Fox News host Tucker Carlson faced renewed criticism after making a comment about immigration Monday reminiscent of remarks that previously resulted in his show hemorrhaging sponsors.
The conservative commentator and host of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” was scorned by his critics on social media after echoing what several described as white nationalist rhetoric.
Speaking during a discussion about climate change, Mr. Carlson asked, “if you cared about the environment, which I personally do emphatically care, and actually go outside once in a while, unlike most people on the left — why would you want a crowded country?
“Isn’t crowding your country the fastest way to despoil it, to pollute it, to make it a place you wouldn’t want to live?” Mr. Carlson continued.
The comment was swiftly condemned by Mr. Carlson’s critics and compared to a controversial remark he made last year about immigrants causing the U.S. to become “poorer and dirtier.”
“This is flat-out white nationalism and identical to what you’ll find in neo-Nazi chatrooms (as well as in far-right terrorist manifestos),” verified Twitter user Alheli Picazo tweeted in response to Mr. Carlson’s latest comment.
“Tucker Carlson is objectively a white nationalist,” agreed fellow verified Twitter user Luke Darby, a contributing writer for GQ Magazine.
The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, a nonprofit organization better known by its acronym RAICES, bluntly declared from its Twitter account: “Tucker Carlson is a fascist.”
Dozens of advertisers dropped “Tucker Carlson Tonight” after its host argued during an episode last year that immigrants make the U.S. “poorer and dirtier.” More recently, several advertisers left the show after audio surfaced months ago of offensive comments Mr. Carlson made years earlier.
Mr. Carlson’s latest remark about immigration came during a conversation with Justin Haskins, an anti-Socialism activism and executive editor of The Heartland Institute think tank.
“I thought, according to Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and everybody else in the socialist left, that human beings are causing climate change, that humans, CO2 emissions, that that’s what’s causing climate change, and it’s going to be catastrophic,” Mr. Haskins said during the episode, referring to two of the candidates seeking the Democratic nomination to run in 2020 against President Trump.
“Well, if that’s true, then why are we bringing people from all over the world where they produce CO2 emissions, less per person, in places like Mexico and Guatemala and places like that, why are we bringing them to the United States where we produce CO2 emissions per person at a much higher rate? It doesn’t make any sense,” Mr. Haskins said.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.