Tucker Carlson hits back at "stupid" Aussie journalist
<p>The poster boy for conservative America has locked horns with an Aussie journalist in a heated exchange that has gone viral.</p>
<p>Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News host in the USA and all round controversial figure, is currently doing the rounds Down Under as a guest of Clive Palmer, and took to the stage to make a speech at the Australian Freedom Conference at the Hyatt Hotel in Canberra on Tuesday. </p>
<p>With his signature move being to look for an argument, Carlson found a worthy opponent in AAP Newswire’s Kat Wong, who wasted no time in attempting to get under the 55-year-old’s skin.</p>
<p>Wong quizzed Carlson about his controversial immigration views, saying he had “talked” about the “Great Replacement Theory” and how “white Australians, Americans and Europeans” are being replaced by “non-white immigrants”, but Carlson was quick to challenge the question.</p>
<p>“Whites are being replaced? I don’t think I said that,” he interjected.</p>
<p>“Well, it’s been mentioned on your show 4000 times,” Wong replied.</p>
<p>“Really? When did I say that? I said ‘whites’ are being replaced?” he responded.</p>
<p>When Wong insisted he had, Carlson challenged her to “cite that”.</p>
<p>“I said native-born Americans are being replaced, including blacks,” he continued.</p>
<p>“African-Americans have been in the United States, in many cases, for more than 400 years and their concerns are as every bit as real and valid and alive to me as the concerns of white people whose families have been there for 400 years."</p>
<p>“I’ve never said that ‘whites’ are being replaced. Not one time and you can’t cite it.”</p>
<p>When Wong said “I believe that’s untrue”, Carlson took it up a level.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Meet the Australian media. <a href="https://t.co/IyiEqihPkb">pic.twitter.com/IyiEqihPkb</a></p>
<p>— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) <a href="https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1806034521369776406?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 26, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
<p>“We just met, but when our relationship starts with a lie, it makes it tough to be friends,” he said.</p>
<p>“You actually can’t cite it because I didn’t say it and I don’t believe it, and I’m telling you that to your face. So, why don’t you just accept me at face value?”</p>
<p>Carlson doubled down on his views by calling immigration "immoral", saying governments were negligent by “shifting their concern” to immigrants in order to solve the population growth. </p>
<p>“In my view, happy people have children,” he said. “And a functioning economy allows them to do that.”</p>
<p>“So you need to fix the economy and fix the culture so the people who want to have kids can,” he continued. “You don’t just go for the quick sugar fix of importing new people. That’s my position and if you think that’s racist, that’s your problem.”</p>
<p>Wong replied by saying “I never called you a racist” but it only fired Carlson up more.</p>
<p>“But of course, you are suggesting … I must say one of the reasons why people don’t like people like you in the media is that you never say exactly what you mean,” Carlson said.</p>
<p>“Your slurs are all by implication. You’re about to tell me the Great Replacement Theory is racist or antisemitic, whatever. I’ve said what I’ve said to you right now like 100 times in public."</p>
<p>“I hope to, if I live long enough, to say it 100 more times. I think it’s completely honest and real, not racist or scary. It’s factually true. It’s not a theory, it’s a fact."</p>
<p>Carlson then took the fight to the issue of gun control when Wong suggested that it is Americans the same immigration theories that turn to violence and commit mass shootings, to which Carlson quickly rejected as he took aim at Wong. </p>
<p>“Oh god, come on,” Carlson said. “How do they get people this stupid in the media? I guess it doesn’t pay well. Look, I’m sorry, I’ve lived among people like you for too long. I don’t mean to call you stupid, maybe you’re just pretending to be."</p>
<p>He clarified his stance by saying, "But I’m totally against violence."</p>
<p>But Wong wouldn’t stop her line of questioning, asking “Right, so therefore you support gun control?” </p>
<p>“What?! I thought it couldn’t get dumber, but it did,” he said.</p>
<p>“No, I don’t support disarming law-abiding people so they can’t defend themselves, so the government has a monopoly on violence. I don’t think so."</p>
<p>Before leaving the stage, Carlson took a broad swipe at Australian media, saying, "I got here and the country is so unbelievably beautiful, and the people are so cheerful and funny, and cool, and smart. "</p>
<p>“I’m like, ‘your media has got to be better than ours. It can’t just be a bunch of castrated robots reading questions from the boss’."</p>
<p>“And then it turns out it’s exactly the same. Maybe even a tiny bit dumber.”</p>
<p>A lengthy clip of the tense exchange has since gone viral amongst conservative X users, with <em>Sky News Australia</em> host Rita Panahi chiming in on the discourse. </p>
<p>“If you are going to show up and make outrageous claims and try to connect Tucker Carlson to mass killers, then I don’t know, perhaps go to the trouble of citing a source, have a direct quote from the man,” Ms Panahi said.</p>
<p>“Otherwise, you are going to look like an absolute fool.”</p>
<p><em>Image credits: LUKAS COCH/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Editorial </em></p>
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