Back in March, Breitbart News Editor in Chief Alex Marlow went on NBC’s Today show and claimed that “absolutely, without a doubt” the right–wing site once run by Trump adviser Steve Bannon has been unfairly demonized for its racist and xenophobic content. That caused some eyes to roll.
In case it needs to be pointed out again, Breitbart writer Katie McHugh is happy to oblige.
Following Saturday night’s terror attack in London, in which seven people died and 48 were injured, McHugh—author of articles such as, “Poll: 60 Percent of Trump Voters See Media as ‘Enemies’ to People Like Them,” “Survey: Nearly Half of White, Working Class Americans Say They ‘Feel Like a Stranger in Their Own Country,’” and “Reporters Attempt to Smear White House Over Illegal Alien Rape Accusations”—pinned this tweet to her feed:
Twitter commenters took care of annihilating McHugh’s raging xenophobic logic, including one U.S. military veteran who fired back, “Dude i served in both afghan and iraq wars and let me tell you this if it wasn’t for us the usa we wouldn’t have ppl wanting to kill us.”
But McHugh doubled down, ending an argument with Bones and Shameless actor Pej Vahdat, an Iranian American, by calling him “an Indian.” That particular comment seems to have been deleted, but CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy grabbed a screenshot:
A CNN story about the tweet, which Darcy said stirred controversy among Breitbart staff, points out that another writer, Ryan Saavedra, also chimed in with a now-deleted tweet saying, “People think I’m kidding when I say this but the crusades need to come back.”
Let’s go back to Marlow’s comments to NBC. “We are not a hate site,” he said at the start of the interview. While that statement is laughable, there may be some writers at Breitbart who wish it were true.
According to Darcy, McHugh’s tweet sparked ire among at least three Breitbart employees:
“I find it appalling,” one Breitbart employee told CNN.
“It’s a terrible comment,” another Breitbart employee told CNN, saying it was wrong to make a blanket statement about an entire religious group. “I would never write what she said.”
So what gives, Breitbart, do you or don’t you want to be a hate site?