Tucker Carlson confronts filmmaker about reports of 'gypsies' pooping in public in Pennsylvania
Following an interview with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price on Monday, Carlson turned his attention to reports of a group of Roma - an ethnic group pejoratively referred to as "gypsies" - who recently emigrated to Pennsylvania, fleeing persecution and racism in Europe.
Carlson said the residents reported that the asylum-seekers "have little regard either for the law or public decency," and said they "defecate" in public places.
"The group that is satisfied in California, Pennsylvania doesn't seem interested at all in integrating, so why don't Americans have a right to be upset about that?" Carlson asked Romani filmmaker Eli George.
The Fox News anchor claimed that he "spent a lot of time around the Roma," describing them as "a distinct group that hasn't assimilated into the cultures in which its been hosted."
And though he noted he never heard Roma were predisposed to violence, he insisted that he'd "heard a lot of people mention" that the Roma publicly defecate in places including playgrounds, sidewalks, and on their front steps.
"That seems to me to be a hostile act," Carlson said. "These are countries that have indoor plumbing, there are options. When you do that, you say 'We reject you and your morays.'"
George said he'd never seen anyone defecate in public, and therefore couldn't answer the question, but Carlson continued to opine about public defecation.
"That's not something you need to do. You have to assume its a statement. It's deeply offensive of course to the community."
The clip quickly went viral.
Conservative figures worldwide have accused Romani of public defecation.
Romani have faced discrimination in many nations where they have emigrated. Although European leaders have attempted to encourage countries to improve the lives of Romani immigrants, many face job discrimination, violence, and poverty - Bloomberg reports that many have seen "their camps demolished, businesses firebombed, neighborhoods walled off and children beaten."
The Financial Times notes that throughout their history, "the biggest struggle for the Roma has been overcoming stereotypes that depict them as traveling petty criminals unwilling to integrate into mainstream society," noting that at different times in their history, many Romanis were enslaved, and brutally murdered by a number of dictatorial regimes, including Nazi Germany, who reportedly killed 1.5 million Romani.