Tucker Carlson’s Take on Kenosha Vigilante Horrifies: ‘Justifying a Double Homicide’

Mediaite StaffAug 27th, 2020, 6:45 am
 

Fox News host Tucker Carlson opened Wednesday’s show by addressing the suspected vigilante killing of protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin by a 17-year-old man armed with an assault rifle. Many have seen a racial element to this story, as the civil unrest came in the aftermath of the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by police.

But Carlson seemed to justify the behavior that led to two deaths — or at least explain it — when he laid blame for the violence on a lack of police. “How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?” Carlson asked rhetorically, before concluding by blaming “the academic, left funded by big business, to crush the last remaining resistance to their control of the country y and that resistance is an independent American middle class.”

Carlson has a history of controversies surrounding race. Last month, a senior writer for his show, Blake Neff, resigned when racist and homophobic posts he had written online were uncovered. Carlson addressed the issue by saying, “What Blake wrote anonymously was wrong. We don’t endorse those words. They have no connection to the show,” before curiously blasting the “ghouls now beating their chests in triumph at the destruction of a young man that self-righteousness also has its costs.” And last year, Carlson flatly claimed that white supremacy is a “hoax”.

Many on Twitter, who comprise the very “chattering class” to whom the Fox News host often thumbs his nose, were shocked and outraged by his commentary:

And there were some, of course, that came to Carlson’s defense:

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