Schumer calls on FOX to ‘stop promoting’ replacement theory, rejects Tucker Carlson’s invite to debate

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer rejected an offer on Tuesday to appear on Tucker Carlson’s show to debate Carlson and Fox News’ promotion of the “replacement theory” in the wake of the mass shooting in Buffalo, which is being investigated as a hate crime.

Schumer on Tuesday sent a letter to Fox’s corporate executives demanding they “immediately cease all dissemination of false white nationalist, far-right conspiracy theories on your network.” The Democrat said he refused to appear on Carlson’s primetime program because the far-right Fox host has repeatedly pushed elements of the racist conspiracy theory claiming white voters are being replaced by immigrants.

“@TuckerCarlson invited me on his show tonight to debate the letter I sent to @FoxNews. I’m declining,” Schumer wrote on Twitter. “Tucker Carlson needs to stop promoting the racist, dangerous ‘Replacement Theory.’”

“I urge you to take into consideration the very real impacts of the dangerous rhetoric being broadcast on your network on a nightly basis,” Schumer wrote in the letter.

Schumer also said that Fox News and Carlson share some portion of blame for a series of mass shootings in recent years, including the shooting in Buffalo.

“I urge you to take into consideration the very real impacts of the dangerous rhetoric being broadcast on your network on a nightly basis,” Schumer wrote. “In 2018, a white man who killed 11 worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue blamed Jews for allowing immigrant ‘invaders’ into the United States. In 2019, a white man who expressed anger over ‘the Hispanic invasion of Texas’ killed 23 people at an El Paso Walmart and later told police he sought to kill Mexicans.”

Carlson responded to a request for comment on Monday. “What he wrote does not add up to a manifesto,” Carlson said of the shooter’s alleged statement, adding that he condemns racism. “It is not a blueprint for a new extremist political movement, much less the inspiration for racist revolution. Anyone who claims that it is lying or hasn’t read it.”