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Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson distanced himself and the network from the alleged shooter in Saturday’s murder of 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket who claimed to have written a document supporting the “great replacement theory” – a former racist idea that was a refrain for Carlson and other prominent conservative media figures.
In doing so, the most-watched Fox News presenter said Monday night that the long-running document, allegedly published by Peyton C. Hendron – which cites the idea that white Americans are at risk of being “replaced” “Of people of color due to immigration and higher birth rates – is not politically motivated and that the Democrats’ response to the mass shooting is an attack on freedom of speech.
“What he wrote is not a manifesto,” Carlson said, noting that what Hendron wrote was racist. “This is not a plan for a new extremist political movement, much less an inspiration for a racist revolution. Anyone who claims to be lying or has not read it. “
Carlson did not directly mention racist theory during the monologue at the beginning of his show. The presenter, who denounced racism and described the alleged 18-year-old Hendron document as a “jumble of slogans and internet memes, some of which are contradictory,” said: “The document is not recognizably left- or right-wing; it is not political at all. The document is crazy. “
Tucker Carlson tries to distance himself and Fox News from the Buffalo shooter, who is inspired by the racist conspiracy theories that Carlson imposes on his show pic.twitter.com/oRTOcvxC4n
– Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 17, 2022
Carlson – facing opposition from critics such as Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (DN.Y.) in the days after the shooting to repeatedly promote parts of the substitution theory in his show – attacked the media and President Biden. accusing the Democrats of using mass shootings to restrict freedom of speech by conservatives.
“So what is hate speech?” Well, this is a speech that our leaders hate, “he said. “So, because a mentally ill teenager has killed strangers, you cannot be allowed to express your political views out loud. That’s what they tell you. That’s what they wanted to tell you a long time ago, but Saturday’s massacre gives them a pretext, an excuse.
Tucker Carlson’s message after the Buffalo attack: “So, what is hate speech? Well, this is the speech that our leaders hate. So, because a mentally ill teenager has killed strangers, you cannot be allowed to express your political views out loud. Here’s what they tell you. “Pic.twitter.com/DMSNa9YoEt
– Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 17, 2022
Carlson’s remarks come as a review of the Washington Post on more than 600 pages of reports found that Gendron, who is white, decided in February to head to the Buffalo’s Tops grocery store based on local blacks. In the 180-page document allegedly written by Hendron of Conklin, New York, he said he was radicalized online. Gendron’s alleged document does not mention that he watched Carlson or his show.
The buffalo shooting suspect wrote about plans 5 months ago, reports said
Gendron pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in connection with an attack on Saturday that was broadcast live online.
The substitution theory, once held only by far-right white extremists, has attracted attention in recent years, in part because Carlson has popularized it to millions of viewers. He mentioned variations of the idea in more than 400 episodes since 2016, according to an analysis of the New York Times program.
Conservative media are aware of the alleged “theory” of the Buffalo suspect
Hours before Carlson’s show on Monday, Sumer directly accused Fox News and Carlson of inciting hatred in the nation by “vomiting” the “poison” of the racist “great theory of substitution.” In a Senate speech, Sumer also said that Republicans who adhere to former President Donald Trump’s philosophy are spreading this dangerous rhetoric, “that blacks and minorities are somehow a threat … to the American way of life.”
“This is a theory of substitution in a nutshell,” Sumer said. “This is a dangerous and deeply anti-American worldview. It poisons the minds of people who spend hours wandering in the darkest wilderness of the Internet. And let’s be clear, this is a message that has also found a special home in several right-wing publications, in particular in a cable news channel, Fox News.
Schumer, who called on Fox News to “stop spreading ideas like substitution theory in their shows,” echoed the Times’ analysis that Carlson had mentioned versions of the theory more than 400 times.
“Four hundred times,” Sumer repeated. “This is poison poisoned by one of the largest news organizations in the country.
Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) Repeated Schumer, saying in the Senate: “Ten people died in Buffalo. Will he give Tucker Carlson 10 minutes to say that he regrets any role he may have played in this result? We will see.”
Durbin: Many Americans will be tuned in this week to Tucker Carlson’s show to see if he has any reaction to what happened in Buffalo … 10 people died in Buffalo. Will he give Tucker Carlson 10 minutes to say that he regrets any role he may have played in this result? We will see pic.twitter.com/g3t3Y8BtDM
– Acyn (@Acyn) May 16, 2022
In his show Monday, Carlson opened the program, marking gun violence in the United States over the weekend, including the Buffalo massacre. Calling the alleged document racist but not political, Carlson said Hendron suggested that Fox News was “part of a global conspiracy against him.”
“He writes like a mental patient, as he is – divided, irrational, paranoid,” he said, calling Hendron a “sick” mind. “This is true now, not that it makes it easier for him to bear the atrocities he committed. If your daughter was killed on Saturday in Buffalo, you won’t care why the killer did it or who she voted for.
Carlson then turned his attention from Hendron’s replacement theory and alleged writings to the reaction of Democrats, who he said “coordinated a campaign to blame their assassinations on their political opponents.”
” They did it! ‘ “Peyton Hendron was Donald Trump’s successor,” they told us. “Trumpism committed massacres in Buffalo,” Carlson said.
The host also targeted Biden, citing a Politico report on how the president “began to tell his aides that he no longer recognizes the Republican Party, which he now sees as an existential threat to the nation’s democracy.” Carlson claims Biden, who is visiting families in Buffalo on Tuesday, used “racial wounds to express his opinion.” Over Chiron, who says, “It’s time to treat people like human beings,” Carlson cited the words of Martin Luther King Jr. and said “all lives matter” before accusing Biden of using it. which he described as “racial politics”.
“There is no worse behavior than that,” he said. “The whole racial policy is bad, no matter what the taste of that policy is.
The Fox News presenter has faced criticism on social media for not dealing directly with the theory of the great replacement. Among those critics was Joe Walsh, a former Republican Republican congressman from Illinois who has since become a staunch critic of Trump and his Republican allies.
“@ TuckerCarlson tells his audience that THEY are the victims. “Not the 10 innocent people killed in Buffalo,” Walsh wrote. “No, Tucker’s audience is the real victim here.”
Paul Farhi contributed to this report.
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