Tucker Carlson shared a stage for an extensive back-and-forth with Mike Pence in Iowa one day, and the following day resisted – sort of, but not really – the urge to viciously mock the former vice president before a jeering crowd of young conservatives in Florida.
The ousted Fox News host and master of saying provocative things without taking credit for them conducted interviews Friday with several GOP hopefuls at the Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines. Carlson grilled Pence on a number of topics, including his continued support for Ukraine and his characterization of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
By Saturday, Carlson was back onstage, this time at the Turning Point Action Conference in Palm Beach, Fla., doing his best to attack the former VP without attacking him, you know, directly.
“I learned a couple of things (in Florida) which I think may be relevant to you and the country,” Carlson told the conference geared toward young conservatives. “I don’t want to attack anyone on personal grounds, or by name – ” at which point he was interrupted by someone in the crowd who shouted “Do it!”
“It’s tempting,” he continued, occasionally erupting into maniacal laughter as the crowd built further into a frenzy.
“Whoever said ‘Do it,’ you’re the devil on my shoulder!,” Carlson said. “Do it! I’ve spent my whole life – no, no, no, no! But if I can make some general observations which I think are more edifying than just like, savaging Mike Pence, which I’m not gonna do. Because that would be wrong because it’s too easy.”
By now he’d whipped the crowd into a fever pitch.
“And the easy things are not rewarding, are they?” he said. “You don’t feel good when you beat your 5-year-old in soccer or ping-pong.”
Anyone with a 5-year-old’s understanding of connect-the-dots – presumably a majority of those in attendance – would at this point be able to put together Carlson’s comparison.
You can watch the entire exchange, which begins around the 3-minute, 15-second mark in the video clip above.
