Tucker Carlson on Wednesday night defended his report into the state of Baltimore after he was accused by the mayor of spreading 'racist vitriol'.
The Fox News host on Tuesday pointed out that Baltimore has had its bloodiest January in 50 years, with 32 murders. He also noted that schools were failing the city's youth, singling out Pattison high school, where 77 percent of high school students were only reading at an elementary level.
'Last night we dared to tell you about the ongoing tragedy of the city of Baltimore, one of the great American cities,' Carlson said on Wednesday.
'A city filled with people in total misery, a city people being murdered and children who can't read.'
He noted that the mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott, responded angrily to his segment.
'We don't have any room for racist vitriol in our city or time for comments that don't contribute towards building a better Baltimore,' tweeted Scott, 37.
'I remain focused on reversing the deep-rooted systemic inequities that have plagued our communities for longer than Tucker Carlson has been alive.'
Carlson replied that there was 'no definition of exactly why they are angry at us, because we told the truth.'
Tucker Carlson on Wednesday night revisited his criticism of Baltimore's political leaders
Carlson on Tuesday referred to Baltimore as being 'broken'
Brandon Scott, the mayor of Baltimore, accused Carlson of spreading 'racist vitriol'
He added: 'It is a disgrace letting black people die and calling me racist if I pointed it out.
'That is not going to work anymore, pal.'
Carlson's colleague, Trace Gallagher, told him: 'What they are saying is you didn't do your homework.
'But you were saying last night the test scores have dropped dramatically.
'And the Baltimore schools came back with this, saying that test scores don't define the students.
'But they failed to explain what does define students, considering test scores are a widely used barometer of students' ability.
'They went on to say you criticize them for being limiting or stopping of arresting students who commit crimes and their response to that was they arrest students who commit crimes when it's appropriate, but again they didn't define what exactly is appropriate.'
The Baltimore Sun was unamused, however, accusing Carlson in an editorial of 'race-baiting contempt'.
'The first and most obvious is that it wore its racism so proudly and overtly.
'Haiti? Let's see, what does Baltimore have in common with Haiti. If his point had been to raise concern about Baltimore's high homicide rate, it was off the mark; even within the Caribbean, Haiti falls short of Jamaica for murder.
'Could it be our susceptibility to hurricanes? Probably not.
'More likely, Mr. Carlson turned to Haiti as an impoverished and struggling majority-Black nation (with 95% of the population of African ancestry).
'Baltimore is a majority-Black city dealing with an array of social ills, too. Oh, so this is about low-income people who don't look like Mr. Carlson. Got it.'
The paper correctly notes that Haiti's murder rate of 13.7 per 100,000 is less than Jamaica's - the worst in the region, with 49.4, according to InSight Crime's report out on Tuesday.
Baltimore, by contrast, has a rate of 57.5 per 100,000; only St Louis, Birmingham, Louisville and Jackson are worse, with the Florida city seeing 99.5 per 100,000
The paper concluded: 'Make no mistake, Baltimore has its share of serious problems, including January's brutal homicide count.
'But, alas, we can't muster the Fox News level of simple-mindedness required to heap all of the blame for it on Jen Psaki's doorstep.
'The day Tucker Carlson or his ilk, national or local, want to have a thoughtful, honest conversation about how to address this city's long-standing and complex problems — whether it involves murder, public education, public corruption or terrible public transportation — we're all ears.
'But don't dump your race-baiting contempt on us and tell us it's journalism or even informed opinion. It's surely none of those things.'
On Tuesday night, Carlson said democracy in the U.S. was failing under Democrats and that the proof was in Baltimore, which has embraced progressive criminal justice policies yet continues to have one of the highest murder rates in the nation.
Carlson mocked recent conversations about democracy being in danger and instead said the real danger was when Democrats focus on issues like race and climate change rather than on the safety issues facing cities like Baltimore, which has seen more than 300 homicides a year since 2015.
Carlson called Baltimore 'one of the worst places in the western hemisphere'.
The city reported 32 murders in 2022.
'That's the deadliest January in Baltimore in nearly 50 years and remember, fifty years ago, Baltimore was almost twice as big as it is now,' Carlson said.
The city's population shrank from nearly one million residents in the 1970s to about 580,000 in 2020, according to the U.S. Census.
'Half the city is left. So Baltimore is far worse off than it has ever been in its history.'
He added that 'Baltimore is exactly what happens when you apply Jen Psaki's ideas to governing.
'Baltimore is a city run by people who fervently believe in the equity agenda
