Tucker Carlson blasted his bipartisan critics in Congress as “sociopaths” during a broadcast on Wednesday and accused attorney general Merrick Garland of lying about the number of police officers killed during the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol.
It’s the latest headline-grabbing moment after the Fox News host caused a controversy throughout the week by airing selectively chosen clips to claim falsely that the riots at the Capitol in 2021 weren’t violent.
“The sociopaths turned out to be both Democrats and Republicans,” Carlson said, hammering GOP leaders like senators Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham as “weak men” for their criticisms of the Jan 6 video segments.
Legislators from both parties have accused Carlson of distorting the facts about Jan 6 in recent episodes.
Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee and former Massachusetts governor, said this week that the American people “saw what happened on January 6”.
“They’ve seen the people that got injured, they saw the damage to the building. You can’t hide the truth by selectively picking a few minutes out of tapes and saying this is what went on. It’s so absurd. It’s nonsense,” he said.
Elsewhere in his monologue on Wednesday, Carlson accused Democratic officials including Attorney General Garland of lying about Jan 6 because of their statements that five Washington DC and Capitol officers died because of the riots.
“Joe Biden’s attorney general is a liar,” Carlson said, adding, “They don’t want any detail. They just want a slogan. The’yre counting Brian Sicknick. That’s a lie.”
Four officers died by suicide following the attacks, and officer Brian Sicknick died of natural causes and a series of strokes, according to medical officials. His family is suing multiple Capitol rioters and Donald Trump for the death, arguing he was sprayed with harmful chemicals during the riot immediately before his death.
During Wednesday’s show, Carlson claimed that 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in Washington, DC, some of which turned into riots, were an attempt to “force the sitting president from office”.
“More cops were injured by Kamala Harris’s favourite mob Black Lives Matter at the White House than were injured by Trump voters at the Capitol,” Carlson said.
