Jen Psaki Goes OFF on Tucker Carlson — But Says Don’t Give Fox ‘Profiles In Courage Award’ For Firing Him

MSNBC host and former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki celebrated the firing of Tucker Carlson, but tore into Fox News by suggesting Carlson’s “conspiracies, lies, his explicit white nationalist views” are “simply who they are.”

On Sunday’s edition of MSNBC’s Inside With Jen Psaki, Psaki teased her commentary by noting the firing and adding “But don’t give the Murdochs a Profiles in Courage award just yet.”

Later in the show, Psaki laid out the “ample” grounds Fox News has had in the past to fire Carlson, and argued his departure won’t eradicate “his ideas, the conspiracies, the lies, his explicit white nationalist views” from Fox:

JEN PSAKI: The announcement that Fox News had abruptly fired Tucker Carlson caught many by surprise, including Tucker Carlson, and it ignited a flurry of reporting about why exactly the conservative cable network parted with its top-rated host.

Was it because of highly offensive and crude messages discovered by the board of directors? Maybe. Like reportedly calling a female executive the C-word? You know, the one. Was it due to the workplace harassment lawsuit filed by a former producer, or was it simply that Rupert Murdoch decided Carlson was more trouble than he was worth?

For now, it’s not entirely clear. But what we do know is that for years, Fox News seemed to have an ample, ample reasons, many of them, to oust Carlson and did nothing. Take, for instance, this anti-immigrant screed in 2018.

TUCKER CARLSON (VIDEO CLIP): We have a moral obligation to admit the world’s poor, they tell us, even if it makes our own country poorer and dirtier and more divided.

JEN PSAKI: Charming. Then there was Carlson’s outrageous January 6th conspiracy theories, like this one saying it was all an inside job.

TUCKER CARLSON (VIDEO CLIP): The government knows who they are, but the government has not charged them. Why is that? You know why. They were almost certainly working for the FBI. So FBI operatives were organizing the attack on the Capitol.

JEN PSAKI: Obviously crazy. And, of course, there was his obsessive promotion of the White House national– White nationalist replacement theory.

TUCKER CARLSON (VIDEO CLIP): An unrelenting stream of immigration. But why? Well, Joe Biden just said it. To change the racial mix of the country. That’s the reason, to reduce the political power of people whose ancestors lived here and dramatically increased the proportion of Americans newly arrived from the Third World.

JEN PSAKI: Throughout it all, Fox backed Tucker. When asked in 2021 to comment on Carlson’s long record of lies and bigotry, and you just heard a lot of them there. Fox News plainly said “We fully support him.”

And for years they did. But if you think Tucker’s firing means Fox has seen the light? Don’t hold your breath. Don’t judge them on why they fired Carlson. Judge them for all the times they didn’t and judge them for what they’re still putting on the air this week. Since his exit on Monday, it’s been business as usual for their primetime lineup. Here’s Laura Ingraham on Thursday.

LAURA INGRAHAM (VIDEO CLIP): American citizens see that Biden’s team isn’t focused on raising their standard of living. Instead, the Biden team is focused on remaking the country where illegal immigrant DREAMers are valued over native born Americans.

JEN PSAKI: Sounds pretty familiar, right? Fox News may have had a problem with Tucker himself, but his ideas, the conspiracies, the lies, his explicit white nationalist views were never the total problem for the network. They endorsed all of that and continue to do so. This is simply who they are.

Watch above via Inside With Jen Psaki.