Tucker Carlson Is Already Trying To Steal The Legitimacy Of A Rittenhouse Guilty Verdict

Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 01:42 pm

A nation is in trouble if a nationally politicized trial could result in violence, no matter how the verdict comes down. Of course, none of us needed further evidence that this polarized country is on a cliff. But Tucker Carlson, however, is one of the few who is ready ahead of time to use any result to his side’s advantage.

Last night, without citing any evidence, Tucker Carlson said that the average jury only takes a couple of hours to reach a verdict. This cannot possibly be true with respect to cases involving multiple complex charges, one of which is first-degree murder. Without regard to reality, Tucker attributed part of the jury’s “delay” (they are not delayed), to the fact that the jury was confused by what they saw at trial.

Carlson said that no “honest” person could reach any verdict, but that Rittenhouse acted in self-defense, implying that the jury was likely confused as to why he was even on trial and what they were doing there.

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Then Carlson got to his real point. The jury is taking longer because they are afraid of rendering the “obvious” not guilty verdict. From Mediaite:

“The question is why is it taking so long for this jury to produce a very obvious verdict? Want the answer? Well, look outside the courtroom. There are hundreds of National Guard troops assembled tonight in Kenosha. Why are they there? Well, they have come in case Kyle Rittenhouse is acquitted.”

“If he is acquitted, pretty much everyone expects the usual mobs of Joe Biden voters to burn and loot and destroy. Why does everyone expect this? Because people on the left are openly calling for it.”

This site monitors progressive news as closely as any and we have not seen one “call to violence” if Rittenhouse is acquitted. Indeed, many of us are now expecting an acquittal given the judge’s rulings before and during the trial.

But Tucker and his audience, along with many others on the Right, just stole the legitimacy of a possible guilty verdict, having attributed it to simple fear of being overrun with violence and intimidation… by black people, of course. This comes from Tucker Carlson, the man who, after Chauvin was found guilty, cried about how the police would never be able to recruit again if they’re punished for kneeling the life out of someone in front of a crowd.

In the exact same way that the Right now robs the Left of the ability to legitimately win an election, they are working toward stealing the legitimacy of a politicized verdict. They are stealing this legitimacy before the verdict has even come down (as of the time of this writing) just as they’ve already stolen the legitimacy of any Democratic electoral victory.

The message is clear. This is the new normal. Instances in which the “traditional right-proper white power structure” loses are illegitimate and not to be tolerated. To repeat, it is not to be tolerated. We all recall what happened the last time that the Right didn’t get what they wanted, when someone took something that was theirs, and fck you if you disagreed. You were wrong, it was obvious, and “everybody knows it.”

Sound familiar?

Tucker’s call regarding the “obvious” verdict is no different than Trump’s assertion of his “obvious” victory. The obvious conclusion is that the traditional power structure in this country may be crumbling (not fast enough) and they are obviously willing to lie, cheat, and inflame, to keep that power structure in place as long as possible, delegitimizing the processes, the results, and the people in their way.

Jason Miciak

@JasonMiciak believes a day without learning is a day not lived. He is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is a Canadian-born dual citizen who spent his teen and college years in the Pacific Northwest and has since lived in seven states. He now enjoys life as a single dad of a young girl, writing from the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He loves crafting his flower pots, cooking, and currently studies philosophy of science, religion, and non-math principles behind quantum mechanics and cosmology. Please feel free to contact with any concerns.