A longtime contributor to CNN found himself in hot water after tweeting, "The world today needs a Hitler." The inflammatory tweet, which could be interpreted as a call for the extermination of the Jewish people, was posted to Twitter on Sunday amidst the rising tensions and violence between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East.
The CNN contributor quickly deleted the post, but it sparked social media users to comb through his Twitter profile. Adeel Raja, who has written dozens of articles for CNN, also appears to have a history of posting ant-Semitic messages on Twitter.
Donald Trump Jr. posted screenshots of the "Hitler" tweet as well as a CNN article that indicates Raja as a co-author, and his LinkedIn profile, where he describes himself as a "Freelance Contributor at CNN."
"Hey @cnn this seems to be one of yours, but I imagine that surprises no one anymore," Trump wrote.
Hey @cnn this seems to be one of yours, but I imagine that surprises no one anymore. https://twitter.com/adeelraja/status/487836497153101824\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/JMq89aURur— Donald Trump Jr. (@Donald Trump Jr.) 1621196355
The now-deleted "The world today needs a Hitler" tweet was just the tip of the iceberg. There were other tweets praising the murderous Nazi leader.
"The only reason I am supporting Germany in the finals — Hitler was a German and he did good with those Jews!" Raja wrote during the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Another tweet from 2014 read, "My support for Germany is for what Hitler did to the Jews!"
One tweet from Raja's verified Twitter account said, "Hail Hitler!"
Raja responded to a Twitter user calling for "Palestinian genocide....inner Hitler among Germans must resurface," by enthusiastically tweeting, "Hell yeah!!!!!"
In another Twitter post, Raja urged terrorist groups to go to Israel, "ISIS, TTP, TALIBAN - please go to Israel ASAP!"
From his @LinkedIn page:pic.twitter.com/2x0dDZvpqL— Jewish Deplorable (@Jewish Deplorable) 1621193116
ISIS, TTP, TALIBAN - please go to Israel ASAP!— Adeel Raja (@Adeel Raja) 1405161576
Okay pic.twitter.com/MV7PnPNkiF— Lavi Rana (@Lavi Rana) 1621194444
Raja is a longtime contributor to CNN.com. There are 53 results when you search for "Adeel Raja" on the CNN website. It appears that his first article for the CNN website was published on Jan. 2, 2014, and he was contributing fairly consistently to the site. Raja posted as recently as Sept. 16, 2020. Most of the articles he contributed are related to Pakistan, where he is allegedly based.
This guy has 54 articles under his byline at CNN. They should probably fire whoever does their background checks.pic.twitter.com/yNr7iT29nD— Greg Price (@Greg Price) 1621196251
When asked about Raja, CNN spokesman Matt Dornic told the Washington Examiner that he has "never heard" of him and was "looking into it."