All four of Fox News’ primetime hosts were on the same page Thursday in their response to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flying about 50 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard the day before: Island resident and former President Barack Obama should throw open his doors and welcome the surprise newcomers.
First, Jesse Watters played a clip of a female Martha’s Vineyard resident telling reporters matter-of-factly that the Massachusetts island isn’t equipped to house and otherwise support that many migrants all of a sudden.
“You don’t have housing for 50 more people? Do you think El Paso has housing for 50,000 more people?” Watters said. “How many bedrooms does Obama’s mansion have? I mean, I’m guessing it sleeps at least 50. Tell Barack to pitch that tent again, you know, the one that he had for his 60th birthday party? That little superspreader event? No room? Come on. Look at all that room!”
ADVERTISEMENT
In the next hour, Tucker Carlson spent a great deal of time trashing the former president and mocking the island’s residents, who according to him believe that “anyone who fears change is a racist.”
“We know that for sure because they’ve told us that for years. So where, you might ask, will all of these new people live on such a small island? Simple: First they can occupy Barack Obama’s compound,” Carlson said.
“There’s no reason Obama needs all that space,” the Fox host continued. “You could probably fit a dozen immigrant families in Barack Obama’s pool house and another five or six in the pantry. Keep going: Build a soccer field on the lawn, an outdoor goat barbecue by the back lawn—and bingo—you’ve got affordable housing!”
“That seems fair,” he added later. “Unfortunately, we don’t expect Obama to see it the same way. He is a racist, as we’ve established, and so apparently are his fellow liberals. They are outraged by the idea of illegal aliens near their island vacation homes,” Carlson claimed vaguely, despite reported instances of community members volunteering to help the new arrivals.
On Hannity, meanwhile, the namesake host played the same clip of that island resident speaking to the press.
“They don’t have space for 50 migrants…not even where Obama has a seven-bedroom, eight-bathroom, 7,000-square-feet, 30-acre vacation home probably sitting empty as we speak,” he reacted. “What, no guests allowed? No illegal… why don’t we build on 12 of the acres a tent city for illegal immigrants? They have 30 acres. That’s a lot of acreage!”
“Keep in mind nearly 80 percent of the island’s residents are hardcore Democrats who voted for Obama and Biden, and they support open borders and sanctuary cities and states. And yet, just 50 migrants later and the entire island has now entered into a full-blown state of panic, racism (according to their definition), and xenophobia, and of course they’re blaming Republicans and Ron DeSantis for their inner rage,” Hannity claimed, echoing Carlson. “They can’t handle that they were exposed.”
In an attempt to prove his point, one of the clips Hannity then played was of state Rep. Dylan Fernandes (D-MA) calling out DeSantis on CNN for using migrants “as political pawns,” which he said is “truly an inhumane thing to do.” Fernandes also criticized the governor Wednesday night on Twitter, writing that the potential presidential candidate is only interested in scoring “cheap political points on Tucker Carlson and MAGA twitter.”
Finally, Laura Ingraham in the 10 p.m. hour couldn’t resist talking about the former president either, not before she too played the same video clip that was shown on the two other broadcasts.
“Now wait a second. About 50 yards from here there’s a tent city in front of Union Station,” she said, referring to Fox News headquarters in Washington, D.C. “It’s OK here. Veterans are living in tents here. But we can’t have tents at, what, Obama’s compound? They can’t accommodate 50 people?”
