CNN New Day Blasts Tucker Carlson’s ‘Flat Out Racist Comment’ on Ilhan Omar: ‘Garbage’

 

CNN’s New Day is not the sort of cable news program that spends a lot of energy criticizing its competitors, but on Wednesday morning an exception was made so the panel assembled could react to Fox News host Tucker Carlson and his claim that Rep. Ilhan Omar is proof that current immigration policy has “become dangerous for the U.S.”

Anchor John Berman introduced the segment from Tuesday night’s Fox News program as “something remarkable” that happened, before noting that Carlson “flat out said that a sitting member of the U.S. Congress should never have been allowed in the United States.”

Carlson called out Omar, who came immigrated to the United States as a child seeking refuge from war-torn Somalia with her family, in a segment Tuesday night. She was elected to Congress last fall and has made a series of provocative political statements that have led to significant criticism from conservatives, many of whom have alleged  Omar’s comments to be anti-Semitic in nature.

CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota, a former colleague of Tucker’s at Fox News, recalled how a group of protestors unhappy with his rhetoric recently banged on the door of his private home while his wife was inside, before saying that Carlson “knows how dangerous it is. When you rile people up, it gets dangerous.”

New Day regular John Avlon followed by noting the “game” that Carlson was playing by first lauding the American experiment and assimilation and the story of Ilhan Omar before noting “but she hates America.” He then noted what he saw as “racial animus that appears to be there” in demonizing Omar and also Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a frequent target of conservative media criticism.

Berman followed by noting that this panel was giving “intellectual depth” to what many see as a “flat-out racist comment” of suggesting that people should not be allowed into the country, before turning to NY1 anchor, and CNN contributor Errol Louis, who compared the “racist garbage” of talk radio he grew up with to the commentary of Tucker Carlson.

Watch above via CNN.

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Colby Hall is the Founding Editor of Mediaite.com. He is also a Peabody Award-winning television producer of non-fiction narrative programming as well as a terrific dancer and preparer of grilled meats.