Conservatives and right-wing media are arguing that Democrats are pivoting to more left-wing positions on immigration as part of a "coup" to retake political power.

"They're going to tell you it's about civil rights or some principle they really care about — but they're lying. It's about seizing power and holding it," Fox News host Tucker Carlson said.

Critics are accusing Carlson and others of popularizing white nationalist talking points.

Conservatives and right-wing media are arguing that Democrats have embraced left-wing positions on immigration, including calling for the elimination of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as part of a "coup" to retake political power.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson accused Democrats of supporting higher levels of immigration as a way to change the demographics and "character" of the country and overthrow Republican control of American politics.

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"They're going to tell you it's about civil rights or some principle they really care about — but they're lying. It's about seizing power and holding it. That's their only aim and they're deadly serious about it," Carlson said during his Thursday evening show. "While you were grilling in the backyard last night, they were plotting, in effect, a coup."

Another prominent Fox host, Jeanine Pirro, also recently argued that Democrats are staging a "socialist coup" as part of a larger effort to "change our country at its very core."

A host of online critics accused Carlson of promoting a white nationalist ideology, which holds that a growing immigrant population threatens white Americans.

White nationalist rhetoric on Fox News from Tucker Carlson:



Democrats "are plotting, in effect, a coup" through immigration pic.twitter.com/7sh7IQFO83 — Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) July 6, 2018

I don’t expect the key players at Fox News to have moral compasses but I do wonder where they think racist incitement this explicit leads. there are Richard Spencer speeches that are less overt than this https://t.co/2pEYP7p8AG — Owen Ellickson (@onlxn) July 6, 2018

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