Cenk Uygur Defends Tucker Carlson: ‘It Clearly Was a Trap and He Fell Into It’

Fox News primetime host Tucker Carlson is getting some defense from some an unexpected side of the political dial after a leaked video of a spiked segment came to light on Wednesday.

The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur, Ana Kasparian, and guest Steve Hofstetter reacted to the leaked and unaired heated exchange between Carlson and his guest, Rutger Bregman. The initial segment went from an amicable discussion of populist economics to an exchange of insults, which Carlson later explained, and apologized for, as the reason for spiking the segment.

Uygur is the rare breed of progressive who gives at least as good as he gets — we’ve long called him the leader of the “Fighting Left” — and Wednesday night he pointed out that the leaked recording came from Bregman, suggesting it was something of a setup. He also noted that Carlson was complimentary and excited to have Bregman as a guest since he liked two out of the three topics the historian brought up in Davos.

“Tucker did want to talk about tax avoidance and I think he was legit on that and they never really quite got to it,” Uygur said, due to the conflict in the interview, adding that the conflict came from Bregman bringing up tax increase.

Uygur provided then defended Carlson, albeit tepidly, arguing that Bregman was invited on his show because of genuine interest from the Fox News host, “Carlson’s not a robot and for the first time in his life he’s interesting so that’s why there’s a little bit of irony here.”

“It clearly was a trap and he fell into it. Let’s just keep it real, that’s what happened.”

Carlson addressed the segment Wednesday night, apologizing for calling his guest “F*cking annoying” before adding that his critique was “heartfelt.”

Watch above, via The Young Turks.