Tucker Carlson reacted with predictable indignation to Donald Trump’s indictment, characterising it as worse for the nation than the deadly insurrection on the US Capitol.
“If you believe in our system, and you want it to continue, you have to raise your hand and say stop,” the Fox News host said Thursday night. “Because this is too great an assault on our system ― much greater than anything we saw on January 6, that’s for sure.”
Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury Thursday for his role in a 2016 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. The porn actor received the $130,000 (£105,300) payment ahead of the 2016 presidential election in exchange for keeping quiet about an alleged affair she had with Trump a decade earlier.
The charges against Trump have not yet been disclosed, however, the New York Times reported that Trump faces more than two dozen counts.
Carlson has joined Trump in characterising the investigation as a politically motivated witch hunt orchestrated by Democrats. He has also repeatedly whitewashed the violent January 6, 2021, effort by Trump supporters to overturn the 2020 election, and recently described the insurrectionists as “sightseers.”
Those “sightseers” injured about 140 police officers. Of more than 1,000 people arrested over the attack, more than 320 were charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding authorities. Multiple people died in connection to the riot.