Fox News is the most-watch cable “news” channel in America, and Tucker Carlson hosts the network’s most-watched show. Those are facts, and disturbing ones for the majority of Americans who do not watch the far right-wing extremist channel or its top personality.
Take, for instance, Carlson’s attack on Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Thursday night, a 12-minute long homophobic, hate-filled rant with a focus on attacking the very core of Democratic and progressive ideals: the belief that everyone is equal and everyone deserves a chance at the American dream, and government is a means to help achieve those goals, goals literally written in the Declaration of Independence.
“Tucker Carlson brutally mocked Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg as an unqualified ‘kid’ who ‘breastfeeds, and has no business running the agency,” Mediaite reports.
Not the first time Carlson has attacked Buttigieg – and by extension, every LGBTQ person – for having children, being a responsible and loving parent who took time off from work, time off that is granted under federal law, to care for his newborn twins with his husband.
To Carlson, Buttigieg was chosen by the President of the United States only because he is gay, as part of some Democratic master plan to diminish or eradicate straight white men.
“Today the Transportation Department which is now run by Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, finally told us,” Carlson told his right-wing viewers, “effective immediately we learned this country will undergo a quote, paradigm shift in the way we think about infrastructure. Now, hold on you’ve probably noticed by this point, the moment paradigms start shifting you can be certain a whole lot of people are about to get shafted. Nothing personal, it’s just the nature of paradigms. They don’t just shift. They tend to topple over and crush innocent bystanders.”
Those “innocent bystanders,” Carlson wants his viewers to think, are his viewers.
In reality, what Buttigieg and the Dept. of Transportation are saying, as evidenced by the very clips Carlson played in his monologue, is that the Transportation Dept. recognizes that every decision it makes has an impact on the climate and people. So they are working to make the more equitable – including making sure that decisions are fair to everyone, not just straight white men – and safer.
Carlson then literally attacked and mocked “the safety of our children and our families.”
That’s the massive “paradigm shift” Carlson is threatened by – well, he’s a multi-millionaire from a wealthy familky who may run for president at some point so he’s fine. He just wants his viewers to feel threatened by anyone who’s not white. Or not straight.
“Joe Biden hired a kid,” Carlson lied, “who had never had a real job outside McKinsey [Consulting] and no grounding of any kind in physical reality.”
Pete Buttigieg, as many people know, served in Afghanistan for the U.S. Navy, from 2009-2017, including in the Reserves, as a Lieutenant in a counterterrorism unit. He’s also a Harvard grad and a Rhodes Scholar. He’s worked on numerous political campaigns, and at McKinsey for three years.
He was also elected as mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Twice.
Which Carlson quickly attacked.
“When Pete Buttigieg was mayor, the city had, and we’re quoting now, the worst pothole situation in the state according to the local paper. Huge potholes. So big that Mayor Pete – not a tall man – could’ve disappeared into one. You can picture his little legs up in the air. Eight years as mayor, and he was never able to fix it.”
He added, cackling, “This guy, who literally couldn’t fix the potholes in South Bend, Indiana, is now the transportation secretary. But he breastfeeds so it’s equity! It’s unbelievable!”
Carlson was far from done.
“The mindset is the problem here. And it’s not just Mayor Pete. He’s easy to mock because he’s a ludicrous figure. But it’s all the people like him who believe that our economy and is based on social media apps and HR departments.”
Watch: