Anti-Defamation League Calls for Tucker Carlson's Firing, CNN Explains Over Images of the KKK

Should Tucker Carlson be fired from Fox News?

What if the Anti-Defamation League says he should?

So goes the discussion amid America’s current headlines.

On Friday, ADL CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt issued an open letter to FNC Chief Executive Officer Suzanne Scott.

The topic, generally: Tucker Carlson’s alleged racism and alleged history of racist remarks.

The subject, in particular: The television host’s comments to guest Mark Steyn concerning the Democratic Party and America’s future voting base.

On Thursday night, here’s how Carlson commented to Mark:

“[I] know that the Left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term ‘replacement’ — if you suggest that the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate — the voters now casting ballots — with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World. But they become hysterical because…that’s what’s happening, actually. Let’s just say it: That’s true.”

Moreover:

“I have less political power because they’re importing a brand new electorate. Why should I sit back and take that?”

To hear Tucker tell it, the Dems are playing dirty pool:

“The power that I have as an American, guaranteed at birth, is ‘one man, one vote.’ And they’re diluting it. No, they’re not allowed to do that. Why are we putting up with this?”

About the remarks — and laid over an image of marching men wearing KKK outfits — CNN Business schooled its viewers:

“White replacement theory” is a racist conspiracy theory that imagines white people are being intentionally replaced by immigrants.

“The remarks came in a conversation about how the government treats migrants who cross the southern border,” CNN wrote.

Tucker addressed the whiteness idea during his broadcast:

“Everyone wants to make a racial issue out of it — ooh, you know, the white replacement theory. No, no — this is a voting rights question.”

But according to the ADL’s letter, the entire discussion was illegitimate:

In short, this is not legitimate political discourse. It is dangerous race-baiting, extreme rhetoric. And yet, unfortunately, it is the culmination of a pattern of increasingly divisive rhetoric used by Carlson over the past few years. His anti-immigrant rhetoric has embraced subtle appeals to racism and, at times more blatantly has put him on the same side as white supremacists.

And let’s talk David Duke:

[C]arlson has suggested that the very idea of white supremacy in the U.S. is a hoax, earning him plaudits from former Klansman David Duke and white supremacist Richard Spencer, who have both praised Carlson’s show for echoing their own talking points.

The ADL also targeted hate:

Last night, in a segment on his program dealing with voting rights and allegations of voter disenfranchisement, Tucker Carlson disgustingly gave an impassioned defense of the white supremacist “great replacement theory,” the hateful notion that the white race is in danger of being “replaced” by a rising tide of non-whites. While couching his argument in terms of what he described as the Democratic Party attempting to replace traditional voters with immigrants from third-world countries, Carlson’s rhetoric was not just a dog whistle to racists – it was a bullhorn.

“Make no mistake,” the letter warned, “this is dangerous stuff.”

Director Jonathan slammed the “classic white supremacist trope that undergirds the modern white supremacist movement in America.”

He took a deep dive into the deviousness of white supremacy; and consider the racist fever of an internet marsh:

It is a concept that is discussed almost daily in online racist fever swamps. It is a notion that fueled the hateful chants of ‘Jews will not replace us!’ in Charlottesville in 2017. And it has lit the fuse in explosive hate crimes, most notably the hate-motivated mass shooting attacks in Pittsburgh, Poway and El Paso, as well as in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The letter went on to mention comments from the past, including Tucker “[suggesting] immigrants make the U.S. ‘dirtier'” and “[suggesting] that white supremacy in America was ‘not a real problem.'”

So whatcha think?

Fireable offenses?

Let us all know in the Comments section.

At the beginning of Thursday’s segment, Tucker explained himself to Mark:

“This is one of about ten stories that I know you’ve covered where the government shows preference to people who have shown absolute contempt for our customs, our laws, our system itself, and they’re being treated better than American citizens.”

Find the letter in its entirety below.

-ALEX

April 9, 2021
Suzanne Scott
Chief Executive Officer
Fox News Channel

Dear Ms. Scott:

Last night, in a segment on his program dealing with voting rights and allegations of voter disenfranchisement, Tucker Carlson disgustingly gave an impassioned defense of the white supremacist “great replacement theory,” the hateful notion that the white race is in danger of being “replaced” by a rising tide of non-whites. While couching his argument in terms of what he described as the Democratic Party attempting to replace traditional voters with immigrants from third-world countries, Carlson’s rhetoric was not just a dog whistle to racists – it was a bullhorn.

Make no mistake: this is dangerous stuff. The “great replacement theory” is a classic white supremacist trope that undergirds the modern white supremacist movement in America. It is a concept that is discussed almost daily in online racist fever swamps. It is a notion that fueled the hateful chants of “Jews will not replace us!” in Charlottesville in 2017. And it has lit the fuse in explosive hate crimes, most notably the hate-motivated mass shooting attacks in Pittsburgh, Poway and El Paso, as well as in Christchurch, New Zealand.

In short, this is not legitimate political discourse. It is dangerous race-baiting, extreme rhetoric. And yet, unfortunately, it is the culmination of a pattern of increasingly divisive rhetoric used by Carlson over the past few years. His anti-immigrant rhetoric has embraced subtle appeals to racism and, at times more blatantly has put him on the same side as white supremacists. Furthermore, Carlson has suggested that the very idea of white supremacy in the U.S. is a hoax, earning him plaudits from former Klansman David Duke and white supremacist Richard Spencer, who have both praised Carlson’s show for echoing their own talking points.

Here’s a sampling of the myriad examples our researchers have gathered from his Fox show:

In January, Carlson offered his viewers a full-throated defense of the antisemitic QAnon conspiracy theory.

In December 2020, Carlson parroted white supremacist and antisemitic conspiracy theories by blaming Jewish philanthropist George Soros for Americans being “robbed, raped and killed.”

Last July, he questioned the patriotism of two Democratic members of Congress who are both women of color: Rep. Ilhan Omar and Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois. He said, in reference to the congresswomen’s immigrant backgrounds, “Maybe we are importing people from places whose values are simply antithetical to ours.”

Days after the mass shooting attack in August 2019 at an El Paso Walmart at the hands of an avowed white supremacist, Carlson suggested that white supremacy in America was “not a real problem.” In January 2021 he again questioned whether white supremacy was even real, saying, “So again, what is a white supremacist? You might be surprised to learn just how broad the definition for that has become.”

In December 2018, Carlson suggested immigrants make the U.S. “dirtier.”

Carlson has attacked ethnic diversity in this country, saying, in 2018, that it was “radically and permanently” changing America for the worse. He has also claimed that immigration makes the country “poorer, and dirtier, and more divided.”

Past guests on his show have included Pete D’Abrosca, who has expressed sympathy for alt-right leaders; British commentator Katie Hopkins, who was banned from Twitter for violating its hateful content policy; and U.S. Rep. Steve King of Iowa, whom he defended for tweeting that America could not “restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.”

And I’m able to share many additional examples we’ve found of such rhetoric being employed on his program.

It was shocking to hear this kind of open-ended endorsement of white supremacist ideology from an anchor and commentator on your network. At ADL, we believe in dialogue and giving people a chance to redeem themselves, but Carlson’s full-on embrace of the white supremacist replacement theory on yesterday’s show and his repeated allusions to racist themes in past segments are a bridge too far.

Given his long record of race-baiting, we believe it is time for Carlson to go.

I’m available at any time to discuss this matter further and look forward to your timely response.

Sincerely,

Jonathan A. Greenblatt
CEO and National Director
ADL (Anti-Defamation League)