Tucker Carlson doubles down on white supremacy 'hoax' claims

Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Wednesday doubled down on his false assertion that claims of rising white supremacist violence are a “hoax.”

“It's a diversion, Everyone hates each other and they get to keep their money. Pretty tricky. Unfortunately, it's also destroying the country. This is the path to civil war, obviously,” Carlson said on air Tuesday.

Carlson first made the remarks branding white supremacy a “hoax” on air Tuesday, in response to Saturday's mass shooting targeting Hispanics at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.

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Fox News host Tucker Carlson pledged on Wednesday that “the left won't silence us,” doubling down on his widely condemned and false assertion that white supremacy is a “hoax”

Carlson had first made the claim on his show Tuesday in the wake of a mass killing in El Paso, Texas, Saturday. Investigators believe the suspect in the shootings posted a manifesto online ahead of the attacks in which he declared he was acting to prevent an “Hispanic invasion.”

In a tweet Wednesday Carlson made no attempt to distance himself from his earlier claim, writing: “There's been a tremendous response to last night's show. The left wants to silence us. They won't.”

Tweet Embed: //twitter.com/mims/statuses/1159214149693575175？ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw There's been a tremendous response to last night's show. The left wants to silence us. They won't. Here's a portion of our response from tonight's show. Watch this video and watch #FoxNews at 8pm ET for more. pic.twitter.com/bMRdIeC33b

In a lengthy monologue at the start of his Wednesday night show, Carlson railed against those who he claimed had concocted the uproar as part of a leftist plot against working class Americans.

“The left is now telling you and demanding that you believe that anyone who supports Donald Trump is a white supremacist and must be destroyed,” Carlson claimed.

“And they're telling you this for political reasons. This is election season, obviously, and they want more political power.”

Read more: Fox News host Tucker Carlson claimed white supremacy is 'not a real problem in America.'

He continued: “Every minute you're worried about race is a minute where you are not thinking about class, which is the real divide in this country. Working class people of all colors have a lot more in common, infinitely more in common with each other than they do some overpaid MSNBC anchor.”

“So, they whip you into a frenzy of racial fear so that it never enters your mind,” Carlson added.

“It's a diversion, Everyone hates each other and they get to keep their money. Pretty tricky. Unfortunately, it's also destroying the country. This is the path to civil war, obviously.”

He then sent a message to “official Washington” and other cable news channels: “Please, for the sake of the nation, calm down.”

“This is not a white supremacist country plotting the slaughter of its own people,” he said. “It's a kind country full of decent people of all races who like all people everywhere make bad decisions from time to time. But they mean well and they generally try their best.”

At the end of the show, Carlson abruptly announced he was taking a few days off to go fishing with his son.

“Politics is important, fishing with your son, sometimes more important. So I'm doing it,” he said.

Fox News spokesperson told Business Insider that Carlson's vacation had been long planned, and pointed back to Carlson's closing remarks on his Wednesday show where he said that he would be returning on August 19.

Read more: The FBI has been accused of failing to take white nationalist terror seriously, ignoring warnings as long ago as 2009

Carlson's assertions are contradicted by evidence from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, which in an unclassified report in 2017 found white supremacists had killed more people than any other domestic extremist movement in the US.

In July testimony to Congress FBI director Christopher Wray said that most domestic terror cases in the US are motivated by “white supremacist violence.”