After CNN’s Jim Acosta spent the week knocking Tucker Carlson, the Fox News host has returned the favor, dedicating a segment of Friday’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” to a takedown of Acosta’s new show, “Democracy in Peril,” which he framed as melodramatic, boring and unable to attract viewers.
“Jim Acosta learned a new word this week,” Carlson said. “That doesn’t happen very often, but when it does happen, Acosta likes to show off his new vocabulary like a dog prancing around your living room with a mouthful of roadkill.”
He continued, “Now the word he’s learned is called ‘democracy.’ Jim Acosta has no idea what that word means, but he does like the sound of it. It’s got a weighty ring to it. So, he’s showed off the new word on his new show on CNN, which pretty much no one else in America saw, but we did. Here it is.”
Carlson proceeded to play a number of clips from “Democracy in Peril,” in which Acosta said “democracy” several times, including in a discussion about how far-right media figures like Carlson are “aiding in dismantling U.S. democracy.”
Carlson commented that you “really gotta watch that show with a pen and paper” to get down Acosta’s wordy explanations.
“Do you follow that?” Carlson said, then sarcastically recapping what Acosta had said. “It is Democracy’s winter of discontent, ladies and gentlemen! Democracy’s on a collision course with peril, which is both dire and urgent in highly threatening a very troubling way. We’ve got to act now, or Democracy could die on the table, terrified and alone, only to be carted off to the city morgue and get dumped in a pauper’s grave.”
Carlson finished with a sneer, caustically recommending the show. “Honestly, you really should watch Jim Acosta’s show.” He added with a laugh, “It’s amazing.”
His comments come as CNN struggles to recover its ratings since Chris Cuomo’s departure. Over the last two weeks, Brianna Keilar and Acosta have taken turns filling the former anchor’s 9 p.m. ET weekday spot. Both interim hosts trailed significantly behind Cuomo’s November viewership numbers, which were the lowest ratings “Cuomo Prime Time” had ever received.
(Editor’s note: A previous headline erroneously said Jim Acosta’s show, “Democracy in Peril” was on MSNBC, not CNN. We apologize and regret the mistake.)
