BS BULLETIN:
- Tucker Carlson says President Trump should be removed from office “immediately” if he is actively considering first use of nuclear weapons.
- Carlson, who says he “strongly opposed” both previous Trump impeachments, declared nuclear first use an absolute “red line” that would make any president unfit for office.
- His demand marks a dramatic escalation in his increasingly bitter break with Trump over Iran and U.S. foreign policy.
The Tucker Carlson-Donald Trump divorce just went nuclear.
Literally.
Carlson said President Trump should be removed from office “immediately” if he is actively considering being the first to use nuclear weapons.
“The second any president actively considers first use of nuclear weapons, that person should be removed from office immediately,” Carlson said Friday on “The Tucker Carlson Show.”
Carlson made the extraordinary declaration during a discussion with Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center who resigned earlier this year in protest of the Iran war.
And Carlson made clear he was talking about Trump.
“I was strongly opposed” to the previous attempts to impeach Trump, Carlson said, before arguing that nuclear first use crosses a line unlike the controversies behind those cases.
“Why isn’t there an attempt to remove him from office, like, immediately?” Carlson asked.
“Anyone who would even tolerate that kind of talk from any of his subordinates or employees is by definition unfit.”
Carlson later broadened his standard beyond Trump.
“Any leader of any country who suggests first use of nuclear weapons has forfeited his right to lead,” he said. “He has to be removed immediately.”
The comments followed Carlson’s warning that the United States is moving dangerously close to nuclear conflict.
He pointed partly to reported Pentagon discussions about placing greater emphasis on tactical nuclear weapons and giving the president more options for limited nuclear strikes.
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby recently said the administration wants to provide the president and defense secretary with “credible, rational nuclear options.”
But there is an important distinction.
The proposed changes do not establish a new American first-use policy. The United States already reserves the option to use nuclear weapons first under certain circumstances.
Carlson’s argument also rests heavily on Trump’s rhetoric toward Iran.
He has interpreted Trump’s threat that an entire civilization could be destroyed as an implicit nuclear threat, arguing such destruction could not realistically be accomplished with conventional weapons.
Trump, however, explicitly said in April that he did not need nuclear weapons against Iran and that nuclear weapons should not be used by anybody.
The impeachment demand is nevertheless another dramatic escalation in a relationship that has gone from political alliance to open warfare.
Earlier this month, Carlson called Trump’s nuclear rhetoric “suicidal” and “homicidal” and said the president had demonstrated himself “incapable of leadership.”
Trump hasn’t exactly been sending Tucker Christmas cards either.
During an earlier round of their feud, Trump called Carlson a “low-IQ person” and a “fool,” declaring: “Tucker has lost his way.”
Carlson responded at the time that he would “always love him no matter what he says about me.”
Apparently this is what tough love looks like.
DBS WIRE SOURCES
- Mediaite — Tucker Carlson says Trump should be removed from office ‘immediately’
- The Tucker Carlson Show — Joe Kent on the Pentagon’s nuclear plans
- Newsweek — Tucker Carlson calls for Trump’s immediate removal
