Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s “hate” for former President Donald Trump has been revealed as Trump continues to profusely praise the pundit for pushing an alternative narrative about the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In a Truth Social post on Monday, the former president sent his “congratulations to Tucker Carlson on one of the biggest ‘scoops’ as a reporter in U.S. history” after Carlson aired previously unseen Capitol surveillance footage showing some nonviolent moments on the day of the riot.
On Tuesday, hundreds of pages of exhibits in Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News were unsealed, showing that Carlson had texted with a co-worker about his disdain for Trump two days before the siege on the Capitol.
“We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights,” Carlson texted producer Alex Pfeiffer on January 4, 2021, according to The Washington Post. “I truly can’t wait.”
“I hate him passionately,” Carlson added. “I can’t handle much more of this.”
Tucker Carlson, left, is shown at an event in Hollywood, Florida, on November 17, 2022, while former President Donald Trump, right, is pictured Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. A January 4, 2021, text message appearing to show Carlson expressing his “hate” for Trump was revealed in a court filing on Tuesday, as Trump continued to praise the Fox News host for airing previously unseen footage from the day of the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Jason Koerner; Anna Moneymaker
A tweet from Eric Hananoki, senior investigative reporter for progressive watchdog group Media Matters for America, pointed out that Carlson had professed his hatred for then-President Trump only months after complaining on air about others in the media supposedly being afflicted with an anti-Trump “mania.”
“Reporters hate Trump with an all-consuming mania,” Carlson said during his October 30, 2020, broadcast, as shared by Hananoki. “They hate him so intensely that at times it’s been amusing to watch.”
Tucker Carlson on October 30, 2020: “Reporters hate Trump with an all-consuming mania. They hate him so intensely that at times it’s been amusing to watch.”
Tucker Carlson on Trump in private on January 4, 2021: “I hate him passionately.” https://t.co/4Icc3BgOxp pic.twitter.com/smrQzceMop
— Eric Hananoki (@ehananoki) March 8, 2023
The former president had not publicly weighed in on the revelation at the time of publication. Instead, he again praised Carlson following a second night of airing previously unseen January 6 footage.
Trump claimed that the video clips “exonerated” those convicted of crimes related to the riot. He demanded that those imprisoned be released, while calling for members of the House January 6 committee to be “tried for Fraud and Treason.”
“GREAT JOB BY TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT,” Trump wrote just after Tucker Carlson Tonight aired on Tuesday, hours after Carlson’s text message was revealed. “The Unselect Committee of political Hacks & Thugs has been totally discredited. They knowingly refused to show the Videos that mattered.”
“They should be tried for Fraud and Treason, and those imprisoned and being persecuted should be exonerated and released, NOW!” he continued.
Trump repeatedly thanked Carlson and GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for the footage on Monday. Carlson has so far only aired a very small portion of more than 40,000 hours of January 6 surveillance footage that McCarthy gave to him and Fox News exclusively.
Carlson’s attempt to reframe the January 6 rioters as peaceful “sightseers” has not gone over well with all Republicans. Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was among several GOP senators who publicly denounced the narrative on Tuesday.
McConnell said that his views aligned with a statement from U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger, who said Carlson’s “outrageous” presentation had “conveniently cherry-picked from the calmer moments” of the riot to reach “offensive and misleading conclusions.”
Dominion’s lawsuit against Fox alleges that the network promoted some of the 2020 presidential election conspiracy theories that fueled the January 6 rioters in the unsuccessful attempt to stop Congress from finalizing President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump.
Filings from the suit have previously revealed that Carlson’s private opinions concerning Trump’s election conspiracy theories were at odds with his on-air persona. In a message on November 16, 2020, Carlson told a producer that former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell was “lying” about the supposed election fraud.
In the messages released on Tuesday, Carlson said he had “no doubt” there was some amount of fraud in the election but argued that Powell and fellow lawyer-turned-conspiracy theorist Lin Wood had “so discredited their own case and the rest of us to some extent, that it’s infuriating.”
A Fox News spokesperson said the following in a statement to Newsweek: “Thanks to today’s filings, Dominion has been caught red handed again using more distortions and misinformation in their PR campaign to smear FOX News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press.”
“We already know they will say and do anything to try to win this case, but to twist and even misattribute quotes to the highest levels of our company is truly beyond the pale,” the statement continued.
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s office for comment.
Source : Newsweek