CARLSON: He's in prison because he's weird and unpopular and he has a different lifestyle that other people find creepy. — www.mediamatters.org/…
That’s one of the statements Tucker made to a shock-jock radio host. The recordings were unearthed by Media Matters. In them, Tucker spends a lot of time defending Jeffs for marrying adult men to under-age girls. What’s lost in this debate is the fact that Warren Jeffs is currently serving life in prison for two counts of sexually assaulting children.
Before a jury sent the 55-year-old Jeffs to prison for life Tuesday, prosecutor Eric Nichols gave a forceful answer.
"The evidence in this case has shown this is not the prosecution of a people," he said. "This is a prosecution to protect a people."
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints leader was found guilty last week of sexually assaulting two girls, ages 12 and 15, who he took as polygamous wives. — archive.sltrib.com/...
It’s possible that at the time Carlson made those statements, these charges against Jeffs had not been made public. But, as early as 2004, Jeffs had been accused of sexual assault by his nephew, who had been a child at the time of the then alleged assault. Two other nephews made the same accusations and one committed suicide after going public. So there were very serious accusations against Jeffs as early as 2004 of having directly participated in sexual assault of a minor. In 2007, prosecutors revealed recordings where Jeff says he committed “immoral actions with a sister and a daughter” at the age of 20. Jeffs himself tried to commit suicide.
It would not have been hard to say “well we need to have the investigation and courts determine the truth about these serious allegations about a very deeply troubled person”. Instead Tucker said this, and couched it all as “lifestyle”...
Maybe Tucker made these statements to shock. After all, that is a viable career on right-wing radio. But Tucker’s also built his career on carrying a confused expression while claiming racism is not a thing.
So maybe, he rushed to Jeffs’ defense at least partly because the guy’s a racist. Here are the statements the SPLC attributes to Jeffs:
"The black race is the people through which the devil has always been able to bring evil unto the earth."
"[Cain was] cursed with a black skin and he is the father of the Negro people. He has great power, can appear and disappear. He is used by the devil, as a mortal man, to do great evils."
"Today you can see a black man with a white woman, et cetera. A great evil has happened on this land because the devil knows that if all the people have Negro blood, there will be nobody worthy to have the priesthood."
"If you marry a person who has connections with a Negro, you would become cursed." — web.archive.org/...
strangely enough, in the same set of radio shows where he discusses his fantasies involving young girls:
CO-HOST: Wow. You're a sicko.
CARLSON: If it weren't my daughter I would love that scenario. — www.mediamatters.org/...
Tucker’s also got time to indulge in his fantasies about lynching a black man.
CARLSON: I should make the -- you know what, I should make the laws around here, and Michael Vick would have been executed, and Warren Jeffs would be out on the street.
THE LOVE SPONGE: The governor of Arizona, right now. That's the problem. We'd all be --
CO-HOST: Dog killing, bad. Child rape, eh, not so much.
THE LOVE SPONGE: Yeah, dog killing, really bad.
CARLSON: -- child rape. I'm not for child rape. I'm just saying, if you mistreat dogs like that, we're going to have to execute you.
and time to dismiss deeply racist political ads:
CO-HOST: Putting Paris and Britney in a commercial with Obama is a classic old-school miscegenation, old-South --
BUBBA THE LOVE SPONGE: Uncle Tom --
TUCKER CARLSON: Are you serious?
CO-HOST: -- old-South “these two young white girls are going to be dating a Black man.”
CARLSON: So they’re trying to say that he’s coming for your pristine white daughters by putting two of the biggest white whores in America --
CO-HOST: Subliminally, yes.
CARLSON: Come on. — www.mediamatters.org/...
It all fits in on Fox.
— @subirgrewal