On Thursday, nine people associated with The Late Show with Stephen Colbert were arrested at the Capitol building. One of them was Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, which is to say its puppeteer and voice Robert Smigel. Details are so far scarce, but it appears the crew stayed later than they should have after two days of pre-arranged interviews on the Hill, getting busted in the halls unescorted and without IDs. It’s an unusual story, but you almost have to hand it to conservative commentators — Tucker Carlson included — for making much more out of it than there is.
As per The Daily Beast, Carlson used a portion of his show on Friday night to make an utterly false comparison between late night TV staffers filming comedy bits and…violent Trump supporters storming the building, leading to five deaths. Carlson — who has downplayed the events of Jan. 6, even airing a “documentary” series filled with out-there conspiracy theories — called what Smigel and crew did “an insurrection,” even claiming Rep. Adam Schiff “illegally gave CBS producers access to the Capitol,” which doesn’t sound remotely right. He also pointed out that they were charged with “unlawful entry,” which as he put it is “the exact same charge” awarded the Jan. 6 rioters.
He then joked that Smigel and team will spend a year-and-a-half in solitary confinement, like some of the Capitol rioters. Thing is, he wasn’t really kidding.
“Joking aside, how could they not be held for a year and a half in solitary confinement without being charged?” Carlson railed. “Because the precedent is in place. And how in the world can Adam Schiff, who spent the last year and a half eliminating the civil liberties of Trump voters on the basis of January 6, do the exact same thing and not face punishment?”
Carlson wasn’t the only one making a mountain out of a molehill. Fellow Fox News host Jesse Watters said, “We might have to have hearings. We might have to have our own committee to investigate this sort of CBS News breach of the Capitol.” He even accused Colbert of being behind “a conspiracy.”
Perhaps Fox News honchos are just making up for that time they aired an empathetic and humane segment about a trans teen, which wound up enraging some of the GOP.
(Via The Daily Beast)
Source: https://uproxx.com/viral/tucker-carlson-triumph-insult-comic-dog-arrested-capitol/
