10/22]
- Right-wing sportscaster Jason Whitlock claimed that people who disagreed with the trucker convoy were using the presence of the swastika and Confederate flags to smear the protesters as “a group of racists.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 2/15/22]
- After neo-Nazis gathered outside a Turning Point USA event with flags bearing swastikas, Watters commented the protesters “were probably plants.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 7/27/22]
- Watters gave a friendly interview to a teacher who held up a swastika sign at a school board meeting to protest trans-inclusive policies. [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 6/12/23]