After completely ignoring the deadly Colorado mass shooting on his show Monday evening, Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s first coverage of the massacre on Tuesday night included an attack on the nation’s first Black president as a “racial arsonist” who “sows hate” and is “creating real extremism.”
Carlson, who somehow made no mention of the Boulder shooting while he was on the air the previous night, kicked off his primetime program on Tuesday by mocking media outlets and prominent figures who initially believed the suspected shooter was a white male. (Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa was born in Syria and raised in Colorado. His family describes him as “very anti-social” and says they believe he’s mentally ill.)
After dunking on Vice President Kamala Harris’ niece and other progressive commentators for incorrectly blaming the shooting on a white man, Carlson then turned his attention to Obama for calling for stricter gun control following the nation’s second shooting rampage in less than a week.
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“It is long past time for those with the power to fight this epidemic of gun violence to do so. It will take time to root out the disaffection, racism, and misogyny that fuels so many of these senseless acts of violence,” Obama said in a statement on Tuesday. “But we can make it harder for those with hate in their hearts to buy weapons of war.”
“We can overcome opposition by cowardly politicians and the pressure of a gun lobby that opposes any limit on the ability of anyone to assemble an arsenal. We can, and we must,” Obama added.
“White supremacy, that’s the culprit, no matter what the color the criminal was,” Carlson groused in response. “It doesn’t matter the criminal’s color because it’s systemic racism and like carbon monoxide, it’s an invisible poison. That is suddenly a very common view on the left. It’s certainly Barack Obama’s position.”
“More than any other contemporary American leader, Barack Obama is a racial arsonist,” the far-right Fox star continued. “He emerges at our most vulnerable moments to deepen the wounds that divide us. He sows hate. Why would Barack Obama do this? It would take a psychiatrist to answer that question fully, though it seems obvious that deep loathing of some kind plays a role—it must play a role.”
After playing armchair psychiatrist, Carlson then read from Obama’s statement before accusing the former president of managing to “divide Americans a little more than they were yesterday,” adding that it was “mission accomplished” from Obama’s perspective.
“Barack Obama is creating real extremism,” Carlson argued moments later. “We will see real extremism. I say it once a week. It’s true and it’s really sad, and they are doing it. I hate it.”
