Tucker Carlson: Trump indictment ‘greater assault’ on democracy than Jan. 6

Fox News host Tucker Carlson said the indictment of former president Trump by a New York grand jury on Thursday was a bigger assault on the American system of government than the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by the former president’s supporters.

“If you believe in our system and you want it to continue, you have to raise your hand and say stop, because this is too great an assault on our system, much greater than anything we saw on January 6th, that’s for certain,” Carlson said on his top-watched show on Fox as news of Trump’s indictment broke.

Carlson’s defense of Trump is notable given recent criticisms Trump has leveled against Fox over its coverage of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and private comments made by Carlson and others at Fox after the 2020 election, which have been unearthed as part of an ongoing defamation lawsuit the network is fighting.

“We are very very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait,” Carlson wrote in one text message to an unidentified Fox employee on Jan. 4, 2021, according to one court filing from Dominion Voting Systems as part of its $1.6 billion claim against the network. “I hate him passionately,” Carlson said of Trump in another message.

Fox has said the messages of its employees have been “cherry picked” to drum up press coverage of the case and Carlson last week said he was enraged that his private messages about Trump had been made public through the lawsuit.

“Oh, let’s see. I spent four years defending his policies and I — I’m going to defend them again tonight,” the host said during a recent radio interview, adding: “And actually, and I’m pretty straightforward, I’m, um, I love Trump. Like, as a person, I think Trump is funny and insightful.”

Carlson has separately faced widespread criticism for is framing of the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6. which he described earlier this month as “mostly peaceful chaos” and sought to downplay the severity of over several episodes of his nightly program.

“This is transparently political, it’s meant to take him out of the presidential race,” Carlson said on Thursday of Trump’s indictment. “That’s not allowed.”