As a rule of thumb, the more smarmy that Tucker Carlson is in any given segment, the more he’s trying to compensate for something. So warning bells went off when Carlson on Thursday night went to near-maximum levels of smarm to defend people in Michigan who congregated in protest of the state's social distancing rules.

Sure enough, in attacking comments about the gathering by the state’s Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Carlson felt it unimportant to note that protests delayed a shift change at a hospital, blocked an ambulance (though the Lansing Fire Department later downplayed it), and featured people not wearing masks while packed in fairly close together.

In addition to commenting on the economic catastrophe in the state, both Whitmer and DIngell touched upon these issues in their responses, as well as others (both mentioned seeing people with bare hands giving candy to children); however, Carlson cut their remarks so that only Dingell’s concerns about handing candy and protesters not wearing masks made it to air on his show.

Instead of providing context for his viewers about why Whitmer and Dingell were concerned (or at all engaging with the concerns of Dingell that he did air), Carlson instead just spoke sarcastically for nearly four minutes, saying that Whitmer was “power-hungry” and Dingell had “loathing for the people of Michigan.”