There are few cable news hosts who can blend humor and wit in with their straight interviews and reporting, but Fox News host Tucker Carlson is one of them.
In fact, he might be the best at it.
Carlson showed us his wit and humor again Thursday when he mocked former network colleague Shepard Smith, who now has a far-less watched show on rival CNBC, over the latter’s mini-meltdown over Floridians who weren’t wearing masks.
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First, some background.
A report this week filed by NBC correspondent Sam Brock featured video footage of shoppers and staff at Oakes Farms Seed to Table Market in Naples interacting without masks, even though the city itself has imposed a mandatory mask mandate on residents when they are out in public.
As #Flordia fights community spread of COVID on a massive scale, this is a 15-second snapshot of a supermarket in Naples. Many employees and customers- even older ones- with no masks on inside. Store sign outside cites “medical exemptions,” we can’t ask questions. @NBCNews pic.twitter.com/rNUSOPLjeB
— Sam Brock (@SamBrockNBC) February 3, 2021
As he opened his report and observed that it “looks like it was taken pre-pandemic,” Brock went on to report that the store owner, Alfie Oakes, posted signage that basically says ‘yes, the city elders want customers to wear masks, but we’re not going to press the issue.’
“If you have a medical condition that prevents you from wearing a mask, you are exempt from this order,” the sign reads. “Due to HIPAA and the 4th Amendment we cannot legally ask you about your medical condition. Therefore, if we see you without a mask, we will assume you have a medical condition and we will welcome you inside to support our business.”
Oakes went on to tell Brock that he’s not a mask guy, never has been, and is never going to be. What’s more, he said he doesn’t believe the “official” COVID-19 death toll is what government says it is.
I know that the masks don’t work, and I know that the virus has not killed 400,000 people in this country. That’s total hogwash,” Oakes said. “I’m not gonna do it, I’ve never worn a mask in my life and I never will.”
Whoa. That’s tin-foil hat stuff!
Or it is to Smith, anyway.
“WATCH: This shocking video from @SamBrockNBC shows a market in Naples, FL where many customers and employees are not wearing face masks. Florida does not have a mask mandate, but the CDC has said that wearing masks can help control the Covid pandemic,” Smith reported.
WATCH: This shocking video from @SamBrockNBC shows a market in Naples, FL where many customers and employees are not wearing face masks.
Florida does not have a mask mandate, but the CDC has said that wearing masks can help control the Covid pandemic. https://t.co/WFatRrjnYa pic.twitter.com/IMQJz4p0Ox
— Last Call (@LastCallCNBC) February 4, 2021
Mockingly calling Smith a “genuine investigative journalist,” Carlson said the NBC clip was the “story of a lifetime” during his Thursday night show.
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“This was the scene, a woman smiled in a grocery store,” Carlson quipped. “Actually, it wasn’t quite what we thought it was. We believed the hype, I guess. Maybe when you spend 30 years reading scripts about car chases everything seems like a car chase. The problem is not everything is a car chase. Sometimes it’s just people just smiling at each other in a grocery store. Sorry, overheated news guy. That’s not actually, uh, news.”
In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has taken a federalism position on mask mandates: He’s leaving it up to cities and counties to decide for themselves. That said, as Brock pointed out, DeSantis has also forbidden cities and localities from banning people who don’t wear masks.
And people are flocking to his state, by the way, because it’s open.
