The host of CBS News, Margaret Brennan, was reportedly subjected to a significant amount of criticism on Sunday after she asserted without evidence, in an interview with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, that “free speech was weaponized” in order to trigger the Holocaust.
During an interview on “Face the Nation,” Brennan made the remark by discussing Vice President JD Vance’s speech to European leaders the previous week.
In the speech, Vance criticized the leaders for abandoning values such as free speech. Brennan made the comment when discussing the speech.
“He was standing in a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide,” Brennan said while discussing Vance’s speech in Germany.
As soon as Brennan made her assertion, she was confronted with immediate pushback on social media, including from a number of prominent conservatives:
“I’m glad Margaret Brennan blamed free speech for the rise of the Nazis. It’s always a virtue when a person in a position of authority and influence who was elevated beyond her station reveals her ineptitude and folly–so that the world can see her clearly henceforth.”columnist John Podhoretz noted.
This is the first time I’ve heard the theory that the Holocaust wasn’t conducted with gas chambers but with free speech zones. pic.twitter.com/mpWm6UH2F4
— Michael Brendan Dougherty (@michaelbd) February 16, 2025
“Can we just talk about how a prominent American news anchor actually believes Nazi Germany had free speech and that supposed free speech is to blame for the Holocaust? That’s both deeply arrogant and deeply ignorant.” Radio host Erick Erickson remarked.
“I legitimately don’t know how ignorant you have to be to claim the holocaust happened as a result of free speech. This woman doesn’t deserve to host this show and Republicans should stop rewarding this s*** by going on it.” Meghan McCain concluded.
[READ MORE: State of Louisiana Moves to No Longer Promote Mass Vaccination of Citizens]
