Fox News star host Tucker Carlson is under fire from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers after airing selectively edited video excerpts from 41,000-hours of surveillance footage from the Capitol riot, handed to him by House speaker Kevin McCarthy, in an attempt to cast doubt on the established narrative.
Carlson had attempted to insist that the assault on the legislative complex on 6 January 2021 by Donald Trump supporters seeking to stop the certification of the 2020 election results – in which five people died, hundreds were injured and over which more than 1,000 people have since been charged – was a “peaceful protest” that has since been weaponised by Democrats as a means of persecuting the 45th president.
“The protesters were angry. They believed that the election they had just voted in had been unfairly conducted. And they were right,” the host said during Monday night’s prime-time broadcast.
“In retrospect, it is clear that the 2020 election was a grave betrayal of American democracy. No honest person can deny it.”
He continued: “Taken as a whole, the video record does not does not support the claim that January 6 was an insurrection. In fact, it demolishes that claim.”
Carlson insisted that, despite a few bad apples, “the overwhelming majority” of those who took part in the attack “were peaceful, ordinary and meek”, adding, incredibly: “These were not insurrectionists. They were sightseers.”
But his comments have since been denounced on both sides of the aisle, including by Capitol Police chief Thomas Manger and a host of Republican senators led by Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, who told reporters: “It was a mistake, in my view, for Fox News to depict this in a way that’s completely at variance with what our chief law enforcement official here at the Capitol thinks.”
Already up against it, Carlson’s name has cropped up again in the latest court filings by Dominion Voting Systems, which is suing Fox in a $1.6bn defamation lawsuit over the network’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election and Mr Trump’s bogus claims that the contest was “rigged”.
Dominion, a manufacturer of voting machines, argues that its reputation has been damaged by Fox anchors like Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Lou Dobbs spreading conspiracy-minded speculation on air that they themselves did not believe.
But attorneys for Fox have accused the company of “cherry-picking soundbites” and “omitting key context” in its filings, which contain private text messages and emails between the top anchors and senior executives including Rupert Murdoch.
“Dominion brought this lawsuit to punish the Fox News Network for reporting on one of the biggest stories of the day – allegations by the sitting president of the United States and his surrogates that the 2020 election was affected by fraud. The very fact of those allegations was newsworthy,” Fox argues in a counterclaim.
The filings find Mr Carlson bemoaning the criticism he has personally received from viewers over the network’s correct decision to call Arizona for Joe Biden on election night and calling Trump lawyer and regular guest Sidney Powell a “f***ing b****” and accusing her of lying.
But one of their most interesting aspects has been what Dominion’s submissions reveal about Mr Carlson’s attitude towards Mr Trump himself, whom he regularly defended on air throughout his presidency and its aftermath.
Carlson ‘hates’ Trump ‘passionately’
In the latest filings from the case published on Tuesday, Carlson is seen expressing his hatred of Mr Trump in a text message sent to a fellow Fox employee two days before the Capitol riot: “We are very very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait.
“I hate him passionately, I blew up at Peter Navarro today in frustration. I actually like Peter. But I can’t handle much more of this.”
Carlson called Trump a ‘demonic force’
An earlier filing published on 16 February contained an anxious text from Carlson to his producer Alex Pfeiffer warning of the dangers of displeasing the outgoing president.
In that one, Carlson describes Mr Trump as “a demonic force, a destroyer”, adding: “But he’s not going to destroy us.”
“What he’s good at is destroying things,” the host wrote, according to Dominion.
“He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.”
Carlson demands White House reporter be fired over Trump correction
In another message purportedly sent to a group chat including Ingraham and Hannity on 12 November, a week after the US had gone to the polls, Carlson pointed out a tweet from the network’s White House correspondent, Jacqui Heinrich, in which she fact-checked a post by Mr Trump alleging voter fraud.
In it, she pointed out that “top election infrastructure officials” had declared: “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised.”
Carlson reacted by saying: “Please get her fired. Seriously… What the f***? I’m actually shocked… It needs to stop tonight immediately, like tonight. It’s immeasurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.”
Given his comments elsewhere, this appears to be a demonstration of loyalty towards the carefully cultivated Fox brand and not an attempt to shield Mr Trump from criticism.
