Tucker Carlson Goes ‘Straight Up Tinfoil Hat’ With Latest Monologue
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Tucker Carlson was taken to task Wednesday for a monologue in which he claimed the framing of George Floyd’s death as a police killing was a “carefully concocted myth” by “Democratic partisans” to upend the country ― and then asked why Democrats wouldn’t also lie about the deadly U.S. Capitol riot.
Critics accused the Fox News personality of feeding more conspiracy theories to his millions of viewers, adding to a record that includes sowing doubt about COVID-19 vaccines and defending QAnon-endorsing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
Carlson, commenting on the second day of the Senate impeachment trial of ex-President Donald Trump for inciting the Capitol riot, suggested the “known facts of what happened” on Jan. 6 “deviate in very important ways” from the version of events being put forward by House impeachment managers.
Watch the video here:
This is infowars shit, just a completely batshit conspiracy theory blasted into your meemaws face pic.twitter.com/pjHzzeo5At
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) February 11, 2021
“In many places, the known facts bear no resemblance to the story they are telling. They’re just flat-out lying. There’s no question about that,” he claimed. Impeachment managers prosecuting Trump for inciting his supporters used extensive video footage linking the ex-president to the mob violence.
“Why would they lie about this?” Carlson rhetorically asked.
The answer, according to Carlson, lay in last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, which erupted nationwide following the police killing of George Floyd.
Floyd, who was Black, died in May after then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.
The ensuing protests “changed this country more in five months than it had changed in the previous 50 years,” Carlson said in an apparent lament.
“How did they do that?” he continued. “They used the sad death of a man called George Floyd to upend our society. Months later, we learned that the story they told us about George Floyd’s death was an utter lie.”
Carlson then falsely claimed “there was no physical evidence that George Floyd was murdered by a cop.”
“The autopsy showed that George Floyd almost certainly died of a drug overdose, fentanyl,” he asserted.
The Hennepin County medical examiner ruled Floyd’s death a homicide from “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.” An independent autopsy by New York City’s former chief medical examiner declared the death a homicide from “asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain.”
Carlson baselessly claimed “Democratic partisans used a carefully concocted myth, a lie” about Floyd’s death “to bum-rush America into overturning the old order and handing them much more power.”
“It worked flawlessly. So why wouldn’t they do it again?” he added.
The warped argument was fiercely rebuked on Twitter.
“Fox News has gone straight up tinfoil hat,” suggested Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko.
“Star Trek” actor George Takei called for Carlson to be taken off the air.
Fox News has gone straight up tinfoil hat. Jan. 6 truther Tucker Carlson. https://t.co/UspSgCxhqB
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) February 11, 2021
Tucker Carlson needs to go the way of Lou Dobbs and Mike Lindell. https://t.co/QdoXdxOFQg
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) February 11, 2021
Tucker Carlson is given platform to accelerate hate and disinformation thanks to Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch. Those are the true villains of democracy and truth all around the world.
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) February 11, 2021
Huh! George Floyd died from a drug overdose. You learn so much cool stuff watching Tucker Carlson. https://t.co/5OGgoTR510
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) February 11, 2021
Tucker Carlson blames a murderous mob attacking the Capitol on people protesting violence. https://t.co/PP5pb1FEuQ
— Morten Øverbye (@morten) February 11, 2021
Never mind the video you saw of George Floyd dying under a police officer’s knee. @TuckerCarlson is garbage & has infected your loved ones with blatant lies for ratings & money. He has sold what little soul he has. @jonstewart shredded him in ‘06 & it should have ended his career https://t.co/yvQKFyRx6U
— Jay Zawaski (@JayZawaski670) February 11, 2021
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.