Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee wants a law to prevent white supremacy- inspired hate crimes. Fox News’ Tucker Carlson threw a fit over it.
Jackson Lee’s proposed bill, which she also introduced last summer, would “expand the scope” of hate crimes to include people whose white supremacist rhetoric can be directly linked to acts of violence. It would punish people who partake in a “conspiracy to engage in white supremacist hate crimes.” And it defines a conspiracy as crimes involving two or more people who “engaged in the planning, development, preparation, or perpetration of a white supremacy inspired hate crime,” or at least one of whom who did so and at least one other person who essentially published propaganda that might have evoked that criminal behavior.
In essence, someone who knowingly engages in white supremacist violence, or distributes white supremacist propaganda to violent people with the intent to spur them to commit violent crime, would be criminally liable under this law.
One might think a party purportedly opposed to violent crime would be all for this bill. Of course, we know that’s not the case.
In fact, some conservatives are openly decrying it, including — surprise, surprise — Tucker Carlson, a Fox News host who has pushed white nationalist conspiracy theories on air. During a segment on Tuesday, Carlson claimed Lee has spent her decadeslong career “shrieking about white racism,” before proceeding to show a reel of her speaking quite calmly (and factually) about the realities of racism in America.
Carlson went on to accuse Jackson Lee and other Democrats who oppose white supremacy of “blood libel,” a phrase widely acknowledged for its antisemitic connotation.