Fox & Friends guest pushes anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that motivated Tree of Life synagogue shooter

Michelle Malkin fearmongers about "global financiers" like George Soros who are funding undocumented immigration

On September 9, a Fox & Friends guest pushed the same anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that motivated the Tree of Life shooter to kill 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

On Monday morning, the Fox & Friends co-hosts welcomed right-wing writer Michelle Malkin, who argued that “global financiers” are “colluding to undermine American sovereignty” by “sabotaging our will when it comes to enforcing strictly immigration law.” Malkin posited that tax-exempt, nonprofit charities funded by the likes of Democratic donor George Soros, along with institutions like the United Nations, are funneling “hard-earned, tax-paying American citizens’ money to fund these illegal alien groups.” Malkin called for congressional investigations into “left-wing groups” that “have been lobbying for illegal alien amnesty” to “secure a permanent ruling majority” for the Democratic Party.

Malkin pushed a dangerous, anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that various right-wing media figures have previously peddled on Fox News. Before carrying out the attack, the Tree of Life synagogue shooter wrote an online post blaming Jewish people in the U.S. “for bringing in an invasion of nonwhite immigrants.” Like Malkin, the shooter worried about George Soros’ influence -- a common anti-Semitic trope -- on undocumented immigration at the U.S. southern border, and he expressed paranoia that the United Nations was seeking to undermine the United States.

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Citation From the September 9 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends 

BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): So we're trying to find out what's going on at our border, and people say "well, the poverty in the triangle countries."

MICHELLE MALKIN (AUTHOR): Yeah.

KILMEADE: You think it's something else?

MALKIN: Well, there are global financiers that are spread not just here in America, but everywhere from the United Nations to the Vatican --

STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Who are they? 

MALKIN: -- to Central America. 

DOOCY: Who are these financiers?

MALKIN: I name all of them in the book. And, you know, what's fueled me over the last year to put together nearly 500 pages with 1,600 footnotes and multiple appendices is, everyone asks, who is it? Where is it coming from? And the first half of the book talks about all of the foreign enemies that are colluding to undermine American sovereignty. And then of course all the domestic forces within the United States who are sabotaging our will when it comes to enforcing strictly immigration law. And all of these forces are the same forces that are aligned in the anti-Trump resistance. And boy, is our president up against a lot. Because, as I've always exposed in all of my work dating back to Invasion from 2002, it's both ideological parts of the spectrum. It would be one thing if it was just so easy to say --

DOOCY: What do you mean both?

MALKIN: It would be one thing if it was easy to just say it's George Soros, and there's a whole entire chapter there about him supporting, what I call, the illegal alien lawyers lobby. You know everybody hears, and you've covered the stories, of all these people come out of the woodworks to support illegal alien right over the right of citizens.

KILMEADE: And who's paying them?

MALKIN: Well, it's not just Soros. The problem is that in so many cases, these are tax-exempt, non-profit charities. Everybody is talking about Maryland, right? I am a refugee from Montgomery County, Maryland. And Montgomery County and Baltimore County for years have been infested by Soros-funded groups. But they're also tax-exempt groups that we fund. And I think it's so key people that understand the billions of dollars that are being funneled of hard-earned, tax-paying American citizens' money to fund these illegal alien groups that turn around and sue us because they're not getting tax subsidized abortions or employment benefits.

AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): It's baffling when you look at statistics and you see who's being arrested. Recently in Baltimore County, there were seven people arrested, they were allegedly part of a gang. Six of the seven here illegally from El Salvador, and one was from Mexico.

MALKIN: Right.

EARHARDT: And they were arrested for attacking someone, killing someone with a knife, with several knives, from a rival gang. This is who is in our country, and this is who the president wants to stop. It's not the mom and dad trying to have a better life for their kid. He just is saying, in my opinion, let's do it the right way. These are the people he is trying to avoid coming into our country.

MALKIN: So we need to shut off all the magnets. And we need to start targeting those groups that have been undermining the laws in places likes Montgomery County and Baltimore County. 

DOOCY: Can you name the group?

MALKIN: Casa de Maryland, which in 2016, 2017 alone received almost $400,000 from George Soros' Open Society Institute, but also which is a tax-exempt, quote unquote, “charities.” What you have are basically human smugglers and human traffickers that pose as charities. And they go around and undermine the support for the men and women who put their lives on the line to enforce the law. Where do you think this abolish ICE movement comes from? It's funded by all of these left-wing groups, which for the last 30 to 40 years have been lobbying for illegal alien amnesty. Why? Because they believe that it's going to result, and many of them say it explicitly now, you've got all these Democratic presidential candidates who understand that what their goal is, is not just to undermine the borders and block President Trump, but to secure a permanent ruling majority.

DOOCY: But Michelle, if they get a tax benefit, it's because they have been able to justify look, we're a charity because of this?

MALKIN: Well, I would like for Congress to start investigating many of these groups. What you have in Europe now is an understanding, particularly in Italy, of these non-governmental organizations which collude with human smugglers. They make billions of dollars in profit. And I think, in particular, there should be criminal prosecutions for groups like the one in Aurora, Colorado, that laid siege to the ICE detention facility there. You saw it in July. The pictures and video were all over Fox News. They yanked the American flag down. They raised the Mexican flag. And they put a defaced Blue Lives Matter flag. That is criminal trespassing, and there hasn't been a single prosecution.

DOOCY: That was by a group that was a charity?

MALKIN: Yes. All of these groups, they lay there in wait for events like this. And you know what I did on Labor Day? I had a Stand with ICE rally, and 200 patriots from Colorado came out on their day off to do something that nobody else had done, which is to show public support for men and women. They're being doxxed. There are professors in universities that are sponsored like, companies like Microsoft, I even asked the Microsoft employee -- it’s in the book -- well, do you support the doxxing of federal employees? Because one of these Microsoft professors had done that, right here in New York City. And they didn't even bother to come up with an answer. They said, well, we can't get back to you on that. We have to hold these companies as accountable as we do as left-wing groups.

KILMEADE: So the president started getting on top of that. There's 55,000, which is still ridiculous, they came through, apprehensions. We don't know who we missed as opposed to 144,000. The president has said to heck with Congress, I'm going to do everything on my own.

MALKIN: Yes, and he's had to unilaterally. And he has, of course, plenary powers to do so, so he should do so. Another thing that I think is very important though, is not just the southern border. It's comprehensive. And what we had last Friday was hysteria from The New York Times, bashing our president because he's rethinking the entire refugee resettlement racket. This is part of the U.N. agenda. And under Obama, those numbers exploded to close to 100,000 people that we were bringing in with very little vetting. And today I'm breaking a story on 60 refugee jihadis that we've let in that came here to stab, plot, and bomb Americans under the guise of compassion. And only somebody like President Trump has had the courage to say, you know what? We need to freeze that. That's the proposal on the table this week. And again, who's paying for this? Guess what? You and me. 

 

The Fox appearance comes a day after Malkin promoted her book on Facebook live alongside far-right Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes. During the video, Malkin complained about charges of anti-Semitism surrounding complaints against Soros. The two denied that Soros was even Jewish, with Malkin agreeing with McInnes who said that Soros is “an atheist who hates religion.” She also agreed with McInnes when claimed that Soros is “not a Holocaust survivor, he’s a Holocaust facilitator” -- which is a common far-right lie.

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Citation From a September 8 video posted to Michelle Malkin's Facebook page

MICHELLE MALKIN: The number one thing that people should do is stop giving money to these organizations that are destroying us. Very simple. And of course, you can't know that, in so many ways, because it has become forbidden, for example, to talk about Soros connections now.

“Anti-Semitism, Anti-Semitism"

Really, I can't talk about what I saw on IRS forms?

GAVIN MCINNES: How is it Semitism, when his father is an atheist who hates religion and he's an atheist who hates religion? How are you Jewish then? I don't understand the whole --

MALKIN: Yeah.

MCINNES -- anti-Semitism thing.

MALKIN: Yes.

MCINNES: And by the way, if you are worried about anti-Semitism, you should maybe focus on the guy who worked with the Nazis.

MALKIN: That would be a good start.

MCINNES: He's not a Holocaust survivor, he's a Holocaust facilitator.

MALKIN: Yes.