Turns out the Fox Cable News guy had been one , if not ex-President Donald Trump chief advisor….
And THAT has given a rise to his stock among Republican’s who are Trump deciples…..
An Carlson feels he go after anybody in party he wants with impunity….
Fox News host Tucker Carlson isn’t the most powerful conservative in the country.
That label still has to be applied to former President Trump, who continues to influence the GOP at nearly every level of government as he considers a bid for reelection in 2024.
Yet with Trump banned from major social media platforms, Carlson, the top-rated host on Fox, is increasingly seen as a kind of kingmaker within the GOP. And ambitious Republicans looking to climb toward the White House have shown a willingness to bow to him in order to win favor with his audience.
The power balance was on vivid display just last week on the night of Jan. 6, when Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who finished second to Trump in the 2016 GOP presidential primary, essentially apologized to Carlson as he tried to explain why he had described the attack on the Capitol a year earlier as “terrorism,” a description Carlson and his audience didn’t like.
“You called this a terror attack, when by no definition was it a terror attack. That’s a lie. You told that lie on purpose, and I’m wondering why you did,” Carlson said to the senator.
Carlson went on to question the sincerity of Cruz, calling his choice of words “sloppy.”
Cruz followed with several minutes of what news outlets described as “groveling” in an attempt to repair his image with Carlson’s audience and more broadly Trump’s base.
Amanda Carpenter, a former staffer for Cruz and now a columnist at the conservative but anti-Trump online publication The Bulwark, said during an interview with CNN last week the capitulation to Carlson and his viewers is an example of the senator’s “radicalization that happened right there in that interview.”
“This is how Tucker Carlson is guiding the message for the Republican Party on that network,” Carpenter said.
Jeff Cohen, a former cable news pundit and author of “Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media,” said Carlson’s rebuke of Cruz is the clearest example in recent memory of the influence conservative media figures have on GOP ideology. …
A tape has been uncovered of a radio interview that was made shortly after the Jan.6 insurrection in which Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy Claims that in a conversation Trump took “some” responsibility for the attack on the Capitol.
Further, McCarthy reiterated that he held Trump responsible for what occurred.
Trump ,like others ,including Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham and Nikki Haley thought that Jan. 6 was going to be Trumps Waterloo.They didnt comprehend ,at the time ,that rank and file Republicans weren’t that upset about the attack by their fellow Republicans.
When that quickly became evident most of them simply quit talking about it and reversed course.McCarthy even made a pilgrimage to askTrumps forgiveness.A slimy little worm is he.
Carlson could be a major challenger for the Republican nomination if Trump doesn’t run.
Indeed he essentially lays down the party line now on his nightly show.
Cruzs abject surrender to Tucker’s hectoring was one for the ages!
Ain’t this the way the Senator from Texas takes political knocks?
You know the Trump doing Cruz’s dad putdown?
I could see it happening. Hell if that dead bigot Rush Limbaugh hadn’t already smoked his last cigar he’d probably be a contender in 2024 too.
The GOP used to roll tease these talking heads but they either didn’t rum ultimately or couldn’t win the nomination (Pat Buchanan). But that was then. This is now.