Chuck Schumer urges Fox News to 'cease the reckless amplification' of racist 'Great Replacement' rhetoric

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has shared a deeply critical assessment of Fox News in wake of the disturbing mass shooting that took place over the weekend. In wake of the Buffalo, N.Y., shooting, Schumer penned a letter addressed to News Corp Chairman and Fox News owner, Rupert Murdoch.

The top-ranking Democratic lawmaker is urging Murdoch to incorporate boundaries when it comes to Fox News anchors' circulation of the disturbing "so-called ‘Great Replacement’ theory."

“I write to urge you to immediately cease the reckless amplification of the so-called ‘Great Replacement’ theory on your network’s broadcasts,” Schumer wrote to Murdoch.

Referencing the mass shooter's "manifesto," Schumer emphasized the intent of the massacre and why the shooter targeted the particular grocery store he did. A total of 10 Black victims were killed and another three were wounded as a result of the shooter's reckless actions.

Schumer wrote, “In a manifesto posted online, the individual responsible for this heinous murder wrote that the shoppers there came from a culture that sought to ‘ethnically replace my own people.'”

Schumer's letter came shortly after Carlson's first segment after the mass shooting. On Monday, May 16, Carlson appeared on his primetime broadcast where he attempted to deny that he'd personally spread information about the controversial and racist replacement theory. Carlson also tried to portray the document as if it were not politically aligned with either party. “The document is not recognizably left-wing or right-wing,” Carlson said Monday. “It’s not really political at all.”

In wake of Schumer's letter, a Fox News spokesperson pointed to one of Carlson's remarks during a previous segment while ignoring his other segments that did focus on the fearmongering replacement theory.

“There is only one answer to rising racial tension and that is to deescalate and do what we have done and tried to do for hundreds of years, which has work toward colorblind meritocracy, and treat people as human beings created by God, rather than as faceless members of interest groups that might benefit some political party or other,” Carlson said.

However, that has not changed Schumer's perspective. He also had blistering remarks for the network during his address from the Senate floor on Monday, May 16.

“In a craven quest for viewers and ratings, organizations like Fox News have spent years perfecting the craft of stoking cultural grievance and political resentment that eerily mirrors the messages found in replacement theory,” Schumer said.