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Tucker Carlson criticized resigning New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, including a shot at the soon-to-be former head of state’s teeth and suggesting she’s a puppet for the Chinese government.
Ardern fought back tears as she announced her shock resignation as New Zealand prime minister Wednesday, saying she no longer has ‘enough left in the tank’ to lead her country.Â
Carlson gave a fiery critique of the prime minister on his show Wednesday, calling her ‘COVID-crazed’ and criticizing her teeth, adding she was the ‘most authoritarian leader that country ever had and no one else comes close.’
‘Some rare good news: the appalling prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern – that’s the lady with the big teeth who tormented her citizens – has just announced she is leaving office.’
Tucker Carlson (pictured left) criticized resigning New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (pictured right), including a shot at the soon-to-be former head of state’s teeth and suggesting she’s a puppet for the Chinese government
He then criticized her views and then pondered what the chances were that she was a Chinese puppet.Â
‘We don’t have enough evidence to prove that but we would rate that as about 100 percent likely,’ the popular Fox host said. Â
He got more specific about Ardern’s strict COVID lockdown policies, which Carlson argues ‘told citizens to inform on their neighbors by calling the police if they saw them outside.’Â
‘An appalling abuser of human rights of her own people,’ he continued, describing New Zealand as under ‘near totalitarianism. She shut down her whole country over one COVID case. She told everyone to stay in their bubbles. I’m not making this up.’
Ardern, 42, resigns after just over five years as leader, having become New Zealand’s youngest ever prime minister and leading the country though the COVID pandemic and Christchurch mosque shooting in 2019.
She will officially step down on Sunday if the ruling Labour Party can elect her replacement in a two-thirds vote on that day. If not, she will officially resign on February 7.
Ardern told a press conference that she’d hoped to find the energy and heart during the Christmas break to stay in the job, ‘but I have not been able to do that’.
Ardern, 42, resigns after just over five years as leader, having become New Zealand’s youngest ever prime minister and leading the country though the COVID pandemic and Christchurch mosque shooting in 2019
‘Once I realised that I didn’t, I knew unfortunately there was not much alternative other than to hand over now,’ she said at the Labour Party’s January caucus meeting in Napier on Thursday.
‘I am human. Politicians are human. We give all we can for as long as we can – and then it’s time. And for me, it’s time.’
She added: ‘I know what this job takes. And I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice.
‘I am leaving because with such a privileged job comes a big responsibility. The responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead – and also when you’re not.
‘I have given my absolute all to being prime minister but it has also taken a lot out of me. You cannot and should not do the job unless you have a full tank, plus a bit in reserve for those unplanned and unexpected challenges that inevitably come along.
Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, in the opening ceremony of the NATO Summit in Madrid in 2022
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand talks to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC following her meeting with President Joe Biden
‘Having reflected over summer, I know I no longer have that bit extra in the tank to do the job justice. It’s that simple.’
When asked what she would do next, Ardern said she looked forward to spending time with her young daughter and finally marrying her fiancé Clarke Gayford after their wedding was called off due to the pandemic.
Ardern was elected on October 26, 2017, and at 37, was New Zealand’s youngest ever PM. Before that, she was the youngest sitting MP in 2008 at age 28.
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During her press conference, she admitted: ‘I didn’t expect to be prime minister.’Â
She insisted her decision to step down had nothing to do with the fact her party is trailing in the polls behind the rival National Party ahead of the upcoming election.
Ardern imposed some of the world’s harshest COVID restrictions and only allowed visitors to enter less than a year ago
Protesters gather outside parliament in Wellington on November 9, 2021, calling for an end to COVID restrictions and vaccine mandates in New Zealand
‘The Labour team are incredibly well placed to contest the next election. They are the most experienced team in the country and have shown they have the skills necessary to respond to whatever comes their way,’ she said.
‘I am not leaving because I believe we can’t win the election but because I believe we can and will. But we need a fresh set of shoulders for the challenges of both this year and the next three.
‘I know there will be much discussion in the aftermath of this decision as to what the so-called real reason was. I can tell you that what I’m sharing with you today is it.
Ardern’s Labour Party, which has been in power since 2017, lost its consistent lead in the polls early last year. The opposition National Party vote began to surge around October 2021.
Her rivals took the lead in the polls at the same time her government introduced a fresh round of restrictions when the country was hit by the Omicron COVID variant.
Ardern unveils COVID alert levels, which led to some of the world’s hardest restrictions, as she closed the country’s borders on March 21, 2020
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Her government never regained the lead in aggregated polling trends, staying slightly behind the Nationals. However, as the opposition has the support of the right-wing ACT party it would gain a clean majority if the election was held today.
Ardern faced unrelenting criticism from sections of the public for implementing some of the harshest COVID restrictions in the world, including lockdowns in which New Zealanders couldn’t even buy takeaway food and a border closure that lasted more than two years.
But she denied today that the constant attacks, which continued last year as the economy faltered and cost of living rose, played a role in her decision to quit.
The resigning PM was asked if she would take up a role with the UN after leaving office. She did not give a straight answer.
‘This has been my entire focus as you can see by the fact you’ve not been aware of this [my resignation], so [the UN] has not been my focus,’ she said.Â
Ardern and husband Clarke Gayford with their child Neve look on after the Prime Minister formally commissioned the diving support and hydrographic survey vessel Manawanui into the Royal New Zealand Navy on June 7, 2019
Ardern attracted worldwide attention when she brought her then four-month-old baby Neve into the UN in September, 2018
‘My focus has been this decision, supporting the Labour team through this next stage.’Â
She said she is leaving office without regrets, offering a simple way she would like to be remembered.
‘As someone who always tried to be kind,’ she said.
‘I hope I leave New Zealanders with a belief that you can be kind but strong, empathetic but decisive, optimistic but focused. And that you can be your own kind of leader – one who knows when it’s time to go.’
