By Nancy Thorner -
Fox News' commentator Tucker Carlson has delivered a verdict on the first two years of the Trump administration and he’s not pleased, according to an interview on Dec. 6, 2018, with Die Weltwoche – Switzerland's leading German language opinion weekly with a readership of over 400,000 in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.
Although it has a variety of voices, Fox News Channel has become the outlet most often aligned with the Trump Administration, at least in prime time. Why then did Tucker feel the need to express his true feeling to a publication outside the U.S.?
Highlights of Tucker's interview
During his interview Carlson catalogued a list of grievances and failures regarding Trump’s ability and desire to deliver on anything he pledged during his campaign.
Below are excerpts from Tucker's interview with Die Weltwoche:
Editor Urs Gehriger jump-started the conversation by asking what Carlson thought of Trump’s first two years in office after noting that Carlson's new book, "Ship of Fools," is silent on Trump but comments on his critics, to which Carlson replied that he cannot stand Trump's self-aggrandizement and boasting. “It’s not my culture, I didn’t grow up like that,” Tucker said, explaining his distaste for boasting.
When asked whether Trump has kept his promises, the usually quick-witted and long-winded Carlson had just one word: “No.” “His chief promises were that he would build the wall, defund Planned Parenthood and repeal Obamacare, and he hasn’t done any of those things,” Carlson said.
“I’ve come to believe that Trump’s role is not as a conventional president who promises to get certain things achieved to the Congress and then does.”
Not only has Trump failed to come through, Carlson said, he might not even be able to, both due to his own shortcomings and his inability to muster legislators to follow his lead.
“I don’t think he’s capable,” Carlson went on.
“I don’t think he’s capable of sustained focus. I don’t think he understands the system. I don’t think Congress is on his side. I don’t think his own agencies support him.”
While Trump has asked some questions that he thinks needed to be asked, such as: “Why don’t our borders work?” and “What’s the point of NATO?” Carlson said he has done nothing to follow through on them once they have been posed.
As to the editor's question of "Why not," Tucker's response was because legislating is too complex for Trump to grasp. In order to pass legislation, “You really have to understand how it works and you have to be very focused on getting it done, and he knows very little about the legislative process, hasn’t learned anything, and surrounded himself with people that can get it done, hasn’t done all the things you need to do so. It’s mostly his fault that he hasn’t achieved those things."
Tucker's questionable interview
Why did Tucker feel the need to express his true feelings to a publication outside of the U.S.? What about Carlson's duplicity? It's somewhat like Obama trashing America when in a foreign country. Of course, Obama also did his share of trashing while he was in the White House.
Didn't Tucker realize that his interview would go public? In retrospect, might Tucker desire to keep favor with those who believe he is too pro-Trump? Thorner speculates that Tucker, in granting the interview which many of Tucker's viewers will never hear about, wishes to convey to those uneasy with his pro-Trump rhetoric that how he presents himself to his viewers is at odds with what he really thinks of President Trump. It is evident Fox News is moving more to the Left. Furthermore, Fox has been critical of Sean Hannity's all-Trump-all-the-time positive rhetoric.
But is Tucker being fair to his viewers? I thought it was uncalled for, in poor taste, and unfair to Tucker's viewers to express what he really feels about Trump to a foreign media, while portraying just the opposite on his Fox show.
Tucker might at times sound the alarm about China, illegal aliens and the tech despots of the Silicon Valley, but to give his Fox audience the perception that he is with Trump seems a bit two-faced to me, when at the same time he is telling a European publication that he has little respect for Trump. It seems an act of cowardliness for Tucker to have announced his true feelings for Trump at a venue other than his own Fox cable show.
Trump unjustly criticized
It is true that some might be put off — as is Tucker — by Trump's adultery, his constant boasting, and his frequent boorishness, but for me this is more than balanced by what Trump is trying to do for this nation. Voters knew that Trump was far from a perfect man when they elected him in 2016.
In the interview Tucker blames Trump for things that only Congress can initiate. Despite Trump's Herculean efforts to lead this nation, Trump is facing a resistance that is determined to destroy him and his presidency. Trump's promise to build the wall and deal with the influx of illegal immigrants has been stymied by leftist judges; rogue Republicans; the Democratic Socialist party; the deep state, including those in the FBI, CIA, and the Obama holdovers in the Department of Defense and the Office of the Secretary of State; the mainstream media, and the billionaire money bags of George Soros, Tom Steyer, and the Koch Brothers. And does Tucker not remember that it was the late John McCain who provided the vote to save Obamacare. Could Trump control McCain, as one who marched to his own drummer?
For the first time since Ronald Reagan we have a president who is strong and stands up for America and Americans. The Bush’s loved America, but neither of them had the spine that Donald J. Trump has. Trump has the brains to understand when our country is being taken advantage of and to push back. And he gets nothing but hatred in return from people on both sides of the aisle. We should all be on our knees thanking this man for his strength in the face of so much adversity. There is no gratitude. And it’s so disheartening.
Do you agree?
