Tucker Carlson wants to clear the air.
During an appearance with WABC radio, the Fox News host fumed that his private text messages were leaked, especially his remarks about former president Donald Trump.
“And I think this is in the text, and those were all grabbed completely illegitimately, in my opinion, in this court case, which I guess I'm not allowed to talk about, but I'm enraged that my private texts were pulled,” he said.
Earlier this month, Carlson's along with other Fox News officials' private texts were revealed in court documents related to Dominion Voting Systems‘ $1.6 billion defamation suit against the network. (RELATED: Private Tucker Carlson Messages Reveal ‘Passionate' Hate for Donald Trump)
During a text conversation with an unknown staffer on Jan. 4, 2021, just days before the riot at the U.S. Capitol, the prime-time star wrote, “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights.”
The unknown staffer reportedly speculated that they believed the madness would cool down by “mid-February.”
“I hate him passionately,” Carlson replied. “I blew up at [former Trump official] Peter Navarro today in frustration. I actually like Peter. But I can't handle much more of this.”
The Fox News host said those specific texts were pulled at a moment when he was texting one of his producers because “some idiot on the Trump campaign had sent us the name of these dead voters who had voted,” referring to his false reporting after the 2020 election that echoed the Trump campaign's unfounded claims of dead people who were fraudulently counted as voting in Georgia.
After Carlson's segment aired, a local Georgia news outlet debunked his claim, finding that two of the allegedly dead voters were alive and legally registered to vote. Days later, CNN reported that a third of the supposedly dead voters was found still living.
“And we went and I repeated them on air, and it turns out some of them were alive,” Carlson said, referring to the campaign's accusation. “So I was just — I felt humiliated.”
Carlson's private texts starkly contrasted what he had been telling viewers during his primetime show. The Fox News star pushed back on claims he intentionally lied to viewers/
“Oh, let's see. I spent four years defending his policies and I, I'm going to defend them again tonight,” Carlson said. “And actually, and I'm pretty straight forward, I'm um I love Trump. Like, as a person, I think Trump is funny and insightful.”
“And I said this to Trump when he called me, you know, all wounded about those texts,” he continued. “That was a moment in time where I was absolutely infuriated.”
Fox News issued a statement on the new release of exhibits, arguing the full context of the comments being cited by Dominion undermines their claims:
“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,” a spokesperson said.
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so?
Everything that we say online is subject to scrutiny, hyperanalysis and exposure or whatever, and taken out of context, misquoted or deformed and twisted to serve a narrative…all I have to say is speak the TRUTH and to HELL with these people!
Tucker Carlson has more honesty and integrity in his little finger than a lot of so-called “news” organizations can muster out of their entire company.
I’d jump in on Tucker’s side before even knowing what an issue was about.