HOUSTON – The election of Donald Trump was unexpected in the polls and by a political press that largely favored Democrat Hillary Clinton, according to Tucker Carlson of Fox News.
Trump’s victory was unforeseen in most newsrooms because the media is isolated from much of the mainstream core of American voters, Carlson said in Houston Wednesday night in a speech to the Trendlines event presented by the Transwestern real estate firm at the River Oaks Country Club.
Carlson said the prevailing attitude of doubt about Trump was: “He’s so right wing, how could he win?”
In the political culture of Washington, Trump was seen as a “cultural alien” like an invading Viking, said Carlson. “His style is like nothing we’ve ever seen,” Carlson said.
As keynote speaker of the Transwestern event, Carlson, a political news correspondent and conservative pundit, is preparing to start hosting the new nightly “Tucker Carlson Tonight” show on Fox next week. He is also editor-in-chief of The Daily Caller online news publication.
“The press hates Trump,” Carlson said. Over the years, he said, the Washington media has evolved to become an elite, highly-educated group that identifies with the political establishment and shares “the same cultural assumptions.”
During months of campaign news coverage the press was “rooting for Hillary – period. They think Trump has to be stopped,” Carlson charged. This contributed to the having the win by Trump’s unconventional political campaign being such a complete surprise in Tuesday’s voting.
“I was totally caught by surprise yesterday (Tuesday),” Carlson said.
On election night, when the exit-polling starting rolling in about 5:15 p.m. Eastern time, Carlson noticed something unusual and unexpected – Trump was getting relatively strong support from some African-American voters. A major percentage of African-American voters were voting for Clinton, but Trump’s support was more than expected. That trend continued and later in the evening, after the polls closed, Carlson began to realize that Trump actually had a chance for an upset.
Carlson said Trump’s win was “amazing” because he was widely opposed by so many leaders in the tech industry, hedge fund groups, the Hollywood/entertainment world and many political leaders, including Republicans. And Trump was running against the “best financed campaign in the history of democracy” with Clinton having war chest assets in excess of $1 billion, he said.
In introductory comments to the audience, Transwestern President and CEO Larry Heard expressed appreciation to Carlson, who worked all night in election coverage before coming to Houston to deliver his remarks.
Nov. 10, 2016 Realty News Report Copyright 2016