Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has downplayed the storming of the U.S. Capitol, revealed in a new interview that his son, a House staffer, was in Congress on the day of the attack.
In an interview with Steve Krakauer on The Fourth Watch Podcast, the Fox News host mocked criticism for the unsubstantiated claims he advanced in Patriot Purge, his Fox Nation series on January 6th. At one point, Krakauer asked Carlson to explain why he wanted to give “a different look” at the Capitol riot.
“I hated what happened on January 6,” Carlson replied. He then added that “one of my kids was actually in the building when it happened. I was on the phone in real time.”
Carlson was likely referring to his son, Buckley Carlson, who works for Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN).
Carlson proceeded to lament that the Capitol riot has been used as political ammunition. He said that he hates “disorder” and “litter,” but argued the damage done that day is being exaggerated.
I’m from Washington. I hate disorder. I hate breaking windows above all else. I just don’t like when people break windows or litter. I’m about order and my house is clean, I really believe in that. So if people covering January 6th had been willing to just roughly tell the truth…but not use it as a partisan instrument to suspend civil liberties, I kinda would’ve just let it lie. Okay, people got all wound up, I get it. Some of them misbehaved, I’m not gonna defend that, but it has been used like so many events throughout history as a pretext for something else. So they lie about what actually happened, they repeat the lie with maximum aggression, and over time, that lie solidifies into the common understanding of what happened.
Carlson continued by claiming there was “no good reason” for the death of Ashli Babbitt, who was shot dead by Capitol police as she leapt through a window smashed in by the violent mob. He proceeded criticize those who have described the riot as an “insurrection,” which is dictionary defined as “an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government.”
Almost a year in, there’s not one data point of evidence that it was a planned insurrection, that is, an effort to overthrow the U.S. government. That’s not true, and we would know, and then there’s no evidence of racial animus. Once you realize that everybody, including people on my channel, are participating in this lie and calling it an insurrection. Anyone who calls January 6th an insurrection is a liar, because there’s no evidence.
Carlson concluded by returning to his Patriot Purge claim that the Left is using the events of January 6th as a justification to persecute conservatives. He didn’t say which people from Fox he was taking issue with, but several network contributors quit the channel in protest of his series while others raised concerns with Fox’s top brass.
Listen here (start at 12:00) via The Fourth Watch.
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