Calling Fox News host Tucker Carlson a “relentlessly indignant picket fence,” among other things, “Last Week Tonight” comedian John Oliver critiqued the right-wing talk show host for being “the most prominent vessel in America for white supremacy talking points.”
On the latest installment of his HBO show on Sunday, Oliver pointed to Carlson’s defense of the Jan. 6 insurrection of the Capitol and, by contrast, the Fox News host’s labeling Black Lives Matters protests as “criminal mobs.”
“In both instances, his clear takeaway is that white people should be terrified of the idea of any situation where they aren’t in power,” said Oliver. “The main narrative of Tucker’s show is that power is being taken away from you, his viewer, and that this needs to be resisted.” He also recalled a 2008 appearance on “Bubba the Love Sponge Show” in which Carlson said “Iraq is a crappy place filled with a bunch of, you know, semi-literate primitive monkeys,” and noted similarities in a chyron on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” that said, “We have to fight to preserve our nation and heritage” with the white supremacist slogan, “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for the children.”
Oliver noted that Carlson is parroted by those in far-right, white nationalist circles and lauded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
“That’s the whole thing with Tucker — he may not say Black or white — he’ll insist that he’s for colorblindness,” said Oliver. “He’ll build in deniability by phrasing things as a question, like, “What does racism look like?” while kind of embodying the answer. But when you look at this all put together, the pattern is clear: He is scared of a country that looks nothing like the one he grew up in… When Tucker asks, “What is white supremacy?”, the answer is: Basically, that. It’s a belief that in a country where white people are dominant, that’s all down to their natural and innate abilities and any effort to change that is an affront to the natural order of things.”
Watch the full segment below:
