Human rant machine Tucker Carlson continues to dodge the question of whether or not he’s vaccinated in increasingly gross ways.
The Fox News anchor has made a spectacle of his questionable vaccination status over the past few months. While his colleagues at the network began to admit that they’d gotten their shots, especially once people started returning to the studio and the company put safety protocols into effect, Carlson continued to spread baseless claims about the “dangers” of getting vaccinated. He asked viewers to harass mask-wearers, he cited misinformation as fact, he told his followers that thousands of people had died from the vaccine (which, of course, is not true), all while the rest of his conservative buddies, including boss Rupert Murdoch, got jabbed.
Carlson’s anti-vax campaign became such a big talking point on his show that people on Twitter started demanding to know whether, like pretty much everyone else hosting a Fox News program, he’d gotten his shot so, of course, journalists also started asking that question. And Carlson? He’s found a really weird way to avoid answering.
Carlson spoke with reporter Charlotte Alter in a wide-ranging interview for TIME that eventually touched on his hesitancy to admit whether he’d been vaccinated or not. When Alter asked him if he had received his shot, Carlson responded, “Because I’m a polite person, I’m not going to ask you any super vulgar personal questions like that.”
“That’s like saying, ‘Do you have HIV?’” he continued after Alter assured him he could ask her anything he wanted to. “How about ‘None of your business?’” But things got uncomfortably awkward when Carlson employed a deflection tactic he’s used in past interviews to sidestep his vaccination record.
“I mean, are you serious?” Tucker questioned. “What’s your favorite sexual position and when did you last engage in it?”
Apparently, that’s his go-to comeback when asked if he’s vaccinated. He told New York Times reporter Ben Smith something similar when Smith dared to question him on his beliefs about Covid vaccines.
So yeah, it sounds like Carlson’s going to drag the whole “did he get jabbed?” thing out for a while. Whether that’s because he really thinks it’s no one’s business, he’s protecting his brand, or he’s just oddly curious about other people’s sex lives and thinks he’s found the perfect excuse to ask strangers about their favorite sex positions, we just don’t know.
(Via TIME)