Defending “camel jockeys” slur, Coulter said: “We have sure moved away from the day when we called them Krauts and Nips”


On the October 1 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, during a discussion with right-wing pundit Ann Coulter, co-host Alan Colmes said, referring to a chapter in Coulter's new book, If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans (Crown Forum): "[Y]ou're quoted as saying, 'Maybe I'm winning the camel jockeys over,' " to which Coulter responded: “Yes ... That's actually in the book. That's not a made-up quote.” Colmes then asked: “So you have no problem referring to Arabs as camel jockeys?” Coulter responded: “Oh. Yeah. No. They killed 3,000 Americans. I'll be very careful with my language.” In response, Colmes said: "[W]hen you refer to an entire ethnicity as camel jockeys, it sounds bigoted," to which Coulter again asserted: “Yes, and it's so mean after they killed 3,000 Americans, and I shouldn't be mean to them,” adding, “We have sure moved away from the day when we called them Krauts and Nips.”

The description of Coulter's book by publisher Crown Forum states: “Now you can read all the quotes that have so outraged her enemies and so delighted her legions of fans. More than just the definitive collection of Coulterisms, If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans includes dozens of brand-new commentaries written by Coulter and hundreds of never-before-published quotations.”

Later in the segment, Coulter said that her “camel jockeys” comment “was a quote on [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad.” Colmes responded: “You were talking about camel jockeys. That's plural.” As Media Matters for America documented, Coulter did refer to Ahmadinejad as a “camel jockey” in her February 15, 2006, nationally syndicated column, but she also used the plural version of the phrase “camel jockey” in her book without referring to any individual.

From her February 15, 2006, column:

If you don't want to get shot by the police, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, then don't point a toy gun at them. Or, as I believe our motto should be after 9/11: Jihad monkey talks tough; jihad monkey takes the consequences. Sorry, I realize that's offensive. How about “camel jockey”? What? Now what'd I say? Boy, you tent merchants sure are touchy. Grow up, would you?

From If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans, in a passage recounting Coulter's attacks on former Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta and the criticism that ensued:

One curious thing about the ensuing outrage is that Hollywood Liberals denounced me faster than the Arabs did. Maybe I'm winning the camel jockeys over! After all, they get Christmas presents under my plan.

"'ANN COULTER'S RECENT ATTACK ON NORMAN MINETA IS DESPICABLE,' SAID PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY FOUNDATION PRESIDENT RALPH G. NEAS. 'IT IS OUTRAGEOUS TO SAY THAT THIS LONG-TIME PUBLIC SERVANT HATES AMERICA. BUT IT IS UNFORTUNATELY NOT SURPRISING, GIVEN COULTER'S HISTORY OF SIMILARLY RABID COMMENTARY,'" - Statement, People For the American Way Foundation, March 1, 2002. [Page 10]

As Media Matters for America has documented, Coulter has a history of making disparaging comments toward Arabs and Muslims:

  • In a November 30, 2006, syndicated column about the removal of six imams from an airplane in Minnesota after other passengers saw them praying prior to boarding, Coulter claimed that “profiling Muslims is more like profiling the Klan” than it is like profiling African-Americans, “because of the history of discrimination against blacks in this country.” Coulter added: “What did we do to the Arabs? I believe Americans are the victims in that relationship.”
  • In her February 8, 2006, column, Coulter suggested that Islam is “a car-burning cult,” and wrote that Muslims have “a predilection for violence.” Coulter was commenting on the rash of violence linked to cartoons in European newspapers that satirized the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.
  • After lauding the elections in Iraq as “one of the grandest events in the history of the world” in her February 3 column, Coulter cited reports of Iraqis celebrating in the streets on Election Day and added parenthetically: “Isn't it great to see Muslims celebrating something other than the slaughter of Americans?”
  • On September 12, 2001, responding to the September 11 attacks, Coulter wrote of Muslims in the National Review: “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.” She was later fired from the conservative National Review Online as a result of those comments. In her book, How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter (Crown Forum, October 2004), Coulter wrote: “I am often asked if I still think we should invade [Muslim] countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity. The answer is: Now more than ever!”

As Media Matters also noted, Coulter's latest book was released on October 2. Following her appearance on the October 1 edition of Hannity & Colmes, Coulter also appeared on the October 2 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends and the October 2 edition of NBC's Today.

From the October 1 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:

COLMES: You talk about the Norman Mineta controversy in your book, and how you were criticized for things you said about him, about there being internment camps, and claiming he was whining about it. In the ensuing outrage, you say, “Liberals denounced her [sic: me] faster than Arabs did.” Then you're quoted as saying, “Maybe I'm winning the camel jockeys over.”

COULTER: Yes.

COLMES: So you have no problem referring to --

COULTER: That's actually in the book. That's not a made-up quote.

COLMES: That's why I'm talking to you about it. So you have no problem referring to Arabs as camel jockeys?

COULTER: Oh. Yeah. No. they killed 3,000 Americans. I'll be very careful with my language.

COLMES: Wait a minute. All Arabs? All Arabs killed 3,000 Americans?

COULTER: The point is, they were a little slower to attack me for that than the Jews were.

COLMES: All right, but when you refer to an entire ethnicity as camel jockeys, it sounds bigoted.

COULTER: Yes, and it's so mean after they killed 3,000 Americans, and I shouldn't be mean to them.

COLMES: But “they” were not all Arabs.

COULTER: We have sure moved away from the day when we called them Krauts and Nips.

COLMES: You're very proud of yourself, aren't you?

COULTER: No, I'm making a point. We're at war. And what liberals are concerned about is what language we're using --

COLMES: You know what? Wait a minute --

COULTER: -- to describe the enemy.

COLMES: You make your living on language. Language is very important. And, in fact, if you're going to try to prosecute a war or if you're going to try to win a war, you don't win it by using nasty language towards your opponent or calling everybody who's an Arab or everyone who's a German

COULTER: You don't win it by whining, when that is a quote about Ahmadinejad. That was a quote on Ahmadinejad.

COLMES: You were talking about camel jockeys. That's plural.

COULTER: And what they're worried about is language being used toward him. And you pretend you're just worried about the language, but as we know from last week, you weren't just worried about the language. Columbia University invites Ahmadinejad to speak there. He is an honored guest there. I'm not. The Minutemen are not.

COLMES: The Minutemen were invited there.

COULTER: This isn't just a question of language. You use language to change the substance of what people are talking about.

COLMES: No, I'm quoting your language, as you pointed out.

SEAN HANNITY (co-host): I want to talk about -- the band is back together. You've got George Soros funding John Podesta's group, Think Progress, which is attacking the structural imbalance of talk radio. You've got George Soros funding MoveOn.org, George Soros funding Harold Ickes in Americans Coming Together. We need Media Matters to open up their books.

But all these groups are now designed to hurt people like you. They have this phony battle and total mischaracterization of Rush Limbaugh's comments to hurt him. And it seems like they're trying to pick off one conservative after another.

COULTER: Right.

HANNITY: It's all the Clinton machine, to prepare for her run and hurt anybody that might be an opponent of hers.

COULTER: Right. I think the point of my book is -- I wouldn't be too worried if I were a conservative - oh wait, I am a conservative -- because, I mean, that is the cure you sang about, the first chapter of my book. You go through these 10 years of defamation campaigns against me, taking something I've said or making up something entirely that I never did say, twisting it, changing it, becoming hysterical, leading the news with it. And in every one of the battles, you don't even know --

HANNITY: But isn't the goal --

COULTER: Wait, but not only am I still here, but everyone I went up against has a reputation that has not gone up since that fight.