As you might expect, Tucker Carlson spent all of his Fox News show on Friday night talking about the death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of cancer at 87 years old. The show began within an hour of the news breaking about Ginsburg’s death, and Tucker had a non-stop sequence of conservative pundits to talk about it.
For the most part, Tucker refrained from saying anything negative about Ginsburg, but he balked at one point when he brought up the NPR report that Ginsburg, days before her death, expressed the desire that her seat on the bench not be filled until after the November election.
NPR reported not long after the death announcement that Ginsburg has said to her granddaughter, Clara Spera, days before her death: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”
Tucker didn’t like that, and said as much to guest Peter Schweizer.
“I should say, we’re just getting word that NPR is reporting — and so with a grain of salt take this please — that on her deathbed Ruth Bader Ginsburg said to her granddaughter, and I think I’m quoting, ‘My most fervent wish,’ as she died, ‘is that I not be replaced by this president,’ ” Tucker said, getting the quote wrong.
“It’s hard to believe, and I’m gonna choose not to believe that she said that because I don’t think that people in their death beds are thinking about who’s president. You hope not — that’s a pretty limited way to think as you die. But certainly this will be used as a cudgel by the left.”
Schweizer then said that, really, this situation is Ginsburg’s own fault anyway, because she chose not to retire during the Obama years.
“Yeah, I think you’re right, Tucker. And look, I mean, it’s very tragic that she’s passed away she’s been handling this illness for a couple of years but we all have to remember that there were murmurs in the latter parts of the Obama administration where people were asking her to consider stepping aside and she refused to so part of the reason we’re in the situation because of that.”
Tucker just replied that Schweizer made a good point, and then moved on to the next guest. Most of Carlson’s guests on Friday openly encouraged Trump and his Republicans to push ahead to replace Ginsburg with a conservative before the election. Tucker himself did not endorse that idea, however.
You can watch the quoted portion of Friday’s episode of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in the video embedded below.