Laura Ingraham Disavows White Nationalists, KKK: ‘You Don’t Represent My Views’
Fox News host Laura Ingraham’s Wendesday night anti-immigration rant was described by The Daily Beast as being “so racist it was endorsed by ex-KKK leader David Duke.”
During the opening to her primetime show The Ingraham Angle, Ingraham said the following, according to The Guardian.
“In some parts of the country it does seem like the America we know and love doesn’t exist anymore. Massive demographic changes have been foisted upon the American people. And they’re changes that none of us ever voted for and most of us don’t like. Now much of this is related to both illegal and, in some cases, legal immigration that of course progressives love.”
As The Daily Beast noted, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke tweeted praise for the anchor, calling her rant “one of the most important (truthful) monologues in the history of MSM.”
David Duke has repeatedly, and publicly, expressed support for Donald Trump and some of his policies. As Vox pointed out, however, the former KKK leader has also criticized the POTUS via Twitter whenever he deemed fit. But one of America’s most famous white supremacists has “remained a faithful Trump supporter,” even after the president had condemned the Charlottesville rally.
According to a Washington Post fact-checking analysis, President Trump has denounced Duke’s support during the 2016 election, albeit at times fairly reluctantly.
The Trump campaign — and now the administration — has been flirting with white nationalist ideas ever since its inception. As the Inquisitr previously reported, some key members of the administration, like White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, have been accused of cultivating white nationalist ties for decades.
Steve Bannon, who was initially appointed chief executive of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, and went on to become the president’s chief strategist, “smuggled white nationalism into the mainstream,” according to a BuzzFeed report. Bannon, former executive chairman of the far-right news outlet Breitbart News, did this with the help of journalists such as Milo Yiannopoulos.
Laura Ingraham disavows David Duke after ex-KKK leader endorses her comments on immigration https://t.co/hyuA04hGPF pic.twitter.com/J0XYpmWG6A
— The Hill (@thehill) August 10, 2018
If it was indeed Bannon who had smuggled white nationalism into the mainstream via Breitbart News, Fox News host Laura Ingraham may have solidified the ideology’s position in the fabric of the American consciousness with her rant.
But according to Ingraham, her comments were taken out of context, and her views distorted.
“A message to those who are distorting my views, including all white nationalists and especially one racist freak whose name I will not even mention: You do not have my support. You don’t represent my views and you are antithetical to the beliefs I hold dear.”
According to The Hill, Ingraham also said that the purpose of her comments was to “point out that the rule of law, meaning secure borders, was something that used to bind our country together.”
“I made it explicitly clear that my commentary had nothing to do with race or ethnicity,” Ingraham added.
From Trump’s refusal to explicitly denounce David Duke, to his alleged “sh**hole” comments, to his controversial immigration policies, the issue of race has been a subject of debate ever since Trump took office. The New York Times‘ David Leonhardt and Ian Prasad Philbrick compiled and published a “definitive” list they claim proves that the president of The United States is, and has always been, a racist.
Donald Trump has repeatedly denied this, describing himself as “the least racist person you have ever interviewed” to BBC.
Racist or not, Donald Trump is widely considered to be an immigration hardliner. In shadow of the so-called “Muslim ban,” previously imposed by the Trump administration, the family separation policy has been a subject of debate and controversy.
On June 20, as NPR reported, the president signed an executive order ending the controversial policy and bringing immigrant families back together. However, Trump’s immigration stances seem to have encouraged journalists like Laura Ingraham to make comments that can be — and evidently have been — interpreted as racist.
As Salon pointed out, Ingraham’s comments may signal a change of midterm strategy for the Republican Party, which seems to be struggling with the fact that it may have been deeply divided over trade and immigration. Laura Ingraham’s comments sound like a “rallying cry to Trump’s base” from the GOP central, according to Salon.
If Ingraham’s comments are indeed a signal to Donald Trump’s base ahead of November midterms, then they could perhaps be interpreted as a sign of the growing division within the Republican Party, a division that could, according to Newsweek, be enough to fracture it.
According to two recent polls reported on by Vox, Democrats are in a good position to take the House in the 2018 midterm elections. The Kaiser Family Foundation and Quinnipiac University found the Democratic Party with a 12-point lead in the generic congressional ballot.
With about 100 days left in the campaign, Vox noted, everything could go wrong for either party, but the Democrats seem to have a lot to be optimistic about.
