Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson has been highly critical of Donald Trump and the Washington war hawks that have been supportive of the assassination of Iranian Maj. General Qassem Soleimani and he doesn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon. On a recent episode of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight , the 50-year-old journalist blasted the intelligence officials who provided the information to the president that was reportedly used to justify Soleimani’s killing. He also had criticism for those who easily accepted this narrative.
“It’s hard to remember now but as recently as last week most people didn’t consider Iran an imminent threat,” Carlson said. “Iranian saboteurs weren’t committing acts of terror in our cities. Oh, but our leaders tell us they were about to at any second. That’s why we struck first. What’s so striking is how many people appear to accept this uncritically.”
He continued to note that before Soleimani’s death, intelligence agencies were treated as “politically tainted” by conservatives, noting the recent revelations in Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report that detailed numerous abuses in the FISA process used to investigate Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, as well as previous suggestions that the president was a “Russian agent.”
“Remember that interlude?” Carlson asked.
Although the Trump administration and his allies claim that Soleimani was killed to prevent an “imminent attack” on Americans in the Middle East, Carlson doesn’t appear to buy that explanation. He noted the previous false narratives used to push the Iraq War, which he claims “dramatically weakened” the United States.
“The people pushing conflict with Iran did that,” Carlson added, echoing progressive commentator Kyle Kulinski, who paralleled the justifications used to support killing Soleimani with those used by George W. Bush’s administration to take aim at Saddam Hussein and start the Iraq War.
“It seems like about 20 minutes ago we were denouncing these people as the ‘deep state’ and pledging never to trust them again without verification,” Carlson continued, noting that now, such intelligence officials are supposed to be believed.
Carlson appears to be the only Fox News host that has pointed out the contradiction between the previous attacks on the “deep state” from Trump and his conservative allies and the pivot to leaning on such intelligence officials. As The Inquisitr reported, a recent report claims that Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Stuart Varney, Brian Kilmeade, and Pete Hegseth — as well as former Trump adviser Christian Whiton — have all recently used intelligence officials to support Trump’s military action, despite rallying against them recently.