Journalist Emerald Robinson obtained a copy of Tucker Carlson’s final monologue he planned to deliver before his shock firing by Fox News and published it. It says:
“Here’s the lead I’m envisioning. Sandy Cortes just did an interview with Jen Psaki in which she demands that authorities pull our show off the air.)
“Members of Congress aren’t allowed to talk like this. The Constitution of the United States prohibits it. American citizens have an inalienable right to critique and criticize their political leaders. Our politicians are not gods. They’re instruments of the public’s will.
“They serve the rest of us, not the other way around. For that obvious reason, politicians can never censor our speech or try to control what we think.
“That unchanging fact is the basis of our founding documents, of our political system and our personal freedoms.
“As a former government official who claims now to be a journalist, Jen Psaki should know this, and defend America’s foundational principle.
“She refuses. Instead, Psaki nods along like a fan as Sandy Cortez calls for law enforcement to shut down news programming.
“The White House Correspondents Association and various other self-described advocates of press freedom stay silent too. Apparently they agree with Ocasio-Cortes, or they’re too afraid to say otherwise.
“It’s distressing to watch this.
“The last thing America needs is more public figures saying radical things.
“What if we came on the air five nights a week and called for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes to be handcuffed and carted away because we don’t like her political views?
“We could certainly do that. We never would, because it would be terrible for our country.
“Extremism is self-perpetuating — the more you encourage, the more you get, exponentially.
“We don’t want that. We want to live in the United States we had a few years ago, where people who disagreed with one another were willing to debate directly, using facts and reason, and didn’t call for their opponents’ imprisonment.
“We’ll do whatever we can to return to that standard, including giving Sandy Cortez airtime. She is welcome on this show any time. We’ll travel to meet her anywhere, and give her the full hour.
“We’ll be civil and rational, and let those watching decide who’s got a more appealing vision for America’s future. We’ve asked her to come on this show many times. We’ll continue to do that.
“She’s demanding that our show be canceled because the things we’re saying are quote, ‘very clearly an incitement to violence.’ Is this true?
“Even accounting for the fact that people tend to hear what they want to hear, it is not true. It’s a lie, as anyone who watches this show knows.
“We are opposed to violence, not just philosophically but in practical terms. We’re against violent crime — the strong oppressing the weak. We’re against the horrors of late-term abortion and state-encouraged euthanasia.
“And above all we’re passionately opposed to the violent and pointless cruelty of the war in Ukraine, which the Biden Administration could end at any moment, thus saving the lives of innocents, but is instead prolonging purely for ideological reasons.
“Those are the things we dislike the most — the acts of violence our leaders endorse.
“Ocasio-Cortes is one of those leaders. She supports every one of those indefensible things, from abortion in the ninth month of pregnancy to extending the carnage in Ukraine. Who, honestly, is on the side of violence?” it says.
