Fox News host Tucker Carlson may have reached a new low Monday night, calling the statement that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dictated just before her death “pathetic,” adding that he chose not to “believe for a second” that she said it.
Following the death of the iconic liberal judge, NPR reported that Ginsburg had her granddaughter Clara Spera take down a note in her final days: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”
Amid the rush by Senate Republicans and President Donald Trump to ignore Ginsburg’s request and nominate and confirm a new justice before the Nov. 3 election, the president floated a conspiracy theory that Washington Democrats were actually behind RBG’s dying wish.
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“I don’t know if she said that, or was that written out by Adam Schiff or Schumer and Pelosi,” Trump told Fox & Friends on Monday. “I would be more inclined to the second. That came out of the wind, it sounds so beautiful, but that sounds like a Schumer deal or maybe Pelosi or Shifty Schiff. That came out of the wind.”
Carlson not only doubled down on the president’s comments on Monday night but also made sure to add further insult.
The Fox News star, who said on Friday night that he was “going to choose not to believe” Ginsburg made that statement, began Monday night’s show by mocking progressives’ reaction to her death.
“They told us that Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death was more than sad,” Carlson sneered. “They said it was a national crisis that imperiled this country’s freedoms. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, they told us, single-handedly kept America from descending into fascism and tyranny. Now that she’s gone, only her words can keep us safe.”
“She was not God,” he added. “Yet according to the left, Ginsburg was all we had. We must obey her dying words as if they were a religious text. Her final wish supersedes our founding documents.”
After playing clips of liberals and Democrats calling on the Senate to heed Ginsburg’s final wish, Carlson again sowed doubt over whether the late judge actually dictated those words.
“We don’t really know actually what Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s final words were,” he declared. “Did she really leave this world fretting about a presidential election? We don’t believe that for a second.”
(It should be noted, again, that these weren’t her final words, but a statement dictated days before her death.)
“If it were true, it would be pathetic because life is bigger than politics, even this year,” the conservative firebrand continued. “We wouldn’t wish final words that small on anyone so we’re going to again choose to believe that Ruth Bader Ginsburg didn’t actually say that, that in real life she was thinking at the end about her family and where she might be going next. Human concerns, not partisan ones.”
Carlson smearing a deceased progressive icon just days after her death would be shocking if it weren’t par for the course for the far-right Fox News host. Just months ago, Carlson launched a campaign questioning the patriotism of Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), who lost her legs fighting in the Iraq War. Besides calling Duckworth “a deeply silly and unimpressive person,” he labeled the Purple Heart recipient a “coward.”
