Tucker Carlson has a flagrant double standard when it comes to reporters confronting a president.
During a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) session Friday on r/the_donald, a popular subreddit for the president-elect’s most rabid fans, the Fox News host applauded how President-elect Donald Trump attacked CNN reporter Jim Acosta for attempting to ask a question during a Wednesday press conference.
From the podium, Trump attacked CNN for publishing a report about the existence of an unverified intelligence dossier alleging Russia has “compromising” financial and sexual information on the president-elect. Bristled by the unwarranted attack on his network, Acosta attempted to get in a question, but was promptly shouted down as “fake news” and ignored by the incoming president.
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Asked about the exchange during his AMA, Carlson said that Trump was in the right.
“Acosta was rude,” he claimed. “Trump rose to it. I thoroughly enjoyed the exchange.”
He was also asked what the mainstream media should do to “regain the American public’s trust,” and Carlson simply said: “stop lying.”
However, not too long ago, Carlson didn’t seem to have any problem with a reporter being “rude” to a president when that president was a Democrat.
When Daily Caller staffer Neil Munro infamously heckled and interrupted President Obama during his prepared remarks for a 2012 Rose Garden press conference, Carlson firmly defended his reporter’s actions as the noble pursuit of journalism.
“I don’t remember Diane Sawyer scolding her colleague Sam Donaldson for heckling President Reagan. And she shouldn’t have,” he remarked in a statement. “A reporter’s job is to ask questions and get answers. Our job is to find out what the federal government is up to. Politicians often don’t want to tell us. A good reporter gets the story. We’re proud of Neil Munro.”
Although the newly minted Fox host has conveniently avoided outright professing support for Trump, it speaks volumes that he’d rather defend him over another member of the press.
