On Saturday night, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson opened up for rock legend Kid Rock with a powerful six-minute monologue in the small town of Gonzales, Louisiana. In the opening statement, Carlson noted the rampant dysfunction observed in the country but claimed proud Americans, like those in attendance at the concert, were a glimmer of hope for the embattled nation.
The former Fox News host began, stating, “Now you may be asking, What am I doing here?
And you know, I don’t really know,” addressing that it may be confusing to see a political personality opening up for a rock concert.
“So I wound up here tonight because I was having dinner at my house with Kid Rock and a few months ago and he said, I think he likes my house because you can smoke in my house. But he said, you know, you should you should come and open for me on my summer tour,” he continued explaining the origins of his appearance at the show.
Carlson noted that while trying to think of what to say, he was browsing the internet, looking at endless depressing news stories about the state of America. Feeling jaded from what he saw, he concluded that things are “f***ed up” in the United States.
“I woke up this morning, and I went on the internet familiar. And I read all these stories, and I thought to myself, this is the most depressing thing that’s happened to me in a long time. This country is f***ed up, that’s what I thought,” Carlson said. “Which is a sad thing to think when you’re in bed. And I looked over at my wife and my four dogs and I thought, well, I feel depressed.”
However, Carlson expressed how arriving at the concert and seeing a crowd of patriotic people offered a different perspective. He stated how the experience revealed that the view of the world we see through the internet and social media often differs from the reality of getting out and interacting with your community.
“And then I got here, and I walk through the crowd, and I thought ‘no, no it’s not!’” Carlson told the crowd. “The country they tell me about on the internet is f***ed up. The country that I experience when I walk through this crowd or when I wake up in my town of 100 people in a rural area is a beautiful country, filled with beautiful people.”
The conservative icon also detailed his experience with a fan in the crowd who expressed her admiration of Carlson, explaining it represents the idyllic version of America he cherishes. He then discussed the image of a “real American” being “disobedient” but maintaining some level of decorum.
“Little weird, slightly crazy, full of love, and beautiful, and that describes the man I’m here to introduce,” Tucker said about Kid Rock. “Yes, it does. If you could take one person out of this nation of 350 million people, and present it to the rest of the world and say, ‘What’s a real American look like?’ I would say that American would be both disobedient but decent. That American would both give you the finger and burst out laughing at the same time.” See footage of the opening remarks below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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