The Lincoln Project is among those going after the promoters of the dangerous, extremist “great replacement” conspiracy theory that was among the inspirations for a white supremacist mass shooter who recently killed 10 at a Buffalo supermarket. The group shared remarks on the subject from President Joe Biden this Tuesday.
The so-called replacement theory asserts white Americans are being intentionally crowded out in the electorate and society by people from outside the country and with other backgrounds. There’s obviously no real-world evidence for some kind of widespread conspiracy to “replace” whites, but Fox’s Tucker Carlson has been among the most prominent right-wingers claiming some version of the theory to be true. “Hate will not prevail. We will call it what it is: White Supremacy. Domestic Terrorism. And although we mourn, our resolve to fight for a better America grows stronger,” The Lincoln Project said alongside footage of Biden speaking in Buffalo this Tuesday. Watch it below:
Hate will not prevail.
We will call it what it is: White Supremacy. Domestic Terrorism. And although we mourn, our resolve to fight for a better America grows stronger. pic.twitter.com/qI1vT3kCfI
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) May 17, 2022
“What happened here is simple and straightforward: terrorism,” Biden said in his original speech. “Terrorism. Domestic terrorism. Violence inflicted in the service of hate and the vicious thirst for power that defines one group of people being inherently inferior to any other group. A hate that, through the media and politics, the internet, has radicalized angry, alienated and lost individuals into falsely believing that they will be replaced. That’s the word. Replaced by the other. By people who don’t look like them. I and all of you reject the lie. I call on all Americans to reject the lie, and I condemn those who spread the lie for power, political gain and for profit.” Biden also cited a couple of specific possibilities for action. “I know tragedy will come again,” the president said, in part. “But there are certain things we can do. We can keep assault weapons off our streets… We can’t prevent people from being radicalized to violence, but we can address the relentless exploitation of the internet to recruit and mobilize terrorism.”
We have to refuse to live in a country where Black people grocery shopping can be gunned down by weapons of war deployed in a racist cause.
We have to refuse to live in a country where fear and lies are packaged for power and for profit.
— President Biden (@POTUS) May 17, 2022
Trump, of course, has been a prominent spreader of racist lies about imaginary threats posed by foreigners. After a 2019 incident in which a mass shooter inspired by racist rhetoric killed 23 at an El Paso Wal-Mart, Trump refused to disavow his “invasion” rhetoric about the supposedly dangerous influx of immigrants over the southern border, which he referred to by that term.
In America, evil will not win.
Hate will not prevail.
White supremacy will not have the last word.
— President Biden (@POTUS) May 17, 2022
