Conservative pundit Tucker Carlson posted a cryptic video message to his Twitter profile late Wednesday evening — his first public comments since his ouster from Fox News this week.
During the two-minute message, Carlson said he had realized after “stepping outside the noise for a few days” how many “genuinely nice people there are in this country.”
“The other thing you notice when you take a little time off is how unbelievably stupid most of the debates on television are,” he continued. “They’re completely irrelevant. They mean nothing. In five years, we won’t even remember we had them. Trust me as someone who has participated in them.”
Carlson was ousted from his perch at Fox News on Monday in a shocking move that continues to ripple through the media industry and Republican party. Fox has given no reason for its parting ways with Carlson beyond a statement thanking him for contributions to the network.
The former top prime-time host’s video on Wednesday was published just hours after an explosive New York Times report outlining how the day before the network was set to go to trial in a defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, which it eventually settled for $787 million, Fox executives learned of the contents of Carlson’s messages disparaging network leadership.
The night before the case was set to go to trial, Fox executives discovered the content of previously redacted text messages Carlson had sent around the time of the 2020 election, the Times reported.
The Wall Street Journal earlier Wednesday reported that in one of the redacted messages, Carlson referred to a senior female Fox News executive as the c-word and made other offensive, disparaging comments about the company.
“Both political parties and their donors have reached consensus on what benefits them and they actively collude to shut down any conversation about it,” Carlson said in his video message. “When honest people say what’s true, calmly and without embarrassment, they become powerful. At the same time, the liars who have been trying to silence them shrink. They become weaker. That’s the iron law of the universe.”
Carlson ended his message by suggesting that his audience, which often topped more than 3 million people each weeknight while at Fox, would soon hear from him again.
“Where can you still find Americans saying true things there aren’t many places left but there are some, and that’s enough,” Carlson said. “As long as you can hear the words, there is hope. See you soon.”
Updated: 10:30 a.m.