Nicolle Wallace Says Tucker Carlson is ‘Doing Grave Harm’ to National Security, And Donny Deutsch Calls Him a ‘Ratings Whore’
MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace pulled no punches in criticizing Tucker Carlson over his comments regarding Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday, while guest Donny Deutsch labeled the Fox News host a “ratings whore” for his commentary.
Fox News responded to Deutsch in a statement to Mediaite: “Donny Deutsch’s descent into irrelevance along with having all of his shows cancelled due to abysmal ratings clearly hasn’t provoked any level of self awareness.”
Wallace kicked off her segment about Carlson by playing a recent monologue from his show, in which Carlson said:
“Why is it disloyal to side with Russia but loyal to side with Ukraine? They’re both foreign countries that don’t care anything about the United States. Kind of strange”
“It’s not the first time Tucker Carlson has openly embraced dictators,” Wallace then said of Fox’s top-rated host. “He’s been vocal in his support for Hungarian leader Viktor Orban. Last week, he announced he’ll be broadcasting from that country for the second time in a year.”
Wallace then asked former Rep. David Jolly (R-FL) why Carlson is “so committed and why is Fox News on his behalf, so committed to tearing down American embrace and support and alignment with the world’s democracies?”
“I suppose for Tucker and Fox News, it’s about ratings a corporate profit,” Jolly responded. “I’d say it’s easy to dismiss the rantings of Tucker as ignorant and lunacy or someone seeking a headline.”
Jolly went on to argue that Carlson’s message on Russia should be taken seriously and is “dangerous” due to the fact that foreign policy is a “low information space.” Jolly warned viewers are likely to take Carlson as their only source of information on the topic.
Wallace continued to push her guests during the segment on Carlson’s position on Russia, eventually asking the Washington Post’s Ashley Parker:
Fox News is played on just about every military base, and yesterday, 8,500 U.S. troops were put on high alert. So what is again, what is the acknowledgment that he’s doing grave harm to American national security I guess cohesion or sort of a purpose of the United States national security doctrine over decades to Democrats and Republicans to stand with democracies against autocracies?
“There’s a central irony here that’s sort of delicious for someone like former President Trump, which as you alluded to, was hammered correctly in many ways for four years of not being tough enough on Russia, on Putin,” Parker explained, concluding that Carlson’s message comes down to partisanship as being anti-Russia has also meant being anti-Trump on the left.
The segment ended with Donny Deutsch declaring that polarization and shock value is what is driving ratings in the media these days, which explains Carlson position:
He’s a ratings whore. That’s it. It’s a game. Let’s stop saying – performance art. That’s what it is. By the same way, last week, he said that doing, making kids wear masks in schools is no different than experiments the Nazis did on the Jews, the medical experiments, and it’s the same kind of mandate situation. He’s a ratings whore. That’s what this is. Period.
Watch above via MSNBC
