Tucker Carlson great replacement

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Tucker Carlson fully embraced the white supremacist “replacement” theory – and Fox personalities are following his lead

Written by Jane Lee & Alicia Sadowski

Published

Fox News personalities, guests, and elected Republican Party officials appearing on the network have launched nativist attacks that resemble the explicit white nationalist “great replacement” conspiracy theory pushed by host Tucker Carlson.

In an interview with NPR, historian Kathleen Belew explained that the nativist arguments stem from the “great replacement theory,” which imagines “nonwhite people or outsiders or strangers or foreigners will overtake the United States via immigration, reproduction and seizure of political power.”

Fox prime-time star Tucker Carlson has long pushed the theory with full corporate support from Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch. In the process, he has gained praise from white nationalists while the Anti-Defamation League has repeatedly called for his firing.

Fox's decision to enable Carlson’s white supremacist rhetoric has led to more Fox hosts and guests pushing similar talking points. But it's not a completely new look for the rest of the network. Back in 2019, the manifesto of the El Paso, Texas, mass shooter closely echoed nativist Fox talking points. And Fox News personalities responded to that shooting by defending their dehumanizing rhetoric and denying that white supremacy was a problem in the United States. The only question now is what tragedy will ensue this time.

Here are a few examples from just one week in September of the kind of rhetoric Fox airs, echoing nativist and the “great replacement” conspiratorial claims.

Jump to date

  • 9/19/21

  • Fox’s Carley Shimkus claimed that the Biden administration looks at illegal immigration as “a political opportunity, especially when it comes to Mexicans, because Mexicans typically vote Democrat.” [Fox News, The Big Sunday Show, 9/19/21]

  • 9/20/21

  • Co-host Brian Kilmeade commented on Democrats’ efforts to pass legislation to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, saying that “8 to 14 million would have been instantly legalized” and “that would have benefited, in theory, Democrats when it comes to voting because they were the ones who got it." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/20/21]

  • Fox & Friends hosted Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton to complain that the Biden administration “want[s] illegal immigration, they want what that brings.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/20/21]

  • Host Pete Hegseth argued, “Democrats don't care about protecting you or me or the border or our nation. They only care about protecting themselves, their political position, and their livelihood. And that's why they're ignoring the border. It doesn't affect them, except they hope in the future at the ballot box.” [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 9/20/21]

  • Guest Charlie Kirk warned that through encouraging illegal immigration, the Biden administration is “trying to fulfill Barack Obama’s promise” of “a fundamental transformation of America.” [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 9/20/21]

  • Guest and white nationalist Stephen Miller said that the Biden administration’s “goal is as much immigration as quickly as possible, as fast as possible, to destroy the working class.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 9/20/21]

  • 9/21/21

  • Tom Homan, Fox contributor and former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, fearmongered that migrants will “compete with low-level wage jobs and middle-class jobs. So this is not good for the American worker.” [Fox News, America Reports, 9/21/21]

  • Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum emphasized the number of migrants compared to the population of Del Rio: “Del Rio has a population of 35,000 people — 35,000 Texans live there. Now, they’ve got 12,000 -- as many as 20,000 at one point -- refugees living in their town." [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 9/21/20]

  • Host Pete Hegseth called Haitian migrants coming into the U.S. a “full-scale invasion" of the country, warning that the migrants are “coming to a neighborhood near you. … They’re coming to our backyard.” [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 9/21/21]

  • Host Tucker Carlson declared that Biden’s immigration policy is an “attempt to change the demographics of the United States in order to give permanent power to the Democratic Party. That's all it is, no matter what they tell you.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 9/21/21]

  • 9/22/21

  • America’s Newsroom hosted residents of Del Rio, Texas, who discussed their frustrations with what they called a “planned" crisis: “What frightens us is we have a madman and racist making -- who’s using people to advance his political agenda, to collapse our border, and change our style of government, and that's scaring us.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 9/22/21]

  • Co-host Jesse Watters opened The Five by fearmongering about a “large scale" release of migrants in the U.S. [The Five, 9/22/21]

  • Host Pete Hegseth accused the Biden administration of “releas[ing] thousands of residents of Bidenville” and complained that “family units and pregnant women [are] being allowed to stay, meaning more anchor babies and more illegals.” [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 9/22/21]

  • Frequent Fox guest Victor Davis Hanson accused Democrats of being “unhappy with the present electorate” and allowing Afghan refugees and other migrants to “change the demography” of the country and “change the electorate” for the advantage of the Democratic agenda. [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 9/22/21]

  • Host Tucker Carlson called Biden’s immigration policy “the great replacement” and “eugenics.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 9/22/21]

  • Host Sean Hannity suggested that Democrats were offering citizenship to migrants “in the hopes that they’ll vote for Democrats.” [Fox News, Hannity, 9/22/21]

  • Hosts Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity said that the Democratic National Committee voter registration desks were set up at the border. [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 9/22/21]

  • Ingraham said the Biden administration is overseeing a “purposeful resettlement of -- it’s going to be millions of illegal immigrants" and complained that migrants get benefits like public schooling and health care. [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 9/22/21]

  • 9/23/21

  • Jesse Watters claimed that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) “[let] the truth slip” and revealed that Democrats want “the votes” from immigration and amnesty. [Fox News, The Five, 9/23/21]

  • Pete Hegseth said that the Biden administration was encouraging migrants to come to the U.S. because “they want more illegals" and warned viewers that migrants were being flown “to the destination of their choice, maybe your hometown.” [Fox News, Fox News Primetime, 9/23/21]

  • On Sean Hannity’s show, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said -- without any pushback -- of Haitian migrants, “There are some folks that probably think this is the equivalent of an invasion.” [Fox News, Hannity, 9/23/21]

  • Host Laura Ingraham claimed that Democrats are “panicked that men of color are beginning to turn away from the Democrat Party. They need a new constituency. They hope [for] a constituency that may be dependent on the government.” White nationalist Stephen Miller agreed, adding, “This is all about … cheap labor for Biden’s wealthy backers, ... and it’s about new votes.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 9/23/21]

  • 9/24/21

  • Fox & Friends guest Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) complained that the Democrats’ “grand strategy” is to “change America” and “replace the American electorate with third world immigrants.” He continued that Democrats will then give immigrants citizenship and “enfranchise them with a vote and have a permanent majority.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/24/21]

  • Faulkner Focus guest Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) claimed that Democrats have a “broader political agenda” to encourage illegal immigration to the size of “one of the largest cities in America.” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 9/24/21]

  • Tucker Carlson Tonight guest Horace Cooper attacked the Biden administration for shirking its “number one responsibility … to protect us from invasion.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 9/27/21]

  • Ingraham Angle guest Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) said that Democrats “want to flood the United States with cheap labor and they want to grant amnesty to all of these illegals that are coming into our country and turn them into Democrat voters. That’s their last great hope for keeping the majority in the midterm election.” (Banks' communications director is Tucker Carlson's son.) [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 9/24/21]