MSNBC's Rick Stengel: Tucker Carlson’s election lies “make him more liable and every night it helps the Dominion lawsuit”
Stengel: “It’s obvious that Tucker Carlson is this sort of ideological head of the Republican Party”
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From the March 7, 2023, edition of MSNBC's Deadline: White House
RICK STENGEL (CONTRIBUTOR): It's obvious that Tucker Carlson is this sort of ideological head of the Republican Party, the kind of judge almost that will censure people for not falling in line. The question is, and to go back to what Joyce said, is he saying this knowing that it is false? That actual malice standard, that's the phrase that comes from the 1964 New York Times v. Sullivan case -- Malice doesn't mean in that context what we think of it in normal context, ill will. It means saying falsehoods and knowing they are false. And what makes the Dominion lawsuit so powerful is that I think people like Tucker are saying what he says and knowing that it is false.
When we saw the stuff that he said behind the scenes, that he thought people were nuts, that these were unbelievable, it's obvious that he didn't think they were true. But he is, as everybody on the right always does, doubling down on the falsehood. I would think that would make him more liable and every night it helps the Dominion lawsuit.