MSNBC TV host Tucker Carlson fought back against accusations of gay-bashing yesterday after he crowed on the air about beating a man who “bothered” him in a mall bathroom.
“It infuriates me to be called a gay-basher, since he was the predator, not me,” Carlson said.
Carlson, a conservative pundit known for his trademark bow tie, now hosts “Tucker” on MSNBC. In an on-air discussion Tuesday about Idaho Sen. Larry Craig’s arrest for making advances in a men’s room, Carlson volunteered he had been “bothered” in a Washington bathroom 20 years ago.
“That’s really common, and the gay rights groups ought to disavow that kind of crap,” Carlson said on “MSNBC Live,” hosted by network exec Dan Abrams.
Asked what happened next by a chortling Abrams and fellow MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, Carlson said, “I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy. … Hit him against the stall with his head, actually!”
Abrams, a lawyer, and Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, roared with laughter.
The off-air reaction was quite different.
Video of the segment flew across the Internet, and prominent bloggers trashed Carlson.
The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network called for an apology.
Explaining himself yesterday, Carlson said the man “physically grabbed me.”
“I yelled, pulled away from him and ran out of the room. Twenty-five minutes later, a friend of mine and I returned to the men’s room,” he said. “My friend and I seized theman and held him until a security guard arrived.”
Carlson denied he engaged in gay-bashing.
“I wasn’t angry with the man because he was gay. I was angry because he assaulted me,” he said.
