Tucker Carlson revealed Monday night that, in his esteem, Rep. Maxine Waters not only fully supports the killing of her political enemies, but also her exhortation that Minneapolis-area protestors “make sure that they know that we mean business,” means “Do what we say or we’ll kill you.”
Those are real words used by the top-rated cable news host on Fox News Monday evening, at a time when a divided nation is teetering on the precipice of civil unrest.
Did Waters say “Do what we say or we’ll kill you?”
Of course not. It is the sort of reductio ad absurdum interpretation that has lately become Carlson’s stock in trade as a cable news host, and in this case, a wildly irresponsible one.
The context for this is the trial of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the killing of George Floyd, which, as of Monday afternoon, had gone into jury deliberation. There was also the killing of another unarmed Black man, Daunte Wright, during a routine traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, which is roughly 10 miles from where the Chauvin trial is taking place.
As a result, civil unrest has unfolded in the Minneapolis area that has come in the form of peaceful protests, which have been accompanied by rioting and looting, a milieu into which Rep. Waters inserted herself over the weekend.
The California congresswoman claimed she visited the troubled area to show support from “Auntie Maxine,” but her public comments appear to many to have done more harm than good.
Carlson aired a clip of Waters amid protestors, in which she said “We have got to fight for justice.”
The Congresswoman also publicly called for a guilty verdict, saying “I am very hopeful and I hope that we are going to get a verdict that will say guilty, guilty, guilty. I don’t know whether it’s in the first degree, but as far as I’m concerned it’s first degree.”
She also encouraged protestors by saying “We have got to stay on the streets and we have got to get more active. We have got to get more confrontational. We have got to make sure that they know that they know we mean business.”
“We have got to make sure that they know we mean business, she said,” Carlson repeated Waters coming out of the clip, adding, “Well, that couldn’t be clearer: Do what we say or we will kill you. That’s the message.”
“Maxine Waters doesn’t have much use for those Anglo-Saxon civic traditions like jury trials,” Carlson added with a flourish of white tribalism that will surely please Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her ilk.
“Her demand was very clear. Convict officer Derek Chauvin of first degree or we will burn it down,” Carlson said.
One could argue that Waters’ comments were not particularly helpful to the cause of racial justice, which is evident in the Chauvin judge’s suggestion that an appeal based on her “abhorrent” comments could succeed in overturning a guilty verdict.
But her comments have also been conflated by many right-of-center pundits to mean something that was only interpreted by Carlson, and then presented as fact. Did she say that protestors would kill innocent jury members if they don’t convict Chauvin of first-degree murder, a charge for which he is not even being tried for? Of course not.
But the truth of what was said is not what matters here. It’s how Rep. Maxine Waters makes Tucker Carlson and his viewers feel. And they appear to be very afraid of her at the moment. For whatever reason.
*story by MEDIAite
