Fox News’ Lou Dobbs and senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller are on the same draconian page when it comes to immigration. So it wasn’t a shock that Dobbs’s interview of Miller yesterday was soft as a feather: These were two proto-fascists comparing notes.

During Miller’s rare July 15 interview, he called arrested gang suspects “barbarians” and denigrated the Black Lives Matter movement as a “Marxist” organization that poses a threat to Americans’ safety. Dobbs did not push back on any of Miller’s statements, nor did he ask about Miller’s history of promoting white nationalism.

Miller, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center has described as having a “white nationalist perspective,” has shown an affinity for white supremacists such as Jared Taylor and Jason Richwine. In emails leaked to the SPLC in 2019, Miller frequently cited Taylor and other white supremacists, promoted eugenics, and generally advocated a white nationalist ideology. Members of Congress at the time pushed for Miller to be ousted. 

Fox News has an ongoing history of promoting white nationalism and covering for its proponents. Host Tucker Carlson’s top writer recently resigned after CNN’s Oliver Darcy reported on anonymous racist posts the staffer had written online. Carlson himself has a long history of promoting white supremacy on his Fox show. Fox hosts regularly promote prejudicial nativism and white nationalist conspiracy theories. While far-right extremism remains a serious threat in this country, Fox News consistently downplays this concern. Dobbs’ gratuitous interview with Miller is yet another example of how the network provides a platform for white nationalist rhetoric. 

And it’s not the first time Miller, who rarely makes media appearances, has gone on Fox for a gratuitous interview. He appeared on Trish Regan’s later-canceled Fox Business show to defend himself after the SPLC’s reporting in 2019 and said the reporting on him was “doing a favor to white supremacists.” 

Fox is now continuing to run cover for a white nationalist working in the White House.