AOC Calls Out Fox News, Tucker Carlson for ‘Incitement of Violence’
During a discussion of Fox News’ recent $787.5 billion settlement with Dominion over the network’s false claims of voter fraud, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that certain Fox News hosts, including Tucker Carlson, used “incitement of violence” ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
“We have very real issues with what is permissible on air,” the Democratic representative said during an interview on MSNBC’s Inside with Jen Psaki that aired Sunday. “We saw that with Jan. 6 and we saw that in the lead up to Jan. 6 and how we navigate questions — not just a freedom of speech but also accountability for incitement of violence — this is the line that we have to really explore through law as well.”
Psaki then asked if media organizations should be held accountable for their content if it incites violence.
“I believe that when it comes to broadcast television, like Fox News, these are subject to federal law, federal regulation in terms of what’s allowed on air and what isn’t,” the congresswoman said. “When you look at what Tucker Carlson and some of these other folks on Fox do, it is very, very clearly incitement of violence — very clearly incitement of violence. And that is the line that we have to be willing to contend with.”
The congresswoman also called out Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for his failures in leadership and frequent concessions to the more radical elements of his party, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. “I think you’ve got Marjorie Taylor Greene running the caucus, and she makes very common public statements to that effect,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Every time something irks her, she communicates that McCarthy is doing her bidding, and I think that this is something that is quite clear. I think that Speaker McCarthy is stuck between having to please the most racist and heinous elements of this party with having to maintain a majority, and he is choosing to side with the extremists.”
Last week, Greene was silenced by her GOP colleagues on the House Homeland Security Committee after calling Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas a “liar” while she questioned him about the border. Earlier this month, Greene went on 60 Minutes and baselessly accused Democrats of being “pedophiles” and “support[ing] grooming children.”
When Psaki asked Ocasio-Cortez about abortion, she discussed Republican efforts to erode civil rights, including abortion. “The Republican Party is not starting at Roe, they will not stop at Roe, they will not stop just at women’s rights,” she said. “I believe that what we are seeing is a concerted rollback of civi liberties in general — our right to privacy, our right to bodily autonomy, our right to marry whomever we wish to marry. All of this is at risk. I do not think they will stop.”
The representative continued, “Just as we warned about Roe, we are warning about the very real risks. We’re already seeing the attacks on trans Americans, we’re seeing the attacks on LGBT Americans. We have even seen Republican members of the Senate insinuate that interracial marriage is something that should be up for debate. These are our civil rights and our civil liberties, and we have to resist. We must resist these attempt to rollback the basic human rights of certain communities in America based on identity.”
