Serving up a steady diet of fearmongering has made some conservative media hosts and their cable channels a lot of money. Right-wing media thrives on fear, especially the possibility of someone non-white invading your neighborhood. So it took less than a news cycle for those on the far right to exploit a plane load of Afghans running for their collective lives. While many saw the photo of 640 Afghans packed on a plane as a sign of hope for those on board, others portrayed it as the latest wave of immigrants to assault our shores. Take Steve Cortes, Newsmax host and former Donald Trump adviser who tweeted, “Raise your hand if you want this plane landing in your town?“
Raise your hand if you want this plane landing in your town?
— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) August 18, 2021
America paid unimaginable costs in Afghanistan because of uniparty globalists who dominated the Bush & Obama administrations.
No more… pic.twitter.com/OBIUapUmMK
Cortes also said, “Not one Afghan should be coming to America.”
It’s no surprise that Tucker Carlson also took the not-in-my-backyard approach. The Fox News host said, “If history is any guide and it’s always a guide we will see many refugees from Afghanistan resettle in our country in the coming months, probably in your neighborhood… First, we invade, then we are invaded.” (Watch above)
"We will see many refugees from Afghanistan resettle in our country in the coming months, probably in your neighborhood" –@TuckerCarlson
— Ali M Latifi (@alibomaye) August 17, 2021
I was one of those refugees, I was in your neighborhoods (LA, Bay, DC) for years, what harm did we ever pose to the United States?
Laura Ingraham also asked, “Is it really our responsibility to welcome thousands of potentially un-vetted refugees from Afghanistan?”
Wow. Fox pivots in less than 24 hours from “Biden abandoned the Afghanis!!!” To “ We don’t want millions of Afghani refugees flooding America!!”
— Miss Demeanor (@jeanthorpe) August 17, 2021
Stephen Miller, the Former Senior Advisor to Donald Trump, who was arguably the most anti-immigrant member of his administration, is also predictably jumping on the train.
Not even dog whistling here.
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 18, 2021
Stephen Miller: "There are a lot of people in Afghanistan… who don’t like the Taliban and rightly so. That does not necessarily mean that all those millions of people are Jacksonian Democrats who are pro-American and embrace our way of life." pic.twitter.com/6z6lwV1Gfq
MSNBC’s Joy Reid had Congresswoman (D-MN) Ilhan Omar Congresswoman on to talk about this fearmongering. Reid questioned Omar saying, “I’m not surprised. I’m just going to preface this by saying none of this is surprising that the people on the right who were just like 24 hours ago pretending to care about the Afghan, you know, people, suddenly are like, yeah, but don’t send any of them over here. But I would love to hear your thoughts.”
Watch their conversation above.
