Fox News’s Tucker Carlson claims the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 “was never an insurrection.”
During his show on Wednesday night, Carlson said, “It was a melee.”
He went on to explain how rioters have a reason to be upset with the outcome of the election.
“These are people who thought the election was stolen. They had some evidence to support that view. It was not a free and fair election. You don’t have to believe that the voting machines were rigged to look at 2020 and say, ‘That wasn’t fair,'” Carlson explained.
He continued, “I mean, you shut down negative stories about one guy and highlight stories of the other?”
Carlson argued “of course there was massive fraud,” adding, “Whether they swung the election you can argue, but these people had a reason to be frustrated. Democracy, which they really believed in, turned out to be kind of fake.”
Watch Carlson’s comments below:
Tucker Carlson goes all in. Says of course there was “massive fraud” with the 2020 election, claims the January 6 insurrection was simply a “melee”. pic.twitter.com/U5YFsCfptI
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) October 21, 2021
The Fox News host asked, “So rather than answer their questions or reassure them that our system is real, we throw them in jail?”
Carlson suggested if “people committed crimes, actual crimes, broke statutes, defaced the property, assaulted cops, whatever, of course, punish them. We should punish rioters.”
Still, he said, “You should never punish someone for expressing his political views, period.”
Last month, Carlson downplayed the events by saying the rioters looked like “tourists.”
“You don’t see people hiding bombs, or using bayonets, or firing weapons trying to take over the country with an insurrection,” Carlson said. “You see people walking around and taking pictures. They don’t look like terrorists, they look like tourists.”
Since January 6, 684 individuals have been arrested and charged with crimes, according to Insider. Only 105 rioters who have been federally charged entered guilty pleas thus far.