MSNBC host Chris Hayes caught the attention of the official Auschwitz Memorial Twitter account for remarks he made contrasting concentration camps with death camps.
The memorial account urged Hayes to get some education on the subject following a day filled with his social media commentary on controversial remarks by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The New York Democrat sparked fiery backlash after making the false claim that detention facilities operated by the U.S. on the southern border are like concentration camps.
“I want to talk to the people that are concerned enough with humanity to say that we should not — that ‘Never Again’ means something,” she said in an Instagram video she posted on Monday. “And the fact that concentrations camps are now an institutionalized practice in the Home of the Free is extraordinarily disturbing and we need to do something about it.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s comments sparked a firestorm, with Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer on Tuesday calling for the 29-year-old lawmaker to apologize to “every Jew on the planet.”
But instead of apologizing to anyone, the freshman congresswoman doubled down on Tuesday, defending her claim and slamming “shrieking Republicans” for their criticism.
AOC lashes out Liz Cheney and ‘shrieking Republicans’ after furious concentration camp backlash https://t.co/A3CkIW2AIV
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) June 18, 2019
In one testy exchange on Twitter, Ocasio-Cortez clapped back at Rep. Liz Cheney who had urged her to learn “some actual history.”
Hey Rep. Cheney, since you’re so eager to “educate me,” I’m curious:
What do YOU call building mass camps of people being detained without a trial?
How would you dress up DHS’s mass separation of thousands children at the border from their parents? https://t.co/OOfrrfa1Ew
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 18, 2019
After tweeting several of his own opinions on the issue throughout the day Tuesday, Hayes chimed in to target Cheney as well, telling the Wyoming Republican that “concentration camps are different from death camps.”
If you spend a few minutes learning some actual history, you will find out that concentration camps are different from death camps and have a history that both predates and extends far past the Nazis. https://t.co/Bccy3SaXW0
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 18, 2019
His tweets sparked a reaction from the official Twitter account for the Auschwitz Memorial urging the MSNBC host to “please consider following @AuschwitzMuseum where everyday we commemorate and educate about the tragic human history of #Auschwitz.”
@chrislhayes Please consider following @AuschwitzMuseum where everyday we commemorate and educate about the tragic human history of #Auschwitz.
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) June 18, 2019
Donald Trump Jr. slammed Hayes for defending the “stupidity” and called out his “total bias.”
Yea that whole “never again” reference had nothing to do with it.
Please stop making clowns of yourselves defending this stupidity.
Look, we all get your total bias but you should at least pretend to give a shit. https://t.co/GEQfyDPD9K
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 18, 2019
Hayes tweeted and retweeted comments about the issue, eventually asking which side of the debate would end up “on the right side of history.”
Who do you think will end up on the right side of history: those cheering on the concentration of tens of thousands of desperate migrants in camps with communicable diseases and contemptuous neglect, or those shouting loudly that this is terrible?
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 18, 2019
He also noted the “real profile in courage” in another tweet.
Special laurels to those who don’t really care about the camps, but care *A TON* about how they are characterized. Real profile in courage.
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 18, 2019
Hayes made his “last comment” by suggesting the detention facilities be called “detention camps” and that the attention should be on what was going on in them in stead of how they were being characterized.
Last comment on this: “concentration camp” is an extremely charged term and I get why many people are, in good faith, uncomfortable with its application for Godwin’s Law purposes among others. So let’s just call them “detention camps” and focus on what’s happening in them.
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 18, 2019
“I probably deserve the ratio but whatever the hell you call them we should be closing them,” he tweeted, conveniently dismissing the spark that ignited the fire when Ocasio-Cortez tossed out the incendiary phrase in her video.
I probably deserve the ratio but whatever the hell you call them we should be closing them. There is absolutely no reason to be detaining the vast, overwhelming majority of these people. It’s unconscionable.
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 18, 2019
Twitter users applauded the response from the Auschwitz Memorial while others continued to call out Hayes for his inane defense of Ocasio-Cortez.
Wow, it’s pretty bad when the Auschwitz Museum steps in and asks a reporter to educate themselves after they make a reply defending AOC’s nonsense tweet.
— Huggamuggah (@huggamuggah) June 18, 2019
Everyone take the rest of the night off from Twitter.
it doesn’t get more savage than this.https://t.co/TGBBDIUbPV
— BonkPolitics (@BonkPolitics) June 18, 2019
Thank you, @AuschwitzMuseum , for stepping in to counter @AOC‘s false & inappropriate narrative. I agree with @RabbiShmuley in that she needs to apologize to the Jewish com.The Holocaust should never be used to score political points.Chris Hayes’s defense of her was shameful.
— Bebe Reid (@TrustGod7733) June 18, 2019
the libs coming to the defense of AOC to say “aCtUaLlY cOnCeNtRaTiOn cAmPs wErEn’T tHaT bAD” is the twist I did not see coming https://t.co/29AB6f5MEh
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) June 18, 2019
No way you’d be making this distinction if a Republican said something like this https://t.co/1x0k84CFfX
— Ashe Schow (@AsheSchow) June 19, 2019
If you have the absolute gall to compare what’s going on at the border to the Holocaust… THE HOLOCAUST… you have no shame.
What disgusts me the most though is that his tweet, & @AOC’s, have hundreds of thousands of likes, & they believe the comparison is just.
We are lost.
— Atticus Franklin (@AtticusFranklin) June 18, 2019
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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