Tucker Carlson: Fox host under fire again over resurfaced racist comments
Fox News host Tucker Carlson is under fire for the second time in as many days for remarks he made years ago as a guest on a shock jock radio program – this time for a barrage of racist language about the people of Iraq.
“I just have zero sympathy for them or their culture. A culture where people just don’t use toilet paper or forks,” he said of the nation in a 2006 appearance on the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show, in audio rediscovered by the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters. “They can just shut the fuck up and obey, is my view.”
Carlson went on to call Iraq a “crappy place filled with a bunch of semiliterate primitive monkeys” during a 2o08 call-in on the show, which he was a regular guest on from 2006 to 2011. He added of Afghanistan: “It’s never going to be a civilized country because the people aren’t civilized.”
In another clip on the topic of feminism, Carlson stated that white men deserve credit for “creating civilization”.
Media Matters released a reel of Carlson’s racist remarks late on Monday night, a day after releasing one containing a number of sexist statements from the longtime conservative TV personality.
In the remarks, Carlson also described efforts to diversify US radio programming as “worse than Jim Crow”, the web of segregation laws which held black Americans in second class citizenship for nearly a century. He speculated that then presidential candidate Barack Obama was likely to face problems with his wife, Michelle, because she “turns into a sister” in a conversation where the show’s hosts described her as acting “ghetto” and “snapping her neck”.
Carlson defended himself on his nightly TV show on Monday, declaring himself a victim of “the great American outrage machine” at roughly the same time that the second Media Matters compilation was released.
“It’s pointless to try to explain how the words were spoken in jest, or taken out of context, or in any case bear no resemblance to what you actually think, or would want for the country,” Carlson said, vowing not to acquiesce to calls for him to apologize or step down. “We will never bow to the mob. Ever. No matter what.”
Carlson claimed to have the full support of Fox News in light of the rumbling controversy on social media. “Toughness is a rare quality in a TV network, and we are grateful for that.” The hashtag #FireTuckerCarlson briefly trended Monday.
So did #FireJeaninePirro, another embattled Fox News host who suggested on Saturday that congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s choice to wear a hijab might put her ideologically at odds with the constitution.
“Think about it: Omar wears a hijab,” Pirro said. “Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?”
The network said it strongly condemned Pirro’s remarks, and that they did not reflect the opinion of Fox News. Hufsa Kamal a producer at the network added on Twitter: “Can you stop spreading this false narrative that somehow Muslims hate America or women who wear a hijab aren’t American enough? You have Muslims working at the same network you do, including myself.”
Fox News confirmed to the Guardian that Carlson continues to have the network’s full support, and has not directly addressed his remarks, which were made before he was an employee of Fox News.
It’s never going to be a civilized country because the people aren’t civilized