Ted Lieu Urges Tucker Carlson Firing Over Masked Kids ‘Child Abuse’ Comparison

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) has called on Fox News to remove Tucker Carlson after the host likened kids wearing masks to child abuse.

The congressman reacted after Carlson called on viewers to report the parents of children who were wearing masks outside to child protection services.

Lieu tweeted: “Tucker Carlson wants to cancel parents who make the decision to have their child wear a mask. The right-wing cancel culture is out of control.

“Who or what are they going to try to cancel next? Major League Baseball? Oh wait…#TuckerMustGo.”

On Monday night, the Tucker Carlson Tonight host compared having children wear masks outside to adults beating kids.

“As for forcing children to wear masks outside, that should be illegal. Your response when you see children wearing masks as they play should be no different to your response to when you see someone beat a kid in a Walmart. Call the police immediately.

“Contact Child Protective Services. Keep calling until someone arrives. What you’re looking at is abuse, it’s child abuse and you are morally obligated to attempt to prevent it.”

Carlson later went on to compare people wearing face masks after being vaccinated against COVID-19 to grown men who expose themselves in public. “That’s disgusting. Put it away, please,” he said.

He also referred to statements made by Dr. Mary Harrow who told the Colorado Springs School District 11 Board of Education that face masks can “cause low oxygen and high carbon dioxide levels” among a string of possible health issues.

The Fox News host’s comments were widely condemned on social media, with many calling for Carlson to be fired or removed from the network.

U.S. veteran David Weissman said: “Maybe […] can petition Fox News to fire Tucker Carlson.”

Left-wing blogger Brooklyn Dad Defiant tweeted: “Tucker Carlson should be taken off the air immediately for telling his audience to accost children who are wearing a mask outside. Isn’t there a law against that s***? There should be.”

Others said they believed his comments were “dangerous.”

Former FBI Special Agent Asha Rangappa tweeted: “This is really, really dangerous. He’s moving from his viewers passively consuming his propaganda to having them act on it—against their neighbors. He’s testing his audience’s compliance.”

Others defended Carlson’s comments, with former Republican Senator for South Carolina, Jim DeMint, tweeting: “The left is trying to cancel Tucker Carlson again for having the courage to speak the truth that masks outdoors were never based on science and forcing children to wear them, who are the least at risk, is wrong and should stop.”

Rep. Lieu has previously sparred with the Fox News host, who called the lawmaker “a moron” for criticizing a segment where Carlson played into the “great replacement” conspiracy theory.

Carlson had defended a comment by Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Scott Perry that “native-born Americans” were being replaced by immigrants coming in through the southern border.

During his Wednesday night show last week, Carlson said: “Now Perry was making an argument that we have often made because it’s true and that is that Democrats are using mass immigration to transform the country to change who votes, so they can control who wins.”

A clip of Carlson laughing at Lieu subsequently went viral, and the Democrat went on to use it to raise funds for his re-election campaign.

Newsweek has contacted Fox News for comment.

In this photo, Tucker Carlson speaks onstage during Politicon 2018 at Los Angeles Convention Center on October 21, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. Carlson has again courted controversy over his comments about children wearing face masks. Phillip Faraone / Stringer/Getty