Fox News host Tucker Carlson just went after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) "for the second consecutive show," Politico noted on Tuesday.
This time, Carlson devoted an entire segment of his Fox show on Monday to McCarthy's apparent relationship with Republican pollster and consultant Frank Luntz, whom Carlson claimed is "effectively a Democrat" and a Fox chyron declared "has a strange power over GOP leaders." After previously saying on his show that Luntz is "particularly close" with McCarthy, the Fox host on Monday said he received a "call from a source" telling him that they're "not simply friends, they're roommates," as McCarthy apparently "lives in Frank Luntz' apartment" in Washington, D.C.
"The top Republican in the House lives with a Google lobbyist?" Carlson said. "Come on. Come on! Even by the sleazy and corrupt standards of politics in Washington, that did not seem possible. In fact, it sounded like a joke."
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Carlson reported, though, that a spokesperson for McCarthy confirmed to him that "because of the pandemic," McCarthy has "rented a room in Washington at a fair market price from Frank" — at which point Carlson put up a cartoonish graphic on screen of the two sharing a bunk bed. From there, Carlson openly questioned whether McCarthy is, in fact, paying "fair market price" for the room or if he could be "violating House ethics rules on taking gifts" if he's not.
"To summarize: The star of Republicans' network of choice is being fed oppo about and is denouncing the man who wants to be speaker of the House," Politico wrote. "Not good for McCarthy." Brendan Morrow
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