Scaramucci doubles down on Holocaust poll

Days after apologizing, former WH communications director changes direction.

By AMY SPIRO
Updated: OCTOBER 23, 2017 01:58
White house Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci (R)), flanked by White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, blows a kiss to reporters after addressing the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, July 21, 2017. (photo credit: REUTERS)
White house Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci (R)), flanked by White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, blows a kiss to reporters after addressing the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, July 21, 2017.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Just several days after he pulled a Twitter poll on the Holocaust and apologized, former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci has decided - never mind.
The Twitter feed for Scaramucci Post, his vague, undefined media venture, decided on Friday to repost the deleted poll, which asked followers to choose how many Jews were killed in the Holocaust, with options ranging from less than one million to more than five million. With close to 50,000 votes cast by Sunday, 69% said the answer was more than five million and 25% said it was less than a million.
Last week, the Scaramucci Post Twitter account posted the same poll and the pulled it a few hours later after a wave of backlash. At the time, Scaramucci apologized, said "as soon as I found out, I had it removed immediately" and promised to make a $25,000 donation to the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
But just three days later, the White House communications director with the shortest tenure in history had a change of heart.
The poll was reposted on the Scaramucci Post feed, and he defended it himself from his personal account, which has almost 850,000 followers.
"Do not let Holocaust deniers and anti-Semites control this poll," he wrote. "Six million Jews perished in the Holocaust." Responding to criticism, Scaramucci wrote: "So let’s leave people unaware of the magnitude of the tragedy because animals are out there. I am not buying it." He said he wouldn't back down because some people are offended.

"This is a conversation we are starting - to develop a safer center lane," he tweeted. "The hyper-"tolerant" left has declared certain topics not safe."
Lance Laifer, Scaramucci's purported "partner" in Scaramucci Post, spent hours on Twitter defending the poll and engaging with detractors. Laifer, a former hedge fund manager turned social media specialist, repeatedly told critics that he himself is Jewish.
"It's not an opinion poll," he wrote. "It's a fact poll to highlight the ignorance of the Holocaust, or at worst to highlight extreme Anti-Semitism."
Laifer also lamented that "It is only a little more than seventy years since the Holocaust ended and knowledge of it is slipping."
When posting the poll, Laifer added a note "the correct answer is six million. Please fill in the proper answer and retweet this poll." It is unclear what was expected to be the purpose of a poll in which the answer was already given.
Neither Yad Vashem nor the Simon Wiesenthal Center responded to a request for comment by press time. The SWC could not confirm if Scaramucci had made the promised donation.
The Anti-Defamation League, meanwhile, criticized both the original poll and its latest incarnation.
"Let's leave the Holocaust education to the experts," it posted on Twitter.