Carlson then conveyed the news very quietly to his viewers: he said that despite his polite requests, Powell did not provide an iota of evidence to support her bizarre claims, but rather told him to stop contacting her. Carlson said she not only failed to provide him with evidence, but also failed to support her claims to others on Trumpworld.
Now I’m not raising this to point out that Carlson deserves accolades for his recognition of the truth of the matter on his show. Bringing a dose of reality into covering one shouldn’t be a compliment. This is not what I understand.
But what is remarkable is that since he called Powell, Carlson has been denounced by some on the right. His Twitter mentions were flooded with frustrated viewers who said they felt betrayed by him. The right-wing websites hosted the controversy. He has been criticized by pro-Trump personalities on the Internet for having the nerve to challenge Powell.
Powell personally retweeted the accounts that attacked Carlson, including one that said Carlson had thrown “one of Fox Globalist’s outrageous fits” that was “union-owned”. During a Friday morning appearance on Maria Bartiromo, Powell criticized Carlson, calling him “insulting” and “rude.”
That’s all it means, we’re in a place – a bad place – where some Trump supporters wouldn’t believe any information that contradicts Trump’s narrative, even if it was. Tucker Carlson Delivered. He dared to oppose the Trump camp – even politely and regarding a distorted conspiracy theory – and even someone like Carlson would be attacked and called a traitor.
As I indicated before: Carlson, the hosts, and the other characters in his network are responsible for this culture on the right, and they might never have imagined it would come back to bite them. But it is somewhat so now, although this is unlikely to hurt Carlson in the long term.
What Carlson said
Carlson made it clear on his Friday evening show that he was aware of the controversy his clip caused about Powell. “In the past 24 hours, we’ve heard a lot of people about this part, including people in the White House and people close to the president,” Carlson said. Carlson went on to say that he and the White House agreed that the elections were “unfair” – but he also said, “Like us,” “they didn’t see a single piece of evidence that the programs changed votes.”
On the one hand, Carlson was content with fanning the flames of voter fraud. On the other hand, he appeared to be trying to pour cold water on Powell’s most ridiculous conspiracy theory that millions of votes had been changed by a complex international conspiracy to undermine Trump. “If Sydney Powell can prove that technology companies changed millions of votes and stole a presidential election, they will single-handedly discover the biggest crime in the history of this country and no one will be more grateful to us for that,” Carlson said in the tone of someone who knows that that will never happen …
A Fox News spokesman said Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell had canceled scheduled appearances on Saturday’s Janine Perot show. I have reported to the Trump campaign for more information, but I have not received a response.
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