CNN’s Van Jones said Friday that he sees “zero difference” between Fox News host Laura Ingraham slamming “demographic changes” in the U.S. and the beliefs of white supremacists.
“I see zero difference between what Laura Ingraham is saying on mainstream cable and what the Nazi was saying in front of his house,” Jones said. “Literally, it’s the same message.”
“Those same themes that were once considered so extreme are now becoming mainstream, at least in conservative media,” he later added.
Ingraham faced backlash this week when she lamented that the “America we know and love doesn’t exist anymore” because of demographic changes in the country, which she blamed on illegal and legal immigration.
Jones played the clip from Ingraham’s show alongside a clip of an avowed neo-Nazi railing against the possibility of the U.S. becoming a majority-minority country.
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The man, wearing a swastika on his shirt and displaying a Nazi flag above his house, told a CNN reporter that we are “staring down the battle of the gun in white America.”
“This guy actually openly wears Swastikas on his shirt and he says America is his country because he’s white,” Jones said. “Now, to be fair, 12 of that guy’s neighbors came out immediately [and said] they don’t agree with this guy, he doesn’t represent them and their community.”
“And they deserve a round of applause,” Jones said.
Ingraham on Thursday disavowed white nationalists, including former Ku Klux Klan (KKK) leader David Duke, who praised her comments.
“A message to those who are distorting my views, including all white nationalists and especially one racist freak whose name I will not even mention: You do not have my support. You don’t represent my views and you are antithetical to the beliefs I hold dear,” Ingraham said.
She added that he commentary had nothing to do with race or ethnicity.
The Fox News host faced backlash for her comments including from other media personalities and Democrats such as Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.).
Jones’ CNN colleague, Chris Cuomo, issued a scathing message to Ingraham on Friday, suggesting the conservative host leave the country.