Anthony Scaramucci’s new media organization is sparking outrage for asking readers how many Jews they thought had been murdered during the Holocaust.
Twitter users accused The Scaramucci Post, which President Donald Trump’s former communications director launched in September, of pandering to Holocaust deniers by asking its 24,000-plus Twitter followers this question on Tuesday morning:
Around 6 millions Jews were systematically murdered during the genocide instigated under Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany before and during World War II.
But The Scaramucci Post question appears to suggest with its multiple-choice options that the total number of Jews killed may have been fewer than 1 million.
Here’s how the first 4,577 respondents voted:
The poll question was taken down after around 90 minutes.
The Scaramucci Post’s Twitter account, according to its bio page, is run by hedge fund manager Lance Laifer. A subsequent tweet on Tuesday said that Laifer was behind the Holocaust question, and that Scaramucci was not aware of it.
That failed to dampen the outrage expressed by tweeters:
Scaramucci tweeted late Tuesday afternoon that he would make a $25,000 donation to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which is named after a Nazi hunter. He said he was out of the country when the poll went live on Twitter.
“I was not aware of [Laifer’s] actions and as soon as I found out, I had it removed immediately,” he said in a statement posted to Twitter. “I am pained imagining that my post led anyone to believe I am giving comfort to Holocaust deniers. Nothing can be further from the truth. I have publicly criticized the white supremacy movement and understand that the Holocaust was one of the most abhorrent moments in world history.”
“I don’t fire people for making mistakes,” Scaramucci said in a later tweet. “Besides, [Laifer] is my partner. I fire people for not trying.”
This article has been updated with Scaramucci’s response to the poll.