On Tuesday night, pillow salesman Mike Lindell headed to Tucker Carlson Tonight, where his ads routinely kick in more than a third of the show’s advertising budget, to inform the world that he has been canceled. The night before, the MyPillow CEO had been permanently banned from Twitter after what a Twitter spokesperson called “repeated violations of our Civic Integrity Policy" related to misinformation pertaining to the 2020 presidential election.
Lindell spent the better part of January spreading conspiracy theories regarding the election of President Joe Biden. Such false claims resulted in the death of five people after a mob of pro-Trump demonstrators stormed the U.S. Capitol Building in an attempt to disrupt the certification of electoral votes and potentially harm Democratic legislators. Lindell’s company was dropped by major retailers including Bed Bath & Beyond and, according to Lindell, Wayfair, HEB, and Kohl’s.
On January 26, Carlson lent his show to his largest advertiser to broadcast ludicrous claims about a supposed conspiracy to silence him by Dominion Voting Systems. Lindell claimed that Dominion, a company that makes voting machines and was attacked in a QAnon-fueled conspiracy theory, “hired hit groups and bots and trolls” to target him and his advertisers, and he alleged that Twitter had been running his account “like they were me.”
Carlson lamented that the “force” of cancel culture had become “the only answer to disagreement.” Lindell doubled down on his claims that he had evidence Dominion Voting Systems had stolen the election from Donald Trump and dared Dominion to sue him and prove him wrong. Dominion is currently suing Trump lawyer Sidney Powell for making similar claims. Back in November, Carlson criticized Powell’s claims, but apparently, they’re acceptable when being made by a man who’s got a couple million invested in Carlson’s ad breaks even though Lindell has been clear that he and Powell have the same sources and that they talk multiple times per day.
Lindell seems to be taking full advantage of the shows he sponsors and advertises on as platforms to air his grievances and claims. He also appeared on The Eric Metaxas Radio Show, Right-Side Broadcasting, and right-wing TV network OAN amid a flurry of retail losses to make similar claims.
Metaxas actually interviewed Lindell while a standee of Lindell was directly behind him. For Carlson, that level of obsequiousness was merely the subtext.
