Howard Dean calls out Fox News, Tucker Carlson for being 'the enemy of the United States'

On The Beat With Ari Melber Thursday, former DNC chair and governor of Vermont Howard Dean weighed in on the controversy surrounding Fox News following the mass shooting in a Buffalo, New York supermarket Saturday, in which a gunman murdered 10 Black people in a racially motivated attack. In a lengthy screed, the gunman repeatedly cited the racist “replacement theory” conspiracy, which has been pushed on Fox for years by both guests and hosts. First, Dean railed against Fox founder Rupert Murdoch, an Australian immigrant.

“I see the brand of Fox being hate, anger, dishonesty, and now murder… Murdoch has harmed this country more than any other human being in my lifetime, and he should never have been given citizenship,” Dean said. “The one thing I’d change about our immigration policy, is to send Murdoch back to Australia and keep him there, with the whole family.”

Then Dean turned his attention to Tucker Carlson, the popular Fox opinion host who has been a fervent supporter of the “replacement theory” conspiracy over the years, but has claimed to not know what it is in the days since the Buffalo shooting, even going so far as to say it was “coming from the left.”

“The guy is nuts. I mean, really? You gonna take this seriously in any way? But he’s dangerous because he’s got a lot of people who believe in this nonsense,” Dean said. “I actually think he’s crazy. But he’s malevolently crazy, and he’s a danger to the United States of America. And since we can’t take him off the air, we ought to boycott Fox.”

Video Transcript

HOWARD DEAN: Murdoch has harmed this country more than any other human being in my lifetime, and he should never have been given citizen-- one thing I'd change about our immigration policy is to send Murdoch back to Australia and keep him there with the whole family.

KYLIE MAR: On "The Beat With Ari Melber" Thursday, former DNC chair and Governor of Vermont Howard Dean weighed in on Fox News and its founder, Rupert Murdoch, an Australian immigrant. Fox has come under fire this week for repeatedly pushing the racist great replacement conspiracy, which the Buffalo shooter cited in his manifesto before murdering 10 Black people at a supermarket on Saturday.

HOWARD DEAN: If you cause that much trouble, and you spread lies and hate and anger and tear the United States apart with your crappy TV shows simply to make money, you do not belong. You do not deserve American citizenship, period.

KYLIE MAR: Dean then turns to Fox opinion host, Tucker Carlson, who has spent years pushing the replacement theory conspiracy only to attempt to deflect the blame when facing backlash following the Buffalo shooting.

HOWARD DEAN: The guy is nuts. I mean, really you're going to take this seriously in any way. But he's dangerous because he's got a lot of people who believe in this nonsense.

I actually think he's crazy. But he's malevolently crazy, and he's a danger to the United States of America. And since we can't take him off the air, we ought to boycott Fox.

KYLIE MAR: Dean went on to call out Fox News and Murdoch for the damage that he believes they are doing to the country.

HOWARD DEAN: These people mean to harm the United States of America, and they're far worse than even what Carlson was saying there. This is a bad guy, and Fox is a bad company, and they ought to be treated accordingly. They are the enemy of the United States of America.