Chris Cuomo to Ingraham: If you don’t like what America is, then leave

CNN’s Chris Cuomo tore into Fox News’s Laura Ingraham after she said the country she loves doesn’t exist anymore due to “demographic changes.” Cuomo on Thursday night suggested the conservative host “leave” the country.

“To turn a phrase back on our us-versus-them friends — if you don’t like what America is, you leave,” Cuomo said on his show “Prime Time.”

“America does not need to become great again,” he added, referencing President Trump’s campaign slogan. “She will only become greater by being more of what she already is.”

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Cuomo’s remarks came a day after Ingraham said that the “America we know and love doesn’t exist anymore” because of demographic changes that she blamed on illegal and legal immigration.

Ingraham also clarified her position on her show Thursday night, saying her “commentary had nothing to do with race or ethnicity,” but she continued to receive criticism. 

“Ingraham talks of changes that none of us ever voted for and most of us don’t like. Wrong,” Cuomo said on his show, before launching into an argument against her comments.

He cited a Gallup poll from early June which found that 84 percent of people thought that legal immigration was a good thing for the U.S., compared to 13 percent who said it was a bad thing.

“You know what? That number should be higher. And you know who agrees with me? Trump’s in-laws,” he continued.

First lady Melania Trump’s parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs of Slovenia, became U.S. citizens this week with help from their daughter.

“The first lady sponsored her parents. Good for her,” Cuomo said Thursday. “That’s a practice that critics, including her husband, call ‘chain migration’ — something he tweeted less than a year ago ‘must end now.’”

Cuomo also pointed out that Trump’s own mother and the mothers of his children, including the first lady and ex-wife Ivana Trump, are also immigrants. 

“This is objectively ugly, and I will be damned if I’m going to just listen to the idea that people like my grandparents and waves of people like them — millions in this country — are going to be discounted as some abhorrent aspect of a pure place,” he said.

Illegal entry is a problem that must be mitigated, Cuomo added, calling for more secure borders.

But critics of immigration like Ingraham and Trump, are saying the “people are the problem, not just the entry,” Cuomo said.

“This is a land founded, funded, fabricated and fought for by others. And that’s America at her best,” Cuomo said.

“Immigrants of all colors and creeds — willingly and unwillingly — built her, paid for her, enriched her and fought for her,” he continued.  “I said that twice because we need to remember that sacrifice.”

The Fox News host faced backlash for her comments on Thursday, including from other media personalities and Democrats such as Rep. Ted Lieu (Calif.). 

“Dear Laura Ingraham: I served on active duty to defend your right to make racist statements,” Lieu wrote on Twitter Thursday. 

Mika Brzezinski, co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” said Friday morning that Ingraham’s comments “were very trashy, very ugly and very sad” 

Amanda Carpenter, a Republican strategist for CNN, in a panel called Ingraham’s comments arrogant, racist and “mean-spirited.”

“Her favorite thing to do is to go on the air and lecture people about how liberals hate America,” Carpenter said on CNN Thursday. “I have a lot of policy differences with liberals like with Van [Jones, also on the panel]. I know he loves America. I know we can agree that America’s ideals are based on everybody can come here if you share our values and you work hard and get ahead.”

Ingraham said the opposite, Carpenter added.

“Laura, I want to know, who’s the one who really hates America?” Carpenter asked.

The Hill reached out to Fox News for comment and was directed to Ingraham’s comments on her Thursday night episode of “The Ingraham Angle.”

Ingraham said that her “demographic changes” comments were being distorted by white nationalists and racists.

She spoke to those people directly on Thursday, saying she did not have their support and they did not represent her views.

“The purpose of last night’s angle was to point out that the rule of law — meaning secure borders — is something that used to bind our country together. And despite what some may be contending, I made explicitly clear that my commentary had nothing to do with race or ethnicity, but rather a shared goal of keeping America safe and her citizens safe and prosperous.“

Ingraham continued to say that she thinks that merit based immigration “does wonders” for the country’s economy and way of life.

Conservative HLN host S.E. Cupp, however, criticized Ingraham for trying to walk back her comments. 

“No. You said EXPLICITLY that even legal immigrants were why America is unrecognizable,” Cupp tweeted after Ingraham attempted to clarify her comments. 

“You don’t get take backsies,” she added. 

No. You said EXPLICITLY that even legal immigrants were why America is unrecognizable. You don’t get take backsies. https://t.co/ekm0Ox4BjU

— S.E. Cupp (@secupp) August 10, 2018