Oh, the irony! Tucker Carlson, whose anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant rhetoric has endeared him to America’s white supremacists, told a big, fat lie in order to accuse former president Barack Obama of being a “heartless monster?”
Carlson introduced the topic with some background on a rape which occurred in the girls’ bathroom in a Loudon, County public school. Carlson twice mentioned that the rapist was wearing a skirt – a sop to the rabid right wing which tried say that the incident was part of the school’s pro-trans policy. In reality, court proceedings, in which the perpetrator was found guilty, do not show that to have been the case. (The NY Times' Michelle Goldberg has an excellent article on this lie.) Carlson’s banner used the term “gender fluid” to describe the rape when, in fact, the incident was one of dating violence. The transphobic Tucker, however, totally ignored that inconvenient truth in order to advance an agenda.
Providing the requisite validation for Tucker’s lie was Luke Rosiak, an “investigative reporter” formerly employed by Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller and now working for Ben Shapiro’s right wing Daily Wire. His expertise there seems to be in publishing articles which demonize the Virginia public schools and, naturally, former VA governor and then gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe.
Rosiak began by claiming the school seems to have handled the situation poorly and that the evil mainstream media ignored it. He then said, “Two days ago Barack Obama alluded to it while campaigning with Terry McAuliffe, calling it phony, right-wing outrage.”
Carlson’s indignation was palpable: “So, Barack Obama -- who really is a heartless monster and I'm glad that's clear to everyone now -- described the rape of a child as phony, right-wing outrage?”
Let’s pause here. With no basis in reality, Tucker Carlson, who mockingly attacked measures to combat college rape, accuses Obama of describing a rape as a “phony outrage.” Please. At no point in his speech, endorsing McAuliffe for governor, was the high school rape mentioned. Rather, Obama was trying to juxtapose the real issues for Virginians vs. the phony “education” issues being promulgated by the political right and its surrogate, Fox News.
Here’s what Obama actually said – in context with the rest of his speech:
“Virginia, we’ve got too much to get done, to be dealing with the okey doke. Here we are trying to recover from a global pandemic that has killed more than 700,000 Americans, that shut down thousands of small businesses and put millions out of work. We don’t have time to be wasting on these phony, trumped-up culture wars, this fake outrage that right wing media’s pedals to juice their ratings. And the fact that he’s willing to go along with it, instead of talking about serious problems that actually affect serious people. That’s a shame. That’s not what this election’s about. That’s not out what you need, Virginia.”
In defending a libel suit, Fox’s attorneys said that viewers shouldn’t believe Carlson because he isn’t a source of truth. Tucker’s vile lie about Barack Obama is just one small example of Carlson's dishonesty. So, who is the real “heartless monster?”
If you need help deciding, you can watch the segment below, from the October 26, 2021 Tucker Carlson Tonight.
