Trump-backed Sen. J.D. Vance was clearly upset with “anonymous” U.S. military officials who spoke to a left-leaning media outlet about Fox News’ ouster of Tucker Carlson this week.
On Tuesday, Politico conducted interviews with several senior officials from the US Department of Defense, who expressed satisfaction with the departure of Carlson from his prime-time show on the network.
The officials reportedly said “good riddance” and expressed relief that Carlson could no longer use his show to criticize the Pentagon.
“We’re a better country without him bagging on our military every night in front of hundreds of thousands of people,” one anonymous official remarked.
“Good riddance,” said a second DoD official.
Carlson “made a mockery” of the free press and “repeatedly cherry-picked department policies and used them to destroy DoD as an institution,” said the first senior DoD official.
Asked to respond to the news that DoD officials are pleased by his departure from Fox, Carlson responded by text message: “Ha! I’m sure.” He declined to comment further, Politico reported.
None of that sat well with Vance, who, Mediaite reported, criticized the officials for speaking to the press about Carlson’s departure, writing on Twitter that “every ‘senior Pentagon official’ who commented on this story while hiding behind anonymity is a coward.”
“Call me old fashioned, but senior military officials should maintain neutrality about hot button political topics. And they certainly shouldn’t run to one media outlet to gossip—anonymously—about another,” he noted further.
Call me old fashioned, but senior military officials should maintain neutrality about hot button political topics. And they certainly shouldn’t run to one media outlet to gossip—anonymously—about another.
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) April 26, 2023
Following news that the Fox News host had been fired, Vance called Carlson “the most courageous person in American media.”
Tucker is the most courageous person in American media. https://t.co/gef7SiJEZ2
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) April 24, 2023