CNN’s Christiane Amanpour apologizes for comparing Trump administration to Kristallnacht

A CNN documentary on religious extremists by Christiane Amanpour has prompted an unprecidented outcry from American Jewish groups.
Christiane Amanpour, the veteran foreign correspondent and host of her own show on CNN International, aired an apology at the end of her show Monday night after she received pushback for comparing the Trump administration to Kristallnacht in a show last week.
“I should not have juxtaposed the two thoughts,” Amanpour said. “Hitler and his evils stand alone, of course, in history.”
היכולת לבקש סליחה היא מעלה גדולה.
בתחילת השבוע פניתי ל@CNN בקריאה למגישה אמנפור להתנצל על ההשוואה שעשתה בין ליל הבדולח לממשל טראמפ. הבוקר קיבלנו את התנצלותה. רשת CNN הראתה שהיא עומדת בצד הנכון של ההיסטוריה במאבק נגד השיח האנטישמי. נמשיך לשמור על כבוד זיכרון השואה בכל מקום בעולם. pic.twitter.com/SrWQN5Taxb— עומר ינקלביץ׳ omer yankelevitch (@omeryankelevitc) November 17, 2020
“This week 82 years ago Kristallnacht happened, it was the Nazi’s warning shot across the bow of our human civilization that led to genocide against an entire identity,” Amanpour had said in her original remarks. “In that tower of burning books, it led to an attack on fact, knowledge, history and truth. After four years of a modern day assault on those same values by Donald Trump, the Biden-Harris team pledges a return to norms.”
CNN was quickly hit with calls for an apology, if not her outright firing, by both Jewish groups and members of the Trump administration who accused Amanpour of minimizing the Holocaust, and highjacking the memory of Kristallnacht for a political agenda.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Gaza and Trump have left the Jewish community at war with itself — and me with a bad case of alienation
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Fast Forward Deborah Lipstadt says Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdown has ‘gone way too far’
-
Fast Forward 5 Jewish senators accuse Trump of using antisemitism as ‘guise’ to attack universities
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.