More:Fox News host Laura Ingraham slammed over immigration comments
Controversial Fox News host Laura Ingraham is once again the target of criticism, this time over comments she made about the country’s changing demographic landscape, which she blamed on illegal — and legal — immigration.
“Massive demographic changes have been foisted upon the American people, and they are changes that none of us ever voted for, and most of us don’t like,” Ingraham said on The Ingraham Angle on Wednesday night, noting that “it does seem like the America that we know and love doesn’t exist anymore.”
“From Virginia to California, we see stark examples of how radically, in some ways, the country has changed,” Ingraham continued. “Now, much of this is related to both illegal, and in some cases legal, immigration that, of course, progressives love.”
Despite studies showing the crime rate among native-born residents is higher than that of immigrants, Ingraham used her monologue to link undocumented immigrants with a series of individuals who committed violent acts. She highlighted the case of Juan Ramon Vasquez, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras who sexually assaulted a 5-year-old girl after his 2014 release from a Philadelphia jail. Federal prosecutors secured a guilty plea from Vasquez on immigration offenses Tuesday.
Ingraham’s comments were widely condemned across the political divide. Rep. Ted Lieu (D., Calif.) called her comments “racist” and said Ingraham is “no more American than I or others are.” Matt Pearce, a national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, wrote on Twitter that Ingraham’s comments were the “swan song of white nationalism.” CNN senior editor Alex Koppelman wrote: “Fox’s prime time lineup used to put a thin veil over the racism, but they’ve stopped pretending lately.”
ESPN’s Jemele Hill, who previously criticized Ingraham after the Fox News host told NBA superstar LeBron James to “shut up and dribble,” wrote that her comments were “just disgusting” and “flat-out racist.”
Even some conservatives weren’t supportive of Ingraham’s comments. Chris Vance, who was the former chair of the Washington State Republican Party but left the party in 2017, said Ingraham’s rhetoric was “full on unadulterated racism.” S.E. Cupp, a conservative political commentator whose nightly HLN show will move to CNN starting Aug. 25, said Ingraham was deliberately stoking the fears of Trump supporters “who believe their problems are the fault of people who don’t look like them.“
Even Anthony Scaramucci, President Trump’s former White House communications director, blasted Ingraham’s comments as “ignorant” and “un-American.”
“It’s the same level of xenophobia that my immigrant grandparents faced as Italian-Americans 70, 80 short years ago,” Scaramucci said on CNN Thursday afternoon. “I hope she realizes that what she said is just not—it’s against the American values that she’s supposedly touting.”
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