Tucker Carlson says he had a 'moral obligation' to personally speak to Trump about coronavirus

Worried about the coronavirus and feeling like not enough people were taking it seriously, Fox News host Tucker Carlson set up a meeting with President Trump earlier this month at his Mar-a-Lago resort in order to tell him to his face that the situation was dire.

Carlson discussed the tête-à-tête with Vanity Fair's Joe Hagan. He spoke with Trump for two hours, and while he would not spill on what Trump said to him, Carlson did tell Hagan he got across the fact that the COVID-19 coronavirus is an existential threat to both the United States and Trump's re-election.

The first COVID-19 case in the United States was reported in January. Trump said it was "totally under control" and "going to be just fine," but Carlson said he saw how spooked the Chinese government was by the outbreak in its country, and he figured "we should pay attention to it." After researching and reporting on the virus, Carlson felt he had "a moral obligation to be useful in whatever small way I could," and determined that meant setting up a meeting to stress to Trump that the imminent coronavirus pandemic could be disastrous.

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Carlson and Trump spoke on March 7, with Carlson telling Hagan he told Trump "exactly what I've said on TV, which is that this could be really bad. My view is that we may have missed the point where we can control it." Carlson believes there are "a lot of people around" Trump, particularly "Republican members on Capitol Hill," who were "determined to pretend this wasn't happening." Now, he thinks the White House is taking the matter "seriously" and "knows that we're not prepared."

The coronavirus pandemic has "scared the hell out of everyone, left and right," Carlson said, and he doesn't have "the faintest idea" if Trump will make it out of the crisis unscathed. "I spent months telling our viewers that Joe Biden would never get a nomination," Carlson said. "So I mean, I have literally no idea." Read more at Vanity Fair.