Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” host Tucker Carlson mocked the media fascination with South Bend, IN Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Carlson first noted how Buttigieg had supplanted former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) as the new media favorite. “Imagine how it must feel to be Beto O’Rourke right now,” he said. “If you’re O’Rourke, you’re out there running for President really hard or at least running for Vice President. You’re running anyway. You’re given speech after speech every day. ‘Children are our future. Today is the first day of the rest of your life.’ Inspiring stuff like that. Deep stuff like that. And there’s a physical component to the job, too. You’re riding your skateboard for the camera. You’re taking God knows how many selfies for your fans on Snapchat and Instagram. It’s not an easy gig. Then one morning, you wake up and discover that your one true love — the American news media — have called it off. They’ve left you for a younger, hotter candidate. Went out for a pack of cigarettes that just never came home. They split with some guy from Indiana. You can’t even pronounce the guy’s name. After a montage of media fawning, including a clip of MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace calling Buttigieg “chicken soup” for her soul, Carlson questioned how Buttigieg had successfully managed to woo the media despite being relatively unknown. “This is a new level of political commitment,” Carlson said. “They don’t just want to vote for this guy. They want to consume him like a hearty stew — every last drop of Buttigieg, yum. They’re all in. What’s going on here exactly? Who is this guy? There are a lot of liberals running for President right now. Why would the 37-year-old mayor of some third-string Midwestern city — no offense, but that’s what it is – – why would that guy stand out? Why is he more impressive than, I don’t know? Senator Cory Booker or former Governor John Hickenlooper, or for that matter any of the approximately eleven thousand progressive Democrats running for President at the moment. Why is this guy better than them?’ “That’s a pretty tough question actually,” he continued. “We checked. Nobody knows. Least of all, Buttigieg himself. His website gives you his bio and then tells you how young he is — very young — it says pretty much nothing about what policies he might support. That’s not an accident, but we can’t just talk policy points all the time, Buttigieg said recently, “As Democrats, we have to figure out how to tell a better story about our principles,” end quote. And actually, that’s not a crazy point. Storytelling does matter, but first, you have to know what your story is. You have to know what your principles are, and suddenly neither party knows this. They’re not sure what they stand for, and that’s really why things seems so bizarre right now in this country politically, why they are so chaotic.” Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor<doc-sep>The Fox anchor's take on the gay candidate was odd and, according to some, creepy. Tuesday's edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight featured a segment on gay presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, and the results were bizarre. Carlson spoke of Buttigieg as the Democrats' and the media's new golden boy, describing him in tones both ominous and, to some, lecherous. "[The press and Democrats] want to consume him like a hearty stew," the archconservative host said. "Every last drop of Buttigieg. Yum." The Twittersphere had reactions, of course. This is not the first time Fox personalities sounded panicked over the South Bend, Ind., mayor. “He speaks beautifully, he’s very nuanced, people need to look beyond that and actually look at the policies he supports,” Fox & Friends host Jedediah Bila said in the episode that aired Monday morning. “Because everyone’s saying, ‘Oh, maybe he’s a little more moderate.’ He’s actually not. He is a hard-left guy. He is a Medicare for All, Paris Climate Agreement, Green New Deal guy.”<doc-sep>A seemingly innocuous Pete Buttigieg segment on Tucker Carlson's Tuesday show turned real disturbing real fast. The Fox News host ridiculed the media for its positive coverage of the South Bend mayor and 2020 Democrat, declaring he's the "younger, hotter" candidate who journalists are now pursuing after leaving former Rep. Beto O'Rourke, per Mediaite. He then played a series of clips of pundits discussing Buttigieg, with an MSNBC analyst calling him "chicken soup for my soul." Carlson decided to take this last comment quite literally, saying, "They don't just want to vote for this guy. They want to consume him like a hearty stew. Every last drop of Buttigieg. Yum. They're all in." Perhaps unintentionally channeling the thoughts of the viewing audience, Carlson then asked, "What's going on here, exactly?" A good question, indeed. Watch the weird moment below. Brendan Morrow<doc-sep>This image was removed due to legal reasons. Good morning, are y’all ready for some freaky shit? Because here comes Tucker Carlson comparing Pete Buttigieg to... stew. Advertisement Tucker led into his Buttigieg monologue last night with an extended, vaguely homophobic analogy about the American news media moving on from Beto O’Rourke for the “younger, hotter” Buttigieg. Sure, fine. Characterizing politics as a romantic relationship is nothing new. You know what is new though? Whatever this is. “They want to consume him, like a hearty stew,” Carlson the goblin said. “Every last drop of Buttigieg, yum.” Shortly before this, Tucker seized on Nicolle Wallace saying Buttigieg is “chicken soup for my soul,” which, yeah, is weird in its own right (but also surprisingly apt, as the Chicken Soup books she’s referencing are basically Buttigieg as a candidate: lukewarm, vaguely Christian slog that makes people feel warm and fuzzy inside). Here’s the full clip; the Stewigieg comments are about two minutes in, after which Tucker segues seamlessly into attacking Bernie Sanders and making California Rep. Eric Swalwell into a comin’ fer yer guns bogeyman. (Swalwell is running on an aggressive gun control platform.) All of that is unimportant. Please, watch the stew bit: I will have the image of Tucker gazing intensely into the camera while saying “every last drop of Buttigieg” burned into my mind for a long, long time.<doc-sep>
There's a new clip of Tucker Carlson that's worth seeing. Typically, that only happens when his own guests turn on him, like when historian Rutger Bregman called him "a millionaire funded by billionaires." Carlson shot back with a "go fuck yourself" and, sadly, Fox News never aired the segment. Thankfully, you can still see it here. On Tuesday night's airing of his show, Carlson was very preoccupied with how much attention the media is giving Pete Buttigieg. The South Bend mayor and presidential candidate has been getting so much coverage that Carlson is worried that Beto O'Rourke, Texas representative, presidential candidate, and media darling himself, is being spurned. "One morning, you wake up and discover that your one true love, the American news media, has called it off. They've left you for a younger, hotter candidate. They went out for a pack of cigarettes and never came home." Latent abandonment issues aside, Carlson's not wrong! Buttigieg has been everywhere, and as Vox points out, that's at least equal parts media infatuation and campaign strategy, since so much exposure helps with standing out in a crowded field. But Carlson's been pretty smitten with Beto as well, and has devoted a good bit of air time to him. He's even read aloud poems that the Texas Democrat wrote as a student. But Carlson sees a much deeper yearning for Buttigieg. "'Chicken soup for my soul.' Even by the naughty standards of the news media, this is a new level of commitment. They don't just want to vote for this guy. They want to consume him like a hearty stew. Every last drop of Buttigieg. Yum. They're all in." Listening to Tucker Carlson say "yum" is probably the darkest possible ASMR. It may be off-putting as hell, but you can't listen to it just once.