Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson will pay a visit to The Villages on Saturday.
The host of the highly popular “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” who also has written several books, will be at Barnes & Noble in Lake Sumter Landing at 2:30 p.m. to sign copies of his latest work, “Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution.”
Carlson’s new book, which hit shelves this past Tuesday, offers some of his signature political commentary on how America’s ruling class has failed everyday Americans. The introduction of the book sets the stage with vintage Carlson commentary: “You look on in horror, helpless and desperate.” “You have nowhere to go.” “You’re trapped on a ship of fools.”
Carlson, who traveled the country covering the 2016 presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, has said that experience provided more than enough material for his new book. And throughout his latest offering, Carlson offers a “blistering critique” of the elites of both political parties, who many believe are so out of touch that regular citizens are going to have figure out how to put our country back together again.
Those who follow Carlson won’t be surprised to find out that he pulls no punches when talking about the people who run America and “barely interact” with it.
“They fly on their own planes, ski on their own mountains, watch sporting events far from the stands in sky boxes,” he writes. “They have total contempt for you. They view America the way a private equity firm sizes up an aging conglomerate – as something outdated they can profit from. When it fails, they’re gone.”
Carlson also says traditional liberals are a thing of the past.
“The patchouli-scented hand-wringers who worried about whales and defended free speech have been replaced by globalists who hide their hard-edged economic agenda behind the smokescreen of identity politics,” he writes. “They’ll outsource your job while lecturing you about transgender bathrooms.”
Left and right, Carlson writes, are no longer meaningful categories in America: “The rift is between those who benefit from the status quo, and those who don’t.”
Carlson, who will be signing books in Lakeland and Kissimmee before his appearance in The Villages, concludes that America’s leaders are “unaware that they are captains of a sinking ship.” And in his trademark style, the popular TV commentator answers the most important of all questions: How do we put the country back on course?
As with many Fox News personalities, Carlson is no stranger to Florida’s Friendliest Hometown. He was here in April 2010 to appear on fellow Fox commentator Sean Hannity’s show that originated from Lake Sumter Landing. Two rising GOP stars in Florida – Marco Rubio, who was running for U.S. Senate at the time; and Pam Bondi, a then-candidate for attorney general, also made appearances on that show, as did Lynyrd Skynyrd singer/guitarist Rickey Medlocke.
Many of Carlson’s fans also surely remember his 2006 appearance on “Dancing With the Stars” when he was the host of MSNBC’s “Tucker.” Carlson’s performance – he was the first celebrity to be eliminated after struggled through a cha-cha-cha – was criticized by many and he even admitted that having his professional partner, Elena Grinenko, teach him how to dance was “like Einstein teaching addition to a slow child.”
Carlson’s appearance also will mark the fourth visit to Florida’s Friendliest Hometown by a Fox News personality in recent months:
- “Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy and his wife, Kathy, will be at Barnes & Noble on Friday night to sign copies of their new cookbook titled “The Happy Cookbook: A Celebration of the Food That Makes America Smile.”
- A huge crowd awaited “The Five” co-host Greg Gutfeld in August when he signed copies of “The Gutfeld Monologues: Classic Rants From The Five.”
- And Bret Baier, host of “Special Report with Bret Baier” and chief political anchor for Fox News, was a popular draw in May when he signed copies of his “Three Days in Moscow: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of the Soviet Empire.”
In August, former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer also drew a crowd when he signed copies of his new book, “The Briefing: Politics, the Press, and the President.” Spicer isn’t a Fox News personality but during his six months as President Trump’s spokesman he made appearances on several of the news networks’ shows.