Fox News Channel‘s Tucker Carlson Tonight had me back on Tuesday, September 25, 2018 to discuss the Judge Kavanaugh sexual abuse/assault allegations.
This segment generated so much controversy that the Washington Post‘s Amy Wang reached out to me for comment and put up a big article about it. From the piece:
“She’s claiming that this man sexually assaulted her and altered the course of her life,” Carlson told Bearman. “She didn’t tell anybody his name for 36 years, during which time he got married, he interacted with many others in our population.”
Carlson then launched a barrage of questions at Bearman.
“Sex offenders tend to commit serial sex crimes. Doesn’t she have an obligation to tell someone?” he asked. “To stop him from doing that if he is, in fact, a sex criminal? Where’s her obligation here? What about the rest of us?”
Bearman began talking about the reasons a sexual assault victim might not feel comfortable reporting (more on that below), before Carlson cut him off abruptly.
“No, no, no, no, no, no, hold on, I’m not asking her about her reasons,” the Fox News host said. “I’m asking about the rest of us — the other 320 million people who live here. If he’s actually a sex criminal, we have a right to know that, and she has an obligation to tell us. And I know it’s hard. But why don’t we have a right to know? If there’s a rapist on the loose, if you don’t tell anybody, if Bernie Madoff rips you off and you don’t tell his other investors, you’re part of the problem, are you not? What am I missing?”
Still, Bearman continued, attempting to fact-check Carlson on his earlier claims that Ford “didn’t tell anybody [Kavanaugh’s] name for 36 years.”
As Bearman tried to explain all this, though, Carlson interrupted him again.
“I’m saying, if it is true, what’s going on here?” he demanded. “Don’t the rest of us have a right to protect ourselves from this dangerous man, Brett Kavanaugh? What’s the answer?”
And there it was. The moment. Bearman began shaking his head. His large, dark-rimmed glasses couldn’t hide the fact that his eyes were staying closed longer each time he blinked. Carlson maintained an indignant expression.
Watch the full segment here:
