Yahoo Finance Rep. Eric Swalwell Shares Chilling Voicemail Sent To Him By Tucker Carlson Fan
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) shared a threatening voicemail he received from a viewer of Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show 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.
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
Speaking Friday to MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace, 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.
Swalwell said he had “personally, eyeball to eyeball” and via text message asked Carlson not to lie about him on his widely watched show because of the sinister threats that often resulted. In July, Swalwell declined to call Carlson or appear on his program, drawing the TV personality’s ire.
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 added.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
