Tucker Carlson suggests teen charged in Kenosha protester killings had to ‘maintain order when no one else would’

Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s Wednesday show was filled with images of the unrest in Kenosha, Wis., prompted by the police shooting of Jacob Blake — including graphic footage of a protester bleeding out in the street after he was shot in the head on Tuesday.

Police have charged Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, with murder in connection with the shootings that killed that man and another protester after he drove to Kenosha with a rifle to stand with others in self-styled militias claiming to guard local businesses.

“Are we really surprised that looting and arson accelerated to murder?” Carlson said. “How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?”

Carlson’s comments drew swift and intense backlash online, with many calling once again for advertisers to drop the host, who has recently been assailed for past bigoted statements and who took a vacation in July after his former top writer was outed for racist and misogynistic posts.

“If they don’t take action after this, every one of Fox News’s executives, directors, and advertisers is complicit in Tucker Carlson’s racist, murderous rants,” tweeted Robert Reich, who was labor secretary under President Clinton.

Asked to comment on the segment, a Fox News spokesperson pointed to a tweet from Carlson with a transcript of his comments.

Carlson is far from the only right-wing personality to openly defend — and even praise — Rittenhouse. As The Washington Post’s Philip Bump reported, Ann Coulter said Rittenhouse should be her president, and a Turning Point USA contributor called his actions a “justified shooting.” Former Major League Baseball player Aubrey Huff tweeted early Thursday that Rittenhouse is a “national treasure.”

Carlson highlighted the destruction that has beset Kenosha since Officer Rusten Sheskey shot Blake seven times in the back on Sunday as he stepped into a car with his children inside. Carlson blamed local leaders and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) for not halting the unrest.

“Kenosha has devolved into anarchy because the authorities in charge of the city abandoned it. People in charge in Wisconsin from the governor on down refused to enforce the law,” Carlson said on Wednesday’s show. “They stood back and watched Kenosha burn.”

Police say Rittenhouse traveled about 20 miles from his home in Antioch, Ill., on Tuesday to stand in front of boarded-up businesses with a rifle slung over his shoulder. He joined a group of other militia members who had answered Facebook calls to “protect” the city.

Two men were then killed and another wounded after a chaotic confrontation between protesters and the armed men outside a gas station; Rittenhouse was arrested on a homicide charge in the case on Wednesday. Prosecutors have yet to detail the full charges against him.

“So what does that amount to? We’re unsure,” Carlson said. “A court will decide if what you just saw qualifies as self-defense.”

“He just justified murder,” tweeted Nikole Hannah-Jones, the journalist behind the New York Times’ 1619 Project.

Added Blake Hounshell, Politico’s editorial director: “Vigilante violence was always one of my greatest worries about the present moment. And here we have a prominent TV host — a man who had the president’s ear — excusing it, rationalizing it.”

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SOURCE: https://www.w24news.com