Let us hope the tried-and-true viewers of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” did not tune in to watch FBI Director Christopher A. Wray deliver testimony before the Senate on Tuesday. If they had, they might have walked away confused. “The attackers on Jan. 6 included a number … of what we would call militia violent extremism. And we have had some already arrested who we would put in the category of racially motivated violent extremism, white, as well,” said Wray in the session.
Now listen to Tucker Carlson: “Whatever you thought about what happened yesterday, what was racist about it? Well, nothing, of course. There’s nothing racist about it,” said Carlson on Jan. 7. That was just one day after the riot took place, long before court filings and investigative reporting would deepen the country’s understanding of the backgrounds and motivations of the people who stormed the Capitol. Heck — just hours after the riot, on his Jan. 6 program, Carlson had reached the conclusion that “they’re not some, you know, creepy, androgynous blogger who shows up to burn things down. They’re like, kind of solid Americans, and they’re deeply frustrated.”
Carlson never needs more information, though. He just needs his formula: America isn’t a racist country, so racism didn’t happen.
Even as profiles of the rioters started rolling in, Carlson veered not one bit from his takeaway. On his Jan. 14 show, for instance, he argued, “You can judge for yourself what happened last Wednesday in Washington. Rarely has an event been filmed from more angles than that was. You know what that was, and you also know what it wasn’t. It was not an act of racism. It was not an insurrection. It wasn’t an armed invasion by a brigade of dangerous white supremacists. It wasn’t. Those are lies.”
Feb. 22: “There is no evidence that white supremacists are responsible for what happened on Jan. 6 — that’s a lie.”
Some evidence:
- A man who wore a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt was arrested in connection with the riot.
- A man who held a Confederate flag as he plied the Capitol’s corridors turned himself in to authorities.
- Several people with affiliations to the Proud Boys were charged with offenses stemming from the riot. The New York Times described the group as promoting “an ideology of male and Western superiority, with members often expressing white-supremacist and anti-immigrant views.”
- Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn disclosed that he’d been called the n-word multiple times as he protected the building.
- An array of hate symbols permeated the crowd in and around the Capitol riot.
Motivations and mentalities are tough things to pin down. There’s no claim from the Erik Wemple Blog, accordingly, that the Capitol riot was a wall-to-wall white supremacist production. In his testimony, Wray himself cautiously assessed the situation. “We also have a couple of instances where we’ve already identified individuals involved in the criminal behavior who we would put in the racially motivated violent extremists who advocate for, what you would call, for white supremacy. So there’ve been some of those individuals as well,” said Wray.
All the evidence of racist sentiment in the Jan. 6 crowd should have been enough to preempt Carlson’s whitewashing of the event. We asked him via email whether Wray’s testimony might force a reconsideration of his analysis, whether he might allow that some of the rioters were racists and whether he’d consider correcting his statements. His response: “Your corporate masters in Bezo’s [sic] office have been accused by an employee of racism,” wrote Carlson, apparently referring to this story about a discrimination lawsuit against Amazon (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Post). “Are you covering that, or are you too cowardly? Let me know when you decide to be a man, and I’d be happy to add a quote.”
No need, Mr. Carlson: We’ll just use that quote.
“We believe the obvious,” said Carlson the night before the Jan. 6 riot. “Immigrants come here, in some cases, risking their lives to come here precisely because America is the least racist place they could find — or it was.” That’s a mantra on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” — see, for example, the time he declared that white supremacy was a “hoax” or the time he said, “In this country, we judge you for what you do, not how you were born. That idea has been the defining principle of America since the 18th Century.” When Carlson’s program does highlight racism, there’s a good chance that it’ll feature White people in the role of alleged victims, whether in the good ol’ United States or in South Africa.
Little sophistication is required to understand Carlson’s approach to race. He laid it all out in a widely noticed 2018 monologue on his show: “How, precisely, is diversity our strength?” asked the host. “Do you get along better with your neighbors, your co-workers if you can’t understand each other or share no common values?”
Then came the Jan. 6 riot, which plunged Carlson’s anti-diversity premise into crisis. Here was a group of people who trampled every precious “common value” in the Fox News rhetorical inventory: They bullied and battered law-enforcement officials; they broke windows and stole public property; they showed no respect for authority; and they ransacked the symbol of American democracy. One more thing: They were predominantly White — “solid Americans,” in Carlson’s telling, and definitely not racists.
Read more:
