Laura Ingraham goes after critics of controversial 1971 John Wayne interview: 'This is what the Taliban does'

On Wednesday’s The Ingraham Angle, the host, Laura Ingraham, and a frequent contributor on the show, Raymond Arroyo, took issue with the furor over a 1971 Playbοy interview of John Wayne that resurfaced this week because of controversial statements made by the actor.

In the interview, Wayne stated, among other things, “I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility.”

Arroyo, an author and journalist, said that people shouldn’t judge the past “in light of shifting moral, ethic and cultural codes of today.” Ingraham agreed and took the argument a step further.

“They’re either defacing statues or pulling them down,” Ingraham said of today’s critics of Wayne. “This is what the Taliban does. The Taliban used to rip down historical markers, destroy churches. ISIS did the same thing, does the same thing. They don’t want any vestige of what was. Even if it’s bad, they don’t want any vestige; even if it’s good, they don’t want it.”

Some viewers on Twitter didn’t necessarily agree with this assessment.

Others seemed to enjoy the dialogue Ingraham and Arroyo were engaging in.

Before ending the segment, Arroyo did offer some other options for critics.

“They’re impugning America,” he said. “If you want to settle a racist score, if you want to settle scores, talk to Jussie Smollett. Go talk to the governor and lieutenant governor of Virginia, they’ve got plenty of scores to settle there.”

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