Fox News host Tucker Carlson apologized Friday for one of his fake news stories that a dead man had voted in Georgia.
He admitted he was absolutely wrong, and that it was the dead veteran’s widow who voted in Georgia, and not her late husband.
Georgia officials tracked down the vote that Carlson milked on his show as he claimed it was illegal and cast by World War II veteran James Blalock of Covington, who died in 2006. Carlson was parroting a Trump campaign tale harping about the same vote.
“Mr. Blalock was a mailman for 33 years, until he passed away in 2006. Fourteen years later, according to state records, he was still mailing things,” Carlson said snidely as he opened his program Thursday. “James Blalock cast a ballot in last week’s election.”
But it was Blalock’s widow, who is registered to vote as Mrs. James E. Blalock, Jr., who cast the ballot, said Newton County election officials.
“Her voter registration was signed as Mrs. James E. Blalock, Jr. and that is exactly how she signed her name when she voted in the Nov. 3 general election,” they said in a statement.
Agnes Blalock told Atlanta’s 11Alive-TV, which was the first to correct the fake story: “He’s not voting. He didn’t vote. It was me.” Blalock said she voted “for the Democrats, for Biden,” adding: “I guess you could say I voted against the other one, really.” (Check out the video up top.)
Carlson finally fessed up, but tried to be perky about it and make it cute.
“We’ve got some good news tonight and an apology,” he said. “One of the people who voted in last week’s election isn’t dead. James Blalock is still dead. We told you about him, but it was his wife who voted. She voted as Mrs. James Blalock. It’s old-fashioned, and we missed it.”
He still insisted, though, that “a whole bunch of dead people did vote.”
But 11Alive also discovered that another deceased Georgian who the Trump campaign — and Carlson — claimed voted did not. A living person with the same name did.
Earlier this month Carlson pleaded on his program: “Let’s all stop lying.”
