Here are the most outrageous claims Tucker Carlson made during his run on Fox News

On Friday, April 21, 2023, Fox News broadcasted 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' for the last time. However, the legacy of the man regarded as one of the leading voices of US conservatism is very well alive.

Tucker Carlson made his debut on Fox News in 2009 where he went on to become one of the leading voices of conservatism in the United States. His show, 'Tucker Carlson Tonight', made him the most-watched cable news TV host in America.

The California-born journalist host has been described by TIME magazine as “America's most powerful conservative”, despite numerous accusations of spreading misinformation and propagating hate against minorities.

One of Donald Trump’s biggest supporters on television, some say the conservative political commentator might have a shot at the White House. Who is he, and what makes him so controversial?

In January 2023, Tucker Carlson defended Richard Nixon's order to illegally break into the Democratic National Committee's headquarters in the Watergate Building in Washington D.C.

According to Carlson, Watergate was “an FBI operation to drive a sitting duly elected president from office.” The Fox News host drew what can be assumed as a positive comparison between Richard Nixon being caught on tape and Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago raid in 2022.

Following the demise of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022, Tucker Carlson claimed that the British Empire was “more than just genocide” and that they took their “colonial responsibility seriously” and with “decency”.

“When the British pulled out of India, they left behind an entire civilization, a language, a legal system, schools, churches and public buildings, all of which are still in use today,” Tucker Carlson claimed, according to the BBC.

One of Carlson’s most infamous and memorable moments as of late on his show, was a rant against the image change of M&M’s chocolate mascots. Specifically, he complained in January 2022 that female M&Ms were now “less sexy”.

Image: ABC

“M&M’s will not be satisfied until every last cartoon character is deeply unappealing and totally androgynous. Until the moment you wouldn’t want to have a drink with any one of them. That’s the goal”, the Fox News commentator said on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’.

Image: ABC

The Guardian reports that on several occasions Carlson has shown sympathy towards Russia and Vladimir Putin. “Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him?” The Fox News host declared just hours before the invasion.

Since then, he has rescinded his previous position, but The Guardian points out Carlson still shows some love for the man in the Kremlin.

Some of Tucker Carlson's statements have even been used by Russian state media, such as television channel Russia-1, to make points in their favor.

Image: Russia-1 / Internet Archive

Science magazine writes that the host of Tucker Carlson Tonight has assailed several times on Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor of the Biden Administration and the face of the US government task force on Covid-19.

Carlson called Fauci a “Stalinist midget” who “engineered the single most devastating event in modern American history”, per quotes picked by Science.

Science Magazine points out Carlson used a mix of out-of-place quotes and long-debunked studies to attack Fauci personally.

This is not the first time Carlson has presented his somewhat peculiar views on science. In early 2022, he released the docuseries 'The End of Men.'

As France24 reports, the trailer was mocked for its sexually-charged masculine imagery, including shirtless men wrestling, cutting wood, drinking juice and, to top it all, a man wearing nothing receiving something called ‘testicle tanning’.

Image: Fox News

Of course, the conservative TV host’s bizarre war on science is not new. In a June 2019 program of his show, Tucker Carlson attacked the metric system as “creepy”, “inelegant” and “completely made up out of nothing”.

“I'll accept the kilometer when we accept the euro: Never", concluded the Fox News host.

During a slander suit against Carlson in September 2020, US district judge Mary Kay Vyskocil ruled that the Fox News host is not ‘stating facts’ but ‘engaging in exaggeration’ to frame a political debate.

However, attacks inspired by white supremacist rhetoric, such as the shooting in Buffalo in May 2022, are a dark reminder that such exaggerations do have real-life consequences.

The Fox News journalist has put Covid-19 vaccines into question on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.' “Maybe [the COVID-19 vaccine] doesn’t work, and they’re simply not telling you that”, the conservative pundit claimed on his program.

Tucker Carlson also said that the use of face masks to reduce the spread of the virus has “no basis in science.”

According to Newsweek, this contradicts an earlier statement where Carlson was in favor of the widespread usage of face masks.

Another controversial stance Tucker Carlson promotes on his show is the “Great Replacement”, the idea that a powerful elite wants to substitute the white population of first-world countries with "docile", third-world immigrants.

“Immigrants make our country poorer, dirtier and more divided,” declared Carlson on his show.

Image: Fox News

He also has claimed that white supremacy, the idea that Western society has a bias for white people and in particular white, straight men, is a hoax.

Carlson was the first journalist to interview Kyle Rittenhouse after the young vigilante had been acquitted on all charges.

Image: Fox News

Rittenhouse was a 17-year-old white kid who fatally shot two people with an assault rifle amidst Black Lives Matter protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

The Fox News journalist has condemned the 2021 US Capitol Attack while remaining ambivalent about the perpetrators. “It wasn't simply because the last president told them so,” argued Carlson on his show.

“They're American citizens who can see what's happening and come to their own conclusions about it,” Carlson claimed.

Many Trump supporters were motivated by Tucker Carlson's comments to question the presidential election.

Pictured is a Tucker Carlson fan protesting against the election results in Las Vegas in November 2020.

“Do I think the election was fair? Obviously, it wasn’t,” stated Carlson in a Time magazine interview.

Unsurprisingly, since Tucker Carlson isn't shy about publicly sharing his controversial views he has had many detractors throughout the years.

Former host of 'The Daily Show' Jon Stewart famously called out Tucker Carlson in the early 2000s for “cheapening public debate into a list of topics” when he was a guest in Carlson's CNN show 'Crossfire.'

More recently, John Oliver, from HBO's 'Last Week Tonight,' defined him in a 2021 segment as “a conspiracy theorist, a misogynist, an Islamophobe, a troll” and “the most prominent vessel in America for white supremacy talking points.”

Image: HBO

The host of 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' has arguably the most recognizable face of Fox News. However, it will remain to see what's next in store for the most-watched cable news network in America and the journalist that made that possible.