The shooter left a 180-page manifesto that reportedly featured the very same “Great Replacement Theory” rhetoric featured on Tucker Carlson Tonight. Carlson has come under heavy criticism for repeatedly promoting White replacement theory.
“There are people — and I don’t think we should be dancing around his name — there are people like Tucker Charlson who are directly trying to preach to these people,” Collins said. “There are people on 4chan who call him our guy, the only guy in the mainstream media who speaks up for them. That man is actively trying to appeal to these people. It is extremely dangerous. He is the highest-rated show on cable news.”
Carlson has promoted the “Great Replacement Theory” numerous times on his show but also offered some measure of restraint by openly opposing political violence. It is something of a mixed message, as New York Times’s Nicholas Confessore and Karen Yourish write “Mr. Carlson’s replacement rhetoric comes without the explicitly antisemitic elements common on racist web platforms. There is no indication that the Buffalo gunman watched Mr. Carlson’s show, or any other on Fox, and Mr. Carlson has denounced political violence even as he fans his viewers’ fears.”