As a swelling Central American migrant caravan heads for the U.S., Max Boot bashed the right wing media’s coverage of the story, accusing it of manipulating the narrative with political rhetoric designed to appeal to Donald Trump‘s base.

“It is demagoguery,” the told CNN’s Brian Stelter during a Reliable Sources interview Sunday. “It is also, I believe, racism and nativism really pandering to the fears of Trump supporters and Fox News viewers who tend to be older white males who are alarmed about the supposed invasion of dark-skinned newcomers coming to America.”

Boot, a columnist and CNN global affairs analyst, expressed frustration at the rebranding of the GOP under the current administration, recalling the old days when Republicans held values vastly different from those of the president.

“It was a conservative party with a white nationalist fringe, and under the impact of Fox News and Donald Trump, it has transformed essentially into a white nationalist party with a conservative fringe,” he said.

Troubled by the use of footage of crowds of migrants marching toward the U.S., Boot noted it was easy to frighten news consumers with imagery, taking aim at the commander in chief’s favorite outlet.

“If you just present the long shot and show the seething mob, you can get away with that kind of Fox News framing that these people are somehow a threat to us,” Boot told Stelter.

What was important to remember, he argued, was that the caravan “is not a massive army of illegal immigrants,” asserting that “these people are not even illegal immigrants — they are refugees who are seeking legal admission to the United States.”

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

[Image via screengrab]

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