Tucker Carlson under fire for ‘gaslighting garbage’ defence of Capitol insurrectionists

Fox News host Tucker Carlson has come under fire for defending the rioters who ransacked the Capitol on 6 January.

Trying to downplay the events of that day, Mr Carlson said that the rioters were just “a mob of older people from unfashionable zip codes” who managed to get to DC “probably by bus”.

Speaking with mocking derision, Mr Carlson opened his Tuesday night show with: “Today is the three-month anniversary of January 6th. For those who aren’t good with dates or don’t have calendars, this is the day we pause to remember the White supremacist ‘QAnon insurrection’ that came so very close to toppling our government and ending this democracy forever. You saw what happened. It was carried live on television, every gruesome moment.”

Mr Carlson then proceeded to try to rewrite history, as a violent mob who assaulted law enforcement officials became just a group of people who “wandered freely through the Capitol like it was their building or something. They didn’t have guns, but a lot of them had extremely dangerous ideas”.