A former Republican congressman dismissed a mea culpa from one of the most prominent MAGA voices as essentially worthless.
Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News broadcaster who was ultimately terminated for spreading 2020 election lies, expressed regret this week for "misleading" his podcast listeners about President Donald Trump, and CNN's Audie Cornish asked her panelists to comment.
"So the president has called Tucker a 'low-IQ person' because he is extremely upset with how he's reacting," Cornish said. "My group chat is people either being, like, the grift is strong or this reflects an actual sentiment. Where are we on the spectrum?"
Charlie Dent, a former GOP congressman from Pennsylvania, wrote off Carlson's remarks entirely.
"Oh my goodness, I mean, laugh out loud," Dent said. "Look, he's been upset before, after Jan. 6, you know, he was, you know, [he called Trump a demonic force. He said all sorts – but he came crawling back."
"He'll come back home because look, these guys have monetized, they're making a lot of money off of this stuff," Dent added, "and I can't imagine he's going to have a real permanent rupture with Trump because he probably will lose market share and audience. He'll be back."
The other panelists agreed, and Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright said Carlson had much more to apologize for than boosting Trump's campaigns.
"Tucker Carlson used all of his platforms for many years amplifying right-wing extreme hate, bigotry, racism and anything else, so certainly we do not take his commentary serious," Seawright said, "and I think what the 'America first' crowd is figuring out that there's no interest like self interest when it comes to Donald Trump. He is not a principled man. He does not have a core, and now they're figuring it out."
- YouTube youtu.be
