THE THING ABOUT IT IS.
Investigations · The 2026 World Cup, January to July 2026

Scandinavian fans looked well behaved on television, and that became a claim about who else the country lets in.

SeverityHatefulTreats a whole group as lesser, dangerous, or not fully human. Everything at this level.
Who said itMegyn Kelly, on The Megyn Kelly Show, audience in the millions
Who it targetsImmigrants generally, set against the Norwegians and Swedes held up as the good kind
TrackProtected groupsProtected-group hate and political-opponent extremism are counted apart, and neither total is presented as a score against the other. Everything on this track.
What was said

On her show, Kelly described Norwegian and Swedish fans at the tournament as organized, clean-cut, fun, and disciplined-thinking, and asked why the United States can't have those immigrants. She then said what the country is getting instead: “child molesters,” “rapists,” “murderers,” and people who “live off the public dime.”

Why it counts

Wanting a different immigration policy is a real position with real arguments behind it, and plenty of people hold it without saying any of this.

The second half is a factual claim about who immigrants are, and it runs the wrong way. Studies of United States crime data consistently find lower offending rates among immigrants than among people born here. Nothing in the segment is offered to support it, because the well-behaved fans on screen are doing the work instead.

The receipts

Every quote, checked against its source.

Megyn Kelly

"Why can’t we have those immigrants? … We’re getting child molesters. We’re getting rapists. We’re getting murderers. We’re getting ne’er-do-wells who like to sit on their couch and live off the public dime."

Transcribed by Media Matters from the broadcast, with the substance corroborated in independent write-ups of the same period.

2026-06-25 · source

One item from a pass over 33 accounts and posts tied to the tournament, from the February buildup through the July 19 final. Twenty-four of them stayed on the right side of the line, including sharp criticism of ICE, of FIFA, and of the administration. Those are listed in the full report too.

Go deeper

Hate at the 2026 World Cup

Nine confirmed items, each with its severity breakdown, the accounts checked, and the events that drew nothing. This page is the plain-language cut; that one is the whole thing, including the hate methodology that defines every score here.