CLAY: Whenever there is any opportunity to attack this show, to attack Fox News, to attack people that have large audiences, it is taken advantage of by MSNBC and CNN, even when there is no connection whatsoever between the large audience and the person who has done something evil. That explains Joy Reid — who nobody watches — going after Tucker Carlson, who has the most popular show in all of television right now.

Listen to cut 9 and how dishonest this perspective is.

CLAY: This is insane, Buck. You’ve been on Tucker. I’ve been on Tucker. Tucker has, I believe, one of the two or three smartest television shows that exists anywhere in the country right now, and he talks about a wide variety of topics. And I don’t think people said, “Hey, Joy Reid shouldn’t be able to share her perspectives because Bernie Sanders supporter tried to murder congressmen.” That story didn’t last for very long, did it?

BUCK: This is just because he’s so effective.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: That’s why they’re coming after him. They despise Tucker over really all other pundits at this moment because of the power of the platform that he has at Fox and the resonance that he has with the audience in showing how crazy the Democrats are on a whole range of issues.

CLAY: No doubt at all.