The Reason Tucker Carlson Just Went After Pete Buttigieg
Tucker Carlson might be as divisive a figure as ever, but in recent weeks, the conservative pundit and Fox News staple has seemingly ramped up his overall feuding to a degree that could either be strategic or, to put it simply, bonkers ...
After announcing the November release of a Carlson-helmed documentary entitled "Patriot Purge" whose sole aim is to prove that the Capitol Hill insurrection on January 6 — one of the most well-documented violent events in U.S. history — was a "false flag" operation orchestrated by a shadowy left-wing cabal, per The Atlantic, the right-wing anchor received backlash. Indeed, figures ranging from prominent Democrats to his Fox News cohorts have spoken out. Even after the conclusion of "Patriot Purge," Fox News' decision to air the special spurred outcries for the network to give Carlson the boot.
It seems not even the threat of being fired can knock Carlson off of his soapbox — the same soapbox he stood on as he fired yet another potshot at yet another member of President Joe Biden's administration. This time, his ire was directed at none other than former Democrat presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg, President Biden's Secretary of Transportation. Unfortunately for Carlson, his tirade had everything to do with easily Google-able tidbits about U.S. history — meaning that it was Carlson, not Buttigieg, who came out worse for wear.
Tucker Carlson blasted Pete Buttigieg ... with possibly embarrassing results
As The Daily Beast reported on November 8, Tucker Carlson dedicated a segment of his Fox News program the night before to rail against comments made by Pete Buttigieg over the history of the design and construction of New York City's highways — namely, that urban highway engineer and planner Robert Moses' roadways were informed by racist attitudes.
During a November 7 press Q&A, Buttigieg noted how many of NYC's roadways aided in segregating neighborhoods, as well as deterring POC and BIPOC city dwellers from having equitable transportation to their white counterparts. And that the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill could partially address as much, per Axios.
In response to Buttigieg's remarks, Carlson stooped to calling the transportation secretary one of the "dumbest people" in the world, adding that "roads can't be racist." He concluded by stating "thank heaven he's got a trillion dollars to get to the bottom of the racist road problem," referring to a recently passed bipartisan infrastructure bill, per The Daily Beast. Unfortunately for Carlson, Buttigieg's explainer came straight from the celebrated book "The Power Broker," a Robert Moses biography that contains explicit documentation of Moses deliberately designing roadways to segregate neighborhoods and deny accessibility to communities of color. Maybe roads can't be racist, but people who design those roads — and people in general — certainly can.