Donald Trump claimed Tucker Carlson does not “hate” him anymore just days after messages released as part of a defamation lawsuit against Fox News revealed that the conservative news network host said he “passionately hated” the former president.
The former president wrote on Monday on his Twitter-like social media platform Truth Social: “…He doesn’t hate me, or at least, not anymore!”
Last week, the messages which were the latest bombshell revelation in the $1.6bn (£1.35bn) defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against the network, revealed that Carlson could not wait to “ignore” Mr Trump.
“We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights,” Carlson told an unknown Fox News employee just two days before the January 6 Capitol riot, according to the court documents. “I truly can’t wait.”
“I hate him passionately,” he added.
Court documents also revealed other disclosures in which Carlson called Mr Trump “a demonic force, a destroyer”.
He also labelled Mr Trump’s campaign officials and attorneys as liars who were spreading “offensive” conspiracies about the election.
The messages were revealed just days after Carlson aired footage from the Capitol riot on Monday and Tuesday after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy handed over more than 40,000 hours of surveillance footage from the attack.
“The footage does not show an insurrection or a riot in progress,” Carlson was quoted as saying on the show by RSB Network.
Later, the White House condemned Fox News’s coverage saying that Carlson “is not credible”.
“We agree with the chief of the Capitol Police and the wide range of bipartisan lawmakers who have condemned this false depiction of the unprecedented, violent attack on our Constitution and the rule of law – which cost police officers their lives,” a White House spokesperson said in a statement obtained by The Independent.
