Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich appeared to fully subscribe to the racist “Great Replacement Theory” in an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo Wednesday.
In a conversation about Mexican immigrants traveling to the country amid rising COVID-19 cases and low job numbers, Gingrich claimed the immigrants did nothing to represent “traditional, classic Americans.”
“The anti-American left would love to drown traditional, classic Americans with as many people as they can who know nothing of American history, nothing of American tradition, nothing of the rule of law,” he said.
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“When you go and look at the radical left, this is their ideal model. It’s to get rid of the rest of us because we believe in George Washington or we believe in the Constitution,” he continued. “You see this behavior over and over again.”
Bartiromo said the notion was “unbelievable” before attacking New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for his COVID-19 measures.
Gingrich’s elevation of the racist theory that immigrants were filtering out white Americans reflects a rising discourse in conservative media and politics. But the phrase, which has antisemitic connotations, has been shown to have violent consequences.
The same theory inspired a deadly attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019, with the shooter identifying fears of white genocide in his “Great Replacement” manifesto. It was also ingrained in the deadly 2017 attack in Charlottesville, with the nighttime rally preceding the incident featuring anti-Semites proclaiming, “Jews will not replace us!”
That hasn’t stopped some Fox anchors, like Tucker Carlson, from promoting it on the network.
“I know that the left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term ‘replacement,’” he said in April, describing new immigrants as “obedient” new voters from the “Third World.” “But they become hysterical because that’s what is happening, actually. Let’s just say it. That’s true.”
Carlson continued his promotion on his show Monday, saying the Biden administration wanted to open the southern border to “change who lives in this country” to garner more Democratic votes and retain control of the government.
“They’re doing that to undermine democracy itself,” he said. “When you change who votes, you change the outcomes of elections.”
Carlson made his comments from Hungary, where Monday’s episode was filmed, because irony is dead.
