Tucker loves him
I had never seen this quote from Tucker Carlson before. It’s from the introduction to Roger Stone’s 2008 book:
“Like many in the upper reaches of media, business and government, this executive stood in fear and trembling before the legend of Roger Stone,” wrote Carlson in the introduction for a book authored by Stone in 2018. “And for good reason: Roger Stone is a troublemaker — indeed, not just a troublemaker, but perhaps the premier troublemaker of our time, the Michael Jordan of electoral mischief. This is either terrifying or delightful, depending on your uptightness level. I love it. Television executives don’t. That’s the difference.”
He loves Stone’s “electoral mischief” because he has a low “uptightness level.” That’s true — if you think being a decent human being with a modicum of morality is “uptight.”
I wrote about Stone the other day, in case you missed it.
I did not realize how close he was with Tucker Carlson, though. According to the new Haberman book, he also lobbied for Stone to get a pardon:
And “Tucker Carlson Tonight” has been there for Stone. When the FBI in January 2019 raided Stone’s Florida home, Carlson denounced the tactic and criticized CNN for obtaining video of the early-morning action. The network, he contended, was in cahoots with officials from Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, which had been probing Stone’s activities. “CNN acted as the public relations arm of the Mueller investigation, as they have before,” said the host. (In fact, CNN journalists’ presence that morning was because of a hunch informed by their reporting.) Stone was subsequently indicted — on counts that included witness tampering and making false statements — found guilty on all counts and sentenced to more than three years in prison.
The whole affair short-circuited Carlson, who just couldn’t stand by and allow the justice system to do its thing. When it emerged that the Mueller report hadn’t established a Trump-Russia conspiracy, Carlson howled about Stone’s situation: “Where are the pardons here?” asked Carlson in March 2019. “I mean, is it time for the executive branch to send a really clear message we’re going to stop the destruction of innocent people by completely out-of-control bureaucrats?”
Following Stone’s conviction, Carlson revealed some inside reporting on a possible pardon, citing Kushner as one gatekeeper.“We’re hearing that certain people around the president — possibly his son-in-law, maybe not — are telling him no, you can’t pardon Roger Stone, even though the president has come out and said publicly, I think that this was a travesty.”
That little clue perhaps explains why, in Haberman’s book, Carlson seeks an audience with Kushner. In the meeting, Carlson told Kushner that if Trump didn’t act, he’d “press the issue publicly,” according to “Confidence Man.” As noted above, Carlson had already been doing just that, but in mid-February 2020, in the days leading up to Stone’s sentencing, Carlson did multiple segments on the topic. “You know what the average rapist does in this country? We checked today — four years. You know what the average armed robber gets? Three years. The average thug who violently assaults somebody? Less than a year and a half,” riffed Carlson on Feb. 11. “But the left, CNN as well, demanding that Roger Stone die in prison. This man needs a pardon.”
The next night, he kept at it. “If the Russia collusion story was a hoax, and of course it most certainly was a hoax, then why is Roger Stone going to prison for his role in it?” he asked. “If Roger Stone serves even a single day behind bars, the Russia lie will be validated as true.” On it went: “Prosecutors want Roger Stone to serve nine years not because he hurt someone or hurt this country. He didn’t. But because they hate him,” Carlson said on Feb. 13.
The transcripts, in other words, reflect that Carlson made good on the consequences that he’d dangled before Kushner — if Trump didn’t act, he’d make a public fuss. Journalists don’t, or should not, veer into this sort of personal advocacy; their role is to determine what is happening and to report the findings, the better to inform viewers. Yet viewers weren’t the priority for Carlson. Stone was.
I don’t know how I missed this longtime close relationship but I did. I guess even a news junkie like me inevitably misses important details. It is very interesting and says so much about Carlson’s character going way back. The guy is mostly about money (this NY Times portrait spells that out.) But he’s also a nasty, adolescent punk attracted to a ratfucking weasel like Stone because it makes him laugh.
He’s this guy:
It was Saturday, and the police had finally called for everyone to clear the park. As I filmed officers opening up a blocked street, a young man ran into view, screaming for help. He wore the khaki-and-white uniform of the white nationalist group Vanguard America. He had been separated from them and was being chased by at least one protester. He ripped off his shirt and begged the crowd for mercy. He wasn’t actually into white power, you see.
“Barely,” he clarified to me. As he shoved his polo shirt into a plastic bag, the fear on his face settled into a smirk. “It’s kind of a fun idea,” he explained. “Just being able to say ‘white power,’ you know?”
It’s fun. For sociopaths.