Raul A. Reyes is an attorney and member of the USA Today board of contributors. Follow him on Twitter @RaulAReyes. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author. View more opinions on CNN.

(CNN) When in doubt, blame brown people. That's what one leading voice on the right is doing in response to the fallout over President Donald Trump's disastrous summit with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland.

In an interview with "The Five," Fox News host Tucker Carlson said that Russia had sought to meddle in US affairs. But he asserted that other countries, such as Mexico, have been more successful in doing so. "I don't think Russia is our close friend or anything like that. I think of course they try to interfere in our affairs. They have for a long time. Many countries do. Some more successfully than Russia, like Mexico, which is routinely interfering in our elections by packing our electorate."

Nice try. This is Carlson's attempt to deflect attention from the national outrage over Trump casting doubt on the US intelligence community's determination that Russia meddled in our 2016 election.

Like him or not, Carlson is an extremely influential conservative. As the host of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" in Fox's prime-time lineup (a show on which I have appeared ), he regularly rails against undocumented immigrants and sanctuary cities. He has been a strong supporter of Trump's hard-line immigration policies.

That this brand of racism is still alive and well speaks volumes about the state of conservative thought in the age of Trump. American citizens of Hispanic descent who are voting are participating in democracy. And for the record, there is no evidence to support Carlson's claims.