Scott Perry links the KKK to the Democratic Party

U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R., Pa.) faces criticism after reportedly called the Ku Klux Klan the “military wing of the Democratic Party” during a closed-door briefing to lawmakers on Tuesday about anti-Semitism, according to CNN.

Perry also appears to be defending the so-called great replacement theory – the racist, white nationalist belief that white people are being intentionally replaced by minorities and immigrants in the United States and Europe, according to CNN. Perry added that migrants entering the country “have no interest in being Americans.”

Audio of comments Perry reportedly made during a briefing of members of the House Oversight Committee “The Origins and Implications of Rising Anti-Semitism in Higher Education” obtained for CNN.

Perry, an ally of former President Donald Trump and former leader of the House Freedom Caucus, is running for re-election in Pennsylvania’s 10th congressional district, which includes Dauphin County and parts of Cumberland and York counties. Democrat Janelle Stelson, a former local news anchor, is challenging him in the November general election.

Asked for comment on Wednesday about the leaked recording, Perry’s office issued a statement:

“Once again, the radical left is twisting the facts to silence discussion of their own crimes and Biden’s deliberate failures to enforce the law and close or regulate our borders,” Perry said. “My thesis has been proven once again: when the left loses an argument, it humiliates and slanders instead of engaging in substantive debate.”

According to a recording provided by CNN, Perry said: “The KKK today, many young people think it is a right-wing organization when it is the military wing of the Democratic Party. “Definitely and unashamedly racist and anti-Semitic.”

Although there was a KKK founded by Democrats in 1865 “has become an extralegal terrorist organization that has never been a wing of any political party,” said Matt Jordan, director of the News Literacy Initiative at Pennsylvania State University, which helps students and citizens distinguish “sound journalism” from website, “noise that often overwhelms and divides us.”

Perry’s comments repeated debunked tropes

Perry’s statements echoed tropes about the KKK and replacement theory, which Jordan says constitute a “sticky narrative” – ​​widely circulated, debunked ideas that politicians exploit to gain media attention and anger their base.

According to CNN “The replacement theory is true,” Perry said. “They added white to it so no one would talk about it.”

While Perry said during the briefing that he welcomes people “who are here legally,” pointing to his ancestors who immigrated to the United States, The audio recording shows that he has a problem with “non-American” migrants.

“What’s happening now is that we’re importing people into the country who want to be in America… but they’re not interested in being Americans, and that’s a whole other thing, and to discredit the comments is to cool the conversation so that we can continue to tell more people , whom we have never met and who are not Americans,” Perry says in the recording.

Jordan said the Great Replacement Theory is “disinformation” with fascist overtones. “‘You are replacing white voters with brown-skinned immigrants to slander and corrupt the blood of our country’ – that’s what people think,” he added. “Tucker Carlson and others use it. It is used to great effect in the right-wing media echo system.”

And, Jordan said, “there is not a shred of evidence that undocumented migrants here can vote,” although Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson recently conveyed that promoted the bill to prevent foreigners from voting.

There was a briefing for legislators this week intended established to discuss the District of Columbia’s response to pro-Palestinian protests and encampments on college campuses. House Republicans were in favor they harass demonstrations and do so he tried According to CNN, unite against anti-Semitism.

Other recent comments from Scott Perry

Perry’s remarks this week weren’t the first controversial comments he’s made recently.

Last month at the conservative Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in Camp Hill, Perry mentioned transgender students in school locker rooms and said, “If you say anything about it, the FBI will probably consider you a domestic extremist.”

This is a common topic among conservatives. Penn State’s Jordan said that “amplifying anti-trans moral panic is a hallmark of far-right politicians around the world. The claim that the FBI will violate your First Amendment rights and put you on an extremist list is pure paranoid fantasy.

Perry also stated that the Biden administration wants to take away people’s gas stoves. It’s an misleading assessment of health and climate concerns about gas appliances, yet one that’s repeated over and over again on conservative radio stations, experts say.

When Perry repeats these tired culture war lines, he’s trying to exploit moral panic to fire up conservative Republicans enough to make sure they vote, Jordan said.

“This is when the strategic use of disinformation becomes disinformation,” Jordan said. “Rhetoric is used to consciously deceive people.”