Laura Ingraham maintains that her vile rant against immigrants last week had “nothing to do with race.” But at least one of her Fox News colleagues doesn’t seem so sure about that.
Steve Hilton, host of the The Next Revolution and self-described “populist,” did not mention Ingraham’s name Sunday night, but in the segment, first flagged by CNN’s Brian Stelter, he did appear to condemn her sentiments about the “massive demographic changes” that have “been foisted upon the American people.”
“It’s at moments like these that it’s important to make something clear,” Hilton said at the top of his show. “We must draw a line between populism and racism, between populism and xenophobia, between populism and white supremacy, of course, but also between populism and white superiority, which is subtly different, but equally unacceptable.”
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As an immigrant himself with a Hungarian and British background, Hilton said, “I happen to be white. That doesn’t make me any better than an immigrant from Guatemala or India or Vietnam.”
“The incredible and unique thing about this country is that anyone can become an American,” he added, explaining that this country is “not rooted in a racial or ethnic identity.” America is “always changing,” Hilton said, “but still stays the same: the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
That line stood in sharp contrast to Ingraham, who complained that due to both illegal and legal immigration, “the America we know and love doesn't exist anymore.” Her words were praised by former KKK grand wizard David Duke as “one of the most important” monologues in media history.
“If there comes a time when white people are no longer the majority in America,” Hilton added, “as long as immigration is controlled and not a free-for-all, and as long as immigration is accompanied by integration, so everyone who's here signs up to America’s laws and values, that is not something to fear or fight.”
