The recent Atlanta shootings of Asian women coincide with increasing anti-Asian violence. But rather than address the role of a former president (and Fox News!) in creating a climate of racism and xenophobia in which these incidents are happening, white supremacist icon Tucker Carlson is using this tragedy to attack, once again, African-Americans and defend white supremacy.
On his Thursday White Power Hour, Carlson spewed his trademark hate and lies. After reporting the details of the Atlanta shootings, Carlson began his defense of Trump with his characteristic unsubstantiated and deceptive bravado.
In avoiding the real issue of anti-Asian bigotry unleashed by a racist president’s rhetoric, Carlson diverted over to the Atlanta shooter’s mental health issues (probably never considered for Muslims who engage in the same sort of terrorism) and Atlanta sex trafficking – a real problem but irrelevant to the topic at hand.
The “performatively outraged wedge salad” otherwise known as Carlson expressed outrage that the mainstream media isn’t covering sex trafficking to his satisfaction.
He attacked the president of Rice University who had the audacity to say that Trump has fostered bigotry which, Carlson stated, isn’t true. Perhaps Carlson doesn’t know that anti-Asian Twitter hashtags “soared” since Trump linked the virus to China.
Carlson Tries Irony, But Just Tells A Lie
Carlson’s racist invective took a strange turn when he snarked about how Harvard has “gotten involved in this” despite their history of racism against Asians which, he claimed, was proven in their admitting practices which discriminate against Asians.
FACT CHECK: In November, a federal court ruled that Harvard “doesn’t intentionally discriminate against Asians in its admission process.”
Carlson showed video of White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, making the factually correct statement that Trump’s terminology for the coronavirus has led to negative perceptions of the Asian community. She said nothing about white supremacy but Carlson claimed that she blamed white supremacists for the shooting (not in the video shown) and that “there’s zero evidence” that his pals are to blame. (Huh?).
Exposing his white supremacy, Carlson, without citing the source for his statistics, went full-tilt racist with this: “According to federal statistics, African American perpetrators are more likely than any other group to attack Asian-Americans. It happens quite a bit.” (He didn’t define “quite a bit.”) After establishing this unsubstantiated fact (a narrative also expressed by Laura Ingraham), Carlson provided a truly laughable moment of irony with a question.
Carlson Claims He’s Tolerant And Then Proves He Isn’t
“Well, why is that? We can't say for sure, and we're not going to speculate about it. Unlike the other cable news, we will not draw grand and divisive conclusions from this or any data about race. It is always wrong to blame an entire group for anything ever. Treat people as individuals first, that is the whole point of America.”
OMG, Carlson’s schtick is based on speculation, divisive conclusions, and blaming Blacks and immigrants for, well, all of America’s problems.
He proved himself a liar when he continued with the divisiveness and a personal attack: “We can say that this has been going on for quite a while, as anyone who lives in the city well knows. Tensions between African Americans and immigrant Korean store owners, for example were a central factor in the 1992 L.A. riots. It wasn't QAnon that made violent threats against Asian shopkeepers in New York in the 1980s. It was Al Sharpton, and so on.” (Note: if Carlson were interested in an unvarnished look at the tensions between the Black and Asian communities, he could check out this article which, it so happens, references white supremacy’s role in the problem.)
Notice that Carlson didn’t provide specifics in his attack on Sharpton. Nor did he mention that Sharpton has urged Blacks to draw on their own experience with racism and take "a strong unequivocal and united stand" against anti-Asian hate crimes. He also said he would be meeting with Black churches to discuss the violence.
Carlson Repeats Lie That White Supremacists Not Responsible For January 6 Attack
Carlson continued his personal attacks by distorting comments made by former George W. Bush White House Communications Director and Senior Advisor to the 2008 McCain campaign, Nicolle Wallace. He showed video of part of Wallace’s MSNBC show during which she and panelists discussed anti-Asian hate crimes. Wallace accurately stated that Americans are living under the dual threat of COVID and domestic violence on the part of Carlson’s white supremacist pals. Carlson claimed that she was blaming white supremacists for the Atlanta shooting when she clearly wasn’t. He dismissed her statement as a lie and, again, falsely claimed that white supremacists were not responsible for the January 6th insurrectionist attack on our Capitol - and to say otherwise is a lie!
So according to Tucker, it's not Trump and Tucker Carlson's white supremacist fan boys who stoke racial tensions? Seriously?
You can watch him blame minorities for crimes against minorities below, from the March 18, 2021 Tucker Carlson Tonight.