Fox Information host Tucker Carlson referred to as then-President Donald Trump “a demonic pressure” and “a destroyer” in a textual content to his manufacturer after 1000’s of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“However he’s now not going to ruin us,” Carlson added within the textual content, printed in a courtroom submitting Thursday that lays out how Fox Information knowingly unfold election lies.
The 192-page submitting, a part of an ongoing $1.6 billion defamation go well with in opposition to Fox Information through Dominion Balloting Methods, unearths personal messages between a number of community hosts and staff, in addition to Fox media rich person Rupert Murdoch.
Dominion alleges that Fox Information put Trump sycophants at the air ― together with Trump’s private attorney Rudy Giuliani and marketing campaign attorney Sidney Powell ― in spite of understanding that they had been spouting baseless conspiracies, together with claims that Dominion machines modified votes all through the 2020 election.
“Sidney Powell is mendacity through the best way,” Carlson mentioned in a textual content to fellow host Laura Ingraham in November 2020. “It’s insane.”
On Nov. 5 of that 12 months, Carlson additionally expressed fears that Trump “may just simply ruin us if we play it flawed” after Fox Information referred to as Arizona for Democratic rival Joe Biden.
Whilst the higher echelons of Fox Information it sounds as if knew Trump had misplaced the vote rather, that didn’t forestall the community from platforming the ones like Powell and Giuliani, who endured to unfold conspiracies of election fraud with out proof.
What’s extra, Carlson railed in opposition to co-workers who would dare query those lies, in keeping with the submitting. When Fox reporter Jacqui Heinrich fact-checked the ones false claims on her Twitter account on Nov. 12, 2020, Carlson urged that she lose her task.
“Please get her fired,” Carlson texted host Sean Hannity, in keeping with the report. “Critically….What the fuck? I’m in truth stunned…It wishes to forestall right away, like this night. It’s measurably hurting the corporate. The inventory worth is down. No longer a comic story.”
After insurrectionists attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Carlson informed manufacturer Alex Pfeiffer that Trump is “a demonic pressure, a destroyer. However he’s now not going to ruin us” — in spite of proceeding to publicly shield Trump on his program on the time.
The newly launched texts are simply any other instance of the way Carlson adopted Trump’s lead even if he disagreed with him.
Because the coronavirus started to unfold in early March 2020, Carlson drove to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago lodge and warned him to take the virus critically.
“I attempted guy,” Carlson informed Infowars host Alex Jones later on, in keeping with a sequence of personal textual content messages first acquired through HuffPost.
By way of the next month, as Trump endured to forget about the severity of COVID-19, Carlson himself it sounds as if stopped in regards to the virus as a risk, as an alternative repeating conspiracy theories shared through Trump that minimized the chance of the pandemic whilst 1000’s of American citizens had been demise.
Not up to a 12 months later, and simply weeks after calling Trump “demonic,” Carlson nonetheless broadcast a display on which right-wing pillow rich person Mike Lindell “spouted … [such] conspiracies on air after previewing them for Carlson’s body of workers all through a pre-interview,” in keeping with the courtroom submitting.