'Insidious': Tucker Carlson lambasted for staggering claim that the right has ‘remained nonviolent’

Earlier this week, Fox News’ far-right Tucker Carlson claimed that the political violence the United States has been suffering is coming from the left, not the right — insisting that the right, unlike the left, has remained “peaceful.” And that comment is receiving a lot of responses from people who find it to be absolutely ludicrous in light of all the far-right violence that has been occurring, including the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building.

“In the face of vicious provocation, cruelty, and persecution, conservatives have remained nonviolent — and thank God for that,” Carlson told viewers. “Let's sincerely hope they stay that way.”

Before the al-Qaeda attacks of September 11, 2001, the most deadly terrorist act in U.S. history had been Timothy McVeigh’s Oklahoma City attack of 1995. Carlson mentioned that attack during his commentary but overlooked all the right-wing violence that has occurred in recent years, from the January 6, 2021 insurrection to an alleged plot to kidnap and possibly murder Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to White nationalist terrorist massacres in El Paso and Pittsburgh in 2019. Pro-Trump groups like QAnon and the Proud Boys openly advocate violence, and the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, is facing seditious conspiracy charges for his alleged role in the Capitol insurrection.

“One borderline personality type.... in the spring of 1995, blew up 168 people at the federal building in Oklahoma City,” Carlson said. “It was awful. Imagine if something like that happened now. We would never recover. Violence against innocents is always wrong, it's always tragic no matter who commits it. It's not a political question. It's a moral question. It's an absolute. But in a political environment like this one, where the people in charge are already salivating at the thought of going full Soviet, the U.S. as we know it would be over right away. Our core freedoms would disappear overnight; we would be enslaved.”

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In response to Carlson’s claim, MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan tweeted:

Other Twitter users were quick to note the violence that occurred on January 6, 2021:

Here are some more responses to Carlson’s comments: