Tucker Carlson - now operating in open defiance of a cease-and-desist letter from Fox News - dropped a third episode of his Twitter show in the immediate wake of Donald Trump's indictment, suggesting that the former president "sealed his fate" on February 16, 2016.
"That's the day Donald Trump made a blood enemy of the largest and most powerful organization in human history, which would be the federal government," Carlson said.
On that day, nearly nine months before the 2016 election, the Republican Party held a primary debate in South Carolina, during which then-candidate Trump said: "We should have never been in Iraq. We have destabilized the Middle East. They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction, there weren't none, and they knew there were none."
After that statement - forcefully delivered, even by Trump standards - you can hear some members of the audience booing what, at the time, wasn't just an unpopular opinion, Carlson said. It was taboo.
"When Congress decides to start a war, no matter how foolish or counterproductive or disconnected from America's interests . they defend that war relentlessly for decades," Carlson said. "No dissent is allowed. That's the first rule of Washington. But somehow Trump didn't bother to follow it. He's from out of town, so maybe he just didn't know it was a rule, or maybe he just didn't care. Either way, 7 1/2 years later, we can point to the precise moment that permanent Washington decided to send Donald Trump to prison."
Carlson said that statement "implicated too many people, on both sides," and "by saying that, he sealed his fate. . All of them were guilty. They all knew, they all lied. And to a person, they hated Donald Trump for exposing them."
Carlson said from that moment, "most of permanent Washington decided that thwarting Trump was the single most important mission of their lives," but took different approaches.
Some said so publicly, while others "ingratiated themselves to a man who was susceptible flattery . the ones who flattered Trump the most, hated him the most," naming Vice President Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, and Lindsey Graham, but homing in on Mike Pompeo, who served both as CIA director and secretary of state under Trump.
"It was indelibly repulsive," Carlson said, arriving at what's now a popular conclusion among Republicans:
"The prosecution of Donald Trump is transparently political. He's literally Joe Biden's main political opponent," Carlson said. "Joe Biden is doing what no other president has dared to do. He's using law enforcement to lock up his chief rival . criticize our wars, you're disqualified. Keep it up, we'll send you to prison. That's the message that Washington is sending."
Watch the entire episode in the clip above.
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