Fox News’s Tucker Carlson slammed Republicans in Congress keeping quiet on the unrest happening around the United States over the death of George Floyd in police custody.
Amid calls from the Left to “defund the police,” some Republicans have predicted that the talking point will secure a victory for President Trump in the November election. Carlson, however, begged to differ on his show Monday night.
“Amazingly, some Republicans in Washington seem almost giddy as they watch the country go insane,” he said. “‘Democrats have gone too far this time,’ they will tell you. ‘We are guaranteed to win in November.’ … It sounds good, but they are wrong. They are totally and completely wrong on many levels. For one thing, if you care about a country, you’ve got to try. You have an obligation to try your very best to protect and defend it no matter who is helped in November. That’s what patriotism is. It’s not about you. It’s about America.”
Floyd, a black man, died last month in Minneapolis after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes while arresting Floyd despite his crying out that he couldn’t breathe. The now-fired officer, Derek Chauvin, faces a second-degree murder charge, while the three other officers involved in Floyd’s arrest were charged with aiding and abetting murder.
The incident sparked global protests demanding justice for Floyd and an end to police brutality and systemic racism. Some demonstrations spiraled into widespread episodes of looting, violence, and even shootings across the country. Efforts to reform policing quickly became the focus of several cities as well as on a national level.
Carlson questioned “Black Lives Matter,” the organization that has been at the center of some of the protests, and the group’s push to “defund the police.” Polls show the majority of the public opposes the move to defund police, but Carlson claims the support could grow by election time.
“In an environment like this, you don’t know,” he said. “Things move fast.”
Carlson also touched on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s rising poll numbers, blaming Republicans for their lack of pushback on the unrest around the country or the demands of Black Lives Matter.
“Why does the latest round of national polls indicate that Joe Biden’s lead in this race is growing?” he said. “And that’s not a small thing if you plan to live here. If you don’t want to live under Attorney General Keith Ellison. So, why is it happening? Maybe it’s because Republicans in Washington have decided to sit this crisis out. They haven’t bothered to explain what’s wrong. They haven’t bothered to tell us anything about what might be flawed about Black Lives Matter, and they don’t plan to, by the way.”
“They are too cynical. They’re too fearful. They are going to pretend like it’s not happening, repeat platitudes, read bumper stickers on the air, nod solemnly, and do nothing to protect the country,” he continued. “Why would voters reward that? Democrats, by contrast — who are completely wrong and, in fact, are leading us down a path that won’t end well — are not ashamed in the slightest of what they believe.”
