It’s hard to look away from a train wreck. That may be why media personality Piers Morgan’s new interview with right-wing internet star Nick Fuentes had more than 2 million views on YouTube in less than two hours. But, while any kind of attention is currency in the digital economy and may fuel Fuentes’s popularity, anyone who watches the exchange critically can see that Fuentes revealed what a fraud he actually is.
The more than two-hour live interview featured Fuentes repeating his “love” for Hitler, admitting he’s a virgin, and many other salacious moments. But the key moment actually came when Fuentes defended one of his most infamous, hateful clips — then quickly admitted he doesn’t actually believe it.
During the mega-viral clip that has turned into a meme, Fuentes says, “Jews are running society, women need to shut the f*** up, blacks need to be imprisoned, for the most part, and we would live in paradise! It’s that simple.”
His defenders often insist that when Fuentes makes these kinds of extreme statements, he’s “joking” or being “hyperbolic.” But when Morgan asked him about the clip, he insisted, “That’s all 100% true,” and specifically agreed once again that “blacks should be imprisoned, for the most part.”
Then Morgan did what few of Fuentes’s obsequious, softball interviewers, such as Tucker Carlson, have done: asked basic follow-up questions applying scrutiny to what Fuentes is saying. He immediately folded like a cheap suit.
“What percentage of American blacks would you like to see in prison?” Morgan asked.
“Uh … whatever the percentage is of the murderers,” Fuentes replied. “I think it’s maybe one in 20 black men will commit a murder in their lifetime, so maybe 5%.” (Note: This is not a real statistic.)
Wait, what? In the span of 30 seconds, Nick Fuentes went from defending his statement that “most blacks should be imprisoned” to saying he actually just meant a tiny fraction of black people who commit murder. This is a totally different position than the one he originally repeatedly took, and it shifts him from vile racist views to an anodyne perspective with which almost no one would disagree.
In doing so, Fuentes reveals the truth. He doesn’t actually believe the shock-jock things he says online for attention, and he can’t defend them with any actual substance or logic. He is a fraud who plays an evil character on TV and hopes his audience is too dumb to notice that it’s an act. But they should. They should watch Fuentes squirm his way through the interview with Morgan and realize that they have been led hopelessly astray.
NICK FUENTES SAID HE EXPECTED TUCKER CARLSON TO PRESS HIM ON ANTISEMITISM
Yet, Fuentes fans aren’t the only ones who need to learn a lesson from this bombshell interview. So, too, should every legacy media figure and liberal activist who ever pushed the absurd “no platforming bigots” line that turned Fuentes and his ilk into forbidden fruit — and let them escape real scrutiny — in the first place.
Sometimes, sunlight can, in fact, be the best disinfectant. And thanks to Piers Morgan, millions can now see Nick Fuentes for the fraud he truly is.
Brad Polumbo is an independent journalist and host of the Brad vs Everyone podcast.
