Fox News host Tucker Carlson responded Wednesday to Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s demand that his show be boycotted in the wake of his Tuesday monologue that described Omar as “a fire alarm” exposing the dangers of the U.S. immigration system.
Carlson began by reiterating the point that Omar and her family benefited enormously from the generosity of the U.S. when they escaped to Minneapolis in 1992 from a Kenyan refugee camp and a worsening civil war in Somalia. He also asserted that, like Omar, “the leaders of the Democratic Party, day after day, attack the country they say they want to govern.”
“Think about that for a minute,” Carlson said. “Our country rescued Ilhan Omar from the single worst place on Earth. We didn’t do it to get rich. In fact, it cost us money. We did it because we are kind people. How did Omar respond to the remarkable gift we gave her? She scolded us and called us names. She showered us with contempt. It’s infuriating.”
“But it’s also more than that, it’s also ominous,” Carlson went on. “The United States admits more immigrants than any country on Earth, more than a million every year. The Democratic Party demands that we increase that number and admit far more. OK. Americans like immigrants. But immigrants have got to like us back. That is essential. Otherwise, the country falls apart. We made that point last night. We’ll continue to make it. It’s true, and it’s important to say it out loud, even if no one else will.”
“Needless to say, the Left went berserk,” Carlson continued. “Ilhan Omar and her allies in Congress immediately demanded that this show be pulled off the air. They didn’t rebut our points, or even acknowledge them. They just tried to silence us. That’s how they operate. And, of course, they called us racist. On one level, that’s amusing, given how absurd the charge is. This show, more than any other on television, has taken an aggressive position in favor of colorblind equality and against racism, particularly the casual racism of the modern Left. We despise the current habit of judging people on the basis of their skin color. It’s wrong. We say so virtually every night.”
Omar penned an August 2017 op-ed for Time maintaining that Americans “must confront that our nation was founded by the genocide of indigenous people and on the backs of slaves, that we maintain global power with the tenor of neocolonialism.” She has also called for the abolition of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Omar on Wednesday tweeted, “Fox News is now giving a nightly platform to white supremacist rhetoric. It’s dangerous. Advertisers should not be underwriting hate speech.”
Fox News is now giving a nightly platform to white supremacist rhetoric. It’s dangerous.
Advertisers should not be underwriting hate speech. https://t.co/iQdMJ0heXR
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) July 10, 2019
Carlson repudiated Omar’s accusation that he is a racist, saying, “We’re against racism, adamantly. Omar consistently puts her own race at the center of the conversation, but to us it’s irrelevant.”
Carlson contrasted Omar’s behavior with that of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who was also born in Somalia, moved to Kenya, and came to the U.S. “Unlike Omar, Ali loves and cares about the United States. She believes our country is superior to the country she came from, and she says so. For that, the Left despises her.”
“Omar’s friend, Linda Sarsour, once tweeted that Ali deserves to be mutilated for her beliefs,” Carlson went on. “Two Somali immigrants: one, among the most impressive people in America; the other, among the least. It’s not about race. But of course Omar and her friends already know that. Nothing they say on the subject is sincere. It’s all a hustle, designed to get them what they want. Omar has made a career of denouncing anyone and anything in her way as racist. That would include virtually all of her political and personal opponents, and even inanimate objects, like the proposed border wall, the United States Congress and the entire state of North Dakota.”
“Omar may be from another country, but she learned young that crying racism pays. The bigger question is: Who taught her that? She didn’t arrive from a Kenyan refugee camp denouncing people as bigots for political gain. She wasn’t always a professional victim. This is a learned behavior. Unfortunately, she learned it here. In some ways, the real villain in the Ilhan Omar story isn’t Omar herself. It’s a group of our fellow Americans. It’s our cultural gatekeepers, who stoke the resentments of new arrivals and turn them into grievance-mongers like Omar. The Left did that to her, and to us. Blame them first.”
