Media

Tucker Addresses And Clarifies Immigration Comment Backlash

Alan Dershowitz on Tucker Carlson's show (Fox News 12/19/2018)

Mike Brest Reporter
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Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz criticized Tucker Carlson’s immigration comments on Wednesday, suggesting that he thought Carlson was facing backlash for good reason.

Carlson began his show last Thursday by objecting to the notion that Americans should simply allow the caravan to come into the United States.  “Our leaders demand that you shut up and accept this. We have a moral obligation to admit the world’s poor they tell us, even if it makes our own country poorer, dirtier and more divided.” (RELATED: Anti-First Amendment Orgs Work To Strip Tucker Of Advertisers. But There’s One Major Problem)

That last line combined with a social media push against him has led to over a dozen of Carlson’s advertisers halting their ads from airing during his show.

On Wednesday evening, Carlson introduced Dershowitz and opened the segment with a question about the Michael Flynn case — but Dershowitz changed the subject.

WATCH:

“Tucker, I just want to make one point. I hope you don’t mind me making it,” Dershowitz began. “I hate boycotts and attempts to censor free speech. I’m in favor of complete dialogue. But as such, I feel compelled to tell you I do respect [but] disagree with the way you categorize mass immigration. That’s all. I just want to say that.”

“Well, that’s okay. By the way, I would expect that you would. We differ probably on a lot of the issues,” Carlson responded. “But the one issue we agree on and that I respect you for is your willingness to say what you what you think in public to defend your views, to have a conversation and to let others decide which side is right and that’s something that I wish we were able to do a lot more of.”

Dershowitz added, “I wish you hadn’t used that language. Language like that was used to describe my grandparents and great-grandparents and probably some of yours. So let’s move on.”

“Actually, just in point of fact since you brought it up,” Carlson responded, clarifying his position by repeating the context of the original comments.

“That was in context of a conversation with an elected official in Tijuana about the filth of his city and he was complaining about how dirty it had become which was a byproduct of the policy decisions pushed by the American left. And I noted there is a lesson there perhaps for us. I would never describe people as inherently dirty. I don’t think they are, I’m pro-people. That’s why I’m against abortion. Strongly.”

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