The situation in Afghanistan’s a true disaster, and there’s no real debating those circumstances. However, the far-right has found plenty of fuel to put the blame squarely on Biden’s shoulders. That’s why Donald Trump Jr. is gloating over the timing of the withdrawal happening on Biden’s watch, and “Chachi” actor Scott Baio is starting feuds with 1980s hair gods over the fall of Kabul. None of the right-wing wants to talk about the dodgy Trump deal, and Tucker Carlson’s only encouraging that attitude by cooking up a fresh conspiracy theory for why the Biden administration went through with the withdrawal and, in turn, evacuated Afghan refugees.
Tucker begins to plant a pretty nefarious seed while claiming that Democrats aren’t worried at all about Afghanistan fallout affecting the 2022 and 2024 elections. Fox News posted his Wednesday night rant on the subject on the cable news networks’ website while claiming that Afghanistan (which, by the way, is a multi-administration-borne disaster) is “part of a larger plan.” And the implied plan, according to Tucker, is to seed swing states with Afghan refugees, which Tucker argues is a way for Democrats to rig elections or something? Yep, the far-right persists in sowing doubt in democracy.
These are “refugees who don’t speak English. So the question is, where are they going next?” Tucker asked in his patented question-as-statement method. “Where all these people will be living three years from now? That’s a fair question.”
He continued while arguing that the refugees will become visa holders who settle in the U.S. From Tucker himself:
You may notice that these communities include an awful lot of swing districts and swing states all over the United States. It’s not just Virginia. Three of these communities are in Texas. The state the Democratic Party has tried to flip for years. Now it’s their first priority. One of these cities is Austin, one is Dallas and another is Houston. The State Department has also urged Afghans to go to the state of Pennsylvania. Does Pennsylvania need more people? Probably not. A lot of unemployment between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. But Pennsylvania is also a state that Donald Trump won in 2016. So maybe they should go there.
Never mind that these refugees won’t be able to vote anytime soon, if ever, because they won’t be U.S. citizens. Tucker’s all about creating doubt for results of future elections, and he’s getting a jump start here from a two-decade war that, somehow, he’s twisting into the ultimate long game by Joe Biden.