#IStandWithTucker: Carlson supporters bashed amid sexual abuse claims, Internet says 'they defend Epstein, Trump'
Tucker Carlson returned to Fox News Channel tonight after a short break amid allegations and a lawsuit for sexual misconduct. The lawsuit was filed by Jennifer Eckhardt, a former freelance administrative assistant at Fox, and a second plaintiff Cathy Areu, a former Fox journalist. However, soon #IStandWithTucker started to trend and this angered many.
"Wait, are the people tweeting #IStandWithTucker saying that they stand with Tucker Carlson's blatant racism, or his alleged sexual harassment, or his overall dickishness in general?" said a user. Most of them hit back at Republicans. One user said, "Republicans tweet #IStandWithTucker because they always stand with sexual assaulters, sexual harassers, rapists & pedophiles. It's who they are. It's also Trump is."
Another said, "I’m confused. Republicans are tweeting #IStandWithTucker after... he got accused of sexual assault? Well, now that I think of it, they do like their rapists." Another said, "Yep! They are the same people that defend Epstein, Trump and most likely think Fascism is totally justified." An angry user stated, "Of course Republicans stand with Tucker. They also stand with Trump, Epstein, Roy Moore, Hannity, Roger Ailes, Kavanaugh, Gym Jordan, etc. Republicans are okay with despicable people."
As reported by Vulture, the lawsuit alleges sexual misconduct by top Fox News hosts including Carlson, Sean Hannity and Howard Kurtz. The suit also addresses a previous rape allegation against host Ed Henry, who was fired from the network on July 1 after an internal investigation. "In reality, Fox News knew that Mr Henry had engaged in sexual misconduct as far back as early 2017," the complaint claims. "At that time, when Fox News was conducting a company-wide investigation into issues of sexual harassment, multiple women came forward to complain that Mr Henry had engaged in sexually inappropriate conduct towards them."
A Deadline report highlights some of the details in the lawsuit, "As described in detail herein, Fox News continues to protect and reward perpetrators of sexual harassment and refuses to take accountability for putting such persons in positions of power from which they can subject women to sexual misconduct, sexual assault and, in the case of Ms Eckhart, rape,” the injunction and wide-spread damages seeking suit states. "Some of the names in leadership may have changed since Roger Ailes’ regime, but Fox News’ institutional apathy towards sexual misconduct has not."
In the same report, a Fox News spokesperson is quoted saying that the claims against them are false. The spokesperson said, "Based on the findings of a comprehensive independent investigation conducted by an outside law firm, including interviews with numerous eyewitnesses, we have determined that all of Cathy Areu’s claims against FOX News, including its management as well as its hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity & Howard Kurtz and its contributor Gianno Caldwell, are false, patently frivolous and utterly devoid of any merit," said a Fox News spokesperson on July 20.
The representative further added that they take complaints about harassment and misconduct seriously and in this case "the appropriate action based on our investigation is to defend vigorously against these baseless allegations," the statement continues. "Ms. Areu and Jennifer Eckhart can pursue their claims against Ed Henry directly with him, as FOX News already took swift action as soon as it learned of Ms Eckhart’s claims on June 25 and Mr Henry is no longer employed by the network," added the spokesperson.
On his show, Tucker avoided addressing the issue and lashed out at The New York Times. Even though he said he doesn’t want to talk about himself on-air, the rant against NYT was centered around him. According to the Daily Beast, Carlson said the Times has been working on a story about where he lives. Saying there’s “no conceivable justification for a story like that", the conservative host then alleged that the report was based on personal animosity and a disdain for his politics. "So why is The New York Times doing a story on the location of my family’s house? Well, you know why. To hurt us, to injure my wife and kids so that I will shut up and stop disagreeing with them. They believe in force. We’ve learned that," the report quoted Carlson.
His supporters tweeted, “Absolutely disgusting by the failing new york times to put Tucker’s wife & children at risk! shame on them!!” One of them also said, “#IStandWithTucker if they publish your address you should publish theirs! @nytimes is reprehensible."