Conservative commentator and former Fox News personality Bill Kristol on Thursday characterized Tucker Carlson’s show as, not “racism exactly — but ethno-nationalism of some kind.”


Conservative commentator and former Fox News personality Bill Kristol on Thursday characterized Tucker Carlson's show as, not "racism exactly — but ethno-nationalism of some kind."  The comment was made during an interview with CNBC's John Harwood and as part of a larger conversation about Fox News' apparent move further right over recent years.  "Fox was always of course somewhat conservative…Now Fox is sort of — 75 percent of it seems to be birther-like coverage of different issues. That's been, I think, bad," Kristol said of the network at large. Soon after, he shifted his focus to Fox News' Carlson, whom he'd worked with years ago at 'The Weekly Standard.'  "He had always a little touch of Pat Buchananism, I would say, paleo-conservativism," Kristol recalled. "But that's very different from what he's become now. I mean, it is close now to racism, white — I mean, I don't know if it's racism exactly — but ethno-nationalism of some kind, let's call it."  Carlson has since responded, saying in a statement, "I'm not even sure what he's accusing me of. He offers no evidence or examples, just slurs, and then suggests that I'm the demagogue. Pretty funny." "Kristol's always welcome on my show to explain himself, though I assume he's too afraid to come. What a shame. It would be revealing," Carlson further noted.