Trump Ally And Former Breitbart Contributor Nigel Farage Whitewashes Marine Le Pen's Unapologetic Xenophobia

Written by Media Matters Staff

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Fox News' Shannon Bream invited Nigel Farage, former leader of Great Britain's UKIP to comment on the parallels between President Donald Trump and far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen. Farage, a staunch Trump ally, former Breitbart contributor, and anti-Muslim agitator who has accused British Muslims of having a “split of loyalties” and falsely claimed Sweden is the “rape capital of Europe,” defended Le Pen, saying she “dragged” the Front National “a long way” from their racist past. Le Pen  -- who recently announced she was stepping down from running the Front National party to “unite all French people” -- supports expelling non-national legal residents who have been unemployed for six months, drastically reducing immigration, and banning birthright citizenship. She recently denied French involvement in the Holocaust and, after the recent attack in Paris, called for the closing of all Islamist mosques in France. From the April 24 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom:

SHANNON BREAM (HOST): OK, so let's talk about your take on the parallels between Trump and [Marine] Le Pen. Are they an exact match? How is that viewed there in France? 

NIGEL FARAGE: Well, it's very interesting. The way the international media are portraying this Macron is a centrist. He's nice. He's cuddly. He's the really good guy. Quite why he's called centrist when he was minister in a hard left, socialist government, I don't know. And then Le Pen is painted out to be far right. Now, let me just tell you something. The origins of the French Front National may well have been far right, but she's dragged them, I think, a long way from that. And, in terms of security, in terms of believing in sovereignty, in many of those things, she has a huge amount in common with firstly the Brexit campaign and secondly with President Trump.