Tucker Carlson slammed Sen. Lindsey Graham over report that he urged cops to shoot at Capitol rioters
- Tucker Carlson criticized Lindsey Graham over a report about the Capitol riot.
- The Washington Post said Graham urged police to use their guns on the rioters.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Monday criticized Sen. Lindsey Graham over a Washington Post report claiming the lawmaker urged police to fire their weapons during the Capitol riot.
The Post on Sunday published an extensive new account of the violence on January 6.
One detail it higlighted was, it said, Graham bluntly telling police to use their guns as the rioters advanced on the Senate chamber.
Carlson has for months been promoting distorted accounts and conspiratorial "false flag" theories about riot, seeking to portray the protesters as peaceful conservatives ensnared in a government plot.
In a new documentary series he claimed the riot was instigated by the FBI, despite the absence of evidence to substantiate the claim. Some Fox News hosts and guests have pushed back against the premise of the series.
On Monday's edition of his show, Carlson turned on Graham in light of The Post's story.
"Really?" said the Fox News host of Graham's reported remarks.
"This is the conservative position? Unarmed protestors show up, look, they shouldn't have been there. We've never defended that and never would.
"But kill them? What the hell's wrong with you, Lindsey Graham?" Carlson asked. Per The Post, Graham did not directly ask for officers to kill anybody, instead saying to officers: "You've got guns. Use them."
Carlson continued in his attack: "How long before you're ordering drone attacks on people whose politics you don't like? What a revealing moment this is."
The remarks highlight a rift in the American right over the Jan 6 riot, and Donald Trump's role in instigating it.
Some Republicans who criticized Trump in the wake of the riot, such as Rep. Liz Cheney, have been ostracized from the party.
Trump has sought to defend the rioters and continued to push the election-fraud conspiracy theories that incited the attack, ahead of a widely expected presidential campaign in 2024.
Carlson on Monday also attacked Cheney, whom he described as a "left-wing wacko."