Darryl Cooper
Podcaster (“MartyrMade”); self-described amateur historian
On Tucker Carlson’s show, called Churchill the “chief villain” of WWII and recast the Nazi camps as accidental.
The Tucker Carlson interview
Sep 2024Broad consensusWhat happened
In a September 2, 2024 interview on The Tucker Carlson Show, Cooper called Winston Churchill “the chief villain” of the Second World War and claimed the millions who died in Nazi camps died because Germany was “unprepared” for its prisoners — reframing systematic extermination as an administrative accident. Carlson called him “the most important popular historian” in America.
“They just threw these people into camps. And millions of people ended up dead there.”
Under each definition
Example 4: distorting the Holocaust by denying its intentional, systematic character.
Guideline 5: gross minimization and distortion of the Holocaust.
Distortion of the Holocaust is core antisemitism; no Israel dimension.
Not about Israel.
Who called it antisemitic
Yad Vashem, the ADL, the Biden White House, and Republicans including Liz Cheney condemned it as Holocaust distortion.
The defense
Cooper said his aim was “not to defend… the Third Reich” but to argue Churchill most wanted to escalate the war; he later conceded he had been “hyperbolic.”
Outcome
Bipartisan condemnation and official statements from Yad Vashem and the White House; no formal sanction, and a backlash briefly pushed his podcast up the charts.
In their words
Tucker Carlson and his guest Darryl Cooper engaged in one of the most repugnant forms of Holocaust denial of recent years. These far-fetched conspiracy theories are not only dangerous and malevolent, they are antisemitic.
Actually, this is pro-Nazi propaganda, including, ‘Churchill was the chief villain of WW2’ and Hitler ‘didn’t want to fight.’ No serious or honorable person would support or endorse this type of garbage.
We believe in free speech and debate… This whole idea that has taken hold in the far left of this country, that if you see a bad idea, the way to solve it is to censor it, I think it’s ridiculous.
[My intention was] not to defend the actions of the Third Reich or any of its leaders, [but to argue that] of all the belligerent leaders, Churchill was the one most intent on prolonging and escalating the conflict into a world war of annihilation.
Doubling down via David Irving
2025Broad consensusWhat happened
Reporting later established that Cooper’s source for the Churchill claim was David Irving, the British writer found by a UK court to be a Holocaust denier. On Joe Rogan’s show (March 2025) and in a new “from the German perspective” series, Cooper minimized Hitler’s role in Kristallnacht and portrayed liberating GIs as murderers.
“The goal is not to get you to sympathize with the Germans… The goal is to understand. And if a side effect of understanding is sympathy, then so be it.”
Under each definition
Example 4: distortion built on the work of a recognized Holocaust denier.
Guideline 5: minimization and distortion of the Holocaust.
Denialist historiography about the Holocaust; no Israel dimension.
Not about Israel.
Who called it antisemitic
Cambridge historian Sir Richard Evans and Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt rebutted his claims as recycled Irving falsehoods.
The defense
Cooper said he was “not yet in a position to adjudicate the various disputes” over Irving; Joe Rogan vouched that there is “no… way” Cooper is antisemitic.
Outcome
No institutional consequence; his Substack grew into one of the platform’s largest history followings.
In their words
It’s a new iteration of what we’ve been seeing and what we’ve been fighting for a long time… I doubt that anything [Cooper] says in there hasn’t been said by David Irving.
[Cooper’s summary of Irving is] a collection of falsehoods and half-truths.
There’s no f***ing way [he’s an antisemite] in any way, shape, or form.
The verdicts above are how each framework would most likely treat this case — illustrative guidance, not official rulings. The 3D test applies only to Israel-related cases, so it reads “N/A” elsewhere. See the Definition tab for each framework’s full text. Inclusion is documentation, not a finding.