Content Note: Misogyny, sexual assault
"Andrew Tate became the single most popular person on the internet globally by talking about masculinity, the personal responsibility men have, etc. etc." Tucker Carlson opined on Friday night. "He also became really hated on the Left for some reason."
Yes. "For some reason." Who among us can say what that reason is. Could it perhaps be the human trafficking? Like the actual, real kind that you can get sent to a Romanian jail for and not the pretend kind where Wayfair sends you bonus mole children with your overpriced cabinetry? Could it be the horrible things he says about women? The fact that he is encouraging young men to treat women like shit so they can be "masculine" like him? Could it be that he literally said he was moving to Romania because they were less likely to prosecute rape there and he likes "freedom?"
No, it's probably just because we don't want men to get to be manly like all these shirtless, ball-tanning men in Tucker Carlson's weird documentary that I never ended up actually watching.
Carlson ran a whole segment about Tate, who is currently imprisoned in Romania where he is fighting ghosts and lying about growing a full head of hair, all about how his human rights are being violated and he is probably only being kept there because American liberals don't like him. Oh, also because "Joe Biden's state department" loves it so much.
He was joined by Tina Glandian, Tate's American legal representative and the two of them talked about how the whole thing is ust a "set-up."
Transcript via Media Matters:
TINA GLANDIAN (GUEST): Right now, unfortunately, because there is an ongoing criminal investigation, we aren't allowed to actually discuss all of the evidence that is very favorable that shows that they didn't commit any crimes in this case.
TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): Pretty obviously a set-up, Tina. I mean, let's stop lying. These guys were super unpopular with the people in charge and now they're in a "Romanian jail" under "Romanian law." Like, obviously no?
GLANDIAN: I think you said it yourself, Tucker.
CARLSON: Yeah, I did. Because let's stop pretending. Let's stop playing. That's exactly what this is. But I appreciate the update.
GLANDIAN: Sure. I was going to say it's frustrating to be on the defense right now, unable to respond to all of the one-sided leaks that have come out when we have exculpatory evidence but we're not able at this point to discuss it yet and to put it out for the world to see and for the brothers to start to get the truth out and to clear their names.
CARLSON: Yeah, because we know for a fact they tried to set him up for sexual assault before. The woman who was supposedly assaulted by him said, "No, that's my boyfriend." Right. So there's a lot of lying going on here, a lot. And everyone in our country seems to be believing it but we don't.
Let us note that while Carlson is very upset that Tate is being held without being convicted of anything, he vehemently opposes cash bail reform here in the United States — meaning that he would like to keep people in prison who have not been convicted of anything.
Carlson can air quote all he wants, but it actually does not seem that "Romanian jail" is any worse than "American jail" and may actually be less terrible in terms of human rights violations. They don't even have capital punishment there. In fact, they actually seem to be doing more work towards making their prison system less terrible than the United States is doing.
With the sexual assault reference, Carlson appears to be referring to a video of Tate whipping a woman who later said it was consensual. He does not, however, refer to any of the other sexual assault accusations against Tate from other women who did not consent. He does not mention the recordings of Tate literally admitting to forcible rape and strangulation.
What's a little non-consensual strangulation between friends though, right?
Carlson also did not address Andrew (and his brother) Tristan Tate's scheme in which they started relationships with women, got them to move to Romania and then coerced them into being cam girls. For someone so very obsessed with "grooming," one might think that would hold his interest.
Earlier this week, Tate's legal team asked that he be released from prison to go to Dubai for treatment for lung cancer, with his manager "confirming" the story.
Except then information came out showing that he had had a biopsy and it turned out that the nodule he had was benign. His supporters then tried to spin this as him being so macho that he can just tell cancer to "go away" and cancer will listen.
Perhaps Carlson can do his next manliness documentary on that?
Romania is a very socially conservative country. They don't even have actual sex-ed in schools despite an incredibly high pregnancy rate — 5 to 10 percent of teenage girls end up pregnant. They are far behind when it comes to LGBTQ rights and they have the prison and justice system that Carlson is complaining about here.
As desperately as he may want to believe, Romanian authorities are not big liberals who have a vendetta against Tate because he is conservative and ever-so manly.
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