Friday on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” host Tucker Carlson lambasted MSNBC hosts Lawrence O’Donnell and Joy Reid for suggesting race was a factor in White House chief of staff John Kelly’s criticism of Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) for her alleged politicization of the death of an American serviceman in Niger.
O’Donnell, much like Wilson, said Kelly’s use of the term “empty barrel” had racist connotations on MSNBC show. Reid responded O’Donnell’s commentary on Twitter by adding Kelly was a native of “segregated Boston.”
Carlson called them “morons” and said they were making him “sick.”
Partial transcript as follows:
CARLSON: MSNBC Lawrence O’Donnell explained to his viewers that the phrase “empty barrel” which by the way was coined by Plato and used by Shakespeare is indeed racist because it was part of a broader effort to, quote, “dehumanize Frederica Wilson.”
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL, MSNBC HOST: John Kelly never sat beside a student like Frederica Wilson in his elementary school. The language about black people in John Kelly’s white neighborhood was exactly the same language about black people that was used at that time in white communities in the segregated south. I know the neighborhood John Kelly comes from. I know the culture.
It was a neighborhood in which calling someone who looked like Frederica Wilson an empty barrel was the kindest thing that would have been said about her. You know what wasn’t sacred when he was a kid growing up, where he was growing up? Black women. He took time. A lot of extra time to call a black woman who he doesn’t know and he doesn’t like an empty barrel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Unbelievable. MSNBC’s Joy Reid never one for subtlety went even farther than that. She attacked General Kelly’s entire childhood as racist. Quote, “Kelly grew up in segregated Boston,” she tweeted, “in an Irish Catholic neighborhood where women were bullied not honored and blacks scorn and rejected.” Because really, there is nothing like using growth ethnic stereotypes when you’re fighting for racial justice as she says she is.
According to Joy Reid, the problem isn’t just General Kelly. It is the Irish, they’re the problem. This is grotesque, obviously. The morons making these arguments are sick. It’s the centrum of disease to imagine racism behind every disagreement. This also by the way the death of traditional political debate. You can argue with people who disagree with you who are just wrong, but there is no reasoning with bigots, you can only crush them. Your opponents suddenly become your enemies. They must be destroyed. And that by the way is how many on the left now see General Kelly not to mention you and me.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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