How Replacement Theory Moved From The Fringe To The Mainstream

The NPR Politics Podcast

NPR

Politics, Daily News, News

4.5 • 24.9K Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2022

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The suspected gunman in Saturday's shooting in Buffalo, N.Y. is alleged to have written a racist screed explaining his motivations. One of the topics discussed is "replacement theory," a talking point that has made its way to statements made by Republican lawmakers and Fox News hosts despite its past as a fringe idea in racist forums. Today, a look at what replacement theory is, how it became amplified & what implications that has on the political process.

This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, national political correspondent Mara Liasson and national security correspondent Odette Yousef.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, it's the NPR Politics podcast. It is 135 pm on Monday, May 16.
0:06.8	I'm Tamar Keith. I cover the White House.
0:08.8	And I'm Mara Liason, National Political Correspondent.
0:12.0	Today, we're going to talk about a mass shooting that happened Saturday at a grocery store
0:16.4	in Buffalo, New York that left 10 people dead and three injured. The suspect in the shooting
0:21.6	is alleged to have written a screed posted online where he espoused white supremacist views.
0:27.1	Authorities have described the attack as racist and a hate crime.
0:31.2	The evidence that we have uncovered so far makes no mistake that this is an absolute racist hate crime.
0:37.7	It will be prosecuted as a hate crime. This is someone who has hate in their heart, soul and mind.
0:42.9	And there is no mistake that that's the direction that this is going in.
0:46.1	That's Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia. 11 of the 14 who were shot were black.
0:52.5	And that isn't an accident. The gunman's attack took place in a predominantly black neighborhood.
0:57.9	I want to bring in NPR's Odette Yusuf who covers domestic extremism. Hey, Odette.
1:03.2	Hey there. Thank you for being with us. The Biden administration has been saying for a year now
1:10.2	that the greatest threat to US Homeland Security is violent extremism driven by white supremacist
1:15.9	ideology. And they've gotten a lot of pushback from Republicans on that, saying that isn't the
1:20.8	biggest threat. Is what happened this weekend? What the Attorney General and Homeland Security
1:26.1	Secretary have been warning about? It's exactly what they've been warning about. And I would note,
1:32.0	Tam, that this is a threat that was highlighted even before the Biden administration.
1:38.4	During the Trump administration years that top officials from the FBI, the DOJ, were testifying
1:45.5	before Congress, highlighting the heightened threat that they were seeing from what they
1:52.0	call racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists. So this isn't even necessarily a political
	...

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