Newsweek Editor Receives Backlash for Suggesting Tucker Carlson Should Be ‘Neutralized’

AP Photo/John Locher

Newsweek senior editor-at-large Josh Hammer received backlash on Wednesday for writing an article that suggested that Tucker Carlson should be “neutralized” to protect the Republican Party.

In an article for the Daily Mail, Hammer criticized Carlson for interviewing controversial right-wing commentator Nick Fuentes this week, accusing the former Fox News host of “laundering” Fuentes’ “repugnant beliefs” and of waging a “war” on “the forces of civilizational sanity on the MAGA Right.”

It was the final line of the article, however, that raised eyebrows on social media.

“The fox is now comfortably ensconced in the hen house,” wrote Hammer. “And unless the fox is neutralized, the victim could be the entire extant GOP coalition itself.”

The line received backlash from other conservatives on social media, who argued that the wording was particularly irresponsible, less than two months after the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

“Josh Hammer calls for Tucker Carlson to be neutralized,” reacted The Blaze host Jason Whitlock. “This is a Keith Olbermann-style Twitter post, not something that should be published by a news outlet. We just witnessed the assassination of Charlie Kirk. This is irresponsible by the Daily Mail.”

“Hey @josh_hammer @DailyMail what the hell do you mean when you write that @TuckerCarlson must be ‘neutralized?'” questioned libertarian comedian Dave Smith. “Seems like a pretty reckless thing to say in the wake of the biggest political assassination of our lifetime (which is the topic of the piece).”

The article was also condemned by Kirk’s former friend Candace Owens, who wrote, “I cannot believe the @DailyMail allowed this to be published.”

Meanwhile, Curt Mills – the executive director of The American Conservative – accused Hammer of playing “fast and loose with outright insinuating that Tucker Carlson should also be murdered.”

Responding to the backlash in a social media post, Hammer wrote, “One has to be truly stupid or willfully disingenuous (or both, as the case may be) to think that ‘neutralized’ here means anything other than its most common usages. Quit lying.”

Hammer then posted a screenshot of one definition of the word “neutralize,” meaning, “To make (something) ineffective; counteract; nullify.”