The White House is slamming a Fox News host over comments he made about Nazi concentration camps during a discussion about Florida’s updated curriculum on Black history and slavery.
The host, Greg Gutfeld, made the statements on Monday’s “The Five” show about the new Florida standards, which say slaves “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
A left-leaning host, Jessica Tarlov, said arguments in favor of the standards would never be applied to those who suffered in the Holocaust.
“Would someone say about the Holocaust, for instance, that there were some benefits for Jews?” she said. “That while they were hanging out in concentration camps, they learned a strong work ethic? That maybe you learned a new skill?”
Mr. Gutfeld pointed to “Man’s Search for Meaning,” the 1946 Viktor Frankl book about surviving the camps.
“Frankl talks about how you had to survive in a concentration camp by having skills. You had to be useful,” Mr. Gutfeld said. “Utility! Utility kept you alive!”
The Biden administration was quick to condemn the cable news outlet and highlighted news reports that said some Fox employees thought the comments were over the line.
“What Fox News allowed to be said on their air yesterday — and has so far failed to condemn — is an obscenity,” Andrew Bates, the White House deputy press secretary, said. “In defending a horrid, dangerous, extreme lie that insults the memory of the millions of Americans who suffered from the evil of enslavement, a Fox News host told another horrid, dangerous and extreme lie that insults the memory of the millions of people who suffered from the evils of the Holocaust.”
Mr. Bates’ comments were part of broader White House criticism over the Florida standards, particularly by Vice President Kamala Harris, who condemned them in a speech from Jacksonville, Florida.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has defended the standards and pointed to academics who served on the curriculum standards and describes them as factual and worth teaching.
Mr. Bates said, “The American people understand full well, and that is not complicated: There was nothing good about slavery; there was nothing good about the Holocaust. Full stop.”
He added, “Americans deserve to be brought together, not torn apart with poison. And they deserve the truth and the freedom to learn, not book bans and lies.”
The Auschwitz Memorial in Poland also criticized Mr. Gutfeld for his on-air comments. It said some Jews might have used skills to increase their chances of survival but the comments did not represent “the complex history of the genocide perpetrated by Nazi Germany.”
“There were no selections in extermination camps, such as Treblinka or Sobibor, and almost all deported Jews were murdered upon arrival, irrespective of any perceived usefulness. Being skilled or useful did not spare them from the horrors of the gas chambers,” the memorial tweeted. “Furthermore, during the final stages of the Holocaust, as the Nazi system was collapsing, concentration camp prisoners were evacuated to shrinking camp systems, resulting in the death of many. In these circumstances, being useful did not offer protection either.”
The Washington Times has reached out to Fox News for comments on the criticism.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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