The US political system could be manipulated to such an extent that even a dead person could become president, journalist Tucker Carlson joked at the Republican National Convention on Thursday.
The former Fox News host was touting former President Donald Trump, who is now the Republican Party’s official nominee for the November election, as having the necessary character to unify the American people. Surviving an attempt on his life earlier this month has turned Trump into a true national leader, Carlson believes.
“Just because you call yourself the president doesn’t mean that much inherently,” the journalist said. “I can call my dog the CEO of Hewlett Packard – it doesn’t mean she is.”
“You could take, I don’t know, a mannequin or a dead person and make him president,” Carlson added. “[That is] theoretically possible. With enough cheating that could happen.”
A real leader emerges organically when he or she inspires confidence among the people and places the national interest above all else, Carlson insisted. Critics have accused Trump of being irredeemably selfish and a threat to the US, but his reaction to his brush with death is evidence to the contrary, the journalist claimed.
Trump has alleged that President Joe Biden “stole” the 2020 election, depriving the Republican of a second term. The Trump campaign has failed to prove those claims in court, although Carlson apparently alluded to that idea as well as the perception that Biden is physically and mentally incapable of holding office for four more years.
Biden endured a disastrous presidential television debate against Trump last month, often losing his train of thought and speaking incoherently. He is under intense pressure from within the Democratic Party to end his reelection bid and allow another candidate to be nominated next month. According to reports, Biden could announce he is dropping out as soon as this weekend.
Biden has maintained in public that he intends to run and that only “God almighty” or a newly found medical condition could force him out of the race.