A video of Fox News host Tucker Carlson and a guest laughing at free-market ideology has inflamed divisions on the right.
The moment: Author J.D. Vance on Thursday appeared on Carlson’s new digital show “Tucker Carlson Today” to discuss his “Hillbilly Elegy” upbringing and the rundown state of the American dream.
- At one point, Carlson asked Vance, a venture capitalist and potential Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Ohio, about his advocacy of a government crackdown on Big Tech and other major corporations.
“But wait a second, J.D., Google is a private company, and we have no interest in attempting to constrain or control its behavior,” Carlson said, playing the role of a limited government conservative.
- “My reaction to that is first of all, if I’m being honest: I just don’t care,” Vance replied.
- “I don’t care if Google’s a private company because it has too much power, and if you want to have a country where people can live their lives freely, you have to be concerned about power, whether it’s concentrated in the government or concentrated in big corporations.”
- Carlson, who has made very similar arguments, bust into laughter and said, “Good for you.”
Vance has lately joined Carlson in championing an ascendent brand of populist conservatism that has little patience for the GOP’s traditional “limited government” ethos.
- Recent radicalizing events include MLB’s relocation of the All-Star Game from Georgia in protest of state voting regulations and Big Tech’s deplatforming of former President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The reaction: The 30-second exchange between Carlson and Vance was criticized on Twitter by libertarians and defenders of the establishment, like former GOP congressman and presidential candidate Joe Walsh.
But many other commentators cheered the rise of the new order.
“So last question. Sincere,” Carlson said to Vance at the end of the interview. “If you get elected to the Senate, are you going to keep talking like this?”
- “Absolutely,” Vance promised.
