Fox News host Elizabeth Hasselbeck drew the outrage of progressives on the morning show "Fox and Friends" this week when she questioned why Black Lives Matter has not been labeled as a "hate group."

She expressed disgust at the chants of "pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon" by Black Lives Matter activists at the Minnesota State Fair.

"How much more has to go in this direction before someone actually labels it as such?" she asked.

Now, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, a civil-rights leader, WND columnist and author of the new book "The Antidote" is willing to do just that.

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"Without a doubt, Black Lives Matter is a hate group," Peterson told WND. "If a white group was encouraging violence and targeting police, they would be rightfully labeled a 'hate group' by the mainstream media and by far-left groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center and People For the American Way."

Black Lives Matter is coming under increasing pressure for its harsh attitude toward law enforcement at a time when violent acts against police seem to be increasing.

Black Lives Matter activist Trahern Crews tried to play off the "fry them like bacon" chants as a "playful" joke in an interview with MSNBC's Chris Hayes.

But the protest came only a few hours after Deputy Darren Goforth was shot "execution style" at a suburban Houston gas station.

Goforth's murder was also preceded by inflammatory rhetoric, as armed members of the New Black Panther Party marched on a Texas jail to issue a call to "off the pigs" only days before.

Since Goforth's murder, graffiti showing a handgun pointing at a police officer's head is being displayed near Houston, ominously close to where he was killed.

And another police officer, Lt. Joe Gliniewicz of Fox Lake, Illinois, was found shot to death Tuesday morning, the latest law enforcement officer to become a murder victim this year.

A recent poll finds a majority of voters believe there is a "war" on police officers and that comments by politicians critical of law enforcement are making it more difficult for cops to do their job.

Peterson blames much of the violence on Black Lives Matter itself. And he has harsh words for Democratic politicians who have been looking to appeal to the group.

"Black Lives Matter is not a mainstream group, and no legitimate political party should be associated with them," he said. "If a party is known to be affiliated with Black Lives Matter, that group should be shunned for associating with a group that is akin to the KKK and the skinheads."

The Democratic National Committee recently endorsed the Black Lives Matter movement, but BLM refused to endorse the Democrats in return, insisting that "true change requires real struggle … led by the people, not a political party."

Individual Democrat candidates have also been tripped up in trying to appeal to the group.

Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley backed away from using the phrase "all lives matter" after criticism. Black Lives Matter considers the phrase "all lives matter" to be "violent."

Candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have also had run-ins with Black Lives Matter activists disrupting their events. Sanders was even forced off the stage at one of his own rallies. In response, Sanders unveiled a new "racial justice platform" to try to appeal to the movement.

Instead of moving closer to them, Peterson says Democratic candidates should have "repudiated" Black Lives Matter and taken a hard line with activists who interrupt campaign events.

"They should have had Black Lives Matter members escorted out like Donald Trump had Jorge Ramos removed for trying to disrupt his campaign event. Hillary, Sanders, and others are trying to appease Black Lives Matter and it will only encourage these people. Weakness brings out the worst in them."

Jack Cashill, a WND columnist and the author of "Scarlet Letters: The Ever-Increasing Intolerance of the Cult of Liberalism," also believes Sanders and other Democrats should have taken a lesson from Trump.

"Donald Trump has put all candidates on notice, Democrats included, that Americans respect candidates who do not cringe in the face of minority pressure," Cashill told WND. "The Houston cop-shooting further reduces the power of the Black Lives Matter crowd to intimidate. Bernie Sanders may be the last candidate to get the memo, but the BLM's moment in the sun has passed."

Cashill argues the Black Lives Matter group showed its true colors when it took offensive to the phrase "All Lives Matter."

"By its very title, and certainly by its claim to exclusivity as to whose lives matter, Black Lives Matters would qualify as a racist outfit by just about any standard," Cashill said. "As to 'hate,' though, that is incidental to its larger goal of subverting the capitalist order."

Larry Elder, a WND columnist, talk radio host and author of "Dear Father, Dear Son," also sees the politics of resentment in the tactics of Black Lives Matter and thinks it is inevitable that Democrats will form an alliance with the group.

"Democrats require blacks to believe they are victims of oppression – and that they are oppression fighters," explains Elder. "It's standard operating procedure.

"But this has real consequences. The police have become more passive, as a result crime is going up in places like New York, Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey. And, year-to-year, shootings against the police have gone up. The gunman who ambushed NYPD officers Liu and Ramos in New York a few months ago posted on Facebook a statement about his anger over Ferguson."

Elder is also not surprised at how the Democrats have acquiesced to the Black Lives Matter movement.

"They're Democrats," he laughs. "They do what Democrats do – feed the narrative, placate the 'downtrodden' and 'feel their pain.'"

Colin Flaherty has been tracking racial violence in America for several years. He chronicled his findings in "White Girl Bleed A Lot: The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore It."

He said Black Lives Matters "promotes racial hostility, racial resentment, and racial violence," and slams the Democrats for "actively supporting this racial division."

"I am convinced many people are not aware of how close they are and how much racial hostility there is," said Flaherty. "But these activists represent a major chunk of the Democrat coalition. So the Democrats did the only thing they thought they could do. They coddled them and pretended they are not really all about racial hostility."

Flaherty believes Black Lives Matter’s rhetoric goes far beyond "inappropriate" and amounts to incitement of violence. But he blames the Republicans for not forcefully condemning the movement.

"I have no idea where the GOP is on all of this. I have no idea. But I do know this – the Democrat record in the big urban area where black people live is just about as dismal as it gets. I have no idea why no one is calling them on it, other than cowardice."

Peterson thinks there will be more violence enabled by Black Lives Matter as long as the Republicans are unwilling to confront this "evil group that is undermining law and order." And he warns the worst may be yet to come until the group is stopped.

"Black Lives Matter have used hateful, mean-spirited, inflammatory and dangerous rhetoric against police. I haven't seen such hate since the New Black Panther Party started going after whites several years ago.

"They're putting the lives of police officers at risk by encouraging other angry people to hate the police and target them. This is an evil group."