Fox News host Tucker Carlson seemed to swipe at his fellow Fox colleagues on Monday night for suddenly trusting the intelligence community on armed conflict with Iran after smearing them as anti-Trump “deep state” actors on the regular.
During “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” the conservative host said it was “striking how many people are willing to accept” U.S. leaders’ claim that aggression against Iran is justified because, according to them, Iran was about to attack the country.
“Just the other day, you remember, our intel agencies were considered politically tainted and suspect,” Carlson said.
“Certainly on this show they are, were, and will be for quite some time,” he added in a pointed tone.
The Fox host warned against trusting the intelligence community, which “invented excuses to spy on the Trump campaign” (a claim the DOJ inspector general has debunked) and got the U.S. entangled in “an utterly pointless war” by falsely claiming Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
“It seems like about 20 minutes ago we were denouncing these very people as the deep state and pledging never to trust them again without verification,” he said. “But now, for some reason, we do seem to trust them implicitly and completely.”
After President Donald Trump ordered a strike on Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani last week, “Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade quickly sided with the President, parroting the Trump administration’s unproven claim that the strike “stopped the next attack” from Iran.
“I will cheer it on,” he declared while arguing with Fox contributor Geraldo Rivera about Trump’s decision.
Carlson, who had privately urged Trump to avoid war with Iran, slammed the Trump administration’s warmongering last week.
“There’s been virtually no debate or even discussion about this, but America appears to be lumbering towards a new Middle East war,” he lamented.
Watch Carlson below:
Tucker Carlson jabs at fellow right-wingers' sudden support of intel agencies regarding Iran: "It seems like about 20 minutes ago we were denouncing these very people as the deep state and pledging never to trust them again without verification." pic.twitter.com/30G7tYxMG0
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) January 7, 2020
