‘Do Not Reward Mediocrity’: Tucker Carlson Says GOP Needs To Replace Leadership After ‘Frustrating’ Midterm Results

Harold Hutchison – Daily Caller News Foundation – on November 9, 2022

Fox News host Tucker Carlson slammed Republican leadership in the House and Senate Wednesday, saying promoting them would “reward mediocrity” after “frustrating” midterm election results.

“The people whose job was to win and did not win should go do something else now, we’re speaking specifically of the Republican leadership of the House and the Senate and of the RNC,” Carlson said. “It’s nothing personal, no doubt some of them are nice people, but they took hundreds of millions of dollars to paint the map red and they didn’t. Doesn’t mean they’re evil, doesn’t mean they should be jailed. It does mean they shouldn’t be promoted. No one should ever be rewarded for failure. If there’s a truly conservative principle in life, it’s the principle of meritocracy. You reward excellence, you do not reward mediocrity.”

McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund super PAC reportedly spent $178 million for Senate races in Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania according to the Idaho Capital Sun. The Congressional Leadership fund, tied to Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy, spent over $200 million in the lead-up to the midterm elections, Politico reported.

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump’s war chest grew to over $90 million leading up to the midterms, sending $20 million to an allied super PAC aiding the GOP’s Senate races. Bloomberg reported.

However, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas noted that Trump had spent very little of the funds to aid Republicans in key races, the Hill reported. “Trump’s got $100 million and he’s spending almost none of it to support these candidates,” Cruz said on “The Verdict.”

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“The plan was really simple. It seemed easy a week ago: An unpopular president, a faltering economy, an open border, the looming risk of nuclear war, how about that?” Carlson said. “Put all those together, how could there not be a massive Republican win nationally? Wins everywhere. Well, there weren’t. Some exceptions, but overall there weren’t. Joe Biden was not punished. In fact, he’s out there bragging about himself today. Pretty frustrating. You want Republicans to win, not because they’re so great, but because Democrats are so very bad, and that is not an overstatement.”

“Democrats had a strong night, and we lost fewer seats in the House of Representatives than any Democratic president’s first midterm election in the last 40 years, and we had the best midterm for governors since 1986,” Biden said during a Wednesday press conference.

Republicans underperformed expectations in Tuesdays midterm elections, with a number of candidates falling short, including Don Bolduc, who challenged Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Tiffany Smiley, who faced off against Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington. Another notable defeat was that of Dr. Mehmet Oz, who lost to Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania in the race to replace retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.

“Republicans swore they were going to sweep, a red tsunami. That’s what they told us, and we, to be honest, cautiously believed them,” Carlson said. “But they did not sweep, not even close to sweeping. The Republican Party, in the end, may take control of the House and Senate, but only by a tiny margin at best. That’s great but it was not the plan.”