re: #93 Joe Bacon ✅

Andy Biggs hired this thug.

House GOPers Teamed With Conspiracist Who Called Migrants ‘Apes’ And ‘Congo Cannibals’

As Republicans in Congress have attacked President Biden’s handling of the southern border, some of them have turned to a far-right media figure with a decidedly extreme perspective. Online, Michael Yon has dubbed himself “just a simple war correspondent and cannibal hunter.” The latter part of his job description refers to his work tracking migrants and his fears they are part of “a planet of the apes style invasion” that is targeting the white race for “genocide and cannibalism.” This shockingly racist paranoia — including referring to migrants as “apes” and “Congo-Cannibals” — has not stopped Yon from collaborating with multiple Republican members of Congress who have turned to him to participate in inflammatory documentaries and junkets to Latin America.

After receiving a request for comment on this story, Yon posted the message on his social media rather than responding. TPM engaged in an extensive back and forth with Yon over email to obtain comment from him for the story. As of publication, he had not provided a response.

Yon, a Special Forces veteran, gained notoriety as an independent blogger who spent extensive time on the front during the Iraq War. A 2008 profile in the New York Times said Yon spent three years in Iraq where he wrote reader-funded dispatches while “racking up more time embedded with combat units than any other journalist, according to the United States military.” The newspaper noted Yon had “an agenda” and described him as firmly believing the American mission in that country was “succeeding and must continue.” Since then, Yon has turned his attention to immigration — and his agenda has become far more strident and extreme.

In September 2022, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) put together an approximately 30-minute video called “Alien Invasion” that he dubbed “a documentary on the Biden border crisis.” The video coincided with Bigg’s push to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. It premiered at the Heritage Foundation and is still, as of this writing, featured on Biggs’ website. According to the credits, “Alien Invasion” was “presented by” Biggs, who served as a narrator and produced by two of his staffers. It features an interview with Yon about the conditions in the Darien Gap, a treacherous, dense jungle between Panama and Colombia that is traversed by immigrants who attempt to make the journey by land from South America to the United States. Yon, who was billed as a guest star of the documentary, has spent time in the region and was credited by Biggs’ team with providing some of the footage used for the “documentary.”

Tip o’ the hat to Josh and the TPM Team for uncovering this trash!

talkingpointsmemo.com

Michael Yon, now there’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time.

Now, if I could only remember exactly which bloggers and commenters used to regularly link to his Iraq “reporting” in the bad old days.