In “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” which aired since 2016 and is one of cable’s most-watched shows, the suit-and-tie host paints a portrait of an America under siege.

Through immigration, Black Lives Matter protests, or well-meaning.

With blue eyes staring straight into those of the viewers, five nights a week and for an hour, Tucker Carlson comments on the news in a very personal tone, saying that "American men are in a very delicate position", or that "the anti-white racism is exploding across the country".

Opposed to abortion, great defender of the right to bear arms, the 53-year-old presenter never hesitates to expose his opinions in a program which claims, on its site, "the sworn enemy of lies", promising to "to ask the questions you would ask - and to demand answers".

"Great Replacement"

"They want to control your thoughts", "they say you are racist": Tucker Carlson uses again and again this opposition between "they" and "you" in order to place himself in the same camp as those who watch him, analyzes Jennifer Mercieca, a political rhetorician at Texas A&M University.

"He covers everything that he thinks will outrage his audience."

Demonstration outside the premises of Fox News, March 13, 2019 in New York Drew Angerer Getty / AFP / Archives

According to his critics, the pro-Trump presenter relies on fright to win viewers.

"Unfortunately, appealing to fear works" and "Tucker Carlson is very good at instilling that fear in his audience", through the tone of his voice, the images or the music used, says Ms. Mercieca.

To go too far?

Last weekend, a racist massacre mourned Buffalo, in the State of New York.

Payton Gendron, a young white supremacist accused of seeking to kill as many African Americans as possible, had been influenced by the theory of the "great replacement", an extreme right ideology according to which the white population will be supplanted by a immigrant population.

However, on his show, Tucker Carlson mentioned more than 400 times the idea that white people were replaced by other ethnic groups, according to the New York Times.

Taking up this figure, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, denounced Monday "a poison spread by one of the largest media in the country".

Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson on a screen during a rally for Republican candidate Mehmet Oz on May 17, 2022 in Newtown, Pennsylvania STEPHANIE KEITH Getty/AFP/Archives

Contacted by AFP, Fox News refers to the on-air comments of the presenter, who has denied any responsibility.

"Gendron was crazy," he said Monday.

The lengthy manifesto attributed to the suspect - which does not mention the Tucker Carlson show - is "not immediately classifiable left or right, it's not really political", he added.

"Single Power"

Despite the challenges, Fox News supports its foal at all costs, arguing for the diversity of opinions it is supposed to represent.

In a 2020 trial, lawyers for the channel argued that given Mr Carlson's reputation, any viewer was likely to approach his show with a certain amount of skepticism, according to court documents.

Impervious to criticism, this father of four children said in September that "one should only care about the opinion of those who care about you", in an interview with the Rubin Report.

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A lesson he says he draws from his "weird childhood", marked by the departure of his mother, an artist, when he was only 6 years old.

She ends up settling in France, and never sees her children again.

Raised by his journalist father, he follows in his footsteps on leaving university after having tried, without success, to join the CIA.

The road to glory is long for Tucker Carlson, who works notably for CNN and finds himself temporarily unemployed, around his 40s.

But he now has a "unique power", according to Jennifer Mercieca.

The one who claims to have never had a television lives far from the political heart of the United States, in a rural corner of Maine (northeast).

It is from there that he generally records his show, from a studio fitted out for him.

Proof of his power, in January, the influential Republican senator Ted Cruz came to beat his guilt live, facing a furious Tucker Carlson that he described the assault on the Capitol as a "violent terrorist attack".

Will politics be the next step for him?

For a time, rumors swirled about his possible candidacy for the 2024 presidential election.

The person concerned vented the idea with a laugh on the conservative podcast "Ruthless" in June.

"I'm a talk show presenter. I like that".

© 2022 AFP