AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

As America prepares for a second Trump presidency, one of its most powerful and important allies the media, Tucker Carlsonwent even further off the deep end – recently telling viewers he was attacked by a demon and blaming hurricanes on abortions.

While Carlson’s descent into Alex Jones the territory becomes easy feed for mockery, it’s impossible to overstate how crucial he was in rehabilitating Trump’s political fortunes after January 6, 2021. So much so that Carlson, more than anyone else in the media, deserves credit for Trump’s graduation, downplaying the events of January 6 and Trump’s placement. in the position of being a coin removed from the presidency again.

In late October 2021, Carlson launched his highly controversial docu-series on Fox Nation called Patriot Purge. “The U.S. government has actually launched a new war on terror, and it’s not against al-Qaida, it’s against American citizens,” Carlson said in a promo for the series, which claims Jan. 6 was not a Trump-led attack. on the US Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes, but a “false flag” operation run by the US government.

“January 6th is being used as a pretext to strip millions of Americans — disadvantaged Americans — of their fundamental constitutional rights,” Carlson argued in the series, which was met with both outrage and shock inside Fox News and among those who follow the far-right fever swamps.

Carlson continued to host his Fox News show for another year and a half before being fired by the network in April 2023, during which time he had some of the highest ratings in cable news. Carlson drew a nightly audience of more than 3 million people, making him one of the most influential voices not only in conservative politics, but also in the mainstream media.

Carlson used that powerful perch to undo the damage January 6 did to Trump. In March 2023, after months of downplaying attacks on Capitol police, claiming FBI agitators were in the crowd, and downplaying Trump’s calls for violence, Carlson said his millions of viewers:

The overwhelming majority was not (violent). They were peaceful. They were orderly and gentle. They were not insurgents. They were visitors. Footage from inside the Capitol overturns the story you’ve heard about January 6th. Protesters are queuing up in rows.

They give each other tours outside the speaker’s office. They take happy selfies and smile. They are not destroying the Capitol. Obviously, they worship the Capitol. They are there because they believe the election was stolen from them. They believe in the system.

Of course, this kind of revisionist history of that day seems laughable to most Americans or people around the world who have seen any violent footage from that day — including Vice President Trump. Mike Pence. But for many of Carlson’s viewers and Republicans who continued to support Trump, it was the rewriting of the narrative that enabled Trump’s return from the political wilderness to regain his grip on the GOP.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said from the Associated Press Michael Tackett“I’m not at all conflicted that what the president did is an actionable offense.”

“I think his incitement to insurrection and people attacking the Capitol as a direct result are about as close to an impeachable offense as you can imagine, with the possible exception of maybe being an agent of another country.” McConnell said of Trump in a new op-ed. book, published last month. Of course, Trump still had alliances in the GOP and of Kevin McCarthy the visit to Mar-a-Lago a few weeks after the January 6 date helped his return, but it was far from guaranteed.

Carlson himself was aware of the immense damage Trump had done to the GOP and possibly Fox News. After the 2020 election, Carlson wrote his producer Alex Pfeiffer, and said: “We have worked very hard to build what we have. Those bastards are destroying our credibility. It annoys me.”

Carlson’s messages were made public during Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against Fox, which the network settled for $787 million. According to a court filing, Carlson was furious that Trump and his team were pushing election denial at the time, which his network paid to promote:

He (Tucker) added that he talked to Laura (Ingraham) and (S)ean (Hannity) a minute ago and they’re very upset,” Carlson noted. “Right now we’re hurt no matter what.” Pfeiffer replied: It’s a hard needle to pin, but I really think many of us are reckless demagogues right now. Tucker replied: Of course I am. We will not follow them.” And he added: What (Trump) is good at is destroying things. He is the undisputed world champion of this. They could easily destroy us if we play the wrong way.”

After the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Carlson again texted Pfeiffer and called Trump “a demonic force, a destroyer” and added, “But he’s not going to destroy us.”

Carlson was clearly aware of the job ahead of him if he wanted to maintain his audience and his powerful place in the right-wing media. Carlson was ultimately so effective at his task that by 2023 nearly 70% of Republicans believe that President Joe Biden’s The 2020 victory was illegitimate, conformable to the survey.

Now, on the eve of Trump’s return to power, Carlson is publicly recalling the night a demon crawled into bed with him. “And I was attacked while I was sleeping with my wife and four dogs and I was maimed, physically maimed,” Carlson said a recent documentarian who asked, “In a spiritual attack by a demon?”

“Yes, by a demon,” answered Carlson. “Or by something unseen that left claw marks on my sides.” The irony that Carlson once called Trump a demonic force and publicly claimed he himself was attacked by a demon just days before the election is impossible to miss. Should Trump make it back to the White House, Carlson will be both more powerful than ever and more dependent than ever on a man he once called a “wrecker.”

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.