Tucker Carlson had a chance to become an important figure in the conservative movement, and he threw it all away with both hands. I don't know whom he fancies his audience to be these days - the government of Qatar, billionaire eccentrics, secret (and perhaps not so secret) Nazis, who knows? - but once he started down the rabbit hole of anti-Semitism, he pretty much made it impossible to turn back.
What's driving this? Stupidity or cupidity?
Update Stupid, greedy and sloppy: "Is Tucker Carlson’s Career Toast Now?"
The detention story was bad. What came on Friday was worse.
Carlson released the Huckabee interview and used it to launch a series of outlandish claims and accusations. He called Israel "probably the most violent country on earth," questioned its right to exist, accused it of controlling American foreign policy, and declared it a police state. He claimed Netanyahu believes in "blood guilt" — that he punishes not just wrongdoers but their entire bloodlines — even though Netanyahu has never said anything of the sort. His claim that "Prime Minister Netanyahu has way more influence over American foreign policy than Americans do" echoed antisemitic tropes that have circulated for decades.
Then came the Epstein bomb. Carlson repeatedly pressed Huckabee about Israeli President Isaac Herzog's supposed connection to Jeffrey Epstein's island. "The current president of Israel, whom I know you know, apparently was at 'pedo island,'" Carlson said on air. Huckabee said he was unaware of any such connection. And for good reason — there isn't one. Herzog appears in the Epstein files only through news articles that ended up in Epstein's emails. Carlson was basing his allegation on a fake, AI-generated image that circulated online after the Epstein files were released.
Mad. Stark, raving mad.
I expect that cupidity is a major cause, but I have a suspicion that Tucker is either a mole, or at least hid his real feelings until he had a free hand on his content ... ...
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