We Gradually Learn More About Tucker Carlson

I continue to be fascinated by the notional "MAGA civil war" involving figures like Tucker Carlson. In fact, we know very little about Carlson. For instance, someone on YouTube remarked that he'd said that people who argued in favor of the US nuclear attacks on Japan were "evil", so I decided to follow up. I asked my AI oracle, "Has Tucker Carlson said those who support the nuclear bombing of Japan are evil?" It answered,

Yes, Tucker Carlson has stated that those who argue in favor of dropping nuclear weapons on civilians are "evil."

His comments were made during an April 2024 appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience and later reiterated in other formats.

. . . In subsequent discussions, such as on the War Room podcast in November 2024, he described nuclear weapons as "demonic" and argued there is no upside to them, suggesting their creation was driven by non-human forces.

It provided a link to a UK Guardian story from 2024:

Demons that Tucker Carlson claimed attacked him as he slept were also responsible for the invention of nuclear technology, the conservative former Fox News host said on Monday in another bizarre contention.

Carlson made the claim on the War Room podcast hosted by his fellow rightwing extremist Steve Bannon[.]

. . . Nuclear weapons are demonic, there’s no upside to them at all, and anyone who claims otherwise is either ignorant or doing the bidding of the forces that created nuclear technology in the first place, which were not human forces obviously,” Carlson said during a discussion on the perceived “spirituality” involved in the US development of atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan in August 1945, hastening the end of the second world war.

“Let me ask you this,” he continued. “What was the moment we can point to that nuclear technology was invented? I’ve never met a person who can isolate the moment where nuclear technology became known to man. German scientists in the 1930s? Really? Name the date? It’s very clear to me that these [nuclear weapons] are demonic.”

That's a peculiar question to ask. I asked AI, "When was 'nuclear technlogy' first theorized?" Its answer was pretty clear:

Nuclear technology was first theorized in the early 20th century, with the most direct conceptual foundation—the nuclear chain reaction—proposed by Hungarian-American physicist Leo Szilard on September 12, 1933.

. . . Albert Einstein's formula E=mc squared provided the first mathematical proof that a small amount of matter could be converted into a massive amount of energy, though the mechanism to do so was unknown.

. . . Following Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann's experimental discovery of fission, Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch provided the first theoretical explanation in 1939, naming the process "fission" and calculating its immense energy release.

. . . The Frisch–Peierls memorandum theorized that a small amount of pure uranium-235 could create an explosive chain reaction, moving nuclear technology from abstract theory to an actionable military project.

The transition from theory to technology was finalized on December 2, 1942, when Enrico Fermi's team achieved the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction with the Chicago Pile-1 reactor.

Even without AI, Carlson could have dug this sort of thing up in ten minutes on the web. And this is a story of technological trial-and-error that was presaged in the development of steam propulsion, electricity, the light bulb, and heavier-than-air flight. There's no need to postulate demons, although if you do, you may as well postulate that demons inspired James Watt, Thomas Edison, or the Wright Brothers -- except that Occam's Razor more or less excludes this with any of these others.

But Tucker knows from demons. Back to the Guardian link:

Carlson’s talk about demons follows remarks he made last week about how he was allegedly “physically mauled” by one a year and a half ago. The former Fox News host claimed that it was a nighttime attack where he was left bleeding and scarred by “claw marks”.

Those comments came in a preview clip posted to YouTube of an upcoming documentary, Christianities?, which is billed as a “journey to the heart of the faith”.

John Heers, founder of the non-profit First Things Foundation, asked Carlson if he believed that “the presence of evil is kickstarting people to wonder about the good”.

“That’s what happened to me. I had a direct experience with it,” Carlson replied.

Asked if he was referring to journalism, Carlson responded: “No, in my bed at night. I got attacked while I was asleep with my wife and four dogs and mauled, physically mauled.”

His assailant, Carlson added, was “a demon … or something unseen that left claw marks on my side”.

It was, he said, a “transformative experience” that left him “seized with this very intense desire to read the Bible”.

I went looking for John Heers on the web and discovered that he's the founder of the First Things Foundation, which has no relation to the First Things journal. Heers says on his website,

We aim to unite people in authentic ways to create long lasting relationships that lead to beauty incarnate. Right now we do this in two ways:

At home we offer the Supra dinner and a restaurant that offers the Supra with great food and unrivaled hospitality.

Overseas in developing countries we offer human beings to live an existence that radiates the Supra, that radiates hospitality and the notion of healing. Those human beings offer aid in the form of authentic projects, on the ground, in real time.

In other words, he's some kind of quasi-hippie flake. What on earth is Tucker Carlson doing with him? A 2023 story, Tucker Carlson and Religion, may have some bearing. although this subject is murky indeed:

Vanity Fair was the only major publication to suggest that religion may have played a role in his firing [from Fox]. In a recent speech to the Heritage Foundation, Carlson described the world as locked in a religious battle between good and evil. Rupert Murdoch, FOX chair and founder, is (at least) vaguely hostile to religion. But not his ex-fiancee. She was a major fan of Carlson, calling him a “messenger of God.” Vanity Fair reports that this may have contributed to Murdoch’s sudden booting of his star:

[Murdoch was briefly engaged to Ann Lesley Smith, who believed that Carlson was "a messenger from God". She arranged a dinner with Murdoch and Carlson, which appears to have had the effect of canceling the engagement.]

. . . All this raises questions about Carlson’s religious views — ideas he increasingly puts center-stage.

. . . Carlson’s relationship with the Episcopal Church has often been noted in the press[.]

His divorced parents raised him (at least loosely) in the Episcopal Church. In 1983, when he was 14, Carlson was sent to St. George’s, an elite private school, one of the educational crown jewels of the denomination.

A year later, in 1984, the Reverend George Andrews arrived to be the school’s new headmaster — and his daughter, Susan, would eventually date and later marry Tucker Carlson. And thus, Tucker Carlson’s father-in-law is an Episcopal priest, one who once held a plum appointment at a posh boarding school.

While most articles mentioning Carlson’s education praise St. George’s elite status, they fail to mention the fact that the school was also the site of the worst sexual abuse scandal in the modern Episcopal Church. George Andrews was the headmaster from 1984-1988, nearly the exact years in which Carlson was a student, and during which a music teacher was accused of abuse by a number of victims.

. . . After almost a decade at the school, that teacher was terminated. . . . There is no suggestion that Carlson’s father-in-law was in any way involved in abuse. The investigation was about how he handled it and what he knew at the time.

Following the revelations of the St. George’s scandal, the Diocese of Southeast Florida opened an investigation into Andrews as well (the story was reported by a FOX News affiliate in Florida). There is no indiction how this investigation and any legal issues it raised were finally resolved.

According to Wikipedia, George Andrews was headmaster of of Saint Andrew's School in Boca Raton, Florida, from 1989 to 2007. According to this 2016 link,

An Episcopal diocese in Florida says it is investigating a former headmaster at the elite Rhode Island boarding school St. George's, which is at the center of an abuse scandal.

The Rev. George E. Andrews is accused of failing to report sexual abuse by a teacher to authorities when he led the school in the 1980s. He now runs a consulting firm that places chaplains at Episcopal and other schools. His son-in-law is the Fox News personality Tucker Carlson, and his daughter sits on the St. George's board.

It appears that whatever Andrews may have done to address the scandal, he also kept it quiet, and it apparently stayed quiet for almost 30 years. And as far as Episcopalians were concerned, that was a Good Thing. I do have a sense, with a number of other writers, that Carlson is deeply conflicted about his Episcopalianism. I asked AI, "Is Tucker Carlson currently a member of an Episcopal parish?" It answered,

As of early 2026, Tucker Carlson remains a self-identified member of the Episcopal Church, though he is highly critical of the denomination's leadership and progressive theology. While he has not publicly named a specific local parish where he is currently a member, he has confirmed in several recent interviews that he still attends services.

Well, this is just the start of a journey down the rabbit hole.