It turns out that while Tucker Carlson sneers and jeers about other networks being too close to Democrats, he has become an informal adviser to Donald Trump, one who pushed him to fire John Bolton. Carlson also seems to be inserting himself into the choice for Bolton’s replacement.

Last night, as he crowed about national security adviser Bolton’s departure from the White House (and ludicrously accused him of being “a man of the left”), Carlson somehow failed to mention that he has been privately lobbying Trump on that very subject. From Politico (with my emphases added):

For months, the Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson had been lobbying President Donald Trump to fire John Bolton, telling him it was foolish to keep on his team a top adviser who did not share his views on pressing national security issues.

Carlson and a host of others, including several senior administration officials, frequently told Trump that Bolton, a career hawk with a reputation as a vicious bureaucratic infighter, not only wasn’t on his team but was using the news media against him.

Author Eliana Johnson also reminded us that while Bolton was sent to Mongolia during Trump’s last rendezvous with Kim Jong-un, he brought Carlson with him, instead.

Then she noted that one of the names being floated as a replacement is retired Army Col. Douglas MacGregor, “a frequent guest on Carlson’s program.”

It just so happens that MacGregor was on Carlson’s show last night where Carlson made it obvious he thought MacGregor would be a good choice - while pretending to just interview him.

For example, Carlson’s first question to MacGregor was, “Looking at the National Security apparatus in Washington post-John Bolton, what are the things that need to be fixed first?” That was followed by, “So if you were giving the president advice, what are the first things you would do?”

Carlson closed the interview with this praise obviously meant for the Fan-in-Chief but without advising viewers about what he was up to.

CARLSON: Very smart. And the implication -- and I know that you believe this -- is that immigration ultimately is a national security issue. The sad thing is that everything you outline is something that the president has either explicitly endorsed in public or suggested that he believes and it's been very hard to get any of it done because he's had the wrong people working for him. And I really hope that changes and I hope he -- I hope he listens to you. Colonel MacGregor, great to see you tonight. Thank you.

Watch Carlson pretend he's not acting as a surreptitious adviser below, from the September 10, 2019 Tucker Carlson Tonight.

(Carlson image via screen grab)