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Ritchie Torres resolution blasts Tucker Carlson, Holocaust revisionist guest

Torres’s resolution accuses Carlson and Cooper of ‘perpetuating harmful falsehoods, fostering antisemitism and undermining the fight against hate and bigotry’

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Tucker Carlson, founder of Tucker Carlson Network, speaks on stage on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 18, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) introduced a new resolution on Friday blasting Tucker Carlson for hosting Holocaust revisionist Darryl Cooper on his online show last month.

Carlson’s interview with Cooper became a high-profile issue in the presidential race, given former President Donald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance’s (R-OH) ongoing associations with Carlson, and their refusals to condemn Carlson. Torres’ resolution could bring new attention to the situation — which has faded from headlines — in the final weeks of the presidential race.

Torres’ resolution, which currently does not have any co-sponsors, accuses Carlson and Cooper of “perpetuating harmful falsehoods, fostering antisemitism and undermining the fight against hate and bigotry.” It offers strong condemnations of both men.

“Carlson’s platforming of these harmful views represents an endorsement of Holocaust denial, which emboldens antisemitism and undermines efforts to combat hate and misinformation,” Torres’s resolution reads. “Tucker Carlson’s failure to critically challenge or denounce these falsehoods on his platform contributes to the spread of Nazi propaganda and historical revisionism, posing a direct threat to historical truth and the dignity of Holocaust survivors.”

Torres said he introduced the resolution because he said that too many on the right have been silent about Carlson and Cooper. He condemned what he described as “selective outrage” about antisemitism only when it comes from the opposite political camp.

“Tucker Carlson has immense influence on the political right. His decision to platform the Hitler apologia of Darryl Cooper is too dangerous to be ignored.” Torres told JI. “If you refuse to condemn antisemitism in your own ideological backyard, then you’re not part of the solution. You’re part of the problem. There are many on the right who have been deafeningly silent about the antisemitism of Tucker Carlson.”

Asked whether he expects any Republicans to sponsor his resolution, which makes no explicit mention of politics, Torres said that Congress “should stand for the proposition that America should have zero tolerance for antisemitism, zero tolerance for Holocaust denial and Hitler apologia. If that is not, if that does not transcend partisanship, then I’m not sure what would.”

The resolution also ties the conversation to trends of increasing Holocaust revisionism over the past decade. It lays out, in significant detail, Cooper’s false claims about the Nazis and the Holocaust and contrasts them with specific historical facts disproving them.

Torres added that he finds it “troubling that both Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are so close to Tucker Carlson as to be co-opted by him, and neither one has condemned the profound disservice, not only to the Jewish community but also to the truth itself.”

The Trump campaign and Carlson’s media company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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