Just when you think 2019 politics can't get any zanier… GOP huckster Tucker Carlson praised Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren's economic plans during the opening segment of his Fox News show last night.
After chiding Republican policymakers for not embracing "economic nationalism," Carlson quoted Warren sounding off on American companies for not being sufficiently patriotic.
Warren's comments were couched in language Republicans love: gratitude "for the opportunities America" provides, condemnation of those with "no loyalty or allegiance" to the country, lament of U.S. companies opening locations in Mexico and China. But they were also packed with evergreen left malcontent—casting blame on "free market principles" because the corporations that "control our economy" overvalue "the short-term interests of their shareholders,"
Carlson—an avid free-markets kind of guy until it was no longer what Fox producers and GOP leaders seemed to want—opined that Warren's pro-regulation rant was "just pure old-fashioned economics" and that many of her policy prescriptions "make obvious sense."
"She sounds like Donald Trump at his best," Carlson concluded.
Tucker also used last night's opening monologue for a bizarre conspiracy theory mashup about limited government supporters. He complained that Washington is overrun with "libertarian zealot
" who are "controlled by the banks" and always "yammering on about entrepreneurship."
Entrepreneurship—the horror!
Like many Republicans in the Trump era, Carlson has been trending away from limited-government rhetoric for a while, using his show to "yammer on" about why tariffs are good while still fearmongering about liberals and "socialists" (a category very broadly defined in the Fox world). But drape that "socialism" in a flag, and you just might win him over.