Fox News host Tucker Carlson apparently doesn't understand why liberals are mad at President Donald Trump for his frequent bullying tweets and other outrageous remarks. After all, President Barack Obama was friends with rappers!
Yes, this was indeed Carlson's (most likely racist) logic, which is quoted in full below.
"Let's be totally clear about this and not lie about it. The left doesn’t hate Trump because he’s vulgar, though he is. They applauded when Barack Obama vacationed with rappers. They think Lena Dunham is an artist. They hired Kathy Griffin," Carlson sanctimoniously intoned during the Thursday evening edition of his Fox News show.
He added, "No, they hate Trump because he's a nationalist who says the interests of America and its people ought to come first, and that's fine. Let them hate him for that. The rest of the country loves it. That's the real tragedy of today's tweets. They were a diversion. When the president talks about the people who elected him, he wins. When he talks about himself, the left does. The president was not elected to pick fights with TV hosts."
While Carlson deserves credit for criticizing Trump over his tendency to tweet trivialities, the rest of his logic is so flawed that it almost boggles the mind. There is nothing vulgar about hanging out with rappers, and the casual assumption to the contrary — his ability to take for granted that if you say the word "rapper," vulgarity is an implied follow up — is pretty hard to characterize as anything other than racist.
The mentions of Lena Dunham and Kathy Griffin, though less offensive, are still asinine. Dunham may be left-wing but her work is no more controversial than most of the other fare you'd find on HBO, while Griffin was roundly condemned by liberals for her photograph showing a beheaded Trump.
The rest of his commentary was practically brimming with the right's characteristic persecution complex. Nothing serves them better than the notion that the left hates America and despises conservatives because of their presumed love for their country. It's a great way to play the victim (even as Carlson devoted other parts of his rant to accusing the left of precisely that), and conveniently ignores any discussion of President Trump's troubling lack of regard for press autonomy and tendency to resort to sexism when criticized by women.
Earlier this week, Fox News most esteemed anchor, Chris Wallace, wrote a column criticizing Obama’s “luxury” family vacation to Bali. Citing “travel experts,” Wallace claimed that “the level of luxury the Obamas enjoy on their vacations is unprecedented for a modern-day president.”
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