Fox News host Tucker Carlson told viewers Monday night that special counsel Robert Mueller could “send armed men” to their homes “because he feels like it.”
Carlson made the comment during his opening monologue, touching on last week’s heavily armed, pre-dawn FBI raid of Roger Stone’s home in Florida, during which the longtime confidant to President Trump was arrested for charges stemming from Mueller’s Russia investigation.
“Nobody controls Robert Mueller,” Carlson said. “Mueller can send armed men to your home to roust you from bed at gunpoint because he feels like it and there’s nothing you or anyone else can do about it. Mueller has an unlimited budget and no timetable. He doesn’t have to answer questions. He can do whatever he wants whenever he wants to whomever he wants. He cannot be fired.”
Tucker Carlson tells his viewers “Mueller can send armed men to your home to roust you from bed just bc he feels like it and there’s nothing you or anyone else can do about it … he is a living rebuke to the principles of our democratic system” pic.twitter.com/YnkKBo84Fk
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) January 29, 2019
The statements about zero accountability with Mueller are untrue. Mueller, who was appointed by Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein, could be pushed out by the top brass at the Justice Department overseeing the probe. Attorney General nominee William Barr has testified that he would rather resign than fire Mueller “without good cause.” Trump, who has called Mueller’s investigation a “witch hunt,” does not have the authority to directly fire Mueller, according to most legal experts.
Carlson, a vocal advocate for Trump, went on to call Mueller “the single most powerful person in America and yet nobody voted for him.”
“He is a living rebuke to the principles of our democratic system. At the same time, our leaders tell us we need Robert Mueller, an all-powerful, unelected prosecutor accountable to no one to protect us from threats to — brace yourself here — democracy,” he said, before knocking the media for not scrutinizing Mueller’s behavior more closely.
Last week a grand jury indicted Stone on seven counts of lying to Congress, witness tampering, and obstructing a congressional inquiry — stemming from his interview with the House Intelligence Committee in September 2017 as part of its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Stone has said he will plead not guilty and, while he has indicated a willingness to cooperate with Mueller, claims he will not testify against Trump.
In an ABC News interview Sunday, Stone accused law enforcement officials of employing “Gestapo tactics” against him.
