Tucker Carlson Sparks Controversy by Suggesting Assassination Risks for Former President Trump
The far-right media figure who was fired by Fox News earlier this year, Tucker Carlson, asserted this week without providing any supporting evidence that the country is “speeding towards” the assassination of former President Donald Trump. This assertion has gained support from prominent figures on the conservative fringe.
Carlson was questioned how “the future holds” for Trump, who is leading the race for the GOP presidential nominee in 2024, during an interview with the comedian and podcaster Adam Carolla. Carlson then launched into a tirade over the former president being twice impeached and being charged with four crimes.
Carlson’s words were discussed on Jones’ Infowars show after he earlier this year made similar remarks regarding a potential assassination.
Trump has long been portrayed as the object of a massive conspiracy, one that was partly hatched by Washington’s “deep state,” the Democratic elite, and the media. This point of view has been adopted by the former president, who describes himself as a “victim” and the target of a “witch hunt.”
Carlson’s remarks, according to Daniel Jones, the head of the unbiased research group Advance Democracy, are an illustration of the kind of speech that might encourage actual violence.
After agreeing to pay Dominion Voting Systems close to $800 million to avoid a high-stakes defamation trial, Fox News and its parent corporation dismissed Carlson in April. The reason he was fired by the network was not made public.
Read Also: Fox News Reacts Strongly to Donald Trump’s Arraignment, Cries ‘Political War Crimes’
Trump’s Close Call
He was seen as one of the key voices in a conservative movement that had been significantly transformed by the advent of Trump. He was one of the network’s top stars. Upon his departure, Carlson began publishing episodes of a brand-new program on X that provided political analysis.
During a campaign rally in Las Vegas in June 2016, one month before he formally accepted the Republican Party’s nomination for president at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Trump was the target of an assassination attempt.
At the campaign rally, 20-year-old British citizen Michael Sandford attempted to take a police officer’s gun and told authorities he wanted to assassinate Trump.
Two presidents were injured in attempted assassinations, and four presidents were killed while in office. The lives of Trump’s immediate predecessors were subject to numerous violent threats.
When extremism experts connected Carlson’s on-air opinions with the “great replacement” white nationalist beliefs held by a shooter who killed 10 people in Buffalo, New York, he came under heavy scrutiny.
He also came under fire for distributing false information about politics, endorsing ideas about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, downplaying the seriousness of the incident at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, and insulting journalists working for rival media sources.
Read Also: Biden Administration Imposes Investment Limits on Chinese Tech Sectors
Source: NBC News
