Tucker Carlson came out firing at MSNBC’s Joy Reid after she used his great-great-grandfather to attack him during a live broadcast. The Fox News host took it “personal” and held nothing back, declaring that MSNBC “is an elaborate parody!”
Tucker Carlson was flabbergasted after watching a segment on Joy Reid’s show in January 2018. The MSNBC host actually hired a genealogist to investigate the Fox News host’s family tree to determine who his ancestors were and how they immigrated to the United States.
Reid had been attacking Carlson and claiming his comments and statements on immigration were akin to white supremacy, it was reported. Moderating a panel discussion, Reid asked panelist Jennifer Mendelsohn about some of the research she had done into Carlson’s background. Mendelsohn pointed out that the Fox News host’s great-great-grandfather had left memoirs detailing his own struggles in Europe and how that pushed him to come to America.
Mendelsohn shared parts of Carlson’s great-great grandfather’s memoir. “He talked about how the prospects for him in his native Switzerland were bleak — he was seized with a violent desire to get out and that’s why he came to the US in 1860,” she noted. “People in genealogical glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”
“Absolutely, and Tucker’s been one of the more aggressive at putting forward what a lot of people have seen as a pretty blatantly white nationalist view of what immigration should be like,” Reid added in response. Tucker Carlson found out about Reid’s broadcast and decided to devote a segment to addressing it.
“Joy Reid interviewed a genealogist, who had done research on my family,” Carlson began. “Apparently, one of my ancestors came to this country in 1860 from Switzerland. I didn’t even know that until Reid’s show aired, because I have zero interest in the subject,” he said. “That was more than 150 years ago,” he added. “And is irrelevant to the decisions I make as a father, a citizen, or an employee of Fox News. It tells us precisely nothing about our modern immigration policy. America’s economy has changed quite a bit since the Civil War, but to MSNBC this fact is a conversation-ender.”
“A single 19th Century Swiss relative now means you are required to support green cards for everyone who jumps the border or overstays their visa,” Carlson declared. “Boom! Case closed. As Reid’s guest put it, ‘People in genealogical glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.’ Meaning me. As is so often the case, it is hard to know whether this is a legitimate point of debate, or whether it was part of an elaborate parody. Monty Python does DACA.”
After he plays the clip from Joy Reid’s broadcast, Carlson continues. “So, Joy Reid is accusing us of racism,” he states. “Let’s pause for a moment and savor the irony of that. Reid’s entire public career has been built on race-baiting. Try to watch her show for 20 minutes and see for yourself. This is the woman who urged the Democratic Party to give up on white voters who voted for Obama and Trump, saying their votes weren’t worth fighting for.”
“So when Joy Reid accuses you of harboring racist thoughts, trust me, it is projection,” Tucker claimed. “But it is also a political tactic. Reid can’t explain why this country needs to import millions more poor people, nobody on the left can explain that because there is no answer. So they attempt to shut down the conversation with slurs. That’s a shame. Immigration matters. it determines who lives in this country, who chooses our government, and our future. It is hard to think of a public policy topic more central to everything.”
