(LifeSiteNews) — Former Fox News primetime personality Tucker Carlson gave his first interview last week since being ousted from the network, claiming to still not know the reason while not holding hard feelings about it.
In April, Fox announced without explanation that it and the top-rated host had “agreed to part ways,” abruptly taking his show off the air and prompting a flurry of speculation as to the reason, with theories ranging from a costly defamation suit by voting machine company Dominion which had been settled just days before the ouster (despite Carlson himself having publicly expressed skepticism about claims that Dominion was involved in “stealing” the 2020 election) and controversial claims about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to behind-the-scenes bad blood between himself and various Fox officials.
On July 7, Carlson sat down with podcaster Russell Brand for a wide-ranging interview, during which he said, “I don’t know why I was fired, I really don’t. I’m not angry about it. I honestly don’t know.”
“I was surprised,” he said. “I didn’t, you know, expect to get fired that morning at all in April. So, I was shocked, but I wasn’t really shocked. And I wasn’t mad. It’s not my company. And when you work for someone else, that person reserves the right and in fact has inherently the right to decide whether you work there or not.”
“You can believe me or not, but…I wish Fox well,” Carlson added.
While stressing that Fox was “always very nice to me” and “always let me say what I wanted” and that he could “only speculate” as to what happened, Carlson suggested that the “war in Ukraine is a red line for a lot of people in business and politics” and that “if you criticize that…they really are intent on making you be quiet.” (Remaining Fox personality Laura Ingraham, who has been similarly critical of U.S. aid to Ukraine, was promoted last month from the 10PM slot to 6PM.)
Elsewhere in the interview, Carlson touched on presidential politics, expressing hope that former President Donald Trump and environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. win their respective parties’ presidential nominations, while at the same time doubting they would prevail.
“Well, I love Trump, personally,” Carlson said, expressing a reluctance to wade into electoral forecasting but predicting that “looking back on this ten years from now, assuming we’re still around, I think we are going to see Trump’s emergence as the most significant thing to happen in American politics in 100 years because he reoriented the Republican Party against the wishes of Republican leaders.”
Carlson’s remarks represent a significant softening of his feelings about the 45th president, whom he called a “demonic force” to which “there isn’t really an upside” in private texts with other Fox figures in January 2021. In March, Carlson claimed that those sentiments were merely a “moment in time” when he was frustrated by a Trump staffer who had sent his staff bad information.
Carlson also shared his thoughts about the populist mindset in American politics, which he has made a cornerstone of his appeal, including a theory as to why politicians like Kennedy and Trump tend to gain more traction than other populist figures.
“Teddy Roosevelt grew up rich. Of course, in New York, Trump, Bobby Kennedy is famous, one of the most famous families in the world, in modern history, the Kennedys, and certainly the most famous family in Democratic politics,” Carlson said. “So these are people who know how the system works because they benefited from the system. And so their critique is much more meaningful and much more effective, I would say, because they can bear witness to what they have seen.”
Following his dismissal from Fox, Carlson relaunched his commentary in the form of Twitter videos, which Twitter owner Elon Musk has highlighted as an example of his hopes for the social network to become a platform for long-form content on a wider scale, from voices across the spectrum. Fox’s and Carlson’s respective lawyers have made dueling claims about breach of contract pertaining to the videos, as despite being removed from the air the host has not yet been released from his Fox contract.