Last night, Tucker Carlson continued exploiting sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to score cheap political shots, this time by feigning concern for the safety of accuser Christine Blasey Ford - and blaming Democrats for death threats against her.
Yesterday, I wrote about how Carlson painted Kavanaugh as a victim of a make-believe Democratic war on men. Carlson used one of his regular tricks: dishonestly accusing Democrats of something outrageous, then pretending he’s the reasonable one.
Carlson avoided calling Ford a liar. But he also neatly avoided questioning why Kavanaugh, whom Carlson once again presented as a victim, has not joined Ford in calling for an FBI investigation before testifying to Congress. If he’s really innocent, why isn’t he welcoming such an opportunity to clear his name?
Instead, Carlson boasted about his sensitivity to Ford even as he worked to discredit her:
CARLSON: Despite blanket media coverage, the basic details of that story remain murky. Ford has not said when or where it happened precisely. She has said she didn’t tell a soul about it for three decades.
There are significant inconsistencies in her account but we have never doubted Ford’s sincerity and we have never questioned her motives. Unless we learn new facts that give us reason to, we won’t do that. We give her every benefit of every doubt.
So what’s a Fox News host to do when he doesn’t want to attack Ford? Why, demonize the Democrats. Demonizing Democrats is not only Fox News 101, it could serve double purpose of intimidating any Republican senators who might have second thoughts about ramming Kavanaugh’s confirmation through before all the facts can be ascertained. In other words, better to side with a possible sexual predator than a Democrat!
CARLSON: Brett Kavanaugh. He’s also got a family and a career and a reputation. And all have been gravely damaged by these claims. Now Democrats could have helped clear this up weeks ago if they had asked Kavanaugh about Ford’s story as he sat before them for days in the U.S. Senate. That is what hearings are for. But they didn’t do that. Instead they hid what they knew in order to cause maximum political damage. In the process they overturned his life.
But they also overturned Christine Ford’s life. She had asked to remain anonymous. Democrats betrayed her and they dragged her into the public eye. Now Ford says she’s had to leave her home because of threats. Democrats in the Senate did that purely for partisan advantage. And you should keep that in mind the next time they lecture you about how much they care about women.
Carlson may think that he just demonstrated he cares about women. But no one should be fooled.
Watch it below, from the September 19, 2018 Tucker Carlson Tonight, via Media Matters.
Brett Kavanaugh has been extremely clear about who and what he is for the past 40 years. His attempted rape of Christine Blasey Ford is a consistent part of that person. He grew up as a privileged white male with a certain level of intelligence and animal ability – which is why he was able to participate in football and baseball in school while also showing promise as a student, even while he was partying as hard as he could with good friends and fellow travelers like Mark Judge. He was the sort of guy who would be voted “Most Likely to Succeed” and who figured they could get away with whatever they wanted – just as Mitt Romney did in his formative years.
When Kavanaugh graduated college, he went into the political world, and was more than aware that he needed to watch his public image as a rising star on the Right. Kavanaugh showed himself to be a craven political operative to anyone paying attention, while cultivating an image of himself as a pious, devout family man who was the very image of “Aw Shucks” America. In reality, he repeatedly took time to demonstrate viciousness to anyone he thought he could get away with attacking – especially if they were Democratic politicians or anyone connected with the Clintons.
Kavanaugh hasn’t changed from the entitled, childish person he was in high school – he’s just learned how to cloak it better. We saw the real face of Kavanaugh when he angrily rejected the hand of Fred Guttenberg this month.
As for Carlson’s nonsense about the current situation – he’s laughably wrong on who’s responsible for the death threats. Christine Blasey Ford sent a letter in to a local congressperson, hoping she could take a small step toward exposing who Kavanaugh really is. Other classmates from her years at Holton Arms have started to come forward as well, confirming that this was a story that people discussed at the time. From what I can see, Kavanaugh and Judge acquired a reputation for these kinds of actions and the word got out about them – but nobody was going to call the police or their parents. Rather, they just knew to stay away from those guys or to make sure they weren’t alone if they did deal with them. Teenagers tend to figure this stuff out quite well on their own.
When this story began to break in a big way, Dr. Ford realized she wasn’t going to be able to remain anonymous, and she made the courageous choice herself to come forward rather than continuing to hide and allowing Kavanaugh to get away with it again. Predictably, the Right Wing has reacted with vicious rage, including multiple attacks on Ford and the aforementioned death threats. Unless I’m living in an alternate universe, those death threats weren’t made by Democrats – they were made by Right Wingers emboldened by the Pence White House to let their inner hater fly.
If Tucker Carlson wants to assign blame for death threats, he should look at his own fans to start with.