Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, of California, shared a chilling voicemail he received from a fan of Fox News host Tucker Carlson in which the caller spewed racist, homophobic and sexist epithets and talked about the lawmaker and his family being chopped up and fed to dogs.
It was “the Tucker Carlson effect,” Swalwell wrote on Twitter.
“Tucker attacks me. His fans respond with threats to kill my family. And Tucker knows exactly what he’s doing,” he said in an interview first reported by The Huffington Post.
HuffPost noted that Carlson has not commented on the voicemail. But Swalwell suggested the Fox host “knows his followers will be inspired and radicalized and aim their vitriol at whoever he is attacking that day.”
“I think in a sick way [Carlson] derives pleasure” from knowing his viewers will act on his words, the California Democrat told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on Friday.
Swalwell said this particular threat — out of the hundreds he receives — was different because the caller at the start of the message “identified that he had just” watched Carlson’s show.
Listen to the voicemail below.
Listen to this. It’s the Tucker Carlson effect. Tucker attacks me. His fans respond with threats to kill my family. And Tucker knows exactly what he’s doing. pic.twitter.com/PsSLYbctXa
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) October 22, 2021
Here’s Swalwell’s reaction on MSNBC:
