The news that Tucker Carlson, Fox News’s highest-rated prime-time host, had been abruptly fired sent shockwaves throughout the media world in late April. Conservative anti-Trumpers and legacy media stars alike were quick to hop aboard the schadenfreude train. The ladies of ABC’s The View, were, of course, delirious over the development. The left-leaning website The New Republic found the news “hilarious” and wrote, “It turns out the Fox News host wasn’t nearly as bulletproof as he thought he was.”
It was likely then – and even more apparent now – that those who were so quick to write the obituary on Carlson’s career would wind up with egg on their face. The reality is that Carlson is here to stay. And his pivotal interviews with six Republican presidential candidates at the Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday and his keynote address at the Turning Point Action Conference in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday night proved it.
Politico accurately described the interviews as “Tucker stress tests.” The article said that “several [candidates] were subjected to a combative stress test conducted by the ousted Fox News anchor whose 9 million-strong Twitter following demonstrates his continued sway over the GOP.”
Carlson’s interviews with former Vice President Mike Pence and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson may have been extinction-level events for their campaigns. And South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott didn’t fare all that much better.
Carlson, whose disapproval of U.S. backing of Ukraine in its war with Russia is well-known, portrayed Pence as being far more interested in saving Ukraine than on the plethora of problems currently facing the U.S.
“You are distressed that the Ukrainians don’t have enough American tanks,” he told Pence. “Every city in the United States has become much worse over the past three years. Drive around. There’s not one city that’s gotten better in the United States, and it’s visible.“
“Our economy has degraded, the suicide rate has jumped, public filth and disorder and crime have exponentially increased, and yet, your concern is that the Ukrainians – a country most people can’t find out a map – who’ve received tens of billions of US tax dollars don’t have enough tanks. I think it’s a fair question to ask, like, where’s the concern for the United States in that?” Carlson asked.
Pence replied, “It’s not my concern. Tucker, I’ve heard that routine from you before, but that’s not my concern.”
The former vice president went on to explain that “We can do both.“
But it was too late. The damage had been done.
In his keynote speech at the Turning Point conference the following night, Carlson boasted about his brutal takedown of Pence. The crowd roared.
Hutchinson, who never had any chance of winning the nomination, got absolutely clobbered by Carlson over his veto of a 2021 Arkansas bill that would have banned hormone treatments, puberty blockers, and surgery for minors. (The Arkansas state legislature voted to override Hutchinson’s veto.) And another candidate “bit the dust.”
Carlson tangled with Scott over several issues. The first was President Joe Biden’s executive order last week approving the mobilization of reserve troops in Europe. Scott said that “America’s national vital interest is degrading the Russian military,” a remark that exposed him as a hawk.
Next, Scott dodged a question on whether or not he would deport the millions of migrants who have entered the U.S. illegally on Biden’s watch. In his analysis of Scott’s performance, the Washington Examiner’s Byron York wrote, “he repeatedly avoided the question … Scott’s nonanswer suggested that no, he would not deport those millions of border crossers. Why not just say it?”
Carlson raised the issue of the fentanyl flowing over the border that is killing nearly 100,000 Americans annually. He said, “[T]he total body count from Russia on the United States is right around zero. I don’t know anyone who’s been killed by Russia. I know people personally who have been killed by Mexico. The government of Mexico allows fentanyl to be made in its country and to come over our border. … The Mexican government is party to the murder of hundreds of thousands of Americans, so why is Mexico less of a threat than Russia?”
Scott explained that legislation he has sponsored “freezes the assets of the Mexican cartels … and hopefully eliminates the flows of fentanyl.” A starting point, yes, but a serious strategy for addressing the disaster at our southern border? Not even close.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley fared better in their interviews than the others. Still, Carlson’s ability to influence voters’ perception of the candidates was clear.
The massive public reaction to Carlson’s firing showed just how big an impact he has on U.S. politics. Never before had the termination of a media personality by a network taken over the news cycle so completely.
Although Carlson has released commentary on Twitter since his departure from Fox, his interviews in Iowa represented his formal return to the national stage. And he did not disappoint. He showed the world that the talent that had catapulted him to the top at Fox, is easily transferable to a different forum. In fact, free from the constraints that had bound him at Fox, he is even bolder than before. Much to his critics’ chagrin, he will not be silenced. Instead, he will play an outsize role in the GOP primary and beyond.
A previous version of this article appeared in The Washington Examiner.
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