Laura Ingraham is "keeping an open mind" about becoming a politician

The right's leading opponent of all things immigration claims she's been asked about running by "various people"

Published July 28, 2014 6:25PM (EDT)

Laura Ingraham                                   (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
Laura Ingraham (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)

In case the rush of euphoria that accompanied news of Michele Bachmann's possible 2016 run has begun to recede from your memory, here's some more good news: Comically xenophobic right-wing radio star and Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham is considering becoming a full-blown political candidate, too!

Or at least that's what she wants Toby Harnden of the right-wing Sunday Times to tell his readers.

"I've been approached by various people to get involved [in electoral politics]," Harnden quotes Ingraham as telling him at the end of a rather starry-eyed puff piece (that goes a whole sentence before bringing up Ingraham's "striking good looks"). "I'm keeping an open mind about running for office in the future."

The impetus for Ingraham's floating the idea of her as a candidate is the recent new boost of attention and success she's gained by holding down the right-most post of the mainstream debate over immigration reform.

Believe it or not, she's found that being an angry white woman who is willing to imply the first Latina Supreme Court justice is not a patriot — or that illegal immigrants are "invading" the U.S. and destroying the English language — has been good for her career on the far right.

Lest you think Ingraham is racist or at least totally blasé about sounding totally racist, though, Harnden is happy to let Ingraham relieve you of any misconceptions. After previously noting Ingraham's decision to adopt a child from Guatemala, he quotes her arguing that she can't be racist because she "cared enough about the region to rescue someone who was abandoned there."

He then quotes her praising UKIP — the controversial anti-immigrant party in the United Kingdom that is generally considered one of the leaders of Europe's ascendant xenophobic far-right — as a model American conservatives should look to for the future.


By Elias Isquith

Elias Isquith is a former Salon staff writer.

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