From the moment Fox News’s Tucker Carlson explicitly advocated the idea that immigrants are “replacing” real Americans — a rhetorical construct popular among self-proclaimed white nationalists — the danger was obvious. Carlson and allies such as author J.D. Vance like to position the outcry over his comments as being centered on his purported willingness to speak truth to power. The reality, though, is that Carlson is espousing an obviously false line in an effort to both denigrate Democrats as desperate and to cast immigrants as a dangerous force aimed at toppling America as we know it. The more this dishonest rhetoric spreads, the more risk it poses.
On Wednesday morning, it was offered by a sitting member of the House.
A subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee was meeting to examine the root causes of migration from Central American countries that make up a disproportionate portion of migrants seeking to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. The State Department’s envoy to the region, Ricardo Zúniga, was offering testimony on the subject when Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) was given the floor. Continue reading.