(JTA) — A Twitter account associated with Anthony Scaramucci, the colorful investor who was briefly President Donald Trump’s communications director, reposted a survey about the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust, saying it was an educational exercise.

The original tweet posted on the Scaramucci Post account Oct. 17 asked, “How many Jews were killed in the Holocaust?” and offered multiple choices: “Less than one million, between 1-2 million, between 2-3 million, more than 5 million.” The historical figure, 6 million, was not offered. That tweet drew widespread outrage and was withdrawn hours later.

A screen capture showed that within an hour of posting, 4,776 people had responded, with 68 percent answering more than 5 million, 21 percent saying less than 1 million and the rest split between the other two options.

The Twitter feed is run by Lance Laifer, the founder of several capital management firms, as is Scaramucci. Laifer said on the Scaramucci Post feed that he is Jewish, in defending his posting of the poll and other tweets related to the Holocaust.

On Saturday, the poll was reposted on the Scaramucci Post account with the statement: “The correct answer is six million. Please fill in the proper answer and retweet this poll.” Laifer and Scaramucci both retweeted the same repost with the statement: “Please vote & retweet. Do not let Holocaust deniers and anti-Semites control this poll.”

The Scaramucci Post feed defended the reposting of the poll in a series of tweets that said: “We are extremely worried about the disinformation campaign about the genocidal tragedy, the Shoah, which took the lives of 6,000,000 Jews. … The purpose of the poll was to let people know that the memory of this tragedy is fading. … We are putting the poll back up because if it helps educate even just one person it will have been a worthwhile endeavor for us.”

The feed also rallied against what it called the “mob-like behavior” of journalists against the Holocaust tweets.

A day earlier, a post on the feed said: “Before we move on we will spend the next half hour digging on one question: How many Jews were alive worldwide in 1939?”

Scaramucci was communications director at the White House for 10 days this summer and helped spur the firing of establishment Republican figures in the White House such as Reince Priebus, the former chief of staff. He also undermined anti-establishment figures who eventually left, like Stephen Bannon, who is associated with the “alt-right.”

Scaramucci himself was forced out after he delivered an obscenity-laden interview to The New Yorker attacking Priebus and Bannon.

We are putting the poll back up because if it helps educate even just one person it will have been a worthwhile endeavor for us.

— ScaramucciPost (@ScaramucciPost) October 20, 2017