Fox News host Tucker Carlson blasted US military preparedness on the same day President Joe Biden announced the al Qaeda leader had been killed.
On Monday night, Mr. Carlson also hosted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was due to land in Taiwan on Tuesday with fellow Democratic lawmakers for a trip that has been criticized for raising tensions with China. China mainly considers the island part of its own territory.
“Nancy Pelosi … doesn’t understand what she’s doing or what might happen if she does it,” Mr. Carlson said before Ms. Pelosi’s trip. “Nobody wants to say it out loud, but the truth is, she can’t know because, like Kamala Harris, she’s never even been in a bar fight. He has no understanding of violence or its consequences, and there are consequences, including the possible deaths of millions of people.”
“It’s just the wrong time, the craziest time, to send an 82-year-old narcissist to Taiwan,” he added. “The US has never been less ready for war, particularly war with China, and the Biden administration has done everything in its power to make sure we are not ready for war with China or even the Taliban.”
Mr. Carlson argued that “Biden, since the day he took office, has politicized and weakened the United States military systematically to the point where we are not going to win a war against China.”
“General Mark Milley is out there telling Congress that soldiers need to learn about White Rage or they’ll be unprepared for combat,” the Fox host added. “Attack people based on the color of their skin, right? Firing the Navy SEALs because they won’t get the vaccine, the healthiest people in the world and firing them because they won’t get the vaccine and then just to clarify what the point is and the point, of course, is humiliation and degradation, the destroying centuries of military traditions, let’s do shows on military bases, which they do now. No one should be surprised that people don’t really want to join an army like this, an awake army.”
Fellow Fox News anchor Sean Hannity took a similar angle and claimed the world is less safe with Biden in the White House on the same day the administration took down a terrorist leader.
On Monday night, Mr. Biden addressed the nation saying that a recent airstrike had eliminated the “emir of al-Qaida,” Ayman al-Zawahiri, on Saturday in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
The president said that “al-Zawahiri was [Osama] bin Laden’s leader. She was with him the whole time. He was his number two man, his deputy at the time of the 9/11 terrorist attack. He was deeply involved in the planning of 9/11, one of the most responsible for the attacks that killed 2,977 people on American soil.”
Bin Laden was killed by US forces on May 2, 2011. Mr Biden added that al-Zawahiri spent “decades” as the “mastermind behind attacks against Americans, including the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 US sailors and dozens more were injured.”
“He played a key role in the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 and injuring over 4,500 others,” Biden said Monday night.
In response to Mr. Carlson and Mr. Hannity’s remarks, social media users were quick to blast critics.
“Tucker Carlson calls our military weak because Tucker Carlson is an enemy of the state,” the US singers tweeted.
“Refresh my memory…how long has he been in the service?” one Twitter user responded.
“For someone to listen to this soft, pampered man-child born with a silver spoon in his mouth is something I will never understand,” said another Twitter user.
Former Democratic congressional candidate Russell Foster wrote that “it’s amazing the party that always says it supports our troops is constantly throwing it on TV while Republicans in Congress vote against helping our troops get the health care they need. they deserve it. It’s to pour $$ into the military complex, but not to support our troops.”
“Mr. Carlson is profoundly ignorant of US military capability. He seems completely unaware of our ability to project power in multiple theaters right now. It’s very sad, if not disgusting,” added George Shipley.
“As someone who started paying attention to politics in the ’90s, Republicans openly hating the US military is by far the strangest development of the last 30 years,” said Joe Katz.
One Twitter user called Mr Hannity a clown and “Plump Goebbels”.
“The Russians are bleeding Ukraine and there isn’t enough Al-Zawahiri to fit in a shoebox,” the account owner added.
“LESS SAFE? These idiots are seriously CRAZY! Biden just fired the #2 responsible for 911! How is that LESS SAFE?’ asked another Twitter user.
