On Thursday, Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson attacked former President Barack Obama , accusing him of “desecrating” late Congressman John Lewis’ funeral, Mediaite reported.
Carlson accused Obama of giving a “divisive and deeply dishonest campaign speech” instead of eulogizing the late civil rights icon.
The anchor asked his viewers to “imagine if some greasy politician showed up at your loved one’s funeral and started throwing around stupid partisan talking points about Senate procedure.”
“You’d probably walk out. Desecrating a funeral with campaign slogans? What kind of person would do that?”
Carlson added that Democrats in the audience “cheered” Obama because “political power is their religion.”
Addressing the audience at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, Obama talked about Lewis’ role in the civil rights movement, discussing his involvement in the 1960 Nashville campaigns, Mississippi’s Freedom Summer and the march from Selma to Montgomery.
Obama then talked about meeting and befriending Lewis, revealing that they first met while he was in law school at Harvard. They met again when Obama was first elected to the Illinois Senate and later at the 2009 presidential inauguration.
The two men, the former commander-in-chief revealed, last spoke during a virtual town hall after George Floyd’s death.
As Politico noted, Obama called on politicians to honor Lewis’ legacy by pushing for reforms and expanding voting rights. He argued that Election Day should be made a national holiday, suggesting that all Americans need to be automatically registered to vote and calling for legislation to ensure congressional representation to Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.
Obama briefly mentioned the filibuster — the controversial Senate rule which allows the minority party to delay and block legislative action — describing it as a “Jim Crow relic.”
Carlson also ripped into Democratic politicians, suggesting that they are trying to “pack the electorate” by allowing mass immigration to the United States.
He concluded that Democrats want to have “complete control” of the country.
“They are doing this for one reason, to ensure they have complete control of the United States. We are watching it happen right now, though almost no one ever admits it and those who do come close to getting shut down,” Carlson said.
Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton also eulogized Lewis, but Donald Trump did not.
Instead, Trump held a surprise press conference at the White House. During the briefing, he talked to the family of slain Fort Hood soldier Vanessa Guillen.
Trump was slammed for holding the conference, with critics accusing him of trying to divert attention from Obama’s speech.
