Former Fox News reporter and anchor and current NewsNation anchor and host Leland Vittert called FNC star Tucker Carlson both stupid and arrogant this week, and compared the right wing host to both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton over his reaction to the 2022 midterms.
On Thursday’s On Balance, Vittert discussed Carlson’s reaction to the election of Democrat John Fetterman specifically, who beat Trump-endorsed candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Republican Pat Toomey.
Carlson ranted at length about Fetterman and “candidate quality” on Wednesday.
“John Fetterman become a U.S. Senator last night. Does anyone think John Fetterman was a quality candidate? Is that why he won? Because they had quality candidates on the left?” Carlson said. “Do the voters of Pennsylvania really want a brain-damaged candidate who’s never had a real job? Did they think he was more impressive than the guy who spent his career doing heart transplants? Probably not.”
Vittert related Tucker’s reaction to past statements from former President Obama and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton insulting voters.
“Few things are more arrogant and frankly stupider than telling voters they’re dumb,” said Vittert. “That might sound obvious. It is not to Republican elites. Tucker Carlson, for example, told blue-collar workers in Pennsylvania exactly that. You are stupid for electing John Fetterman to the United States Senate over Mehmet Oz.”
Vittert played the clip of Carlson asking rhetorically and scoffing at the idea of whether voters in Pennsylvania actually wanted Fetterman, then said, “Actually, they did.”
“We as journalists report the facts. Telling people they’re stupid and don’t get it, and don’t know what’s good for them is a lot like, I don’t know, Barack Obama,” he continued. “Remember ‘bitter people who cling to their guns and religion?’ Or Hillary Clinton, ‘half of Trump supporters are deplorables’?”
“There’s a graphic that I never thought you would see: Hillary, Obama, and Tucker. They all have the same disdain for working class Americans,” said Vittert.
“Ironically, they are actually all talking about the same folks: Western Pennsylvania rural Whites,” he continued. “It’s coal country, it’s steel country. It is tough to earn a dollar there. They have, in a word, been left behind by both parties. And across the board they voted for Fetterman by 3 or 5 points more than they voted for Joe Biden. In some places, take Erie County, for example, Northwest PA, they voted for Fetterman by a bigger percentage than they voted for Trump.”
Vittert argued that instead of indicting the electorate, Carlson and Republicans should be asking what Democrats didn’t ask before Trump came in and won the state in 2008: Why?
“What could possibly explain that? Let’s take the time, let’s give the voters their due and actually try to figure out why they did this, rather than just call them stupid,” he said. “They’re not stupid. They’re incredibly smart and intuitive.”
After covering some of what motivated voters and what they may have identified with in both Trump and Fetterman, Vittert wrapped his commentary with a note that’s as applicable in sports as in politics.
“Explaining away your losses by calling them stupid says a lot more about you than it does about the voters,” he said.
Watch the clip above via On Balance with Leland Vittert on NewsNation.
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