CNN's Audie Cornish cut off a Republican congressman after he deflected away from an antisemitism rift that's roiling the conservative movement.
Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) ripped former Fox News host Tucker Carlson as “the most dangerous antisemite in America" after he hosted Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes for an interview, and he then cut ties with the Heritage Foundation after its president, Kevin Roberts, defended the conservative broadcaster.
"Help us make sense of this," Cornish said. "I know you actually canceled an event with the Heritage Foundation over their support, those comments we heard earlier. But here's the thing. You had those leaked messages from national Young Republican leaders saying, 'I love Hitler,' joking about atrocities. I remember the appointee Paul Ingrassia had to withdraw after his own scandal, where he bragged about having a Nazi streak. Is Tucker the problem or is this systemic through the Republican Party?"
Fine insisted that wasn't the case and claimed that Democrats actually had a deeper problem with antisemitism in their ranks.
"Well, no," Fine said. "Thanks for having me this morning. It's not systemic, but we are having a fight that the Democrats refused to have a few years ago when antisemitism crept into their party and they refused to do anything about it, and look what they have become. What we have is issues in our party. It's a minority, but it's a loud minority, and it is a growing minority."
The "CNN This Morning" host cut off Fine at that point.
"Congressman, can I stop you here for a second?" Cornish said. "You have spoken so strongly on this, and honestly, it sounds like you're minimizing it when you say it this way. I mean, obviously, I understand what people have said about Democrats, especially in the light of the attack in Gaza on Israel, but this is so specific. These are the most high-profile voices on the right."
The GOP lawmaker disputed her assertion.
"No, I don't want to minimize it because it is a big deal, and Tucker Carlson has a huge platform," Fine said. "He was the dominant conservative voice for many years. I'm not minimizing it, but for example, I served with 219 Republicans in the Florida House – only two of them are antisemites. So it is small, but it is growing. That is the threat, not what it is today, but what it could be if we don't do something about it. So do not say that I'm minimizing the problem. I don't want to end up where the Democrats are, and that's where we will end up if we don't do something about it."
"So I am not minimizing the problem, I just don't think it is the overwhelming majority, and that's why the Heritage Foundation's decision was such a big deal, because they're one of the linchpins of the conservative movement, and for them to take the position that they did was so shocking," Fine added. "It showed the advance of this horrible ideology."
- YouTube youtu.be
