Chris Hayes Keeps Blasting Tucker Carlson's Vaccine Comments: 'Despicable'
MSNBC's Chris Hayes criticized Fox News' Tucker Carlson again on Friday because of his comments on COVID-19 vaccines, calling Carlson's remarks about the safety of vaccinations "despicable."
The host of All In With Chris Hayes spoke with Media Matters President & CEO Angelo Carusone on Friday and discussed some of Carlson's commentary on COVID vaccines.
Carlson has raised questions about vaccine safety and efficacy, facing criticism as a result. On Thursday, Hayes asked Carusone about some in the media "just-asking-questions trollingly, you know, opposition to any pro-vaccine moves."
Carusone highlighted Carlson's comments suggesting a higher-than-normal number of Americans had died after receiving the vaccine.
He said: "There was a switch in May where Tucker Carlson really started pushing the idea that the vaccine was killing tens of thousands of people.
"A very, very minor conspiracy theory that was circulating online in the fever swamps.
"And he plucked it out of there and gave it a lot of push and that was really when things started to shift over at Fox News. And since then, it's just intensified and amplified," Carusone said
Hayes said: "I should just be clear here about what he did, because I think it's worth taking a second to just talk about how dishonest and despicable it was."
"There's a public record of vaccine outcomes that's traced, and millions of people are getting the vaccine, so some percentage of those people die after getting the vaccine in the same way that some percentage of all people, particularly when you're vaccinating seniors, die or get sick," Hayes went on.
"This started online. People taking those examples and saying, 'Look. Two plus two equals four. The vaccine is killing people.' It's just, like, obviously deeply, deeply stupid, like aggressively stupid, to misunderstand that intentionally or not," he said.
Friday was the second night in a row that Hayes had taken aim at Carlson on the issue of vaccines. On Thursday, Hayes had called the Fox News personality and former President Donald Trump "cowards."
"All of them, from Donald Trump to Tucker Carlson, are cowards when it comes down to it," Hayes said. "They're just chasing after the base. They're not leading. They're not telling them things they don't want to hear.
"They should be telling everyone that the vaccines were the greatest achievement of the Trump presidency," he said. "And you know what, that would be closer to being true than 95 percent of the things Donald Trump says.
"They should be hosting MAGA rallies with mass vaccinations and a free hat with a shot," Hayes added.
Newsweek has asked Fox News for comment.
