Last Updated on April 3, 2020
Fox News talk show host Tucker Carlson has played a key role in the U.S. response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, as his advocacy for America First policies has payed off repeatedly in recent weeks.
Carlson, who reportedly talked President Donald Trump down from war with Iran in 2019, discussed the H1B visa lottery program and its adverse affects on the struggling American workforce on Wednesday night.
Carlson described the proposed increase in foreign visas as “a threat to our country.”
https://twitter.com/ColumbiaBugle/status/1245520479265284097
On Thursday morning, a planned increase in work visas for foreign nationals was halted by the Department of Homeland Security.
Via Daily Caller:
“Today, on April 1st, the Department of Homeland Security released 20,000 new H-2B Visas for seasonal guest workers to come into America and take jobs in industries like landscaping, food processing and resorts,” Carlson, a co-founder of the Daily Caller, said Wednesday night. “Another 15,000 Visas will become available next month in May.”
“We’re facing a global calamity that could wreck our economy, fracture our society,” he continued. “The time to placate corporate interests looking for low wages at all costs has passed. We need to stop this.”
The next morning, the economic situation became much more bleak. The U.S. Department of Labor announced that around 6.6 million Americans filed unemployment claims this past week, bringing the 2-week total to roughly 10 million.
The increased media scrutiny and surging unemployment claims appeared to be too much for DHS. The department on Thursday announced it was suspending the release of the planned 20,000 H-2B visas.
On Thursday night, Carlson devoted a segment to the Minnesota-based multinational healthcare conglomerate 3M, who reportedly refused to sell masks to American cities because the corporation’s “authorized distributors” had already offloaded their stock to foreign countries.
https://twitter.com/ColumbiaBugle/status/1245881131225890816
Later Thursday night, President Trump slammed 3M in a tweet, promising the corporation they “would have a price to pay.”
We hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing with their Masks. “P Act” all the way. Big surprise to many in government as to what they were doing – will have a big price to pay!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2020
On Friday, President Trump ordered 3M to stop sending N95 respirator masks to Canada and Latin America.
3M bowed to the pressure on Friday, agreeing to prioritize mask distribution to the United States.
Via Forbes:
Topline: In a Friday statement, 3M MMM responded to President Donald Trump invoking the Defense Production Act Thursday to order the company to produce medical equipment, saying they’ll supply the government with the N95 face masks they need but warned that the request to cease mask exports to international markets could hurt the coronavirus efforts in the U.S.
- According to the Minnesota-based company, 3M has agreed to prioritize producing N95 face masks to be used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and has also worked to import masks produced by a 3M facility in China at the government’s request.
President Trump has also threatened to invoke the Defense Production Act to force American corporations to prioritize American needs over foreign capital.
