Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci has apologized after his new media venture, the Scaramucci Post, tweeted a poll that many thought perpetrated Holocaust denial.
On Tuesday morning, the Twitter account for the Scaramucci Post tweeted a poll asking followers “How many Jews were killed in the Holocaust?” Responders were asked to choose increments ranging between “Less than one million” and “More than 5 million.”
This poll was put up by @lancelaifer without consulting @Scaramucci who is traveling in London.
The poll has been taken down. pic.twitter.com/SKaaPZAPow— ScaramucciPost (@ScaramucciPost) October 17, 2017
The Nazis killed six million Jewish people during thr Holocaust, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The poll was posted moments after the account retweeted Twitter users critical over outrage of an Anne Frank Halloween costume.
The poll was met with immediate criticism. Many Twitter users saw the poll as the Scaramucci Post taking the stance that the amount of people killed in the Holocaust was open to debate.
Do me a favor this AM, and go report the scaramuccipost account for directing hate at a group of people. You can tag the five most recent tweets as evidence. Thank you.
— Alex Zalben (@azalben) October 17, 2017
The facts are available. A poll was not necessary.
— Melinda~ (@mindyjinx) October 17, 2017
The Scaramucci Post later deleted the poll, apologized and clarified that the poll was meant to “highlight ignorance of the the basic facts of the Holocaust.” According to the the Scaramucci Post, the poll was tweeted by staffer Lance Laifer, who has also apologized.
The intent of the poll was to highlight ignorance of the basic facts of the Holocaust. I take full responsibility for it.
— ScaramucciPost (@ScaramucciPost) October 17, 2017
This is @lancelaifer and I apologize if anyone was offended by the Holocaust poll.
— ScaramucciPost (@ScaramucciPost) October 17, 2017
Scaramucci launched the news project on October 2 at an event in Manhattan.
“We have absolutely no idea what the Scaramucci Post is, and neither do you,” Scaramucci said at the event. “But we launched it today to great fanfare. So, we’ll have to see how the whole thing unfolds.”
The Scaramucci Post is currently active on Twitter and Instagram.
Alex Hider is a writer for the E.W. Scripps National Desk. Follow him on Twitter @alexhider.
