Fox News host Tucker Carlson raged against the social justice movement Black Lives Matter on Monday night, claiming that the movement for racial justice and fair policing was “definitely not about black lives” while warning his viewers to “remember that when they come for you.”
Carlson, who has been highly critical of the protests over George Floyd’s death while claiming systemic racism is nonexistent, began Monday’s broadcast of his primetime show by railing against calls for defunding the police. Calling the protests the “Black Lives Matter Riots,” the Fox star claimed liberals didn’t want to abolish the police but instead planned on replacing law enforcement with an armed “woke militia” to patrol cities.
“Imagine if the Black Lives Matter rioters had weapons and immunity from prosecution,” Carlson dramatically exclaimed. “That’s what they are talking about. Partisan law enforcement, and partisan law enforcement, incidentally, is hardly without precedent. In fact, it’s the rule in the Third World. This is an attempt to bring it here.”
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From there, Carlson continued to fear-monger over Black Lives Matter and the “finance moguls” who are funding the movement before expressing concern that Republicans weren’t doing enough to stop Democrats and the social justice movement.
“They are too cynical, too fearful,” he grumbled. “They are going to opine like it’s not happening, repeat platitudes, read bumper stickers on the air, nod solemnly, and do nothing to protect the country.”
Reacting to the past weekend’s large nationwide protests, Carlson said that it was still “blurry” what it was all about but it was clear that it “has very little to do with black lives,” adding that the larger concern should be about the “murder of thousands of young black men in their cities every year.”
Ticking off a list of issues he felt Democrats and liberals should concentrate on, Carlson—who once said white supremacy is a “hoax”—insisted they instead “encourage theft and mayhem” before sounding the alarm to his viewers.
“This may be a lot of things, this moment we are living through, but it is definitely not about black lives,” he seethed. “And remember that when they come for you, and at this rate, they will. Anyone who has ever been subjected to the rage of the mob knows the feeling. It’s like being swarmed by hornets. You cannot think clearly.”
A Fox News spokesperson later told the Daily Beast that “Tucker’s warning about ‘when they come for you’ was clearly referring to Democratic leaders and inner city politicians.”
The conservative TV host warned his audience that if they “show weakness of any kind, they will crush you” before wrapping up his nearly 30-minute-long monologue by proclaiming that “we will look back at what we just saw in horror and disbelief.”
