Watch: Tucker Carlson speaks of a 'sane society' while calling January 6th a 'constitutionally protected protest'

Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson claimed on Tuesday night's edition of his show that musing about sending political opponents to prison is anathema to a free and "sane society." Yet he has a history of embracing leaders that engage in that totalitarian behavior.

In 2022, Carlson delivered a virtual address to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Budapest, Hungary, which he described as "a free and decent and beautiful country that cares about its people, their families, physical landscape" and "a great place."

Hungary certainly has a deeply rich cultural heritage that traces back to antiquity. But the nation's democratic processes have been usurped by Viktor Orbán, its authoritarian president, who has had his critics arrested and his personal power vastly expanded. Nonetheless, Carlson expressed his desire to be there.

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As Newsweek noted last year, "Carlson has long praised Orbán for his anti-immigration sentiments among other conservative ideas. Last August, Carlson said that he visited the Hungarian border and saw 'order and clarity,' claiming that the country's wall 'works' in fighting illegal immigration, and that it was 'embarrassing to be an American,' according to The Guardian."

Carlson has also repeatedly defended Russian President Vladimir Putin and is frequently featured on Kremlin state television programs parroting Putin's propaganda, whether it relates to former President Donald Trump's ties to Moscow, Russia's attack on the 2016 election, the dehumanization of LGBTQ+ individuals, or Putin's genocidal invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Carlson's willingness to dupe his audience into believing Trump's 2020 election conspiracy theories and illegitimate schemes to shatter the peaceful transfer of power – which he knew were nonsense and privately chastised as such – clashes with his latest claim that he abhors dictatorial rhetoric.

"Now it goes without saying, this is an inversion of what you're supposed to want in a sane society. In a sane society, you let elections determine who has political power. You don't fantasize about your political opponents going to jail," Carlson said on Tuesday. "You don't want a real show of force to deter constitutionally protected protests because those protests are the sign of a free society."

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Trump has, on countless occasions, demanded what Carlson supposedly thinks is unacceptable, culminating in his incitement of the deadly January 6th, 2021 insurrection at the United States Capitol, which triggered his second impeachment.

Recently, Carlson obtained security camera footage of the attack from House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) and broadcast carefully selected snippets to double down on the false narrative that his viewers enjoy. And despite the well-documented evidence and numerous criminal convictions from that day, Carlson still maintains that January 6th was a run-of-the-mill airing of grievances.

"You're proud of that, that people can protest," he declared. "They don't have to be violent. They can say what they think, but that has changed over the last two years."

Watch below or at this link.

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