Patterico's Pontifications

12/8/2018

Tucker Carlson: Trump Is Not Capable and Has Not Kept His Promises

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 9:17 am



Tucker Carlson is unhappy with Trump:

Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson set straight any misinformation concerning his views on President Trump: “I don’t think he’s capable,” he said during an interview on Tuesday.

. . . .

Carlson said he cannot stand Trump’s self-aggrandizement and boasting. Then, when asked whether Trump has kept his promises, the usually quick-witted and long-winded Carlson had just one word: “No.”

. . . .

Carlson is often a measured Trump supporter, but Tuesday’s interview was not his first verbal lashing of the president; he called Trump’s attacks on then-attorney general Jeff Sessions, following his recusal from the Russia investigation, a “useless, self-destructive act.”

This week, he continued to disparage the president when Gehriger probed for more.

“His chief promises were that he would build the wall, defund Planned Parenthood and repeal Obamacare, and he hasn’t done any of those things,” Carlson said, adding that those goals were probably lost causes. Trump, he said, doesn’t understand the system, and his own agencies don’t support him.

“He knows very little about the legislative process, hasn’t learned anything, hasn’t surrounded himself with people that can get it done, hasn’t done all the things you need to do, so it’s mostly his fault that he hasn’t achieved those things,” he added.

Carlson does give Trump credit for starting a conversation about immigration. That said, what has Trump actually done about the looming gypsy crisis?

Tucker Carlson Gypsies

71 Responses to “Tucker Carlson: Trump Is Not Capable and Has Not Kept His Promises”

  1. Paul Ryan’s prime opportunity was characterized by entertaining the grishenko snipe hunt, refusing to repeal Obamacare and
    The procrustean tax bill, and telling ‘that’s not who we are,’ louder than a swiss yodeler.

    Narciso (d1f714)

  2. For crying out loud, narciso, leave all those poor squirrels alone to hibernate for the winter!

    nk (dbc370)

  3. There are some interesting parts of that interview but those wernt it.

    Narciso (d1f714)

  4. The Vaporware Presidency

    Step 1: Propose something ridiculous.
    Step 2: Cause chaos but don’t deliver it.
    Lather, rinse, repeat.

    Dave (1bb933)

  5. What happened to that executive order that would stop birthright citizenship for illegals?

    nk (dbc370)

  6. the slooshy percolating murdoch boys have probably said you have to say stuff like this if you want to keep your fox-job (dirty dirty low-talent america-hating murdoch boys)

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  7. Tucker Carlson: Trump Is Not Capable and Has Not Kept His Promises

    I would add: So far.

    And then in a Judy Tenuda voice: It could happen!

    felipe (023cc9)

  8. Paul Ryan’s prime opportunity

    paul ryan’s the first time we ever had a lame duck speaker holding onto office just to do head lice immigrants all up in it

    this is why lecherous Mitt Romney invites Paul into his bed time and time again (plus his boyish good looks and razzle-dazzle oiled-up abdominals)

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  9. Mickey Kaus thinks TC is at least a contender for ’24 and may be a viable primary challenger. One could also blame the Carlson, Coulter, Ingraham gaggle for setting the outrageousness “bar” so high that Trumpian policies created to placate that crowd have little chance of surviving the inevitable lawfare that follows.

    urbanleftbehind (86e734)

  10. and President Trump certainly would have repealed obamacare if Meghan’s cowardly disgrace-to-the uniform coward-daddy hadn’t lied so much (dishonorable discharge get him a tissue)

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  11. “What happened to that executive order that would stop birthright citizenship for illegals?”
    nk (dbc370) — 12/8/2018 @ 9:35 am

    I guess I missed Trump’s promise to eliminate the judicial branch.

    Munroe (66ab04)

  12. We have always been at war with [insert hated branch of government]

    felipe (023cc9)

  13. Seriously? When did we get a judicial branch? And why didn’t Kellyanne tell him we might get one?

    nk (dbc370)

  14. #bowtieme

    mg (8cbc69)

  15. Seriously? When did we get a judicial branch? And why didn’t Kellyanne tell him we might get one?

    He’s known about judges signing bills for a long time.

    “Excuse me, [my sister’s] a brilliant judge. He’s been criticizing — he’s been criticizing my sister for signing a certain bill. You know who else signed that bill? Justice Samuel Alito, a very conservative member of the Supreme Court, with my sister, signed that bill. So I think that maybe we should get a little bit of an apology from Ted. What do you think?”

    Dave (1bb933)

  16. chicken and stars (tasty soup) that’s what i’d like for lunch today mom said Tucker Carlson

    ok sweetie i’ll fix it for you said tucker’s mom (angela carlson)

    you go downstairs and watch black panther again and i’ll bring it to you

    thanks mom! yelled tucker, clambering down the stairs like a wild monkey

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  17. That’s plausible viewing, notice how he never goes after tha brothas. Beltway preppy learned helplessness perhaps…he just needs to run into the 250 lbs 6’4″ salsa out by Fairfaxto beat him into shape.

    urbanleftbehind (86e734)

  18. *Salva, as in -trucha.

    urbanleftbehind (86e734)

  19. Not to make too big a deal about one phrase from this post, but: “[L]ooming gypsy crisis?” I’m genuinely puzzled as to what our host intended by that phrase, and particularly by his choice of the word “gypsy,” which many of the Romani people, to whom it was originally applied, find as offensive as “wetback” or “kike” would be to others. Is this tongue-in-cheek? What am I missing? I presume it’s intended as a reference to the caravan(s) of would-be illegal immigrants/asylum seekers headed toward the U.S.’ southern border, but it’s not a word I’d normally expect to see applied to those people by either their well-wishers or opponents.

    More on topic:

    Carlson is a very clever and articulate fellow with all the basic integrity and intellectual honesty of a gutter rat and the self-promotional instincts of P.T. Barnum — a media douche-bag, to use another crude phrase. If he’s modulating his adoration for Trump, which I concede falls slightly short of Hannity-level lick-spittledom, it’s because he’s concluded that there are more eyeballs and mouse-clicks to be gained thereby than otherwise.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  20. I’m genuinely puzzled as to what our host intended by that phrase

    He was mocking Tucker Carlson (see the backdrop of the photo in original post…)

    Dave (1bb933)

  21. @17. Conflict of interest, Mr. Feet?!?!– his daddy married the heiress to the Swanson TV dinner fortune. Starved of affection or hungry for attention?!?! Tucker tripped the light fantastic on ABC TV’s Dancing With The Stars in 2006. He was the first contestant eliminated. ‘Nuff said.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  22. OT- Punted, passed and kicked; on way to the annual Army/Navy scrimmage, Trump takes John Kelly out of the game; he’ll be leaving as WH Chief of Staff at the end of the year.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  23. john kelly had two years and never could come up with an endearing catchphrase

    it’s time to give someone else a shot

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  24. If he’s modulating his adoration for Trump, which I concede falls slightly short of Hannity-level lick-spittledom, it’s because he’s concluded that there are more eyeballs and mouse-clicks to be gained thereby than otherwise.

    That’s hard for me to credit. While there may be growing fatigue and frustration among some of Trump’s more marginal supporters and fellow-travelers, the core cult that FoxNews caters to shows no signs of wavering. That group is not interested in criticism of their idol, nuanced or otherwise, and “getting off the boat” flags you as an apostate for life. Never get off the boat.

    I’d guess, rather, that Carlson was letting down his guard in a different venue than his on-air Fox persona, and that while he personally is probably smart enough to realize what a dumpster fire Trump is, he won’t jeopardize his career by contaminating the content and editorial direction of his show with that sort of crimethink.

    Dave (1bb933)

  25. Also off-topic, except for general Trumpiness: I have not read any of the underlying source documents yet, but Ken “Popehat” White’s review of them is more interesting than most of the other reactions to them that I heard on TV last night as they were first being perused by the press: Manafort, Cohen, and Individual 1 Are in Grave Danger: Robert Mueller is closing in on the president and all his men.

    I’m still very skeptical, though: Trump’s modus operandi is to manipulate everyone and everything, including voters, media figures, Congress, judges, his own staff, through unabashed falsehoods and exaggerations 24/7/365, always based on his moment-to-moment calculation of what’s best of the “Trump Brand.” That he’s likewise attempted to do so with respect to things like the Comey firing or the Mueller investigation into his political, business, and personal coterie (including Flynn, Manafort, Cohen, Donnie Jr., et cetera, et cetera) is utterly unsurprising. Is it also “obstruction of justice,” within the meaning of those statutes and the interpretive gloss from courts that require a “corrupt heart” for such manipulations and deceit to become criminal? I’m still waiting to learn what the huge honking secret is supposed to have been that Trump was supposedly obstructing justice in order to keep secret. In my opinion, to reach that level, the object of Trump’s “corrupt heart” has to be something more — more discrete (not to be confused here with “discreet”) and more shocking — than the always painfully obvious fact that Trump is a compulsive liar and manipulator and philanderer and egotistical baby. That would be like saying, “Hitler’s real problem was that he was a closet Nazi.”

    Beldar (fa637a)

  26. Errata: “… of what’s best for the Trump Brand,” I meant to write in #25 above.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  27. (Or #26, as it’s suddenly been renumbered, perhaps because some earlier comment came out of moderation.)

    Beldar (fa637a)

  28. @ Dave (#21): Thanks. Now the mockery seems obvious; I confess to paying no attention at all to the photo of Carlson, much less to the graphic behind him.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  29. @24. This JFK had a PT Barnum, not a PT boat, eh, Mr. Feet.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  30. Note that Carlson said these words to a German-language weekly, as if those words wouldn’t make their back to the States. If he really had the courage of his convictions, he’d say it on his own show to millions of his viewers. It reminds me a little of Hillary thinking that she could insult a whole swath of Americans by levying that insult while in India.

    Paul Montagu (8afb2a)

  31. @ Dave: Because I was surprised by our host’s use of the word “gypsy,” I actually did a text search of both the linked WaPo article and the underlying published interview from Die Weltwoche, looking for the word “gypsy,” before posting my comment. If it were the proverbial snake, though, that photo could have bitten me, for it was right beyond (if not quite right under) my nose.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  32. “Gypsy” is a corruption of “Egyptian” which is what the gypsies called themselves when they came into Europe from the Indian sub-continent in the middle Middle Ages — Egyptian Christians who were fleeing Saracen prosecution. It is perfectly colloquial (and also cromulent). “Roma/Romanyi” is a politically-correct neologism and itself a corruption of “Romanian”.

    nk (dbc370)

  33. They are not an ethnic group, they are a semi-criminal sub-culture, and not very nice.

    nk (dbc370)

  34. gypsies tramps and thieves

    every night all the men would come around

    and lay their money down

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  35. Next research project for the professor: Why women and minorities are underrepresented at Rush concerts.

    https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/06/board-games-too-white-male/

    Munroe (f90463)

  36. What I found interesting was his sympathy of 70s liberals, which I found puzzling.

    Narciso (d1f714)

  37. Meh.

    Somewhat agree. Except Tucker is ignoring the facts. Trump can’t do it by himself, and he could NEVER have forced McConnell/Ryan to fund the wall if McConnell/Ryan didn’t want to fund the wall.

    And no amount of “Learning about the legislature process” would change that.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  38. Trump couldn’t get rid of “Obamacare” because Murkowski, Collins, and McCain were liars. They voted to repeal Obamacare when they KNEW it would get vetoed by Obama. When they got a chance to get rid of it, they voted no.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  39. Don’t forget flake and corker, but they played musical chairs, decided who would get a free vote,

    narciso (d1f714)

  40. @35. Cher and Cher alike, eh, Mr. Feet.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  41. Trump couldn’t get rid of “Obamacare” because Murkowski, Collins, and McCain were liars. They voted to repeal Obamacare when they KNEW it would get vetoed by Obama.

    Collins voted against repeal in 2015, so her position was no different two years later.

    But regardless, there is obviously a difference between a symbolic vote which expresses disapproval of the existing law (2015), and endorsing a specific replacement (2017).

    McCain voted in favor of the 2017 repeal/replace bill which he thought represented a viable replacement package, but against the “partial” and “skinny” repeal bills which he felt would have left the system in a half-@ssed state (and made it the GOP’s responsibility).

    Dave (1bb933)

  42. they tailored a bill to her or Murkowski, and then they had another one who switched sides,

    narciso (d1f714)

  43. Republicans are the cesspool of the nation.

    mg (21de20)

  44. Trump couldn’t get rid of “Obamacare” because Murkowski, Collins, and McCain were liars.

    Also, Trump promised he would “negotiate with existing hospitals” to work out a miraculous plan that “covered everybody” better than Obamacare, “for a tiny fraction of the cost”, and that it would all “be so easy”. And some credulous people actually believed him.

    I’d say his failure to produce the plan he promised, or anything remotely resembling it, is the real reason he couldn’t get rid of Obamacare. Having set impossible expectations, no real legislation could ever meet them.

    Dave (1bb933)

  45. We just trying to avoid the wrong lizard, with flake and McCain it was very hard.

    Narciso (d1f714)

  46. The transcript of Comey’s testimony yesterday is out.

    Dave (1bb933)

  47. Yes ‘sound and fury signifying nothing’

    Narciso (d1f714)

  48. The transcript of the FBI interview with Hillary is still unavailable.

    Munroe (c0e308)

  49. Republicans are the toxic waste dump of America

    mg (21de20)

  50. And you still claim not to know why you live in Massachusetts and Hawaii, mg?

    nk (dbc370)

  51. Can only count on them to cut and run

    mg (21de20)

  52. Republicans are great at being zeros

    mg (21de20)

  53. Mr. Nadler. Now, you may have answered this already, but one specific assertion is that you and Special Counsel Mueller are, quote, “best friends.”

    On September 5th, President Trump brought up Special Counsel Mueller in an interview with The Daily Caller stating, quote: And he’s Comey’s best friend, and I could give you a hundred pictures of him and Comey hugging and kissing each other. You know he’s Comey’s best friend, close quote.

    Are you best friends with Robert Mueller?

    Mr. Comey. I am not. I admire the heck out of the man, but I don’t know his phone number, I’ve never been to his house, I don’t know his children’s names. I think I had a meal once alone with him in a restaurant. I like him. I am not a — I’m an associate of his who admires him greatly. We’re not friends in any social sense.

    Mr. Nadler. Thank you. I will not ask whether you’ve ever hugged and kissed him.

    Mr. Comey. A relief to my wife.

    LULZ

    Dave (1bb933)

  54. Mr. Nadler. On October 17th, the FBI responded to a Freedom of Information Act request for, quote, “photographs of former FBI Director James Comey and Robert Mueller hugging and kissing each other,” by saying “no responsive records were located.”

    I assume you’re not aware of any such photographs?

    Mr. Comey. I’m not aware of any such photograph. I have never hugged or kissed the man. Again, I’m an admirer but not that kind of admirer.

    Dave (1bb933)

  55. Hold on there, Dave. Mr. Donald “On The Down Low” Trump, the President, has thousands of pictures of men hugging and kissing. You can’t entirely blame him if he gets a couple of them mixed up, especially since he’s never seen Comey and Mueller without clothes on and has to go only by their faces.

    nk (dbc370)

  56. They have been Jake and elwood (sans glasses)

    Narciso (d1f714)

  57. Ted Kennedy was well known for walking around Hyanisport Golf Club in the early morning hours sanscoulotte.

    mg (8cbc69)

  58. Paul Ryan and his irish love festival can go to hell.

    mg (8cbc69)

  59. There are very few figures, who I trust my former congressman who is now my governor.

    Narciso (d1f714)

  60. “Mr. Comey. I’m not aware of any such photograph. I have never hugged or kissed the man. Again, I’m an admirer but not that kind of admirer.”
    Dave (1bb933) — 12/8/2018 @ 5:37 pm

    So, I guess Sessions was caught hugging and kissing that Russian diplomat, and that’s why he recused himself.

    Munroe (ec7ddb)

  61. Having a permanently corrupt heart should make it easier to prove “corrupt heart,” Beldar- not more difficult.

    Leviticus (d7e199)

  62. Heard Adam Schiff on the radio this morning. He hates Trump more than I do.

    nk (dbc370)

  63. yes, he’s on Yosemite sam mode, but that’s just a day ending in y

    narciso (d1f714)

  64. With Tucker’s creative ethics, the women who were paid hush money were the criminals – guilty of extortion. I’m telling you, the boy just ain’t right.

    Newsweek:
    https://www.newsweek.com/video-fox-news-tucker-carlson-donald-trump-extorted-adult-stars-1253006

    and WaPo:

    Tucker Carlson: Trump is a crime victim

    Tillman (61f3c8)


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