On Monday night, Tucker Carlson took to his Fox News show Tucker Carlson Tonight and again insinuated that Vice President Kamala Harris is successful because of her dating history. In a segment called, “Tucker examines Kamala Harris’ rise to power,” Carlson called the relationship between Harris and former talk show host Montel Williams “torrid.”
He also repeatedly mispronounced Harris’ first name and invited Williams to be a guest on his show to “fill in some blanks” about the relationship.
In an interview with Mediaite, a website founded by popular TV legal analyst and entrepreneur Dan Abrams that focuses on news in politics and media, Williams made clear he has “no idea” why Carlson is so interested in his dating history.
Williams and Harris dated briefly in 2001.
“It’s weird,” Williams said. “He’s been oddly obsessed with me … for years.”
As for appearing on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Williams said he was “not sure they allow people who look like me in either of the two very White enclaves he does the show from.” Carlson films many of his shows from his home in Lewiston, Maine. He also owns homes in Florida and Washington, D.C.
Additionally, Williams slammed Carlson for his inherited wealth. His stepmother, Patricia Swanson, is an heiress to the Swanson Foods fortune; the company was established by her grandfather. Swanson adopted Tucker and his siblings in 1979.
“I don’t know,” Williams offered. “I got where I am without being an heir to a fish sticks fortune. I grew up in the wrong part of Baltimore and succeeded nonetheless. Would Tucker be where he is if his dad hadn’t married a fish sticks heiress?”
The host of Military Makeover responded to a Twitter user who posted a clip from Fox News, writing, “@TuckerCarlson has been writing crazy stuff about me for years and the one time he found himself in the same room as me, he awkwardly looked around the room in silence… All bark, no bite and a tortured soul.”
According to Williams’ publicist, he and Carlson encountered each other in person at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. In a tweet the day after Carlson’s show, Williams recalled the interaction, writing, “Last time he was with me in a room, he sat nervously looking around the room in silence.” He also expressed disappointment in Carlson’s senior producer, Justin B. Wells.
Williams described his 2016 interaction with Carlson on Mediaite, saying, “To be honest, I didn’t recognize him until he was pointed out to me. Keep in mind, he had said all kinds of loony toons things about me prior to that, and he just didn’t seem to have the same pugnaciousness he projects on TV in real life.”
The Montel Williams Show debuted in 1991, winning its host an Emmy Award in 1996. The final show aired on May 16, 2008, and key Fox-affiliated networks refused to air it after Williams, a noted military veteran, appeared on Fox & Friends and blasted mainstream cable — including Fox News — for spending more air time covering the death of actor Heath Ledger than the deaths of soldiers in the Iraq War.
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