After Barcelona attack, Fox & Friends turns to former anti-Muslim hate group leader to push racist talking points
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Fox & Friends responded to the August 17 attack in Barcelona, which left at least 13 people dead and over 100 injured, by turning to the former leader of an anti-Muslim hate group who smeared refugees and promoted President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban. Fox hosted Jim Hanson, the former vice president of the Center for Security Policy, which the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has deemed a hate group and “a conspiracy-oriented mouthpiece for the growing anti-Muslim movement in the United States.” According to SPLC, Hanson has claimed that “school children learning an Islamic prayer in American schools is part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s plans to take over America from within” and has said former President Barack Obama is "not a Muslim, I don’t believe, but he aligns with that worldview far too much.”
During his August 18 Fox & Friends appearance, Hanson said of the attack, “They brought in ... boatloads of people who don't share their values. And now those people are, unsurprisingly, conducting attacks.” Hanson also praised President Donald Trump's Muslim ban, claiming the policy would make sure people “who have jihadist ties” and “Islamist tendencies” would not be let into the U.S. No one in the U.S. since 2001 has been killed in a terror attack by someone from the countries included in the ban. From the August 18 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends: