Ann, Tucker, and Candace – What Happened?

Many years ago, I was a fan of conservative gadfly Ann Coulter. She seemed like the ideal conservative – whip-smart, humorous, attractive, and confident in her beliefs. Back then, she was a staunch supporter of President George W. Bush when it wasn’t a popular position, especially after the Iraq War started. She also wrote several books, including one that exonerated the much-maligned anti-communist Senator Joseph McCarthy. As a woman, she could zing the likes of Hillary Clinton and not have to worry about “toxic masculinity” or male chauvinism being used to discredit her remarks, and she zinged very effectively. 

However, Ann seemed to let her popularity go to her head, to the point of not making sense except in her own mind. In an interview with former Today Show host Katie Couric, Coulter referred to Couric as “Eva Braun” for reasons we could only surmise. Was she calling anyone who supported Democrats the equivalent of Hitler lovers? If so, this was a rather ham-handed way of doing it. Recently, Ann has become an afterthought in the conservative talking head world. So, it didn’t raise much attention when she was asked in early 2024 how Trump could appeal to voters and responded, “Well, he could die.” This turnabout zinger came after supporting Trump for reelection in 2020.

When Tucker Carlson was a number-one anchor at Fox News with the most popular news and opinion program in the 8:00 p.m. prime time hour, he was must-see TV because he’d present new items that most other conservative media overlooked. Carlson, fast and articulate in his delivery, used his intelligence and humor to drive his points home. When he obtained the January 6^th videos, he went against political pressure to show them, especially those showing normal folks wandering the corridors of the Capitol building. (It is our building as U.S. citizens, after all, and the videos showed a lot of people being waved in by “security." This was a most effective way of exploding the myth that January 6^th was an “insurrection,” a claim that allowed many citizens to be arrested and thrown in jail without adequate due process. Carlson was an advocate for those prisoners when virtually no one else was talking about how unjust their imprisonment was, and he also talked about the lone person who died needlessly that day, former Air Force officer Ashli Babbitt. 

However, Carlson was fired from Fox News in April 2023 after a series of events and statements that made him increasingly controversial. When Fox lost the lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems for the network’s accusations of vote fraud that could not be proven, it was speculated that Carlson’s firing was offered up as part of the settlement to keep the damages awarded to Dominion under $1 billion. Carlson was accused behind the scenes of making disparaging remarks about fellow Fox News anchors and hosts, and about Donald Trump in the aftermath of the 2020 election mess, when Carlson was still supporting Trump publicly. Lately, Carlson has become a strong advocate against U.S. support for Ukraine in its war with Russia. This position, along with a controversial interview with Vladimir Putin, make Carlson look as if he’s come off the rails. His thinly-veiled opposition masked as skepticism of Israel’s response to the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, makes it difficult not to accuse him of antisemitism.

Candace Owens arrived on the political scene like a much-needed breath of fresh air in the wake of Barack Obama’s two presidential terms and Donald Trump’s initial election. As an African-American, she could criticize the Black Lives Matter movement with more credibility than a white podcaster, and she brilliantly pointed out hypocrisies and overblown claims of that group. She also denounced those who claimed that white supremacy was a major issue in America, at a time when Joe Biden and his party were trying to make political hay out of this claim. Owens, fast-talking, articulate, and charismatic, quickly gained a large following with her platforms at Turning Point USA, and later with The Daily Wire. She expressed skepticism regarding the need for the COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccines at a time when the Democrats were zealously defending these things. 

However, Owens was recently released from The Daily Wire due to a series of remarks regarding the Israeli-Iran conflict that could easily be interpreted as antisemitic. One example was her criticism of President Trump for the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear weapons development sites. Owens claimed, without offering any proof, that Trump was taking direction from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in carrying out these attacks. Further, she opined that the attacks were not necessary since Iran was not as close to developing a viable nuclear weapon as both Netanyahu and Trump claimed. She also has recently claimed that French President Macron’s wife is transsexual, without any apparent, reliable evidence to back the claim. This accusation is a real head-scratcher and Owens is being sued by the Macrons – and it seems they have right on their side.

These three formerly reliable conservatives are, in my opinion, major disappointments to the cause of conservatism, despite their effective earlier efforts to expose the evils and hypocrisies of the left. Although none of them has actually crossed over to that side (yet), as did former conservative writer David Brock (author of The Seduction of Hillary Rodham), their recent statements and positions are as damaging as if they had. At a time when all hands are needed on deck in the wake of the allegations against Obama and his national security team, we need full-throated support from our conservative thought leaders to ensure the evidence is pursued relentlessly to its logical end. Unfortunately, none of these three is likely to provide that. Even if they surprise us and support Tulsi Gabbard’s recommendations, it won’t be with the credibility they would have had in the past. Shame on each of them.