Fox News host Tucker Carlson is facing criticism Thursday for comments he made on his show which some suggestappear to defend a 17-year-old who allegedly shot three people in Kenosha, Wisconsin, killing two of them.
"How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?" Carlson asked on his show Wednesday night.
Carson’s comments, which he shared on social media, came just hours after news Kyle Rittenhouse, a teenager, had been arrested in Illinois and will face murder charges for the shooting deaths of the two demonstrators on Tuesday night.
The victims, two men fromKenosha County and one from the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis, were participating in demonstrations following the Sunday shooting of Jacob Blake.
Blake, a Black man, was shot several times in the back by officers while standing near his car with his three sons inside. Blake survived, and is in the hospital with serious gunshot injuries to his back and internal organs. His family and attorneys say it will be a miracle if he walks again.
Since Sunday, there have been demonstrations every night in Kenosha calling for justice.
“Kenosha’s devolved into anarchy because the authorities in charge of the city abandoned it. People in charge from the Governor of Wisconsin on down refused to enforce the law.”
Carlson's comments received reaction on social media, including from former secretary of labor Robert Reich who tweeted, “If they don't take action after this, every one of Fox News's executives, directors, and advertisers is complicit in Tucker Carlson's racist, murderous rants,” New York Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones tweeted, "He just justified murder."
Representatives from Kenosha County and Wisconsin’s Governor Tony Evers have not responded to requests for comment from CNN and Forbes.
