Less than two weeks after 22 people were killed in El Paso by an accused shooter who told officials he targeted Mexicans and apparently posted a racist manifesto complaining about a “Hispanic invasion,” Fox Nation host Todd Starnes likened migrants to Nazis while claiming America has been invaded by a “rampaging horde of illegal aliens.”
During Wednesday’s broadcast of Fox Nation’s Starnes Country, first spotted by Media Matters, the conservative pundit groused that The New York Times had recently observed that the El Paso suspect had echoed the same incendiary rhetoric as right-wing media, including Fox News. He then went on to proudly note that he’s been spewing the “invasion” commentary for years.
“I do believe that we have been invaded by a horde,” Starnes exclaimed. “A rampaging horde of illegal aliens. This has been a slow-moving invasion.”
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Claiming that this is a “fair description” of what’s been going on in this country, the right-wing commentator asserted that a large number of undocumented immigrants are violent criminals, despite studies showing immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than native-born Americans.
This prompted Starnes to make a historical comparison of other “invasions,” leading him to make his Third Reich analogy.
“When you go back in time and when you look at what an invasion is,” he declared. “Whether it is the Nazis invading France and Western Europe. I mean, whether the Muslims were invading a country back in the early years. It was an invasion.”
Fox News has come under fire recently for its inflammatory rhetoric surrounding race and immigration in the wake of the El Paso shooting. Prime-time star Tucker Carlson, who suddenly announced last week he was going on vacation, sparked intense backlash when he said white supremacy is a “hoax” three days after the shooting.
