Tucker Carlson shined a spotlight on the seeming demise of the First Amendment as he spoke with a social media influencer who’s going to jail for posting memes.
Warning viewers that “this could be you,” Carlson dropped episode 38 of his “Tucker on X” series, covering the disturbing case of Douglass Mackey, also known as “Ricky Vaughn,” who was sentenced last month to seven months in federal prison for “attempting to deprive individuals from exercising their sacred right to vote for the candidate of their choice in the 2016 Presidential Election,” according to United States Attorney Peace.
The charges and subsequent conviction were over a meme he posted during the 2016 election about Hillary Clinton, who was then running to be elected president.
“The First Amendment is done,” Carlson posted on X Thursday along with the accompanying video interview with Mackey.
“If someone had even told you even ten years ago that you could be indicted by the federal government and go to prison for ten years for making fun of Hillary Clinton on social media, you would not have believed it,” the former Fox News host said.. “It’s a free country. We have free speech.”
Ep. 38 The First Amendment is done. Douglass Mackey is about to go to prison for mocking Hillary Clinton on the internet. We talked to him right before his sentencing. Remember as you watch that this could be you.
TIMESTAMPS:
(3:12) The Hillary Clinton meme
(4:20) Hillary’s… pic.twitter.com/MLwz2SboGr— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) November 9, 2023
“Pardon my French, but it’s called a sh-t post,” Mackey explained after contending he had not created the meme in question but had just reposted it on what was then known as Twitter. “We talked about this a lot of the trial. I testified. Just sort of a joke. Rile up everybody, muddy the waters.”
“I knew that politicians could be vindictive and the federal government sometimes could be influenced by those politicians,“ Mackey said, “And I know that they can sort of get very creative with federal statutes, so if I was the enemy of their candidate, then I thought that maybe they could cook something up.”
In a conviction that many saw as chilling for the right of free speech in the nation, Mackey also noted that “the left were really celebrating this” when he was arrested.
