Tucker Carlson continues pushing a sympathetic view of the Jan. 6 insurrection on his highly watched, prime-time Fox News program, which he has again used to promote his new “Patriot Purge” miniseries on the Fox Nation streaming service.
On Tuesday night, former Army officer Emily Rainey appeared on Carlson’s Fox News cable show to support the host’s narrative.
“Psychological operations is supposed to be conducted against ‘foreign’ audiences — that’s the key word,” she said, suggesting the chaos of Jan. 6 may have been orchestrated by the U.S government to vilify people like herself.
In Carlson’s special, Rainey, a key figure, alleges “It is my opinion that false flags have happened in this country.”
Rainey led a group of 100 activists to the Capitol on Jan. 6 to support the false claim that the 2020 election had been stolen from Donald Trump. She had submitted a letter of resignation from military service prior to participating in that “Stop the Steal” event, according to Army Times, but was still on active duty.
“She had already been handed down an adverse administrative action for a separate incident and resigned her commission,” an official told the military publication.
That incident, Rainey said, stemmed from her removing caution tape from a park so she and her child could play there.
Rainey has been accused of no illegal activity connected to Jan. 6, but was reportedly the focus of an early investigation by the U.S. Army. Her activist group tweeted from a previous pro-Trump event: “This is what a peaceful protest looks like. They should pray we stay that way.”
Protests over President Biden’s electoral win did not stay peaceful. Prosecutors have so far charged nearly 700 Trump loyalists in connection with the attack on the Capitol to stop the certification of the 2020 election.
Republican congressman and Air Force veteran Adam Kinzinger led a chorus of outrage last week after Carlson introduced a provocative clip from “Patriot Purge” on primetime Fox News, which featured a snippet of Rainey’s “False Flag” assertion.
“Anyone working for Fox News must speak out'” Kinzinger tweeted. “This is disgusting.”
Watchdog group Media Matters, which monitors conservative media movements like Fox News, noted that news organizations including the Daily News and Daily Dot had been contacted by Fox representatives uninvitedly asking “off the record” that it be clarified that Fox Nation, not Fox News, was broadcasting Carlson’s fever dream. The Los Angeles Times reported that it was Carlson and his team that put together “Patriot Purge,” which it says was not worked on by Fox News journalists.
The right-wing cable outlet — which allowed Carlson to promote the series on its morning program “Fox & Friends” on Monday — is now offering a promotional trial deal to attract new viewers to that streaming service. Fox Nation has previously broadcast bizarre programming including the COVID conspiracy-pushing “Diamond and Silk” show and “Fox & Friends” anchor Ainsley Earhardt’s “Bible Study” program.
Carlson did not apologize for “Patriot Purge” on his show Tuesday. Instead, he doubled down, saying he was “proud” of it and insisted his version of events was true. Carlson has raised concerns across the aisle with his special, which alleges radical right-wingers are being “hunted” following the bloody Jan. 6 uprising.
Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney blasted Carlson’s agenda last week.
“It appears that Fox Nation is giving Tucker Carlson a platform to spread the same type of lies that provoked violence on January 6,” she tweeted. “As Fox News knows, the election wasn’t stolen and January 6 was not a ‘false flag’ operation.”
Even Carlson’s Fox News colleague Geraldo Rivera called “bullsh-t” on ideas being pushed by Carlson, including the suggestion that it may have been law enforcement officials — not pro-Trump extremists — who baited ne’er-do-wells into attacking the U.S. Capitol.
Rolling Stone summarized Carlson’s latest venture as “Too crazy to believe — and too dangerous to ignore.”
The Atlantic has labelled it “sinister.” The liberal-leaning site Mother Jones charged that “Tucker Carlson’s new ‘documentary’ has all the hallmarks of fascism.”
In a letter to Fox News boss Rupert Murdoch, the Anti-Defamation League asked that Carlson’s series not be aired, calling it an “indisputable lie and blatant attempt to rewrite history.”
“Tooning Out the News,” a parody news show produced by late night CBS comedian Stephen Colbert, announced Monday that it, too, would launch a streaming site “where we hide everything too cheap and racist for the real show.”
