'No place in this country': Jacobs, Tenney reject 'great replacement' theory

But when asked about the longtime fringe theory that there's a conspiracy to replace whites as the majority race in America, the two Republican House members who want to represent Western New York in Congress next year said they knew little about it until recently and want nothing to do with it.

"As I have read more and learned more about it, it's clear that this is just a vile and disgusting conspiracy theory rooted in racism and antisemitism," said Rep. Chris Jacobs of Orchard Park. "In my mind, it has no place in this country."

Meanwhile, Rep. Claudia Tenney, a Utica-area Republican, said: "To be honest with you, I've never even heard of it until it was raised after this horrific shooting in Buffalo."

Afterwards, though, Tenney reviewed the suspect's racist screed. "It is absolutely sickening to read," she said.

Both Jacobs and Tenney regularly decry what they see as a crisis at the Southern Border: the regular flow of undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America into the United States. But a review of their public comments and social media posts from recent years show that neither have pushed a version of Great Replacement Theory.

This theory is nothing new. F. Scott Fitzgerald mocked it a century ago in "The Great Gatsby," creating a boorish bourgeois character named Tom Buchanan who, after reading a racist book of that era, ranted: “The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be – will be utterly submerged.”

But the theory was largely confined to fringe publications until the dawn of the internet and the emergence of Fox News, where some talk show hosts have mainstreamed the idea and adapted it to fit the nation's red-blue political divide.

"AOC and the gang are eager to replace native born Americans and lawful immigrants with foreigners who came here illegally," Fox News host Laura Ingraham said on Jan. 21, 2021.

"They're trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World," Carlson said on Fox on April 21, 2021. "That's what's happening. Actually, let's just say it: That's true. You know, I think we're being replaced."

"The great replacement plan is working," Carlson said last Oct. 5. "It's helping the Democratic Party. That's the whole point."

Jacobs and Tenney, however, don't see it that way. 

Jacobs, for example, used the word "insane" to describe a version of the theory that alleges that there is a "Jewish elite that's trying to orchestrate getting more minorities from outside the country to diminish the white population."

"It's just such an outrageous, insane, insane concept," Jacobs added.

And Tenney – a longtime supporter of federal refugee resettlement efforts – said: "I just think it's seems a bit of a stretch to say the only reason people are allowing illegal immigration is to allow voters" into the country. 

Stefanik, who represents the North Country and who is the House's third-ranking Republican, has met criticism for a statement on Twitter that followed the Tops Markets shooting. On May 16 – two days after the Buffalo shooting – she tweeted: "Democrats desperately want wide open borders and mass amnesty for illegals allowing them to vote. Like the vast majority of Americans, Republicans want to secure our borders and protect election integrity."

That tweet prompted backlash. 

"It is deeply irresponsible of you to keep pushing this argument just days after a white supremacist used it as a rationale for killing ten people," Kevin M. Kruse, a Princeton University historian, replied on Twitter.

Such comments, and such a backlash, are nothing new for Stefanik. Last fall, her campaign ran a Facebook ad that showed migrants reflected in President Biden's sunglasses and charged that Democrats were waging "A PERMANENT ELECTION INSURRECTION" by welcoming them.

“Their plan to grant amnesty to 11 MILLION illegal immigrants will overthrow our current electorate and create a permanent liberal majority in Washington,” the ad added.

That prompted the Albany Times-Union, in a scathing editorial called "How low, Ms. Stefanik?," to say: "If there’s anything that needs replacing in this country – and in the Republican party – it’s the hateful rhetoric that Ms. Stefanik and far too many of her colleagues so shamelessly spew."

Stefanik declined an interview request but defended herself in an interview with conservative talk show host Ben Shapiro. She noted that a Democratic-aligned think tank, the Center for American Progress, issued a report in 2013 that said: "Supporting real immigration reform that contains a pathway to citizenship for our nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants is the only way to maintain electoral strength in the future."

And Stefanik told Shapiro: "We want border security and we want to oppose amnesty. That's where mainstream Americans are. There's nothing racist about that statement, and it is absolutely warped that now somehow this is being tied into the horrific tragedy and act of evil that occurred in Buffalo."

Republicans have largely defended Stefanik, too.

"From what I know of Elise Stefanik, I think she's a good person," Jacobs said. "I don't think she's a racist or white supremacist at all. I think on both sides, we need to tone down the rhetoric and think twice about how we are stating things in this environment."

Tenney said Democrats are making Stefanik – widely seen as a potential House speaker or vice presidential candidate – "a target."

"I think it's unfair what they're doing to Elise, from what I've seen," Tenney said, adding: "I haven't seen the (Facebook) ad or anything."