On Tuesday's CNN Tonight, host Don Lemon and CNN terrorism analyst Juliette Kayyem suggested that Fox News was to blame for right-wing terrorism in the U.S., and that it gives a platform to racism, as the two discussed reports that such violence is a bigger problem in the U.S. than terrorism from other sources.
After the Washington Post's Wes Lowery warned that violence could be inspired by President Donald Trump's recent attacks on the "Squad" members of Congress, host Lemon then commented that "it's amplified on Fox News" before recalling reports that domestic terrorist and would-be bomber Cesar Sayoc had a history of watching Fox News Channel. Lemon declared: "So the folks over there are repeating these racist, nationalist tropes. How dangerous is that?"
Kayyem suggested that President Donald Trump needs to "shame" people on Fox News to prevent them from stoking terrorism: "The challenge for law enforcement and Homeland Security right now is that the President does not set the tone that would minimize or -- what I like to say -- shame these people."
She soon added: "What I do hope from a President is you shame those people, right? In other words, they are not out there on Fox News saying the things that they're saying, that they were not emboldened by the leadership."
Kayyem continued:
And so when you ask this: How does radicalization happen? Some of it is social media, some of it is loneliness, derangement, whatever comes from the person themselves. But it's impossible to deny now that they tone -- the condoning -- the lack of shame from our leadership -- the lack of shame for having these opinions -- does not impact what (FBI director Christopher) Wray testified today which is obviously white supremacy is our biggest challenge.
Concluding the segment, Lemon returned to showing viewers a chart from earlier in the show which suggests that terrorist violence from right-wingers is a greater threat than from other sources, which manages to overlook the substantial amounts of violence committed by Americans who go on to register as Democrats after being released from prison.
