Tucker Carlson went live last night after a weekend of violent rioting and looting across many of America’s major cities. He took no prisoners in what was easily the most important monologue of his career. It’s a moment in media history that will still be talked about a decade from now. That’s how powerful it was, whether you agree with every conclusion or not.
Over the course of 30 minutes, Carlson laid out the case that our leaders have failed to protect us in this time of chaos. He played the clips of men and women being beaten, the videos of buildings burning, and the recordings of mobs stealing. He showed the complete lack of respect for human life and property. He named names of those enabling it and let no one off the hook. He laid out the core issues tearing the country apart and the nonsensical responses to them.
While I rarely expect people to watch clips I post all the way through, this is one you should really make time for.
You can find the full transcript via The Federalist.
While Carlson has long separated himself as a step above the other prime time hosts, both on his network and others, this cemented his status as an independent thinker not afraid to speak out. The abandonment of these cities by local officials? He nails them. Governors who pander to the violence? He nails them to. Yes, he even goes after President Trump.
The first requirement of leadership is that you watch over the people in your care. That’s what soldiers want from their officers. It’s what families need from their fathers. It’s what voters demand from their presidents.
People will put up with almost anything if you do that. You can regularly say embarrassing things on television. You can hire Omarosa to work at the White House. All of that will be forgiven if you protect your people.
But if you do not protect them — or worse than that, if you seem like you can’t be bothered to protect them — then you’re done. It’s over. People will not forgive weakness. That’s the one thing, by the way, that is not a partisan point. It is human nature.
Carlson notes that Trump finally promised action last night, but that doesn’t mean his critique and frustrations that it took this long aren’t correct. The President can follow through now or he can’t claim to be the law and order candidate, something I wrote about last night. There are lines that most of his even his most ardent supporters have drawn in the sand. Letting anarchy go unpunished is one of them.
President Donald Trump: If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.
Good for him.
Immediately after that address, the president walked over to St. John’s, which, we just told you, was burning fewer than 24 hours ago, and that provided a powerful symbolic gesture. It was a declaration that this country — our national symbols, our oldest institutions — will not be desecrated and defeated by nihilistic destruction. We fervently hope this all works.
Carlson also goes after many feckless GOP politicians, who instead of denouncing the rioting forcibly, chose to instead tacitly encourage it and deliver typical boilerplate platitudes. Further, he absolutely eviscerated Jared Kushner.
Jared Kushner, for one, has made that point out loud. No one has more contempt for Donald Trump’s voters than Jared Kushner does, and no one expresses it more frequently.
In 2016, Donald Trump ran as a law and order candidate because he meant it, and his views remain fundamentally unchanged today. But the president’s famously sharp instincts, the ones that won him the presidency almost four years ago, have been since subverted at every level by Jared Kushner. This is true on immigration, on foreign policy, and especially on law enforcement.
As crime in this country continues to rise, Jared Kushner has led a highly aggressive effort to let more criminals out of prison and back on to the streets. This is reckless. At this moment in time, it is insane. It continues to happen.
This goes on for half an hour, and there’s little I find objectionable in his words. Perhaps his attack on Nikki Haley was a bit tortured (I don’t think she was trying to say what he interpreted from her comment), but given all that’s happening and all he said, I struggle to focus on that.
Carlson ended by noting the subjugation and division being spread in some of these protests. There’s a lot more in there and I’ll let the video speak for itself. Seriously, take the time to watch it. You may not agree with all of it, nor should there be any expectation we will all think exactly alike, but it’s one of those things that’s worth your time.
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