Former Fox News host turned Twitter pundit Tucker Carlson once again made dark insinuations when he claimed during an interview that Democrats will attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump.
Carlson first floated the idea that Mr Trump would be killed by Democrats during an interview last Thursday, which coincided with the first Republican GOP debate. Mr Trump skipped the debate to try to upstage it with his Twitter interview.
That first exchange began after Carlson pressed Mr Trump for his opinions on the controversial death of child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein's death was officially ruled a suicide, though theories insisting he was killed to cover-up his connections to powerful people persist.
"So the reason I’m asking you is I’m looking at the trajectory since 2015 when you got into politics, you know, for real. And then one, they started with protests against you, massive protests, organized protest by the left, and then it moved to impeachment twice. Right. And now indictment," Carlson said during the interview. "I mean, the next stages is violence. Is, are you worried that they’re going to try and kill you? Why wouldn’t they try and kill you? Honestly."
Mr Trump mostly brushed the question off, calling his opponents "savage animals" before insisting there were "great people" in the Democratic party and saying he wanted to be representative of all Americans, marking a rare occasion in which the former president was made to look moderate in his views.
But Carlson brought his violent conspiracy up again during an appearance on The Adam Carolla Show, a podcast hosted by the right wing celebrity.
Carolla asked Carlson what "the future holds," and whether or not "they" would let Mr Trump become president again, which led Carlson down the rabbit hole toward assassination.
"If you begin with criticism, then you go to protest. Then you go to impeachment. Now you go to indictment and none of them work. What’s next? I mean, you know, graph it out, man!" Carlson said. "We’re speeding toward assassination, obviously, and no one will say that! But I don’t, I don’t know how you can’t reach that conclusion."
In this instance Carlson did not even centre the supposed scheming on Democrats; he suggested that anti-Trump Republicans could also be gunning — literally — for Mr Trump.
"You know what it’s been like. They have decided, permanent Washington," he said. "Both parties have decided that there’s something about Trump that’s so threatening to them, they just can’t have it."
