Tucker Carlson news – Fox host defends QAnon Shaman and calls Zelensky a ‘despot’

Presenter’s reframing of US Capitol riot as ‘peaceful protest’ infuriates lawmakers

Schumer calls Tucker Carlson’s release of Jan 6 footage ‘shameful’

Tucker Carlson continued to double-down on his defence of the Capitol rioters in the latest instalment of his Fox News show on Thursday, interviewing the mother and attorney of “Q Shaman” Jacob Chansley to argue he had been wrongly jailed over his part in the attack.

He also lashed out at transgender people by accusing them of taking over International Women’s Day, called Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky a “despot” over his request for US F-16 fighter jets and allowed former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard to push a Russian propaganda line blaming Nato for the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline during an interview.

Mr Carlson has been branded “shameful” by the White House after airing selectively-edited footage of the 6 January 2021 assault on the US Capitol on Monday night – chosen from 41,000 hours of security film handed to his programme by House speaker Kevin McCarthy – in order to argue that the insurrection was “peaceful” and that its participants were only “sightseers”.

The feature provoked an uproar on both sides of the aisle, with the Capitol police chief and both the Senate majority and minority leaders, Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, coming together to condemn Mr Carlson’s spin on the insurrection, in which five people died and over which more than 1,000 people have now been charged.

The controversy has coincided with the publication of the latest filings from Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6bn defamation lawsuit against Fox, which revealed, among many other things, that Mr Carlson told a colleague that he “passionately” hated Donald Trump in a bombshell text message.

“We are very very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait,” he wrote. “I hate him passionately.”

Key Points

• Tucker Carlson defends Q Shaman and attacks trans people and Nato
• Host calls Republican critics ‘sociopaths’ over Jan 6 video
• Fox News staffers reveal frustration over Dominion lawsuit revelations
• White House condemns ‘false’ Fox News coverage of ‘violent’ Jan 6 attack
• Carlson said he ‘passionately’ hates Donald Trump

[10 March 2023 18:45 · Oliver O'Connell]

Tucker Carlson would have been ‘wetting his pants’ at Capitol riot, says Anderson Cooper

CNN’s Anderson Cooper laid into Fox News‘ Tucker Carlson during a recent segment, suggesting the TV personality would have been “wetting his pants” if he had been at the Capitol riot.

Cooper spoke with former DC Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fannone, who was assaulted during the riot. The pair discussed Carlson’s recent insistence that the rioters who attacked the Capitol and its police on 6 January 2021 in attempt to keep Donald Trump in power were simply “sightseers.”

Graig Graziosi reports on Cooper’s takedown of Carlson.

[10 March 2023 19:45 · Oliver O'Connell]

Carlson calls critics ‘sociopaths'

Tucker Carlson blasted his bipartisan critics in Congress as “sociopaths” during a broadcast on Wednesday and accused attorney general Merrick Garland of lying about the number of police officers killed during the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol.

Josh Marcus reports.

[10 March 2023 20:45 · Oliver O'Connell]

Voices: Why Kevin McCarthy really gave Tucker Carlson the Jan 6 videos

Eric Garcia writes:

The conservative movement and right-wing media has never really trusted Kevin McCarthy. They often see him as a chameleon devoid of any real ideology who has shifted as his party has changed. Indeed, last year, Mr Carlson said in private McCarthy “sounds like an MSNBC contributor” and called him “a puppet of the Dem Party” after The New York Times revealed recordings of his conversations with House GOP leadership after the January 6 riot.

This explains why McCarthy, now the House Speaker, elected to deliver the entire January 6 Capitol footage to Carlson. In the days after the riot, McCarthy explicitly said that Trump bore responsibility for the attack and privately berated Trump as the riot was underway. But in his desire to become House speaker, he soon backed away, flew down to Mar-a-Lago to placate Trump and opposed the creation of a bipartisan commission to investigate January 6. McCarthy giving Carlson the Jan 6 tapes further proves the point that McCarthy needs the backing of Fox to cling to political power. Passing along the Jan 6 videos boosts McCarthy’s bonafides with the Republican base.

[10 March 2023 21:45 · Oliver O'Connell]

Dominion lawsuit: Fox News staffers reveal frustration over revelations

Reporters at Fox News are frustrated by recent court documents highlighting the hypocrisy and bias of their colleagues in the network’s prime-time opinion programming, according to a recent report.

Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation suit against Fox News has provided an unfiltered look into the private communications and decisions of the conservative news network’s top names in the wake of the 2020 election. Those exchanges have left current journalists at the network reportedly feeling embarrassed over their association.

Several current reporters at Fox News spoke to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity to share their frustrations.

Graig Graziosi reports.

[10 March 2023 22:19 · Oliver O'Connell]

Voices: Tucker Carlson’s rewriting of history exposes the looming civil war in the GOP

Ahmed Baba writes:

The one thing that motivates Mitch McConnell is power. The gain or loss of it shapes his thinking and drives his decisions. So the last few election cycles, which indicated weakening Republican electoral prospects resulting in his loss of Senate Majority Leader, certainly changed McConnell’s calculus. The problem is, most of the party hasn’t changed theirs and it’s causing fissures in the GOP. In other words, Republicans are in disarray.

There is no better indication of the deep divides within the Republican Party than their reaction to Tucker Carlson’s depiction of January 6 on Fox News. After Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) handed the Fox host over 40,000 hours of Capitol footage, Carlson aired some of the footage seeking to depict the insurrection as peaceful. This caused a firestorm not only from pro-democracy liberals but from within the GOP itself. Ultimately, this is resulting in an internal debate of whether or not the party will continue to embrace the Big Lie and Donald Trump.

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