Tucker Carlson has accused Ilhan Omar (D-MN) of trying to get his show booted from Fox News.
Omar directed advertisers to boycott Carlson’s show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, on Wednesday after Carlson accused her of hating the United States and said that she is a “living fire alarm,” a warning that America’s immigration laws are “dangerous.” It’s just the latest effort by the left to get his show canceled — but Fox has his back, Carlson said, according to The Washington Times.
“Ilhan Omar is trying to take this show off the air. Shut us up. Silence us,” Carlson said. “We want to reassure you that’s not going to happen. Why? Because we work at Fox News, and they’ve got our back, and we’re thankful for that.”
Omar’s out for blood
Leftists have been trying to get Carlson’s show canceled for months over his criticism of America’s immigration system. The latest boycott threat was set off Tuesday after Carlson launched a broadside against Omar, a first-term lawmaker and one of the most controversial members of Congress.
Carlson said that Americans should be “grateful” for Omar because she is “living proof” that America needs to reform its immigration system — and soon.
“Omar isn’t disappointed in America. She’s enraged by it,” he said, according to The Hill. “That should worry you, and not just because Omar is a sitting member of Congress. Ilhan Omar is living proof that the way we practice immigration has become dangerous to this country,” Carlson added, pointing to a Washington Post op-ed in which Omar said she was “disappointed” in America.
Doubling down
Omar responded by calling Tucker a “racist fool” and accused Fox of promoting “white supremacy.” The Democrat all but dog-whistled for a boycott of Carlson’s show, saying: “Advertisers should not be underwriting hate speech.”
Omar, who in 2017 dashed off an op-ed claiming that America was “founded on genocide,” also said that “no lies can stamp out my love for this country,” the Washington Examiner reports.
On Wednesday, Omar told reporters that “I’m sure this pisses him off” that Carlson “doesn’t get the opportunity to ban me from this country — and now he gets to call me a congresswoman…but he’ll eventually get used to it. And I think that advertisers should not be underwriting this kind of dangerous, hateful rhetoric.”
But on his show Wednesday night, Carlson refused to back down. “Of course, they called us racist. On one level that is amusing given how absurd the charges,” Carlson said.
He went on:
This show, more than any other show on television, has taken an aggressive position in favor of color-blind equality and against racism, particularly the casual racism of the modern left. We despise the current habit of judging people on the basis of their skin color. It’s wrong. We see that virtually every night. Racist? Now, we are against racism adamantly. Omar consistently puts her own race at the center of the conversation, but to us, it’s irrelevant.
Canceling Carlson?
Carlson has been the target of several leftist campaigns to get his show canceled, and Fox has continually stood by him. Earlier this year, the network backed Carlson when leftist group Media Matters for America attempted to nix his show over resurfaced comments on a “shock jock” radio show from over a decade ago. Carlson refused to apologize at the time.
The Fox pundit also started losing advertisers last year when he said that immigrants make the country “dirtier.” Fox stood by Carlson at the time, with a spokesperson saying:
We cannot and will not allow voices like Tucker Carlson to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts from the likes of Moveon.org, Media Matters and Sleeping Giants.
Carlson has criticized Omar’s comments before, and in May called her a “symbol of America’s failed immigration system,” pointing to her support of opening borders, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and ending deportations. Omar has also been accused of making anti-Semitic comments and similarly hateful remarks about the United States, like when she described 9/11 as the day “some people did something.”
Omar has generally deflected all skepticism of her patriotism by accusing her critics of racism, Carlson said Wednesday.
“Congresswoman Omar is quick to describe all criticism of her as racism,” he said. “She has done that quite a bit, but in fact, there are serious reasons to wonder about her judgment and her competence. The evidence suggests that she is an extremist on virtually every topic and has been for quite some time.”
As much as Omar and her leftist allies would like to see Carlson canceled, it looks like he isn’t going anywhere. They’ll just have to get used to it.
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