Tucker Carlson says 'spiritual battle underway' in wake of Trump assassination attempt
Conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson on Monday framed the recent assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump as further evidence that evil spiritual forces are at work in the United States.
Speaking at a Heritage Foundation event during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Carlson also noted that Christians pose the greatest threat to the destructive spiritual forces that have taken different forms throughout history.
Echoing the April 2023 address he gave at The Heritage Foundation's 50th anniversary just days before his unceremonious ouster from Fox News, Carlson reiterated Monday that the increasingly irrational, violent nature of the country's political battles suggest that they run "deeper" than politics.
"I think what happened on Saturday, the assassination attempt against President Trump, reminded a lot of people, or awakened a lot of people to this. There is a spiritual battle underway," he said.
"There is no logical way to understand what we're seeing now in temporal terms, you just can't. These are not political divides. There are forces — and they're very obvious now, they've decided, for whatever reason, to take off the mask — whose only goal is chaos, violence, destruction," he continued.
Tucker Carlson on the assassination attempt on Trump:
— Tucker Carlson Network (@TCNetwork) July 15, 2024
"There is a spiritual battle underway."@TuckerCarlson@Heritagepic.twitter.com/M3wTjM13IC
Carlson went on to warn that the same dark forces that have animated revolutionary movements in the past are rearing their heads again in the U.S., and that they universally hate Christianity.
"What group do they dislike most?" he asked. "What group are they absolutely terrified of and hoping to eliminate? Well, it's Christians, that's who it is. It's Christians."
Carlson joked that it took him a decade to come to such a realization, and that he came to it "as not a particularly fervent, lifelong Christian."
"I haven't spent my life surrounded by plumes of incense deep in prayer, I spent a life in a newsroom saying the F word," he said, but added that the revolutionary, destructive forces at work in the U.S. today most hate "Christian nationalists and people who pray outside abortion clinics; people who celebrate Easter, not Trans Visibility Day."
Carlson also suggested that a "dark" warmongering attitude is rampant within the Republican Party, which he claimed is why many powerful members of the GOP hate Trump and have tried so earnestly to subvert him.
"Do you want to know what they care about? They only care about war. That's it, that's what they care about," Carlson said. He added that immigration, economic issues and Trump's "naughty mouth" are unimportant to his chief Republican opponents, who he claimed simply desire godlike power by perpetuating war.
Noting how Trump was the first president since Jimmy Carter not to start a new war or escalate a U.S. military conflict, Carlson claimed that Trump "has stood in their way."
"They want the power to kill, that's it," he said. "And that's the power everyone who wants to be God seeks to possess. That's why human sacrifice was a thing. 'I have the power to kill.' Only God has the power over life and death, and that's the power they want."
Carlson has been repeatedly stressing similar sentiments in recent months, especially since his departure from Fox News. As The Christian Post reported in March, Carlson delivered an address exhorting an audience of Republicans in Fort Worth, Texas, to realize the spiritual war behind the country's political battles.
"This is not flesh and blood at all. If you’re offended by prayer, you’re taking orders, OK? I don’t see another rational explanation for it," he said.
"You can reduce all these debates about climate, crime, all the weird sex stuff — I'm not going to dignify it with a name, I'm just gonna call it that 'weird sex stuff' — but, if they're promising you the opportunity to castrate your children, what are they really promising? No grandchildren. The end of your line," he continued.
"And Solomon [and] David would, like, instantly recognize that as an act of total war against you and your people, period," he added. "Because that's what that is."
During his Monday speech, Carlson also spoke highly of Trump's vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, and said that the ticket is effectively guaranteed to win after Trump expressed bravery and defiance after being shot at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
Tucker Carlson reacts to JD Vance as Trump's VP nominee:@TuckerCarlson@Heritagepic.twitter.com/S2cgCyC3Hv
— Tucker Carlson Network (@TCNetwork) July 15, 2024
"Let's be honest, Trump just won, he won," he said. "Not only did he survive an assassination attempt, he stood up without knowing whether there were other shooters there. He stood up, and faced the crowd, and raised his hand and said, 'Fight, fight, fight!' That's it. You do that, you win.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to [email protected]