Agency Report –
German public broadcaster ZDF on Monday rejected calls by former US ambassador Richard Grenell for one of its journalists to be expelled from the United States over what he described as left-wing extremism and incitement to violence.
Calls for for those perceived to be critical of late right-wing activist Charlie Kirk to face consequences are growing among the right as political violence in the deeply polarized country came to a head with his killing last week.
Grenell, a close confidante of President Donald Trump who served as the US ambassador to Germany from 2018 to 2020 during the first Trump administration, posted a clip of ZDF journalist Elmar Thevessen on X on Saturday.
In the excerpt of the ZDF programme, Thevessen refers to Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, whose views he describes as “very extreme.”
The journalist goes on to say that Miller’s “convictions are also, to a certain extent, I would say, derived from the ideology of the Third Reich.”
In the post, Grenell describes Thevessen as a “radical Lefty German” who “keeps calling for violence against people he politically disagrees with.”
Thevessen “poses as a journalist in Washington, DC,” Grenell said, calling for his visa to be revoked.
Grenell wrote in a follow-up post: “When you tell unstable people that someone is from the Third Reich, you are telling them to commit murder.”
The broadcaster on Monday said it had was aware of the statements, adding that “Elmar Thevessen’s work is covered by press freedom.”
Kirk, 31, a prominent supporter of Trump seen as instrumental in securing his 2024 election victory, was shot in the neck while speaking at an outdoor event at a Utah university on Wednesday and later died of his injuries.
State officials have described the case as a political assassination and said they would seek the death penalty.
The German Journalists Association (DJV) also condemned the threats made against Thevessen.
“As long as journalists operate within the framework of freedom of the press and freedom of expression, coercive measures by the state such as the cancellation of visas have no place in liberal democracies,” said DJV Federal Chairman Mika Beuster.
He said the union had sent a letter to the US embassay in Berlin calling on the government to refrain from such statements in the future.
Thevessen also faced criticism last week over statements regarding Kirk made on a popular ZDF late-night talk show.
“He said, for example, that homosexuals should be stoned,” the journalist said about Kirk.
Only when asked by talkshow host Markus Lanz did the journalist clarify that in the clip, which has been circulating since his death, Kirk was quoting from the Bible in an attempt to illustrate how passages are sometimes cherry-picked.
ZDF said afterwards that the context should have been made clearer.
“Elmar Thevessen regrets not having been more detailed at this point,” the broadcaster said in a statement.
By Jan Christoph Freybott
