TRAGEDY AT THE BORDER

Prominent Republicans slammed The Washington Post on Tuesday after the outlet tied them to Payton Gendron, the self-described “eco-fascist” who allegedly shot and killed 10 people in Buffalo, New York, over the weekend.

Gendron wrote prior to the shooting Saturday that he could be described as either a populist or “ethno-nationalist eco-fascist national socialist,” according to The Post’s Climate 202 newsletter published Tuesday. “Eco-fascism” is an ideology that postulates an increased global population poses a threat to the climate and leads to environmental degradation worldwide.

The Post noted three instances of conservatives — Republican Arkansas Rep. Bruce Westerman, Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Republican Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich — allegedly espousing “similar rhetoric” without specifically referencing “eco-fascism.”

“Trying to link observing illegal trash dumping on federal land to an unhinged, evil manifesto from a mass shooter is illogical, moronic, and nothing short of unethical,” Westerman told The Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “The Washington Post should be ashamed.”

The Post’s newsletter noted that, in 2021, Westerman warned trash on the U.S.-Mexico border was an example of “environmental degradation” and Brnovich filed a lawsuit accusing the federal government of bypassing a legally-required environmental review of its immigration policies. Carlson alleged immigrants had polluted the Potomac River in a 2019 interview with The Atlantic.

In addition, Katie Conner, a spokesperson for Brnovich, said anyone should be suspicious of outlets that employ terms like “eco-fascism” in an attempt “to label or stereotype others whose positions they may disagree with, instead of actually addressing real environmental issues.”