Fox News host Tucker Carlson called former President Donald Trump “moderate, rational and wise” after sitting down with the former president on Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago — Trump’s first interview since being summoned last week.
Carlson also said Trump’s description of Mar-a-Lago’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping was “remarkably accurate and even affectionate” despite Trump’s hardening stance on China, telling Fox viewers they were in for a “really thriller.”
Carlson’s comments come after his private messages were exposed and made public in March as part of a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Dominion Voting Systems.
We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. Carlson allegedly said of Trump, according to the lawsuit: ‘I really can’t wait. “I hate him with a passion,” the lawsuit said, the Fox host texted his producer Alex Pfeiffer on January 4, 2021.
At the time, Trump was contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson called former President Donald Trump “moderate, rational and wise” after sitting down with the former president Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago — in Trump’s first interview since being called last week.
Carlson (right) posted letters as part of Dominion’s lawsuit against Fox News. In it, he allegedly said, “I hate him with a passion,” about Trump (left) and said he “can’t wait” to reduce his coverage. Carlson interviewed Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday (pictured)
When Carlson’s letters were published, a Fox spokesperson said: Thanks to filings made today, Dominion has been caught red-handed once again using more smear and disinformation in a 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 misrepresenting and even misrepresenting prices at the highest levels of our company is really going too far.”
Dominion is suing Fox, as the voting-machine company says the conservative media company defamed them by questioning their technology and methods as Trump allies spread election-fraud conspiracy theories on Fox’s airwaves.
Fox disputes the allegations and the case heads to trial in Wilmington, Delaware.
And while Trump has been critical of the Rupert Murdoch-owned cable network, he did not make that point clear during the nearly hour-long interview with Carlson that aired Tuesday night.
He did not mention Carlson’s texts.
Before each segment of the interview aired, Carlson addressed Fox viewers from an open-air live location in Palm Beach, Florida, near the Mar-a-Lago property.
“For a man who has been portrayed as an extremist, we think you’ll find something to say moderate, rational and wise,” Carlson said before a foreign policy-heavy portion of the interview.
“For a man who has been portrayed as an extremist, we think you’ll find what he has to say moderate, sensible and wise,” Carlson said before a foreign policy-heavy portion of the interview.
Trump spoke briefly about last week’s Manhattan grilling, but then broke into foreign policy topics for most of his nearly hour-long interview that aired on Carlson’s Tuesday night show on Fox News.
Trump spoke briefly about the Manhattan grilling last week, but quickly turned to bashing President Joe Biden’s administration over withdrawing from Afghanistan.
The White House released a report last week as Biden was leaving for the Easter break that put much of the blame on Trump for what happened.
Trump quipped, “These idiots, these idiots – and think about the way they left Afghanistan and none of them got kicked out.”
They left in the dark of the night. They left the lights on. They left the dogs, by the way, you know, they left their dogs. They left the dogs. Everyone you know, dog lovers. And you have a lot of them. I like dogs. You love dogs, but they left their stuff,” Trump continued.
He also allegedly told Russian President Vladimir Putin not to touch Ukraine.
“I could see he liked it,” Trump told Carlson. He considers it part of Russia.
Trump continued: “I said, not when I’m president. I said I would do a really bad thing if he went to Ukraine and he said, “No, no, you’re not going to do that.” I said I will. And he didn’t believe me either, but he did believe me 10 percent. And the 10% you’ve never heard talk about going to Ukraine.
During the interview, Trump also expressed concerns about “global warming” and criticized Biden for not holding a press conference while the president was in Ireland.
Trump was horrified that French President Emmanuel Macron had gone to China to meet Xi and condemned Biden for raising a fist last summer for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — not because it was too friendly, but because it wasn’t friendly enough.
You have this crazy world exploding and the United States having no say whatsoever and Macron, who is a friend of mine, is done with China kissing his ass. In China. You said that France is now going to China? Trump said.
Look at Saudi Arabia. Look what happened. They are amazing people. They wanted to help us. He goes and beats his fist. Do you know what a fist bump means? It means don’t shake my hand because your hand is dirty, this is a fist bump. They were offended. Do you understand that, yes? The former president continues.
Speaking to Carlson about how he hosted Xi at Mar-a-Lago in April 2017, he recalled how the Chinese president has a “beautiful translator.”
“He had an incredible interpreter – I’m not allowed to say that because it’s very rude and very politically incorrect – a beautiful interpreter,” Trump recalled. If you say that, they’ll say, “That’s awful, you’re not allowed to say that.” But she was very professional. I spoke every word to him, very professional.
At the end of the interview, Trump hinted that he believed the United States blew up the Nord Stream pipeline connecting Russia with Germany.
I don’t want to get our country into trouble, so I won’t answer it. But I can tell you who Russia was not. But when they blamed Russia, you know, they said Russia blew up their pipeline. I got a kick out of that, too. Trump said.
