The 10 worst things Tucker Carlson has said on air

Well, well, well. It seems that even Fox News has a limit, and noted loud-mouthed bigot and alumnus of various incredibly expensive private schools Tucker Carlson is no longer a host on the network. Some speculate whether Carlson’s firing might have something to do with his routinely disparaging remarks about conservative darling Donald Trump, recently publicized as part of the settled Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against Fox. Others believe it might be due to past sexual misconduct allegations, which wouldn’t be a surprise given his tendencies towards slimy behavior and general sexism.

Regardless of the reasoning behind the issue, Carlson is now unemployed, although considering how wealthy he is (and already was before he became a mouthpiece for the worst parts of the American right), we aren’t crying any tears for him. Plus, if we’re being honest, he’s said enough terrible things on-air (both on his own show and on others) to have been justifiably fired multiple times, so it’s not like this is an unfair outcome. If you’re ready to feel the rage, then read ahead for our roundup of the 10 worst things Tucker Carlson has said on air.

10. Playing down the threat of white supremacy in the U.S after a racist mass shooting

Three days after a racially-motivated mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, in which the killer wrote a manifesto that specifically mentioned a so-called “Hispanic invasion of Texas,” Carlson told his viewers that white supremacy was not a real problem. specifically, he said  “It’s a conspiracy theory used to divide the country and keep a hold on power.” Plenty of people much more educated and aware of the situation than Carlson would disagree, but his dangerous rhetoric went out unedited and unchecked by the Fox team.

9. That time he told a historian to ‘go f**k yourself’

This one is a bit of a cheat as it technically took place off-air, but Carlson was being recorded, and in the clip even states that he “hopes this gets picked up.” Carlson invited Dutch historian Rutger Bregman onto his television show to discuss a variety of topics, and Bregman was keen to point out that Carlson was effectively a lackey for the monied classes. He also raised questions about Carlson’s links to the right-wing Cato Institute, leading to an already-emotional Carlson to become apoplectic with rage. Unable to keep his cool, the former Fox host ended the segment, then ripped into Bregman, who seemed to see the funny side of it all.

8. Constantly promoting a racist conspiracy theory

Carlson is a frequent proponent of the racist and unfounded “Great Replacement Theory.” The theory holds that the demographic shift that’s seen America diversify is actually a well thought-out plan by some nefarious globalists to destroy the white race. This theory is a favorite of white supremacists and racists, and was cited as a reason for murdering sprees by the likes of Dylan Roof and the Christchurch mosque killer — so, the usual company that Carlson keeps.

7. His strange lie that wind power is a ‘scam’

It’s no surprise that Carlson takes a positive stance towards the fossil fuels industry, but sometimes this manifests as absurd lies about renewable energy. In a short rant about wind power and the Green New Deal, he makes a bunch of nonsense claims about the efficacy of wind power, ending with the simply untrue statement that it doesn’t work in cold weather.

6. When he called Iraqis ‘primitive monkeys’

Before Carlson was a Fox News talking head, he would often call into the shock jock show Bubba The Love Sponge, where he would go on unhinged rants that make his Fox show seem like a bastion of reasonable journalism. In 2006, while live on air, he claimed that Iraqis were “semiliterate primitive monkeys,” and that citizens of the country should just “shut the f**k up and obey” America. Three years later on the same show he claimed Afghanistan could never become a “civilized country because the people aren’t civilized.” A bit rich coming from the guy who spent four years sucking up to a sex offender who he hates, but very much par for the course for Tucker.

5. When he said that killing people was actually totally alright, so he could defend Trump meeting Kim Jong-un

When asked about the former president meeting the despotic dictator of North Korea, Carlson appeared to defend the brutal ruler of the hermit nation, claiming ruling a country “means killing people.” The comments came after he was pressed for his thoughts on Donald Trump potentially legitimizing the North Korean ruler. In the same phone call to Fox and Friends, Carlson also said that foreign policy is “a choice most of the time between the bad people and the worse people.” Kim has been accused of a number of extreme human rights abuses.

4. When he claimed BLM protesters ‘will come for you’

If underplaying the actions of those at the Jan 6 insurrection at the Capitol wasn’t enough, Carlson has also been keen to spread the idea that Black Lives Matters protestors are a murderous bunch of villains instead of people just hoping to no longer be killed for the crime of having the wrong skin colour. Carlson claimed the protestors would “hurt anyone who gets in the way,” and that their movement showed “rioting… makes you rich and powerful.” Of course, this is the same man who constantly underplays the threat of actual mass shootings and violence, so perhaps it’s best to take everything he says with a mound of salt.

3. When he said that women are ‘dogs’

If Carlson had any sense of shame, he’d probably regret all those times he mouthed off on Bubba the Love Sponge. But, that would require him to understand basic human emotions, which is a little beyond his wheelhouse. One of the worst things he said on the show in a litany of truly terrible takes was that women were “like dogs… they’re extremely primitive, they’re basic, they’re not that hard to understand.” The misogynistic comments were part of an argument he was making that women like strong men, so straight out of the Andrew Tate playbook.

2. His certainty that immigrants would make the country “poorer and dirtier.”

In 2018 Carlson managed to get a slew of advertisers to pull out thanks to being so bigoted even they couldn’t abide by him anymore, despite his stellar ratings. Considering what passes for content on Fox, that’s no mean feat. Speaking on his show (alongside a random image of trash) Carlson said:

“Nice people, no one doubts that, but as an economic matter this is insane. It’s indefensible, so no one even tries to defend it. Instead our leaders demand that you shut up and accept this. We have a moral obligation to admit the world’s poor, they tell us, even if it makes our country poorer and dirtier and more divided.”

Considering Conservatives have decided washing your hands is too woke, we’re more inclined to think it’s not immigrants who are making the country dirtier — but the truth has never stopped Tucker from, well, anything.

1. When he said that former polygamist cult leader Warren Jeffs was being treated unfairly, just before he was convicted of numerous child sex offences

Here it is: our final installment of this list (and third from the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show), and probably the worst thing Carlson has ever said on air. During a long conversation, Carlson argued that Jeffs — then on the FBIs list of “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” — hadn’t done anything that bad by arranging various illegal marriages between underage girls and adults. He also played down the severity of statuatory rape, saying that underage marriage “the same thing exactly as pulling a child from a bus stop and sexually assaulting that child. … The rapist in this case has made a lifelong commitment to live and take care of the person so it is a little different.”

If you think it couldn’t get any worse, in the same segment the host joked about Tucker’s daughter — then at boarding school — experimenting sexually with her fellow pupils, to which Carlson replied “If it weren’t my daughter I would love that scenario.”

Truly a man to admire.