The Polish embassy in Washington on Monday expressed outrage over media personality Tucker Carlson's comments about Poland, Adolf Hitler and the Second World War.
Bogdan Klich, charge d'affaires for the embassy, called Carlson's comments at the weekend "false" and "deeply troubling", and demanded he retract them.
"As an American journalist who enjoys the democratic right to the freedom of speech, you have now become an apologist for Adolf Hitler," Mr Klich said of the comments, which came in an interview with a British politician. "In doing so, you resort to lies, completely falsifying the documented historical record."
He said in the statement, which was posted on X, that Carlson had justified Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939 – which caused France and the UK to declare war on the Third Reich – by saying it was "German territory with Germans in it".
"This statement constitutes a colossal insult to the millions of victims of Nazism, including hundreds of thousands of American soldiers who had been killed or wounded while liberating Europe from the occupation of the Third Reich," Mr Klich said.
During the interview with Jacob Rees-Mogg, released at the weekend, Carlson asked why the UK been involved in the Second World War, as Hitler had had no quarrel with England.
"Otherwise, we’d be speaking German,” Mr Rees-Mogg answered.
Carlson replied: “Who cares? There are a lot of people in Britain who can’t speak English. So it would be nice to have at least a European language spoken in your country.”
Mr Rees-Mogg said that Carlson appeared to be on the verge of defending Hitler.
Carlson has in the past expressed support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose excuse for invading Ukraine in 2022 was to come to the aid of Russian-speaking people living in the eastern part of the country.
Carlson has frequently been accused of echoing Russian talking points, and has blamed the invasion on Nato and the West.
