Ret. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman is among the many Americans sick of Tucker Carlson.
Carlson, of course, seems ever present within far-right media circles, whether he’s promoting false claims of widespread election fraud, promoting the narrative of some kind of equivalency between Ukraine and Russia in the countries’ ongoing war, or interviewing public menace Kanye West, who seems more interested in far-right politics and antagonizing people than the music of his that people have liked. Recently, Carlson gave West — whose name is now legally just Ye — a platform to defend wearing “White Lives Matter” at a fashion event. “@TuckerCarlson is a liar & a cheat & a scoundrel & willing to do anything. Just to reiterate!” Vindman said on Twitter alongside a clip of himself and his wife, Rachel, appearing on a podcast. In the clip, Vindman characterized Carlson as in it for personal gain and suggested he’s more of a grifter than someone who earnestly believes everything he says.
.@TuckerCarlson is a liar & a cheat & a scoundrel & willing to do anything. Just to reiterate! https://t.co/8sgOyYhFYt
— Alexander S. Vindman (@AVindman) October 10, 2022
Vindman also pointed out that even if some three million people view Carlson’s show each night it’s airing that leaves far more Americans who don’t watch it. Carlson, though, also has strange ideas about the Capitol riot, among other things. “The very same corrupt interests in Washington that pushed the Iraq War under false pretenses are now pushing the lie of a domestic white terror,” he said. “They are tying white nationalist terrorism to Trump voters. They’re tying January 6 to 9/11. They’re tying millions of law abiding Americans to al-Qaida and ISIS. January 6 is being used as a pretext to strip millions of Americans — disfavored Americans — of their core constitutional rights, and to defame them as domestic terrorists.” That is not happening, and it’s not even close.
Only in an imaginary alternate universe is that realistic — but it’s part of familiarly disconnected-from-reality fear-mongering on the Right. There has been no national stripping of rights from Trump voters. They still have free speech, gun rights, and access to education and healthcare (although the latter two of those aren’t generally recognized legal rights in the U.S.). Conservative churches can still operate. The persistent martyr complex on the Right is so strange.
