In the media coverage that followed the 2019 El Paso, Texas, Walmart shooting, in which 21-year-old Patrick Crusius allegedly killed 23 people while specifically targeting Hispanic shoppers, many outlets fixated on the “fringe” platform where authorities believe the suspected terrorist shared his beliefs: 8chan, an internet cesspool that served as the petri dish for QAnon.
On Saturday, 18-year-old Payton Gendron drove more than 200 miles to carry out a similar act of suspected terrorism against a Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, authorities said. Gendron also allegedly published a document before the attack, touting his belief in white-replacement theory while stating that his plan was to “kill as many blacks as possible” and inspire others to do the same. Believed to have been armed with a Bushmaster XM-15 rifle, the same weapon used by the Sandy Hook shooter, Gendron allegedly went on to kill 10 people at a Tops Supermarket. Three others were wounded in the attack.
But the racist theory that white Americans are being replaced by an influx of Black and brown immigrants is no longer fringe, as the average Fox News viewer may be acquainted with a version of it. Tucker Carlson, the most popular cable news host in America, has “amplified the idea that a cabal of elites want to force demographic change through immigration” in more than 400 episodes of his prime-time show, according to a recent New York Times report.
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In April of last year, the Fox host promoted the racist replacement theory. “The Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World,” he said, adding: “That’s what’s happening, actually. Let’s just say it: That’s true.” Several weeks later, his show warned of an “anti-white mania” supposedly taking hold in the U.S. as Carlson urged someone “to save this country…before we become Rwanda.”
On Monday, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer cited the Times report in calling out Carlson. “This is a poison that’s being spread by one of the largest news organizations in our country,” Schumer said.
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Interestingly, The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board acknowledged the role that pundits play in spreading the racist ideology parroted by Gendron, who, it should be noted, did not mention Carlson in his screed. “Media figures have an obligation to condemn... conspiratorial notions as ‘white replacement theory,’” the board wrote in a Sunday column. Though, the editors went on to note that “mass shooters have had many motivations in recent years, and mental illness seems to be the most significant common denominator, to the extent there is one.” The Journal and Fox News are both owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
Fox News declined to comment when asked about the renewed criticism that Carlson has received since the Buffalo shooting, but a network spokesperson did note that Carlson has condemned political violence in the past. In an April 2021 statement responding to criticisms of Carlson's commentary on the subject, the network said that he “was not describing white replacement theory” on his show and was instead discussing “voting rights” issues.
In Carlson’s propagation of the replacement theory, he has shied away from explicitly mentioning Jews while still using antisemitic dog whistles that are recognizable to most. “George Soros is a billionaire currency trader who has spent decades waging…a demographic war on the West," he said during a January segment. Since 2017, Carlson has repeatedly sounded alarms about populations in the U.S. and Europe being replaced by an “invasion” of nonwhite immigrants and refugees, using his cable news perch to inject the talking point into mainstream conservatism.
As recently as 2017, white-genocide claims were mostly espoused by self-avowed white supremacists, such as attendees of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville who chanted “you will not replace us” and “Jews will not replace us.” Some Republicans, like former Iowa representative Steve King, had expressed racist views, though he was eventually disciplined by the party. But these days, claims that Americans are being “replaced” are a fixture in Republican politics.
Representative Matt Gaetz praised has Carlson’s commentary on the subject, tweeting in September that the host “is CORRECT about Replacement Theory as he explains what is happening to America.” During a Fox Business interview last month, Senator Ron Johnson, who is running this year for reelection in Wisconsin, said, “This administration wants complete open borders. And you have to ask yourself, why? Is it really [that] they want to remake the demographics of America to ensure…that they stay in power forever?”
And Ohio Senate nominee J.D. Vance, a Peter Thiel acolyte, has recently aired an ad claiming that Joe Biden has opened the U.S.–Mexico border to ensure that “more Democrat voters pouring into this country.” Vance harped on this claim during a town hall last month. “You’re talking about a shift in the democratic makeup of this country that would mean we never win, meaning Republicans would never win a national election in this country ever again,” Vance told a crowd of supporters, as Vice News recently noted.
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On Carlson’s show, in March, Vance warned of an “invasion” of America. “Democrat politicians who have decided that they can’t win reelection in 2022 unless they bring in a large number of new voters to replace the voters that are already here. We have an invasion in this country because very powerful people get richer and more powerful because of it. It’s not bad policy, it’s evil and we need to call it that.”
To which Carlson responded, “I couldn’t agree with you more.”
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The Alleged Buffalo Shooter Wrote About Replacement Theory. You Can Also Hear It on Tucker Carlson’s Show - Vanity Fair
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