As expected, Tucker Carlson on Monday embraced the news of Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter, claiming it was the most consequential turn of events in the political sphere since the 2016 presidential election.
“Unlike the leaders of Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon, Elon Musk believes in free speech. He thinks everyone should be allowed to talk, including people who disagree with him,” Carlson said.
“Now that sounds like an entirely American sentiment, but in this atmosphere that is a revolutionary posture,” he continued. “Of the five companies that control the flow of virtually all information that is consumed by the citizens of this country, Twitter is by far the smallest of the group. But it doesn’t matter: One platform going rogue is enough to break the monopoly. That means that you now have real options for expressing yourself.”
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The Fox host then likened Musk’s purchase to the presidential election six years ago and in typical fashion teased video of a Twitter staff meeting from earlier in the day, only to play tape of the audience at Hillary Clinton’s scheduled 2016 election night speech.
Carlson then argued, simplistically as ever, that “before today, you didn’t have a right to express your disagreement in public.”
“If you had an opposing opinion—or even more dangerous than that—if you had countervailing facts that undermine their storyline, the tech companies would shut you down immediately. It happened to us, and to a lot of people, most of whom you never heard of. Never hearing about those people was the whole point of shutting them down,” Carlson said.
“But that is over. After today you will be able to post your dissent in a place where other people might have a reasonable chance of seeing it. In other words: You will have a chance to change other people’s minds.”
The “you” in Carlson’s monologue may end up including ex-President Donald Trump, who got booted from Twitter after the Jan. 6 insurrection, as the company was concerned about him inciting further violence. Trump reportedly has said he wouldn’t return to the platform—he does have his own social media site, albeit one he hasn’t posted on and which isn’t doing too well—yet things could change.
Until Monday night, Carlson himself had not posted on Twitter since March 22. “We’re back,” he tweeted after Musk’s purchase.
