"When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." — Dr. Maya Angelou
Tucker Carlson is a hot and heavy topic on Twitter and around the internet after audio surfaced of a 10-year-old interview the Fox News host did with Bubba the Love Sponge, a radio program originating in Tampa, Florida, that was known for lurid, offensive content. The show was cancelled in December 2016 after years of escalating legal problems centered around a Hulk Hogan sex tape (with the wife of the show’s host), tax issues, restraining orders, ratings tampering, divorce, and legal bills.
Between 2006 and 2011, Tucker Carlson called in once a week to chat live for an hour of Bubba’s show. Researchers at Media Matters for America recently went back through the audio and discovered a treasure trove of absolutely disgusting, even downright perverted commentary from the Fox News host.
Here’s a compilation of the lowlights, which can be heard below.
- Carlson defended Warren Jeffs, the cult leader from Utah who is currently serving life plus 20 years in federal prison after being found guilty in multiple states for child sexual assault, incest, and sexual misconduct with a child. Jeffs often arranged for underage girls to marry older men.
- Carlson said Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan is unqualified because she’s unattractive, going on to say of then-nominee Kagan, "I feel sorry for unattractive women … physically, the problems with her are fundamental. She’s never going to be an attractive woman."
- Of women in general, he said, “I love women, but they are extremely primitive, they’re basic, they’re not that hard to understand.”
- He engaged with the hosts as they talked about abusing women, including “choking out” their girlfriends in a rage.
- He called Martha Stewart’s daughter “extremely cunty” after discussing Stewart’s radio show that was recorded in the same building.
- He regularly said demeaning, awful things about Hillary Clinton and many, many other women.
You can read the full transcripts here.
Media Matters researcher Madeline Peltz says that researchers listened to hundreds of hours of Carlson’s commentary, and that there is a lot more coming. Take a listen and then decide if this is someone who should have an hourlong show on Fox News every night.
For his part, Carlson is doubling down and refusing to apologize for his especially awful history of badmouthing women. You can read his statement below and note who has jumped to his defense.
Tucker and his fans are claiming that this audio is from 2009, and that he shouldn’t be held accountable for that today. We look forward to him disregarding any statements before 2009 from all of the 2020 Democratic candidates. Tucker would never take issue with older statements from Biden, Sanders, Harris, Booker, or Warren, right?
For what it’s worth, this audio is going viral, and activists are already reaching out to the few advertisers Carlson still has left to see if they still stand by the Fox News host.