Tucker Carlson offered a rare on-air apology for one of his falsehoods about voter fraud in Georgia.
Earlier this week, Carlson smarmily claimed, “no one quite embodied” the story of dead voters like that of deceased James Blalock, of Covington, Georgia, voting in last week’s election.
CARLSON: James Blalock cast a ballot in last week’s election. How did he do that? It might be worth asking The New York Times. Maybe James Blalock was just one of those extraordinary mail carriers - neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night nor even death itself could keep him from the mail. In his case, maybe voting from the grave wasn’t really fraud, it was just commitment.
OK, but what about Linda Kessler of Nicholson, Georgia? Linda Kessler died in 2003. 17 years later, she was still voting in presidential elections.
Not really.
As Crooks and Liars explains, the real voters were Mrs. James Blalock and a Lynda Kessler who spells her name slightly differently, but who also has a different address and zip code than the deceased Ms. Kessler.
Unfortunately for Carlson, this particular set of lies was very publicly debunked. And while I’d like to believe he found a shred of decency or reverence for truth that prompted the apology, his record indicates otherwise. In fact, Carlson only apologized for one of the falsehoods in what Fox described as a “clarification.”
CARLSON: We’ve got some good news tonight, and an apology. One of the people who voted in last week’s election isn’t dead. James Blalock is still dead, we told you about him, but it was his wife who voted. She voted as Mrs. James Blalock. It’s old-fashioned and we missed it. Now, a whole bunch of dead people did vote, we showed you their names, we proved it, but James Blalock was not among them. It was Mrs. James Blalock. So apologies for that, and of course we’re always going to correct when we’re wrong. And we were.”
Carlson did not apologize for getting Kessler wrong.
You can watch Carlson's smears below, from the November 11, 2020 Tucker Carlson Tonight, via Crooks and Liars. Underneath is his apology about Blalock, from the November 13, 2020 Tucker Carlson Tonight.