Tucker Carlson condemned for bizarre comparison between George Floyd’s death, BLM and Capitol riot

Tucker Carlson has been condemned for bizarrely comparing Black Lives Matter demonstrations to the Capitol riot, for which he said Democrats were “flat out lying”.

The controversial Fox News anchor also claimed on Wednesday that the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police — which sparked Black Lives Matter protests last summer — was a “carefully concocted myth” by “Democratic partisans” to upend the country.

And that “myth”, according to Mr Carlson, was the same method being used by Democrats as they set-out their arguments against ex-US president Donald Trump during Wednesday’s trial.

Senators were shown shocking footage from the day the US Capitol came under attack by the pro-Trump mob, including the moment a number of Republicans were evacuated from the Senate chamber as rioters swarmed the building.

But the Fox News anchor, who last month appeared to admit Mr Trump "recklessly" encouraged the riot, claimed on Wednesday that the presentation by Democrats, “in many places, the known facts bear no resemblance to the story they are telling. They’re just flat-out lying. There’s no question about that.”

Mr Carlson went on to allege that Democrats “used the sad death of a man called George Floyd to upend our society” and “months later, we learned that the story they told us about George Floyd’s death was an utter lie”.

“There was no physical evidence that George Floyd was murdered by a cop,” the Fox News anchor asserted. “The autopsy showed that George Floyd almost certainly died of a drug overdose, fentanyl”

Jesse Lehrich, the co-founder of the Accountable Tech group — which analyses social media companies and their use — was among those to condemn the Fox News anchor after Wednesday’s show.

“Tucker Carlson smeared George Floyd tonight, claiming he 'almost certainly died of a drug overdose.' It sickens me that the Floyd family has to endure this depravity,” Mr Lehrich wrote. “I hope they sue Tucker & FOX for $3B, which is apparently the only thing that changes their behaviour.”

Another commentator added: “I will absolutely boycott advertisers on Fox News for airing this crazy BS. [The] death of George Floyd is being used by Tucker Carlson to spread fear & lies and denigrate BLM and liberals.”

“He doesn’t say a word about the cop that was killed during the capitol riot by Trumpers,” the post added.

Despite claims by Mr Carlson about Floyd's death, the autopsies carried-out on Floyd’s body, showed that he died following his restraint by a Minneapolis Police officer, Derek Chauvin, from either compression of the neck or heart failure.

While fentanyl and methamphetamine were found in his system at the time of his death, the drugs were not listed as a cause of Floyd’s death, as claimed by Mr Carlson.

This article was updated on February 25, 2021, to correct an editing error.