• The Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Thursday walked back her recent statement that the “America that we know and love doesn’t exist anymore” because of “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 or ethnicity.”

The Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Thursday walked back statements on immigration that had sparked fury and prompted many critics to describe her as racist.

On “The Ingraham Angle” on Wednesday night, Ingraham said the “America that we know and love doesn’t exist anymore” because of “massive demographic changes.”

White supremacists lauded Ingraham for her comments, including the former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, who wrote minutes after the segment that it was “one of the most important (truthful) monologues in the history of” the mainstream media. He later deleted that tweet.

But much of the 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 on Thursday night, Ingraham addressed the outrage and disavowed the support she had received from white nationalists. She also appeared to reference Duke, though she didn't name him.

"I want to start tonight by addressing my commentary at the top of last night's show," she said. "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 pointed out that she said on Wednesday's show that her comments were "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," she said. "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 went on to say 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 latest comments did little to stymie the public outrage over her initial ones.

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

"You don't get take backsies," Cupp wrote.

After Ingraham's initial comments, a wave of people expressed outrage on Twitter. Anthony Scaramucci, President Donald Trump's onetime communications director, described Ingraham's comments as "ignorant" in an interview on CNN.

Here's a roundup of Twitter criticism:

https://twitter.com/scb1932/status/1027900398005313536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw