We already knew Fox News host Tucker Carlson had the uncanny ability to say some pretty awful things. But newly unearthed clips by Media Matters for America expose a whole new level of Carlson awfulness in which he regularly attacked women and even seemed to minimize the importance of statutory rape. The clips compiled by Media Matters for America were from 2006 to 2011, when Carlson was a regular call-in guest to Bubba the Love Sponge, hosted by the shock jock who was born Todd Clem. Fox News hired Carlson in 2009.
The extensive compilation by Media Matters is full of shocking and disgusting comments. Highlights include the time Carlson seemed to give a nod to fantasizing about girls who were the same age as his 14-year-old daughter in boarding school. “If it weren’t my daughter I would love that scenario,” he said.
In another clip, Carlson also seemed to minimize the gravity of an adult marrying a child, saying it is not “the same thing exactly as pulling a child from a bus stop and sexually assaulting that child.” When the hosts countered that if anything it showed more premeditation to the crime and not less, Carlson protested. “Wait, wait! Hold on a second. The rapist, in this case, has made a lifelong commitment to live and take care of the person, so it is a little different. I mean, let’s be honest about it.” Along the same lines, he defended Warren Jeffs, saying that charges against him were “bullshit” because “arranging a marriage between a 16-year-old and a 27-year-old is not the same as pulling a stranger off the street and raping her.”
Carlson also had plenty of awful things to say about women in general. At one point, for example, he said he feels sorry for Justice Elena Kagan, who at that point had been nominated for the Supreme Court. “I feel sorry for her in that way. I feel sorry for unattractive women. I mean it’s nothing they did.” He also said women are “like dogs” because “they hate weakness” and “they’re extremely primitive, they’re basic.” He also called Britney Spears and Paris Hilton “the biggest white whores in America.”
As many quickly began campaigns to target Carlson’s advertisers, the Fox News host dismissed the report, writing on Twitter that he was caught “saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago.” The Fox News show doesn’t apologize for the remarks, saying that “if you want to know what I think, you can watch” his show on Fox News.
