Tucker Carlson Tries Out a New Name for the Capitol Riot
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Tucker Carlson on Monday sought to gloss over the deadly Capitol insurrection spurred by a would-be authoritarian’s election lies by calling it an “election justice protest.”
The conspiracy-friendly, rioter-defending host’s diatribe fell in line with his past inflammatory commentary on the topic, with him claiming members of the GOP didn’t put up enough of a resistance following Jan. 6.
“This is a full-blown political purge,” Carlson complained after detailing the Department of Justice’s efforts to prosecute those involved with Jan. 6.
“This is not a talking point. It is not in any sense a conspiracy theory. It’s completely real, and it began shortly after Jan. 6 when Republicans, as usual, just as they were after the death of George Floyd, were so blown back, so intimidated by the aggression and the rhetoric by the other side that they let it happen.”
Carlson cited a recent event in the Southwest to illustrate his point.
“A state judge in New Mexico just removed an elected county commissioner from office, overturning the will of the voters. Why? Because he had dared to exercise his constitutional rights by participating in the election justice protest on Jan. 6,” the Fox host put it, referring U.S. District Court Judge Francis Mathew’s removal of Cowboys for Trump co-founder Couy Griffin from the Otero County Commission.
In his ruling, Mathew cited Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits officeholders from having engaged in an insurrection. Griffin had previously been handed a 14-day jail sentence after being convicted of entering restricted grounds on Jan. 6. According to Reuters, the last instance of a judge invoking that section of the Constitution to remove a public official was in 1869, when ex-Confederates were in the process of rejoining civic affairs in the U.S.
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