Fox News host Tucker Carlson questioned why Charles and David Koch are “running the Republican Party” when their views and actions differ so sharply with most ordinary Republicans.
WATCH:
“They have a sincere desire to change the world,” the Fox News host said of the extraordinarily rich Koch brothers, during a Wednesday night monologue segment on the topic. “So for years, the brothers have been the single most important funders of Republican politics in Washington.”
Because the brothers have been “maligned by the media,” Carlson noted, conservatives are convinced that the “Kochs must be on their side.”
“But in the case of the Kochs, conservatives might want to pause and rethink the relationship,” he said. “As it turns out, the Kochs don’t have much in common with conservatives. They are in fact totally opposed to most conservative policy goals. The Kochs are libertarian ideologues. They are passionate and inflexible about what they believe.”
Carlson cited Trumpian policies like “America first” and controlling the border as issues upon which the Koch brothers actively fight against the interests of the GOP base, noting that even Sen. Bernie Sanders once called open borders “a Koch brothers proposal.” (RELATED: Wonder Woman Was Funded By the Koch Brothers, LOL)
“The overwhelming majority of Republicans want a secure border and less immigration,” said the Fox News host. “That’s why they voted for Donald Trump. Two-and-a-half years later though, the border is more porous than ever. A tide of humanity is flooding in illegally. Republicans in Congress have done almost nothing to help with the situation. Why? You can thank the Kochs for that.”
The Fox News host went on to describe several other issues, including drugs, tax cuts, and crime, where the billionaire brothers and most rank and file Republicans diverge, before ending with the fact that they have joined the “left-wing campaign against free speech.”
“Big tech has become a far greater threat to your freedom than government is,” he said to end the segment. “The Kochs don’t care. Nothing Google does violates libertarian orthodoxy. More to the point, the Kochs don’t care about Republican voters or what happens to them. OK, that’s fine. No law requiring them to care, but then why are they running the Republican Party? That’s a question Republicans should start asking themselves.”