Tucker Carlson Pretends Not to Know the Difference Between Coup-Minded Capitol Rioters and a Trespassing Dog Puppet Working for Stephen Colbert
Tucker Carlson compared the people who stormed the Capitol in an effort to overturn an election with a TV crew that apparently overstayed their welcome while filming a comedy segment.
On Jan. 6, 2021, hundreds of Donald Trump supporters breached the Capitol after Trump spent two months telling them the election had been stolen from him. As a result, they attempted to stop the election’s certification by both houses of Congress. Four people died. The following day, a police officer who’d responded to the scene died of a stroke after being sprayed with chemicals during the riot. Subsequently, four officers who responded to the riot committed suicide. More than 100 police officers were injured.
On June 16, 2022, seven staffers for the Late Show with Stephen Colbert were arrested on Thursday at the Longworth Office Building across the street from the U.S. Capitol. This included Robert Smigel, the longtime puppeteer of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, a vulgar, cigar-chewing pooch that brutally mocks his interviewees. Police charged the seven with unlawful entry. Indications are that the group did not attempt to overthrow the republic on Thursday.
“Talk show host Stephen Colbert dispatched a group of seven of his employees to Washington, D.C.,” Carlson began his monologue on Tuesday. “Their job: break into the U.S. Capitol complex and harass lawmakers inside.”
However, according to CBS, the production team was there to conduct “authorized and prearranged interviews.”
The Fox News host said the crew was there to “disrupt” Congress.
“Once on federal property, Colbert’s employees did what they came to do, which was disrupt the business of Congress, and apparently they were not subtle about doing it,” Carlson continued. “They pounded on doors and yelled. Whatever they did, it got people’s attention. It takes an awful lot for a police force controlled by Nancy Pelosi to arrest a group of entertainment figures.”
Carlson mused as to why the arrestees were released after a night in jail while many Capitol rioters have been prosecuted and some have even been detained pending their trials.
“All seven of them were charged with unlawful entry,” the host continued, “That’s the identical charge that hundreds of January 6th defendants have been prosecuted for. But, unlike January 6th defendants, Colbert’s employees were not sent to the D.C. jail for a year and a half in solitary confinement. No, they were released after a night behind bars, and then they fled back to New York. Why is that?”
He went on to claim that Reps. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) invited the Colbert employees to the Capitol complex specifically to “harass” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
“Preventing her or any other member of Congress from carrying out official duties as a representative is by definition an attack on democracy,” he continued. “So how is what Stephen Colbert did different from what the protesters on January 6th have been convicted of doing? That’s a very good question.”
He then aired a clip of Colbert denouncing comparisons between his employees being arrested and the Capitol riot.
“Drawing any equivalence between rioters storming our Capitol to prevent the counting of electoral ballots, and a cigar-chomping toy doing is a shameful and grotesque insult to the memory of everyone who died,” Colbert said. “And it obscenely trivializes the service and the courage the Capitol Police showed on that terrible day.”
Carlson reacted by mocking Colbert’s criticism.
“In other words, ‘When you criticize me, you’re really criticizing the brave Capitol Police officers who arrested the people who work for me – the ones who committed the crimes I asked them to commit. And I for one will not stand for that.’ That’s what he just said.”
Watch above via Fox News.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
