John Oliver hits a nerve: Fox hosts whine after HBO host debunks their anti-refugee paranoia

Fox News host Jesse Watters and his colleagues on The Five accused John Oliver on Tuesday of having no room to rip conservatives opposing an influx of Syrian refugees because he's English, Media Matters reported.

"I think Oliver should be thanking the Pilgrims, because without the Pilgrims bringing religious freedom here, we wouldn't be bringing in all of these Muslims, right? Right?" Watters said. "You know it's also funny, first the refugees, they compare them to orphans. Then the refugees are tourists, and now they're just little old Pilgrims. Why even vet them, they seem so safe?"

The segment began with a brief clip from Oliver's commentary on this week's episode of Last Week Tonight attacking GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee in particular for stirring up anti-refugee sentiment.

"Every generation has had its own ugly reaction to refugees, whether they are the Irish, the Vietnamese, the Cubans, or the Haitians," Oliver said at the time. "And those fears have been broadly unfounded. In fact, there was only one time in American history where the fear of refugees wiping everyone out did actually come true, and we'll all be sitting around a table celebrating it on Thursday."

While Watters argued that there was no proper way to vet the refugees, neither he nor his colleagues mentioned Oliver's statement -- backed up by data from the Migration Policy Institute -- that only three of the 784,000 refugees allowed into the country since the 9/11 attacks have been arrested in connection with planning terrorist activities.

"It is always interesting to listen to a condescending British person tell you about colonialism," co-host Dana Perino said. "The British were so much better at colonialism than the Pilgrims."

Watch the discussion, as posted by Media Matters, below.