A racially charged and bloodthirsty text from Tucker Carlson about the assault of a protester by Trump supporters was reportedly a key factor that caused the anchor to leave Fox News in shock last week.
The New York Times reported Tuesday night that the discovery of Carlson’s message, and the language it contained, “caused panic” among Fox executives on the eve of the defamation lawsuit brought against the cable news network by Dominion Voting Systems.
Carlson’s text, published in full by the Time, was sent the day after the January 6 attack on the Capitol and was in response to a video clip of an attack that took place weeks earlier. In the lyrics, Carlson responds to three Trump supporters beating up a lone protester. It is unclear what race the protester was. “Pumping on someone like that is, of course, dishonorable. White men don’t fight like that,” Carlson writes. “But suddenly I found myself supporting the mob against the man, hoping they would hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the child. I could taste it,” the newspaper writes Time said.
Later in the lyrics, Carlson admonishes himself for his bloodlust: “I’m becoming something I don’t want to be. The Antifa ghoul is human. As much as I despise what he says and does, as much as I’m sure I personally would hate him if I knew him, I shouldn’t gloat over his suffering. I should suffer.”
He added, “I have to remember that someone probably loves this kid and would be crushed if he were killed. If I don’t care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than him?
The Time reports that the Fox board saw the text the day before the Dominion trial was to begin, and that they feared it would become public during the court proceedings, especially if Carlson was called to the stand. Fox eventually settled the Dominion case for $787.5 million.
The Hollywood Reporter has contacted Fox News for comment.
More to come…
