Podcast star Joe Rogan had some kind words for Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on the Tuesday episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
“We’ll also talk to anybody. Tucker has a lot of left-wing people on and he doesn’t disparage them or criticize them or mock them,” he mused after guest Alex Berenson — a vaccine skeptic who routinely appears on Fox News’ primetime shows — compared his interview style to Carlson’s.
He went on, “I think his discussions that he has on his show are some of the most nuanced in that he is willing to have conversations with anybody. He’ll talk about all kinds of things, and I think that’s very important in this time that you have people like him.”
Rogan and Carlson — and Barenson, for that matter — have been heavily criticized for their statements on the COVID-19 pandemic, systemic racism and more. Carlson in particular has drawn criticism for insulting guests and leaders fighting for equality.
Earlier this month, Carlson compared Gloria Steinem to Hitler after she made statements about Texas’ new abortion law during House Oversight Committee hearings.
“Remember when Hitler was elected, and he was elected,” Steinem said in her testimony. “His very first official act was to padlock the family planning clinics and declare abortions a crime against the state. Mussolini did exactly the same thing. Because they knew that controlling reproduction and nationalizing women’s bodies is the first step in a controlling state.”
Carlson refuted Steinem’s claim, saying, “Hitler, like Gloria Steinem, supported abortions.”
He also accused Steinem of “rewriting history,” and then he compared her to Wikipedia.
“Turns out Gloria Steinem was always pretty dumb but back when she was 35, nobody noticed,” Carlson said. “But rewriting history? Can’t let you do that, sorry. You’re not Wikipedia.”
In 2019, Carlson blew up on a Dutch historian named Rutger Bregman during a pre-recorded interview for his show. Bregman tweeted that Carlson called him a ‘f—ing moron’ during the interview, which was never aired. Bregman called Carlson “a millionaire funded by billionaires,” which prompted the outburst.
Bregman tweeted the next day asking where the interview was. TheWrap confirmed with Carlson’s senior executive producer, Justin Wells, that the interview had been nixed.
“Tucker is someone who appreciates many points of view,” Wells told TheWrap. “Sadly, the guest turned an opportunity to have a substantive, informative discussion into an obviously calculated personal insult campaign. We were disappointed in the segment and respect our audience’s time too much to consider airing it.”
Carlson also disparaged Iraqi culture multiple times on the “Bubba the Love Sponge Show.”
In 2006, Carlson told the radio show that he had “zero sympathy” for Iraqis because they “don’t use toilet paper or forks,” adding that they should “just shut the f— up and obey” us.
In 2008, he called Iraq “a crappy place filled with a bunch of semiliterate primitive monkeys.”
In 2019, Media Matters released these statements and many more — including disparaging words about Michelle Obama and gay people — in a batch of audio clips.