The News
Tucker Carlson is out at Fox News. The network’s most popular host and right-wing political juggernaut signed off his final show on Friday evening by promoting his latest special, “Let Them Eat Bugs.”
Here are some of the other defining moments of his nearly 15-year run at Fox News.
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The bizarre segments:
That one time he judged sex-crazed pandas
As most national outlets in 2018 heavily focused on the news that the FBI was raiding the home of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, Carlson only briefly mentioned the raid before dedicating a segment on pandas’ sex lives.
“They’re not against sex, either, they just hate unsexy zoos,” he said. “But when they’re in the wild, male pandas engage in a fierce sexual contest. The winner has sex 40 times in a single afternoon!”
That one time he promoted testicle tanning
In a segment for Fox Nation’s End of Men documentary, Carlson included an interview with a fitness trainer who promoted the use of red light to increase sperm production and testosterone levels as a part of “brometherapy.”
That one time he went off on M&Ms
After the iconic candy brand redesigned some of its female mascots, Carlson vented on-air about “woke M&Ms.”
“The green M&M got her boots back, but apparently is now a lesbian, maybe?” he said. “And there’s also a plus-sized, obese purple M&M, so we’re gonna cover that, of course.”
The off-the-rails interviews:
That one time he debated Bill Nye
Carlson in 2017 invited celebrity scientist Bill Nye to discuss climate change on his show. Carlson spent most of the segment trying to discredit his guest, with Nye at one point bringing out his phone to time how long it would take Carlson to interrupt him.
That one time he stopped an interview after the guest criticized the cop who killed George Floyd.
After the officer who killed George Floyd was convicted of murder, Carlson invited Ed Gavin, a former corrections officer, to talk about what the jury’s decision would mean for the country’s policing system.
But after Gavin expressed support for the conviction and called Floyd’s murder “pure savagery,” Carlson quickly ended the interview and moved on to the next segment.
That one time he denied meeting Rep. Matt Gaetz and his date for dinner
While defending himself from allegations that he had sexual relations with an underage girl, Gaetz claimed that he had once brought along a “friend” for a dinner with Carlson and his wife, telling the host, “You’ll remember her.” The host later responded, “I don’t remember the woman you’re speaking of.”
The problematic and racist commentary:
That one time he said immigrants make the US ‘poorer and dirtier’
Carlson has long been accused of promoting the racist “great replacement theory” embraced by white nationalists who say that Western elites are trying to replace white people with immigrants.
That one (of many) times he defended Vladimir Putin
Hours before Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Carlson appeared to downplay President Vladimir Putin’s motives, saying that criticism of Putin was “mandated” by Democrats.
“It may be worth asking yourself, since it is getting pretty serious, what is this really about? Why do I hate Putin so much?” he asked viewers. “Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? These are fair questions, and the answer to all of them is: ‘No.’ Vladimir Putin didn’t do any of that.”
Carlson later walked back those comments, but his subsequent segments continued to be less critical of Russia, with Russian state media often echoing his talking points.
That one time he suggested that a Black lawmaker talks like a “sharecropper”
After Tennessee State Rep. Justin Pearson was voted back into office following his expulsion for protesting gun violence on the State House floor, Carlson mocked Pearson for not speaking “dignified standard English” during his reinstatement speech.
“You got to ask yourself, as long as we’re mimicking civil rights leaders who died almost 60 years ago, why not some variety?” Carlson said. “You never see politicians transitioning to say, Malcolm X. Why is that? Maybe because Malcolm X didn’t talk like a sharecropper. He spoke dignified standard English.”
