If I was to say to you let’s start a contest. The only requirement for victory would be to answer one question. Can you build me the world’s most perfect liar? What will that person look like? I don’t mean face, body hair cheekbones, none of that. I mean what would their background be? What would their personal mission statement be? What would they have in common with other similar liars? What kind of facade would they wear to sell their dishonesty? Would it be faux erudite? Would it be highly educated? Would it just be someone uneducated who for instance, was a comedian so whatever he said could always be deflected with, “hey I’m just a comic?” Would they be Religiously driven? Secularly driven?

I suppose one could search for answers and build such a person by considering what characteristics they would need to make this perfect fraud the perfect one and take the time necessary to put in to excel at this project. For most it would entail deep thought and consideration. For me, not so much. I don’t feel the need to do any of that. I would simply enter Exhibit A and his name is Tucker Carlson.

As much as he disgusts me, his qualities are almost unassailable. He was on television for many years until he burnt each of those bridges from CNN to PBS, to MSNBC to FOX NEWS, so he comes with a certain perceived credibility of having been in people’s living rooms each night. He also has the advantage of never having to explain his positions in those slots other than on surface level, because his job was not to be honest or pretend to be non-partisan. It was to drive ratings which he did at different times in his career. He was famous for being the cute little guy with a bowtie when he started out and then morphed into this new voice of the people persona from some fake cabin in a fake outback somewhere.

But last week, he exposed himself and his modus operandi in an embarrassingly dishonest interview with the New York Times Magazine. While the interviewer comes from a certain political bent, I assume Carlson agreed to do the podcast because it was almost a safe space for his re-newed liberal coming out party. Before you ask if he considers himself a liberal, Carlson himself told Forbes Magazine years ago he was a liberal. The fact that he tried to sell his audience on his conservative bona fides when he’s basically been a registered democrat his entire adult life, is one of the core values of a quality liar. Tell them you are what you are not and say it convincingly and they will buy whatever you sell. Integrity be damned. Basketball referees are taught whatever call you make, right or wrong, sell it. Don’t ever let them see your doubt. Carlson is the ultimate salesman. The ultimate basketball referee.

His flip-flopping on President Trump is the kind of stuff books should be written about. In 1999 he said Trump was “the single most repulsive person on the planet.” In 2018 in that same interview with Forbes he said about Donald Trump “I honestly feel that most days I’m the only person in America that doesn’t think Trump is as interesting as Trump thinks he is.” During the voting booth company’s lawsuit against Fox News, a text from Carlson was unearthed from among the many which were consistent with his previous commentary. In the text message sent on Jan. 4, 2021, he wrote to a friend or colleague, “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait…I hate him passionately. … I can’t handle much more of this.” This is Carlson. Oh, but wait, no, this is Carlson:

Speaking at the Republican National Convention is 2024 he said, “When he stood up after being shot in the face, bloodied, and put his hand up, I thought, at that moment, that was a transformation. This was no longer a man. Well, I think that. I think it was divine intervention. But the effect that it had on Donald Trump, he was no longer just a political party’s nominee, or a former president, or a future president. This was the leader of a nation.”

He wasn’t done. Continuing on the assassination attempt he said,........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)