22 hours ago
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Florida Sen. Rick Scott appeared on Fox Business Thursday, where he and host Maria Bartiromo teamed up to polish up an old Republican chestnut: anti-immigrant fearmongering.
"If they intentionally open the border and let drugs, criminals, and terrorists—how many Laken Rileys do we have to have before the Democrats finally say they're going to secure the border and protect all of us?" Scott asked Bartiromo, referring to the tragic murder of University of Georgia student Laken Riley.
Because she was killed by an undocumented man from Venezuela, Riley’s death has been exploited by conservatives to paint immigrants as murderers. Republican Rep. Nancy Mace even attempted to deflect questions about GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump's sexual assault liability by pivoting to Riley’s case.
“What's the motivation for having a wide open border for four years and allowing into this country potential terrorists that want to do us harm?” a wide-eyed Bartiromo asked Scott, who is running for reelection this November.
"Well, the only thing I can see is it helps them increase the census in states where they get more electoral votes,” Scott responded, offering up the bigoted “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory that white nationalists helped make a feature of the Republican Party’s platform.
“That’s unbelievable,” Bartiromo responded, as if this is the first time she’s hearing this xenophobic trope.
