- Tucker Carlson said teachers who discuss gender identity with students are abusing them.
- Carlson defended a new bill in Florida that blocks teachers from discussing gender identity with K-3 kids.
- "You talk to a normal person's kids about sex in kindergarten, you get beaten up. You should be beaten up, please," he said.
Tucker Carlson in a Friday segment of his primetime Fox News show said teachers who discuss gender identity with young students are committing sexual abuse.
"You shouldn't be talking to kindergartners about gender identity, especially if you're not their parents. That's creepy," Carlson said. "You should be arrested for that, in fact. You talk to a normal person's kids about sex in kindergarten, you get beaten up. You should be beaten up, please."
Carlson's segment focused on defending the recently passed bill in Florida, dubbed by critics the "Don't Say Gay" bill, which restricts teachers from discussing gender identity and sexual orientation with students in kindergarten through third grade.
President Joe Biden has denounced the bill as "hateful," while Fox News's coverage of the bill led to the Human Rights Campaign lowering Fox Corporation's Corporate Diversity Index score from 100 to 75.
Matt Walsh, a political commentator for the conservative news site The Daily Wire, joined Carlson on the show. He denounced discussions of gender identity in schools as "madness" and accused opponents of the bill of grooming children.
"Look, there's a reason why Democrats are treating this bill like it's the apocalypse," Walsh said. "All we're telling them is you can't groom young children and to them it's Armageddon, and that's because they know they have to indoctrinate the kids into this madness very, very young."
Carlson agreed, responding: "You can't commit sexual abuse against my kindergartners, and that's what this is. It's sexual abuse. You're not allowed to commit it, and if you do, there are consequences. There should be real consequences. Like for real, I think."
Fox News did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
