Washington, DC- As white nationalist and racist rhetoric continues to weave its way through the Republican Party, more observers are highlighting the intersection between Republicans’ amplification of the “invasion” and “replacement” conspiracies and real world incidents of white nationalist terrorism – including in El Paso, where the white nationalist shooter yesterday pled guilty. Key voices weighing in include:
- An Associated Press wire story, “Texas man pleads guilty in racist 2019 Walmart attack” covered the El Paso shooter’s guilty plea and highlighted the persistent Republican use of “invasion” and “replacement” talking points : “America’s Voice, an immigration reform group, said it tracked more than 80 Republican candidates during last year’s midterm elections who amplified what they called ‘invasion’ and ‘replacement’ conspiracies. ‘I think it’s been creeping over the years,’ said Zachary Mueller, political director of America’s Voice. ‘What I would say is that in 2021, there was a marked shift where it went from the fringes of the Republican Party into the mainstream of the Republican Party.’”
- Al Jazeera also covered the shooter’s guilty plea in “Suspect in Texas anti-immigrant shooting changes plea to guilty” noting: “Ahead of Wednesday’s plea change, the immigration reform group America’s Voice took to Twitter to draw parallels between the attack in El Paso and rhetoric in the Republican Party, accusing party leaders of spreading the conspiracy theories that Crusius allegedly espoused. ‘The House GOP has used two hearings to firmly anchor ‘invasion’ and ‘replacement’ conspiracies in Congress as part of their relentless political focus on immigrants as a threat to America,’ Vanessa Cardenas, the executive director of America’s Voice, said in a post.”
- Rolling Stone wrote, “Paul Gosar Worries Immigrants Will Change ’Our Culture’” noting: “Gosar’s gripe is a version of the ‘great replacement’ theory, a white supremacist conspiracy holding that white people in the United States are being systematically replaced by minorities. The theory has, in various forms, become popular across conservative media and within the Republican caucus in recent years. Tucker Carlson of Fox News is certainly no stranger to it. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the third-ranking Republican in the House, pushed it last May.”
- In “Partisan rift widens on immigration policy, as seen in two House hearings,” The Hill reported on Rep. Jamie Raskin’s (D-MD) impassioned condemnation of dangerous GOP conspiracies: “‘The extreme MAGA forces in the Republican Party have chosen to abandon the pro-immigration stance of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan and instead spread fear about a ‘foreign invasion,’ paranoia about the racist and antisemitic ‘Great Replacement’ mythology, and disinformation about fentanyl — the vast majority of which is brought into our country by American smugglers working for the international drug cartels and traveling through lawful ports of entry,’”
As America’s Voice wrote yesterday in our statement House Oversight Dems Tweet America’s Voice’s Info on GOP Embrace of White Nationalist Conspiracy Theories – And GOP Doesn’t Like It One Bit: “[The House Oversight Committee] hearing illustrated how far Republicans have moved in the direction of explicitly embracing white nationalist talking points about ‘replacement’ and ‘invasion,’ which have been the centerpiece of the racist screeds used to justify mass murder in El Paso, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Poway and are embraced by elements of the far-right, including those who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Republicans have refused to denounce these conspiracies and during the hearing, amplified them.”
