Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson prefaced his latest podcast episode by lauding guest Darryl Cooper as the best and most honest popular historian, and then looked on entranced in the video recording of it as Cooper argued Nazi Germany dictator Adolf Hitler wasnt the chief villain of World War II .

Cooper, who has shared pro-Hitler posts on social media, argued on the podcast that then-British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was to blame for the war.

I thought Churchill was the chief villain of the Second World War, he told Carlson, adding that maybe he was being provocative . Now, he didnt kill the most people, he didnt commit the most atrocities, but he was primarily responsible for that war becoming what it did.

Carlson, who had encouraged Cooper to expound by arguing its fair to ask about this subject, went on to urge his guest to make the case for Churchills apparent crimes. Cooper claimed he doesnt believe Hitler was part of the good guys, but then seemingly argued as much.

Cooper accurately stated that Hitler launched a war but then claimed the Nazi high command only ordered the millions and millions of prisoners of war killed out of pity to save them from dying of starvation as the Nazis were completely unprepared to deal with them.

He then claimed Hitler pushed for peace with Britain and France, while Churchill bombed Nazi Germany, the purpose of which was to kill as many civilians as possible.

Carlson, who was fired from Fox News in 2023 , never corrected his guest in Mondays episode.

German historian Michael Geyer, however a professor emeritus of German and European history at the University of Chicago notes that Coopers take is inaccurate.

The question Id have is whether it is worth engaging someone like him on any of his claims, Geyer said. You get from one distortion to the next, his Holocaust story being interesting because it is no longer outright denial (i.e., it never happened) but considered collateral damage.

Former Rep. Liz Cheney was among those on social media who jumped to correct Coopers take on history.

Actually, this is pro-Nazi propaganda, including, Churchill was the chief villain of WW2 and Hitler didnt want to fight, Cheney wrote Tuesday in a post on X, formerly Twitter . No serious or honorable person would support or endorse this type of garbage.