On Wednesday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson attacked the New York Times for hosting an event featuring FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
Carlson blasted the New York Times for celebrating people like Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellin, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Sam Bankman-Fried, three people who, according to Carlson, deserve a federal investigation instead of being held up as “uniquely fascinating people.”
Carlson referenced an interview of Bankman-Fried, by Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times DealBook Summit. Bankman-Fried is the founder and former CEO of FTX, a crypto-currency exchange that recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
During the Sorkin interview, the former prodigy CEO, who has rubbed shoulders with global business giants, celebrities and elites in the Democratic party political circle, said that he didn’t ever “try to commit fraud on anyone.”
When asked how concerned he was about criminal charges, Bankman-Fried said that the “real answer” was that it was not what he was focusing on. Carlson believes that Bankman-Fried is not particularly worried about criminal charges because he knows that “the Democratic party, the SEC and his friend Gary Gensler” won’t touch him and that he’s “bulletproof.”
Tucker Carlson: "What do you have when you find Sam Bankman-Fried, Janet Yellen, and President Zelenskyy…all together in one room? A federal grand jury proceeding? These are three people who could badly use a federal investigation, but they're not getting one." pic.twitter.com/85Jz5UF4kP
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) December 1, 2022
Carlson pointed out how, during the interview, Bankman-Fried openly admitted co-mingling funds between FTX and a separate company he controlled known as Alameda Research. “That’s the kind of thing you’d think regulators would care about, but in this case, for some reason, didn’t,” Carlson remarked.
During the 2022 elections, Bankman-Fried became one of the biggest donors in US politics, contributing more than $70 million to election campaigns in less than 18 months. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Bankman-Fried gave $40 million, mostly to Democrats and liberal-leaning groups. The biggest single recipient was Protect Our Future, which claims to be “an organization designed to help elect candidates who will be champions for pandemic prevention.” Official data shows that Protect Our Future has also supported pro-crypto candidates. The group received $27 million from Bankman-Fried and an additional $1 million from another FTX executive, Nishad Singh.
Bankman-Fried also pledged to spend upwards of $1 billion on the 2024 election, particularly if Donald Trump were to run.
Carlson suggested that Bankman-Fried seemed unworried about criminal liability because he had “bought and paid for” his protection.
“Boy, if there’s ever been a clear window into the deep corruption we really need to get rid of if we’re going to return to representative democracy, it’s that right there,” Carlson said.
