Fox News host Tucker Carlson has cooked up a wild new conspiracy theory about President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden: Their entire 43-year marriage is a sham created for publicity. 

Carlson, triggered by Valentine’s Day coverage of the overtly affectionate first couple, launched into a riff of over-the-top mock praise of the Bidens’ relationship based on those media reports. 

“Not since Antony dined with Cleopatra in downtown Antioch ― before they killed themselves, obviously ― has a country witnessed a love story as poignant as Jill and Joe’s,” he sarcastically declared, adding: 

“Jill Biden is not Joe’s caretaker. She isn’t his nurse. She’s his fully equal romantic partner. Together, they are like besotted teens, yet, at the same time, they are the wise and knowing parents of a nation.”

Carlson specifically cited a Politico report on the Bidens PDA that stated, “Historians and relationship experts agree: The first couple’s romantic gestures aren’t just genuine — they’re restorative.” 

Then he mocked both the coverage and the couple. 

“So it’s official: The Bidens’ affection is totally real. It’s in no way part of a slick PR campaign devised by cynical consultants determined to hide the president’s senility by misdirection,” he said, his voice rising a pitch and turning into a cackle. “Not at all! Their love is as real as climate change.”

Normally that would mean the first couple’s relationship is on solid footing, given that climate change is real. 

But Carlson, like many figures on the right-wing network, is a longtime science denier who has attacked everything from vaccines to climate change… so the comparison wasn’t exactly sincere.  

His full monologue is on YouTube. But on social media, critics weren’t exactly feeling the love for Carlson’s latest claims: