Tucker Carlson rips Graham over report he told officers to shoot Jan. 6 rioters

“Shoot American citizens for the crime of trespassing? Really? This is the conservative position?” Carlson asked Monday during a segment on his nightly prime-time show. “Unarmed protesters show up … look, they shouldn’t have been there. We never defended that and never would. But kill them? What the hell is wrong with you, Lindsey Graham? How long before you’re ordering drone attacks on people whose politics you don’t like?”  

 

Fox’s top-rated host was referencing a report in The Washington Post published this week that investigated the events that led to the Jan. 6 attack. The report revealed that, during the rioting, a panicked Graham told the Senate sergeant at arms to use guns to stop people who had breached the building.

 

“We give you guns for a reason,” Graham told the Senate sergeant at arms, the Post reported. “Use them.”

 

Tucker: What the hell is wrong with you Lindsey Graham? pic.twitter.com/4oSxydlKxJ

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 2, 2021

 

Graham separately spoke over the phone to Ivanka Trump, the former president’s daughter and a top White House adviser at the time of the incident, telling her, “You need to get these people out of here.” 

 

“This thing is going south. This is not good,” Graham reportedly told Ivanka Trump. “You’re going to have to tell these people to stand down. Stand down.”

 

Donald Trump released a video on his social media feeds later on Jan. 6 telling rioters to “go home in peace.” 

 

Carlson has taken widespread criticism in recent days about an upcoming mini-series on the Jan. 6 rioting that has been produced for “Tucker Carlson Originals.”

 

The streaming-only series, which Carlson promoted on his show on Monday, purports to tell “the true story behind 1/6” and shows at least one interviewee suggesting the Jan. 6 incident was a so-called false flag operation carried out by the U.S. government. 

 

A trailer release for the series last week sparked condemnations from some of Carlson’s Fox News colleagues and members of Congress, including Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).

 

“Until yesterday [Cheney] 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 last week in response to the criticism from Cheney and others.

 

“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.”