On Saturday's Smerconish show on CNN, host Michael Smerconish brought aboard Democratic activist and media darling Khizr Khan, the supposed hero from the 2016 Democrat convention, and gave him a nearly unchallenged forum to hint that the West, led by the United States, has helped create massive migration by people who are fleeing wars and climate change. He also tied defeating President Donald Trump in 2020 to thwarting the kind of white nationalism that led to the recent terrorist attack on a mosque in New Zealand.
Smerconish had invited Khan to discuss a caller from Smerconish's radio show who defended the sanity of the New Zealand mosque attacker: "He's absolutely not mentally ill. He made a conscious decision to say I am not going to allow my nation to be taken over by these Muslim invaders."
After playing clips of this caller, the CNN host brought aboard Khan: "You'll remember he is the father of the gold star U.S. Army captain Humayun Khan, killed in Iraq in 2004 and who made a memorable speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention waving the Constitution at President Trump." He also plugged his book.
Smerconish began by asking Khan how he might have better responded to the caller who connected white nationalism to "populism," it didn't take long for Khan to tie the "West" to the problems that are driving immigrants from their home countries:
MICHAEL SMERCONISH: What should I have said to this caller who wanted to speak about populism and tie it to his immigration concerns?
KHIZR KHAN: Well, fear of immigrants, let me add to that. At this moment, there are reportedly 70 million people in the pipeline of immigration from East to West. I would have asked him what is causing this immigration? Wars, destabilization where [the] West has its hands in those countries causing this immigration. Climate change is causing the immigration.
This half-baked thinking about immigration is nothing but hatred towards immigrants, hatred towards others. It's the same hate that caused the attack on Mother Emmanuel Church in South Carolina, killed the black Americans, then Tree of Life attack, then, of course, New Zealand attack and other attacks burning people's places of worship. Our condolences to all of the victims of this violence. Violence is no solution.At this moment, there are reportedly 70 million people in the pipeline of immigration from East to West. I would have asked him what is causing this immigration -- wars, destabilization where West has its hands in those countries causing this immigration. Climate change is causing the immigration.
Khan cited a letter he received that smeared everyone opposing illegal immigration with Nazism: "It was exactly [the] same circumstances, same rhetoric that caused the Second World War, the atrocities that were committed by these Nazis and neo-Nazis against the humanity. All decent people of America must continue to speak. All decent people of the world continue to speak against this hatred."
At the end of this long diatribe, he more directly tied in Trump supporters with white nationalism:
This menace in the West, in [the] United States, must be defeated at the ballot box. In [the] United States, it rose its ugly head in 2016 by the election of this most bigoted candidate then and now as President. It must be defeated at the ballot box and buried forever so that it never rises again. This is not the first time. It happened in the McCarthy era...
As Khan started bringing up McCarthyism, Smerconish finally jumped in to ask a follow-up question that did not challenge any of his guest's claims, as he merely asked about how to "distinguish" between populism and white nationalism. Khan disagreed, insisting in the wake of the mosque attacks, "we are using this moment, we are using this conversation to further our own agenda."
