The Bottomless Cynicism of Tucker Carlson

By David Corn  August 26, 2023

Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump chat it up this week for an interview posted on Twitter.

It’s been quite the stretch. John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Donald Trump, and other alleged coup plotters—booked and mug-shot at the Fulton County jail, while eight bit players squawked at an underwhelming GOP debate. Trump tried to turn his arrest into a badge of honor. (If they can do this to me, they can do this to you!) It was his latest assault on reality. And at the debate, his pipsqueak rivals tossed off lies and absurd talking points to mimic Trump’s tactic of inflaming grievances, exploiting resentments, and murdering the truth. Tech-bro Vivek Ramaswamy dismissed climate change as a “hoax” and declared that “more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate change.” (“Pants on Fire!” proclaimed PolitiFact.”) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis brayed that during the pandemic he opposed lockdowns and kept his state “free and open.” (Wrong. He imposed strict restrictions at first and eased them months later.) Meanwhile, far from the debate hall, newly-impoverished Giuliani, who pioneered the use of RICO to lock up mobsters and white-collar crooks, whined that he was being persecuted, as an FBI whistleblower provided more evidence that Giuliani, during the 2020 campaign, was in cahoots with a covert Russian operation to discredit Joe Biden.

The worst of Trump’s GOP was on brazen display. The guy who incited a violent insurrectionist attack on the US Capitol and who conspired to subvert the constitutional order was being arrested (again) for multiple crimes, and for the Rs, this changed nothing. No surprise, right, Cults are cults. Rules, norms, facts, the law, reality, decency—none of that matters. The true believers are enrapt with the phony narrative Trump feeds them. For these millions of Americans, it’s theology. The rest of the party—and the conservative movement—are profoundly cynical, either capitalizing (and grifting) on the marks or just too darn afraid of them to challenge the propaganda they embrace as gospel.

And no one is more cynical than Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News golden boy.

As you know, Trump eschewed the debate and instead sat down for an interview with Carlson that was posted on the Social Media Site Formerly Known as Twitter. It was tough to watch. Such profound toadyism is unnerving, even when coming from a champion charlatan, such as Carlson. As Donald Trump reiterated the same ol’ false complaint—“The election was rigged. It was a rigged election…. They used Covid to cheat…. We have so much on it. It’s like so easy”—Carlson gazed at him adoringly. There was no retort from the interviewer.

But we know, thanks to the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against Fox, that Carlson didn’t buy Trump’s bunk. In private messages revealed during that case, Carlson indicated he didn’t accept the Trump team’s claims that the 2020 election was marred by rampant fraud. He also repeatedly expressed his disdain for Trump. In one text message, he said, “I hate him passionately.” In another, written on January 4, 2021, he wrote, “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights” and that “I truly can’t wait.” He called Trump’s four years as president a “disaster.”

Carlson shared none of his anti-Trump sentiments at the time with his Fox viewers. On air, he hailed Trump as a “great” president. For obvious reasons. One message he sent in the post-2020 election period shows that he feared speaking the truth about Trump. Trump’s talent, he wrote, is to “destroy things. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.” That is, sucking up to Trump—and his devoted following—was the business plan for Carlson and Fox. If Fox had acknowledged that Trump lost and was lying, it would have pissed off its audience, and viewers would have fled. So screw the truth. It’s all just propaganda for profit.

Now Carlson is pretending that he was not exposed as a total fraud. And he’s back to serving King Con.

This is hardly surprising, given Carlson’s record as a white supremacy-pushing, Putin-supporting disinformationalist. But an episode like this shows us just how debased the political culture of the right has become. Carlson, whose misogyny apparently triggered his firing, pays no price within the conservative cosmos for his rampant phoniness. He remains in good standing, as long as he keeps slinging the Trumpish swill. Especially when the Trump rubes—trubes?—want to keep being rubed.

Actually, allowing Trump to spread the Big Lie once more was hardly the worst of Carlson’s transgressions during his sit-down with the most indicted ex-president in US history. (Yes, the only indicted ex-president.) Early in the chat, Carlson asked Trump a dangerous question:

I’m looking at the trajectory since 2015 when you got into politics for real and then won. It started with protests against you…by the left, and then it moved to impeachment twice, and now indictment. The next stage is violence. Are you worried they’re going to try to kill you? Why wouldn’t they try to kill you?

Here Carlson was suggesting that Trump’s political foes are conspiring to kill Trump. In a divided country at a divisive moment, this is reckless and irresponsible. He was fueling hatred and paranoia. Imagine the actions that Trump devotees might consider if they were convinced Democrats, liberals, prosecutors, the media, and others were bent on killing Trump?

Trump, of course, played along with this nonsense and referred to his opponents as “savage animals. They are people who are sick, really sick.” Carlson, who seemingly detests Trump when off-camera, was hailing him as a grand martyr for America and pushing a false storyline with potentially horrendous consequences.

The Trump-Carlson lovefest was full of inanities. As Carlson beamed at his pal, Trump, who spent a gazillion hours on golf courses while he was president, derided President Joe Biden for taking a trip to the beach and called him a “Manchurian candidate” controlled by China. For his part, Carlson said of Vice President Kamala Harris, “she seems pretty senile.” (What?) At one point, Trump did speak a truth: “We have a country that’s very fragile now.” Indeed. And both Trump and Carlson are brazenly exploiting that fragility for their own benefit, with no regard for the perils they provoke. Two peas in a rotten pod.

Got anything to say about this item—or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com

The Mailbag

We at Our Land Global Headquarters continue to dig out from the blizzard of mail that came in while we were lazing during the mid-summer weeks. So we’re skipping Dumbass Comment of the Week—you watched the GOP debate, didn’t you?—to catch up.

Howard Goodman responded to an issue denigrating Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for running a campaign fueled by disinformation and conspiracy theories:

I agree with roughly 95 percent of what you write on a regular basis, which is a terrific average in any arena, but one thing I question in this column about RFK Jr. is your assertion about 5G not causing any physical damage to humans. “Brain bleed” is how you described it. I’m not a tin-foiler, but can you categorically say that about 5G, and similarly, smart meters and the like? What do you base those particular beliefs upon? Thanks if you have the time to respond in some fashion. 

I am prepared to believe that all the microwaves, radiation, and other electromagnetic stuff that emanates from our devices and other sources is not good for us. I doubt that corporate America has fully vetted all this tech, and we may one day discover the negative health impacts of being zapped in so many ways. But Kennedy Jr. asserts that—no ifs, ands, or buts— “brain bleed” is happening due to 5G. As far as I can tell, that has yet to be proven. This seems to be another instance of Kennedy making claims that are either not confirmed or contradicted by the existing science.

Many readers had many thoughts about my piece on the persistence of paranoia and irrationality within the Trumpish base of the GOP. Martha Ture emailed:

Your article on Trump, his supporters, our national Intransigents Party, and our approaching civil war is lucid and valuable. It seems clear that when lunatics are armed, organized, and willing, the rest of us must count on the police, the US Army, and the National Guard to protect the president and the rest of us. The successes of Bidenomics might reduce the number of armed Intransigents, but it looks as though facts and finances are not sufficiently disarming to protect us or prevent civil war.  

Whoa. I’m not sure we are on the verge of violent civil war. But I did note that many Trumpists are intransigent when it comes to adhering to a bizarre (and false) version of reality. They will not be swayed by the facts. But they are a minority slice. If the rest of us band together to oppose the authoritarianism and lunacy promoted by Trump and his henchmen, we may well avert this worst-case scenario.

Karen Martin wrote:

Your continued efforts to offer sobering, scary and, most importantly, factual information about the threats to our democracy by Trump, his supporters, and like-minded Republican officials are much appreciated. I would love to be part of the solution, but how does one fight delusion? It's like talking to a brick wall. His supporters decry American media, but they ignore the fact that most of the free world supports the actual evidence they dismiss. The only interests of most elected officials are power and greed, not constituents or democracy. Also, yes, with age comes wisdom, but... we also have too many very old politicians who can no longer function on their own.

I'm disheartened, to say the least. I continue to fervently hope we will get through this threat to our democracy. Time will tell.

I counsel avoiding despair. And keep this in mind: The task at hand is not to persuade the unpersuadable, but to mobilize those who do not live within delusion to clearly see the threat and to join together to counter it.

Edward Hackett seems to understand this:

Once the Trump virus has infected a person, they are infected for life. This desire to believe in outlandish ideas becomes more understandable when we look at other beliefs held by many people - the earth is flat, evolution is a hoax, man walked with the dinosaurs, and climate change is not occurring.

What sickens me even more than this stupidity is the number of intelligent people who push this BS to gain power and money. Anything to earn more money and power, never mind how many people will be hurt. People like Fox News folks, Tucker Carlson, and Sean Hannity come to mind as intelligent people who have sold the American public a load of BS to make money. Never consider the harm they have done as long as the cash flows in.

See the above item.

Teressa Vogt vented:

Donald Trump is the leader of the cult, but with the huge right-wing media empire on television and internet, Russian trolls, disciplined messaging by GOP, Steve Bannon, and myriad others he gets tremendous help in keeping the lies and fantasy world going. Democrats and our media have to learn how to fight with this right-wing media machine. They continue to drive the messaging; we have to learn how to stop this and turn it around so we are in the driver’s seat.  

I know it seems that the right and its media wing always have the advantage. But Joe Biden did best Donald Trump in 2020. And the Dems have fared better than expected in the last two mid-term elections. Right-wing messaging often appears to be tighter and better coordinated. Still, the Democrats and the left can beat it back when they’re smart and disciplined. See Issue One in Ohio.

Mechelle Schneider shared similar sentiments:

I don’t know how to reach the crazies in America today. With people like Ron DeSantis controlling what is taught in schools, it will only get worse. For years I taught college composition courses. The second course in the series was about argument. I loved teaching logical fallacies, and good persuasive techniques to my students. My students learned that the best place to find examples of logical fallacies was in politics. One term I had a student who had served in the military. She was a staunch supporter of Mitt Romney. I asked her what she liked about Romney. Her response was that he had served in the military and Obama had not. Of course, Romney had not served in the military, but these are the crazy beliefs so many adopt without questioning. I fear, I do not know the answer, but I sure hope someone does.

Meredith Ahearn addressed perhaps the most important issue: “Where’s Moxie?” Which brings us to….

MoxieCam™

“I love a gray beach day.”

“That’s good, Moxie.”

“And I love a sunny beach day.”

“Do you have a preference?”

“Why would I?”

Read Recent Issues of Our Land

August 23, 2023: David Brooks’ blind spot; American Psychosis, the paperback; whatever happened to our service economy?; the Mailbag; Citizen Cope takes a “Victory March”; and more.

August 17, 2023: Donald Trump, mob boss (then and now); Dumbass Comment of the Week (Matt Gaetz); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

August 12, 2023: From the Our Land  archives: In Ohio, sex sells freedom; and more.

August 8, 2023: Ron DeSantis—not dead yet; Our Land on Cape Cod; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Mike Pence campaign); and more.

August 5, 2023: From the Our Land archives: The tale of Jeffrey Clark (Trump’s “co-conspirator 4”); Hightown, a crime drama that explores the underside of Cape Cod; and more.

August 1, 2023: What the Trump indictment won’t fix; the Covid wars; Freedy Johnston’s songwriting craftsmanship; and more.

July 25, 2023: Oppenheimer: a masterwork with a missing piece; wait, wait…I’m on a different news quiz show; the Our Land Zoom meeting report; summertime schedules; Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and Barbie; and more.

July 22, 2023: How dangerous is No Labels?; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Kevin Lincoln); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

Got suggestions, comments, complaints, tips related to any of the above, or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com.