Tucker Carlson tears in to Trump in furious rant about Epstein files and Texas floods: 'Not what I voted for'
In a recent conversation with conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, Carlson questioned why journalists have been reprimanded for asking questions about the case, which has set the MAGA world on fire.
A reporter last week was rebuked by the president for asking about a Justice Department memo that confirmed Epstein never kept a 'client list' and killed himself in jail. Trump reacted by saying that the catastrophic flooding in Texas was more important.
'You're asking - we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things, and are people still talking about this guy? This creep? That is unbelievable,' Trump said at the time.
'It just seems like a desecration,' he added.
Carlson expressed disdain at Trump's dismissal of a case that has led his own supporters to call for the ouster of Attorney General Pam Bondi.
'Why is it not a fair question? There's tons of evidence this is happening. Like, are you joking?' the former Fox News host railed.
'You're not going to shout me down, by the way, at this point. I spent four years being shouted down by the Left for asking, I thought, pretty reasonable questions.
'I have always felt very moderate, I'm not a hater at all, and I don't - I'm not gonna become one. And I don't think my questions are insane.'
He added that questions about the Epstein case 'may be stupid' but 'not crazy.'
'And if they are, tell me how,' he continued.
Carlson added that attacking critics for their questions 'is not going to work.'
'And telling me that my question is an insult to the children who died in Texas in a flood is an outrageous response,' he said of Trump's response.
'I voted against that kind of crap!' Carlson added.
He further raged: 'You are not allowed to dismiss my questions as a United States citizen with a wave of the hand, and an attack on my character.
'You get the middle finger in the face from me for doing that until you stop doing it.
'So, I think we have an absolute right to demand sensible answers.
'And the first question is, who the hell was Jeffrey Epstein working for?'
Carlson has earned the ire of some MAGA faithful for openly opposing Trump's strikes in Iran and hosting the Iranian president on his show.
On Friday, Carlson took to the stage at Turning Point USA's Student Action Summit in Tampa to claim Epstein led a blackmail campaign on behalf of the Mossad, while calling out the Trump administration for what he described as grandstanding rather than affecting change.
Earlier in the day, it was revealed that Bondi, FBI boss Kash Patel and his deputy Dan Bongino were duking it out behind the scenes over the administration's handling of the release of the files.
The first two have reportedly demanded Bondi's resignation, after she maintained the Epstein case was closed.
Bondi's widely panned claim was 'too much' for Carlson, he told the conference.
'Criticizing the behavior of a government agency doesn't make you a hater. It makes you a free person; it makes you a citizen,' he said.
'You're allowed to do that because you're not a slave.'
Meanwhile, a report from Wired last week found the surveillance footage released last week to back up the Justice Department's claim that Epstein killed himself in a New York City prison cell in 2019 was likely edited.
The nearly 11-hour clip secured from a camera stationed outside Epstein's cell was 'likely modified' using the professional video editing software Adobe Premiere Pro, the analysis found.
It was then presented as 'raw' footage by Justice Department, as conspiracy theories continue to linger when it comes to the cause of Epstein's death.
In the six years since, several have asked how such an important, surveilled figure managed to take his life without being stopped.
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