Dobbs was known for his anti-immigration views, warnings about
Islamist terrorism, and his opposition to
outsourcing. He was also known for his pro-Trump coverage.
China In December 2018, Dobbs suggested that the United States should start a war with China because of hacking by Chinese state actors. He compared hacking by the
People's Liberation Army of China to the attack by the Japanese military on
Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Birtherism In 2009, Dobbs promoted the
false claim that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. His repeated promotion of discredited "
birther" conspiracies even though CNN itself considered it a "discredited rumor", revived a topic that had largely disappeared from the media spotlight after the 2008 presidential campaign. The
Southern Poverty Law Center denounced Dobbs' on-air statements as "racist" and "
defamatory" and Media Matters ran ads critical of Dobbs and of CNN/
Jon Stewart mocked Dobbs on the satirical
Comedy Central television series
The Daily Show. The
Associated Press said that Dobbs had "become a publicity nightmare for CNN, embarrassed his boss and hosted a show that seemed to contradict the network's 'no bias' brand".
Environment Dobbs claimed that the
scientific consensus on climate change was a hoax. Dobbs had asserted that scientists warned of
global cooling in the 1970s, though that was a distinctly minority view. He likened the
Obama administration's EPA to the
Soviet bureaucracy.
Immigration Dobbs supported limiting mass immigration. Dobbs was strongly opposed to both
illegal immigration and foreign worker programs as the
H-1B visa program and
guest-worker programs. In a 2006 article, Dobbs expressed frustration at failed legislation to build a southern "border fence to stop the flow of illegal aliens and drugs across our borders." He argued that the "true victims of corporate America's lust for cheap labor" were "American working men and women, taxpayers all." During efforts to implement comprehensive immigration reform during the
Bush administration in 2007, Dobbs devoted more than a quarter of all of his airtime during a three-month period to the subject of immigration, and covered it negatively. Dobbs also falsely claimed that "illegal aliens" were a third of the federal prison population in the United States. Dobbs criticized local officials for their approach to border security. In October 2007 he labeled then-
New York Governor Eliot Spitzer an "idiot" for advocating the issuance of
driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
Hillary Clinton labeled Dobbs's illegal immigration segments as having "all that hot air." In a November 2009 interview with
Telemundo, Dobbs said that the U.S. needed a "rational, effective humane policy" for immigration that included enhanced border security and also "the ability to legalize illegal immigrants on certain conditions." In October 2010,
The Nation published the results of a yearlong investigation detailing undocumented workers who had worked on Dobbs's personal properties. The labor involved upkeep of Dobbs's multimillion-dollar estates in
New Jersey and
Florida, including the horses belonging to his daughter, Hillary, a champion show jumper. The article featured interviews with five immigrants who had worked without papers on Dobbs's properties. Dobbs denied ever employing illegal labor and called the allegations "a political assault." In November 2018, Dobbs falsely claimed that "many" undocumented immigrants voted in the 2018 mid-term elections and that they had an "immense impact." Dobbs's critics, including columnist
James K. Glassman, author of
Dow 36,000 and member of the
American Enterprise Institute think tank, accused him of inciting
xenophobia. Others accused him of
Hispanophobia, a charge he denied and one which he said offends him deeply, as his wife Debi Segura is a
Mexican American. After President Donald Trump stated in March 2019 that he supported legal immigration "in the largest numbers ever," Dobbs lamented that Trump was advancing "the interests of the global elite ahead of our citizens," adding, "the White House has simply lost its way."
Support for Trump Dobbs's fawning coverage of the first Trump presidency was described as
sycophantic. Fox News president
Jay Wallace said in a September 2020 private message to a colleague that "
the North Koreans do a more nuanced show" than Dobbs. Dobbs opened a November 2017 interview with Trump with "You have accomplished so much", and later said to Trump that he was "one of the most loved and respected" presidents "in history". During Trump's presidency, Dobbs was described as a "close informal adviser to President Donald Trump". Trump repeatedly called Dobbs to get his views on various policy issues. whom he claimed were clandestinely working to bring down the Trump presidency. In July 2018, Dobbs said that Special Counsel
Robert Mueller was on a "jihad" against Trump, and accused him of seeking to "subvert" and "overthrow" Trump's presidency. In December 2018, Dobbs called the FBI "a legion of evildoers" and "politically corrupt." That same month, he said that the judge overseeing
Michael Flynn's sentencing sounded as if he was part of Mueller's "witch hunt". In July 2018, Dobbs defended the
Trump administration's decision to ban a CNN reporter from a press event. Multiple Fox colleagues, including Fox News President
Jay Wallace, had shown solidarity with CNN and called on the White House to rescind the ban. His defense led to charges of hypocrisy: in 2012, when a
Daily Caller reporter was criticized by the White House for shouting out a question during an address by Obama, Dobbs defended the reporter, saying "What is rude is a president not speaking to the American people and taking the questions of the White House press". CNN's
Jake Tapper suggested that Dobbs was hypocritical. In August 2018, Dobbs ran a segment pushing unsubstantiated claims that
Google was biased against Trump and that Google was promoting anti-Trump stories. Following Dobbs's segment, Trump tweeted that Google was suppressing conservatives and tasked economic adviser
Larry Kudlow to look into regulating Google. In October 2018, when
CNN and prominent Democrats were targeted with mail bomb, Dobbs described the bomb attempts as "fake news" and baselessly claimed that the mail bombs were sent by Democrats who sought to increase their support in the upcoming mid-term elections. The pipe bombs were in fact mailed by a fanatical Trump supporter. Several Fox News employees expressed dismay over Dobbs's rhetoric, with one employee telling CNN, "It's people like Dobbs who really ruin it for all the hard working journalists at Fox". When the Trump administration rescinded CNN White House correspondent
Jim Acosta's press pass, Dobbs supported the administration. At the same time, numerous media organizations, including Fox News, spoke out against the Trump administration's decision. When U.S. District Court Judge
Timothy J. Kelly, a Trump appointee, temporarily restored Acosta's press pass, Dobbs described the ruling as "absurd". When the Trump administration complied with the ruling, Dobbs called on the administration to ignore the ruling and tell the "district court judge to go to hell". In January 2019, Dobbs described
Mitt Romney as a "traitor" and "treasonous" after he wrote an op-ed published in
The Washington Post criticizing Trump's character. In July 2019, Dobbs referred to U.S. military generals who raised concerns about Trump's decision to put on a July 4 military show in Washington D.C. as "
snowflake generals". During the
impeachment trial of Donald Trump,
The New York Times reported that former Trump national security advisor and 11-year paid contributor to Fox News
John Bolton had written in his forthcoming book that Trump had told him that he wanted to continue withholding aid to Ukraine until the country investigated Democrats and the Bidens. On his show the following day, Dobbs asserted that Bolton had been "reduced to a tool for the radical Dems and the deep state with his allegation". The day senior Justice Department officials intervened in the case of longtime Trump associate
Roger Stone with a recommendation of a lighter sentence than had been recommended by DOJ prosecutors the prior day, Dobbs stated on his program that attorney general
Bill Barr was "doing the Lord's work" by intervening. The intervention raised questions about the political neutrality of the DOJ. The next day, Barr stated in a televised interview that Trump's comments about ongoing DOJ investigations "make it impossible to do my job", causing Dobbs to state on his program, "I guess I am so disappointed in Bill Barr, I have to say this – it's a damn shame when he doesn't get what this president has gone through, and what the American people have gone through, and what his charge is as attorney general." The following day, after the Justice Department stated it would not prosecute former FBI deputy director
Andrew McCabe, a frequent target of Trump's ire, Dobbs stated on his program, "I have serious, serious questions tonight about the integrity of the Justice Department under Attorney General Barr." As Trump, his surrogates and supporters made baseless claims of voting fraud in the aftermath of his 2020 election defeat, Dobbs chastised Republicans for not helping the president to claim "what is rightfully his". He said that Republicans who voted to certify
Joe Biden's Electoral College win were "criminal". After Attorney General Bill Barr said there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the election, Dobbs said that Barr was "compromised" and had become part of the "deep state". In December 2020, Dobbs aired a segment on his show debunking the very same conspiracy theories that had been amplified on his show; this was in response to a legal threat by the voting technology company Smartmatic which had been the subject of some of the conspiracy theorizing. Speaking to Republican consultant
Ed Rollins during his January 4, 2021, broadcast, Dobbs said: We're eight weeks from the election, and we still don't have verifiable, tangible support for the crimes that everyone knows were committed—that is, defrauding other citizens who voted with fraudulent votes. We know that's the case in Nevada, we know it's the case in Pennsylvania and a number of other states, but we have had a devil of a time finding actual proof. Why? Following the
storming of the United States Capitol by Trump supporters in January 2021, Dobbs was among those who advanced the baseless conspiracy theory that people associated with
antifa were responsible for the attack.
George Soros conspiracy theories Dobbs was a proponent of numerous conspiracy theories about the Jewish-American philanthropist and businessman
George Soros. Dobbs referred to him as an "evil SOB" and insidious. Dobbs's Fox Business Channel shows stirred controversy in October 2018 when a guest on Dobbs's show used what many described as an anti-Semitic trope to suggest that the
State Department was "Soros-occupied" territory echoing the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory of a "
Zionist-occupied government". The remarks came days after bombing attempts on Soros and leading Democrats, and the remarks were replayed on Fox Business hours after an anti-Semitic gunman at a
Pittsburgh synagogue killed 11 people. After widespread condemnation, Fox stated that the guest, Chris Farrell of
Judicial Watch, would no longer be booked and that the program episode would be withdrawn from the Fox News archives. Dobbs did not dispute diGenova's claim.
Other views Dobbs opposed
gun control and, though he was a fiscal conservative, supported some government regulations, as revealed in a
60 Minutes interview. Dobbs's stance on trade earned plaudits from some
trade union activists on the traditional
political left, while his stance on immigration tended to appeal to the
right. In March 2009, Dobbs said he thought there should not be a
St. Patrick's Day. ==Reception==