'My commentary had nothing to do with race': Laura Ingraham disavows white nationalist support after controversial segment on immigration

Fox News

On her show Thursday night, Laura Ingraham disavowed her white supremacist supporters.

• Fox News host Laura Ingraham walked back her recent statement that the "America we know and love doesn't exist anymore" due to "demographic changes."
• The "Ingraham Angle" host disavowed the support she received from white supremacists, saying they were "distorting my views."
• She said she "made explicitly clear that my commentary had nothing to do with race and ethnicity." 

Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Thursday walked back statements on immigration that sparked fury and prompted many critics to label her a "racist."

On "The Ingraham Angle" Wednesday night, the Fox News host said the "America we know and love doesn't exist anymore" due to "massive demographic changes."

White supremacists lauded Ingraham for her comments, including ex-Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, who wrote just minutes after the segment that it was "one of the most important (truthful) monologues in the history of the MSM." He later deleted that tweet. 

But the mainstream reaction was distinctly negative, with some even calling for a boycott of the companies that advertise on Ingraham's show. 

At the top of her show Thursday night, Ingraham addressed the outrage and disavowed the support she had received from white nationalists. She also appeared to reference Duke, though didn't actually name him. 

"I want to start tonight by addressing my commentary at the top of last night's show. A message to those who are distorting my views including all white nationalists and especially one racist freak whose name I will not even mention: You do not have my support, you don't represent my views, and you are antithetical to the beliefs I hold dear," Ingraham said. 

Ingraham then walked back her statements, pointing out that she later clarified on the show that "it's not about race or ethnicity."

"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," she said.

Ingraham went on to say that she thinks merit-based immigration "does wonders for our country's economy, our way of life and how we define our country." 

She ended her monologue by saying that her "concern will continue to remain with the families who have suffered the tragic results of illegal immigration, the children put in dangerous and unfair situations at the border and all those border agents around the country who work to keep our country safe."

Ingraham's comments did little to stymie the public outrage over her initial comments. 

Conservative CNN commentator S.E. Cupp tweeted that Ingraham "EXPLICITLY" said that "even legal immigrants were why America is unrecognizable." 

"You don't get [to] take backsies," she wrote. 

After Ingraham's initial comments, a wave of people took their outrage to Twitter. Anthony Scaramucci, President Donald Trump's short-lived communications director, called Ingraham's comments "ignorant" in an interview on CNN. 

Here's a roundup of Twitter criticism: