Tucker Carlson reportedly based Fox News’ digital streaming platform, Fox Nation, prior to his firing, according to a recent report.
A video has emerged of Carlson complaining about the “unbelievable” failings of the streaming platform around the time the network was holding water for alleged sex trafficker and social media influencer Andrew Tate.
Carlson said that “nobody watches Fox Nation because the site sucks,” and frequently doesn’t “work,” Media Matters reports.
He said the site was a “betrayal of our efforts” and that he would rather just post his content to YouTube.
“I’m just frustrated with it. It’s hard to use that site. I don’t know why they’re not fixing it. It’s driving me insane. And they’re like making, like, Lifetime movies. But they don’t, they don’t work on the infrastructure of the site,” Carlson says in the video. “Like what? It’s crazy. And it drives me crazy because it’s like we’re doing all this extra work and no one can find it.”
In the video, Carlson is speaking on the phone while on the set of his Tucker Carlson Today streaming show. He tells the individual on the other end of the call that he is about to be acting as “a representative of the American media now, speaking to an exile in Romania and welcoming him back into the brotherhood of journalists,” referring to Tate.
Carlson is reportedly asked not to wear a suit because his interview subject, Tate, was “panicking” about having to wear a suit. Carlson reportedly bristles at the idea, saying he wants the interview to “look official” and not like “bro talk.”
The former Fox News star apparently acquiesced, as he appeared in a sweater and Tate appeared in a t-shit for the interview.
After Carlson aired part of the interview during his Fox news show, a chyron displayed on the screen directing viewers to see the full interview "On Fox Nation right after this show."
The interview took place in August 2022; in December 2022 Romanian authorities arrested Tate — who is currently still under house arrest — while he is being investigated on "allegations of rape, people trafficking, and forming an organised crime group."
Carlson brushed off the allegations as "obviously a set-up," according to the Daily Beast.
The former Fox News host was fired last week for reason that remain unclear. He was not given a farewell show. It is unclear what Carlson will do after leaving the network.
