Ousted Fox News personality Tucker Carlson talked publicly on Wednesday for the first time since being booted from the network, but he had nothing to say about parting ways with Fox News.
The network announced earlier this week Carlson would no longer fill the coveted 8 p.m. time slot, which has perennially been among the most viewed windows on cable TV. Carlson’s comments came in the form of a two-minute video posted to Twitter.
The video was posted at 8:01 p.m. ET, which was about the same time his old program aired.
"You notice when you take a little time off how unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are. They're completely irrelevant,” Carlson said. “They mean nothing in five years.”
In the video, Carlson complained that legitimate debates are not permitted in American media and that both political parties “reached consensus on what benefits them.” The comments echoed a theme Carlson used on air when he would delegitimize American institutions, like the U.S. voting process.
He ended the video by saying, “See you soon.”
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During and following the Trump administration, he became an advocate for Donald Trump. He often echoed many of Trump’s unfounded claims that the election was stolen, despite dozens of court rulings to the contrary.
In a court filing from Dominion Voting Systems, Dominion noted that Carlson called Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 election “the single greatest crime in American history," as he echoed false claims made by Trump attorney Sidney Powell.
But off the air, Carlson apparently sang a different tune.Text messages that surfaced during the Dominion case showed Carlson texting, “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights” and that “I truly can't wait.”
Carlson was given exclusive access to video of the Jan. 6 insurrection by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Other news outlets, including Scripps News, have asked for access to the video.
Carlson then used the video to downplay the insurrection, claiming the riot was not an insurrection and that some of those charged for being on Capitol had their civil liberties “annihilated.”
Fox News’ announcement came on the same day CNN and Don Lemon also parted ways.
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