Rich Lowry, editor of the conservative National Review and author of “The Case for Nationalism,” said in an interview that “no one can rule this out and say it is completely implausible.”
“There is at least one significant faction within the Republican Party that [Carlson] he has a big turnout and possibly a leadership on, “said Lowry, who writes a column for POLITICO.” If he has political ambitions, he has an openness. He has a following and a taste for controversy. He is smart, quick on his feet, and personable. Political experience matters less than it ever was. ”
Carlson never ran for office and has been derogatory in the past. In 2012, Nunberg said Republican agent Roger Stone unsuccessfully pressured Carlson to run on the libertarian ticket. Stone told POLITICO in an email that “[i]It is not inconceivable that I raised him in jest or in passing as a replica, but I don’t recall that.
In his show, Carlson has made it clear that he believes Trump’s election in 2016 was not a strange accident. Instead, he sees it as a fair repudiation of a morally bankrupt Republican Party that had become obsessed with capital gains tax cuts and foreign wars. This week, he warned his viewers to beware of “vultures [who] wait just offstage to rush in and claim the Republican Party for themselves once Donald Trump is gone, ”said Nikki Haley, likely candidate for 2024.
“The moment Trump leaves, they will attack him,” he said. “They will tell you that ‘Republicans lost power because they were evil and intolerant like Donald Trump’ … It is a lie.”
It is just one of many exhortations last month that propelled Carlson to new popularity among the Republican base. As Republicans across the country and in Congress have expressed a new openness to police reform and the removal of Confederate monuments in the wake of the protests, Carlson has denounced the Black Lives Matter movement and mocked Republicans who they accepted it.
“This can be many things, this moment that we are living. But it’s definitely not about black lives, and remember when they come for you, “Mr. Carlson said in a 25-minute monologue on June 8 that has more than 5.4 million views on YouTube. That he lost to high-profile advertisers, including Disney, Papa John’s, and T-Mobile, whose CEO tweeted “Goodbye.”
Carlson faced a exodus of similar advertisers in 2018 after saying that immigrants make “our own country poorer, dirtier, and more divided.”
Carlson emerged from the apparently unsuspecting reaction.
“The angry kids you saw set Wendy’s on fire and knocked down statues and yelled at you on TV day after day are really stupid,” he said. on your show last week. And it has repeatedly rejected the idea that racism is systemic in the country. “Overall, this is the least racist country in the history of the world.” she said a few days earlier. “Millions of Africans want to move here. Many already have it. Our last president was black. What are you talking about?”
His audience has rewarded him with blockbusters.
“What he’s been saying speaks to a lot of people and is basically not expressed or heeded by most Republican politicians,” Lowry said. “There is a lot to be said for being brave and he is, while Republican politicians, as a race, are not.”
Carlson has also made powerful enemies in the party for his regular missives directed at legislators and agents of power, attacks that he has sustained for the past month.
After Haley said George Floyd’s murder “must be personal and painful for everyone” for the country to heal, Carlson said, “What Nikki Haley does best is moral blackmail.” A Haley spokesman declined to respond.
When Republican Senators Ron Johnson and James Lankford this week proposed making Juneteenth a national holiday and eliminating Columbus Day to keep the same number of national holidays, Tucker scoffed at the effort. “They describe themselves as conservative, unlikely as they seem,” he said.
Carlson painted with a larger brush this week, saying that the “supposed principles of the Republican Party leaders turned out to be stickers they wrote 40 years ago.” In a sentiment that received praise from some conservatives and liberals alike, he added that “Instead of improving the lives of its voters, the party gives them a steady diet of symbolic and pointless victories, partisan junk food designed to make them feel full even as they consume themselves.” Carlson apologized, “to the extent that this program has participated in it.”
Carlson even ripped Trump’s top aide and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. “No one has more contempt for Donald Trump voters than Jared Kushner, and no one expresses it more frequently.” he said last month. He blamed Kushner for moderating the president on immigration, law enforcement, and foreign policy.
The attack on Kushner made some Trump-aligned Republicans wary of praising Carlson on the record. But several are optimistic about a possible candidacy.
“I think everyone sees Pence the same way: what a great guy. But I don’t think anyone thinks it’s the force of nature it takes to win the presidency, “said a former White House official. “I think on day 1, Tucker probably starts ahead of those people if he runs.”
A Republican strategist close to the White House added: “If you are a Republican politician and you want to know where the Republican voters are, all you have to do is watch Tucker Carlson every night.”