Story at a glance:
- Tucker Carlson made the comments on Fox News Thursday.
- Carlson said it is “not a serious crime” to fake vaccination cards, adding people are “forced into a corner.”
- A total of 250 fake cards were sold on Instagram since the beginning of May.
Fox News’ Tucker Carlson claimed on Thursday that those who forge and buy fake COVID-19 vaccine cards are not breaking the law and are behaving in an “act of desperation.”
Carlson spoke on Fox News about how he believes obtaining and forging fraudulent vaccination cards is “not a serious crime” and those who do so are “forced into a corner,” The Daily Beast reported.
The comments come after the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. filed charges Tuesday against 15 people who were allegedly connected to a fake COVID-19 vaccination card conspiracy, Axios reported. Thirteen of those individuals are reported to work in essential-employee settings, including hospitals.
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One woman allegedly promoted and sold nearly 250 fake vaccination cards via Instagram for $200 with an additional fee of $250. Another person then wrongly entered at least 10 individuals into the New York State Immunization Information System database, according to Axios.
The woman is charged with offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree, conspiracy in the fifth degree and criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree.
“We will continue to safeguard public health in New York with proactive investigations like these, but the stakes are too high to tackle fake vaccination cards with whack-a-mole prosecutions,” Vance said, according to Axios. “We need companies like Facebook to take action to prevent the fraud happening on their platforms.”
In response to the charges, Carlson said: “buying a fake vaccination card is not a, quote, ‘serious crime.’”
“It’s not even close to a serious crime. Buying a fake vaccination card is an act of desperation by decent, law-abiding Americans who have been forced into a corner by tyrants,” he said.
The host also falsely claimed that people are being forced to “take drugs they don’t need or want.”
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