Tucker Carlson admitted in texts that he “hates” Donald Trump – On the same day that he revealed more alternate camera angles of the well-documented January 6 insurrection, that broadcast wasn’t even the biggest Tucker Carlson story of the day, thanks to more revelations from the Dominion lawsuit against Fox News.
Tucker Carlson vs. Donald Trump?
Tucker Carlson’s appeal isn’t entirely about loyalty to former President Donald Trump, as the Fox News host’s style is more about a specific set of ideological commitments than pure Trump sycophancy (Sean Hannity, on the other hand, is more of a direct servant of the Republican Party and Trump specifically.) But it’s fair to say that Carlson and Donald Trump share a great many fans.
So it’s likely somewhat embarrassing to Carlson that he’s now on the record as stating that he “passionately” hates the former president of the United States.
That revelation comes from the latest set of legal filings made available from Dominion Voting System’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News.
The first tranche of released documents showed that both Fox News hosts and executives admitted to each other that they didn’t believe Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election being stolen, even as the network continued to strike a very different tone on television.
The headline from the latest documents? Carlson ripped Donald Trump in numerous text exchanges, saying at one point that “I hate him passionately.” Carlson also criticized Trump for skipping President Biden’s inauguration and stated in early January 2021 that “we are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait.”
And lest you think that Carlson only turned on Donald Trump at the end of his term, he also declared, in another newly released text, that “That’s the last four years. We’re all pretending we’ve got a lot to show for it because admitting what a disaster it’s been is too tough to digest. But come on. There isn’t really an upside to Trump.”
Tucker Carlson’s Big Week
The revelations came the same week that Carlson has been releasing footage claiming to counterattack the established media narrative about the January 6 insurrection- a release made possible by a special deal with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy that released the footage to Carlson’s show exclusively. That release has been blasted by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), as well as other members of Congress of both parties who were present on January 6 and know first-hand that Carlson’s narrative is bogus.
“I want to associate myself entirely with the opinion of the chief and the Capitol Police about what happened on Jan. 6,” McConnell said Wednesday. “It was a mistake, in my view, for Fox News to depict this in a way that’s completely at variance with what our chief law enforcement official here at the Capitol thinks.”
The revelation that Carlson has said that he “passionately” hates Donald Trump — who earlier the same night had praised Carlson’s January 6 segments —wasn’t the only news to come out of the latest bit of information from the Dominion suit, according to a report by CNN.
Also included in the Tuesday release were more admissions from Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch that he did not believe in election conspiracies, and an email from Murdoch admitting that some of the channel’s hosts “went too far.” Murdoch also admitted that he had shared confidential campaign ad information with Trump’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner.
Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, more willing than some Fox hosts to share conspiracy theories on the air, had texted Steve Bannon about her refusal to call Biden the president-elect.
“I want to see massive fraud exposed … I told my team we are not allowed to say pres elect,” she said.
There were also text messages between Hannity and morning host Steve Doocy, who complained to each other about the work of the network’s journalists.
“News destroyed us,” Hannity said in one text, while Doocy stated “They don’t care. They are JOURNALISTS.”
Expertise and Experience: Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
