Cheney calls out Fox over new Tucker Carlson promo
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) is one of several Republicans blasting Fox News Media for a promotional video teasing an upcoming episode of leading host Tucker Carlson’s mini-series “Tucker Carlson originals.”
The episode, which will only be broadcast on Fox Nation, the company’s paid streaming service, is set to be published in three parts next month and examines the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and purports to tell “the true story behind 1/6.”
“The helicopters have left Afghanistan and now they’ve landed here at home,” Carlson is seen saying on the promotional video. “They’ve begun to fight a new enemy in a new war on terror.”
Another woman apparently interviewed for the piece says on the video “false flags have happened in this country, one of which could have been Jan. 6.”
Cheney, a Republican on the select committee to investigate the attack that day who emerged as a leading critic of former President Trump in the days following the incident at the Capitol, ripped Fox News Media for “giving [Carlson] a platform to spread the same type of lies that provoked violence on January 6.”
“As [Fox News] knows, the election wasn’t stolen and January 6 was not a ‘false flag’ operation,” she said.
Carlson has drawn widespread criticism for his remarks about the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, at one point pushing baseless claims that FBI informants were among those who planned and executed the breach on the Capitol.
He has also blasted police officers who responded to the rioting that day, questioning their impartiality and suggesting one Black officer was an “angry left-wing political activist.”
Other Republicans also hit Carlson for the promotional video, which was shared on his personal Twitter account on Wednesday.
Geraldo Rivera, a longtime Fox News contributor, suggested in an interview with The New York Times that Carlson may be trying to intentionally provoke people with the content he and his team create.
“Tucker’s wonderful, he’s provocative, he’s original, but — man oh man,” Rivera said. “There are some things that you say that are more inflammatory and outrageous and uncorroborated. And I worry that — and I’m probably going to get in trouble for this — but I’m wondering how much is done to provoke, rather than illuminate.”
Rivera continued: “He’s my colleague. He’s my family. Sometimes you have to speak out about your family.”
Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But Carlson himself used his show Thursday night to hit back at Cheney, as well as Democrats and the media, and to defend the mini-series.
“Until yesterday she and Nancy Pelosi had a monopoly on how Americans were allowed to understand Jan. 6. Unfortunately for them, that’s not how a free society works. Politicians don’t get to put parameters around your thoughts or conversations. Free people are allowed to ask any question they want,” Carlson said. “They can follow the facts to their own logical conclusions and that’s exactly what we set out to do months ago when we began reporting out this story.”
Updated at 10:29 p.m.