Tucker Carlson ridiculed his former employer Fox News and Democrats over the broadcaster’s chyron that briefly described Joe Biden as a “wannabe dictator”.
Releasing the fourth episode of his Twitter show Tucker on Twitter on Thursday, Carlson questioned the apology tendered by Fox News following the gaffe.
He likened Mr Biden’s personality to that of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, North Korea’s Kim Il-sung and Romania’s tyrannical communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
“But why were they angry? If the banner on Fox was false? Why the hysteria?” asked Carlson in his show that was launched as a counter to his Fox primetime slot after being forced to resign.
On Tuesday night, Fox News broadcasted a chyron – a caption superimposed over the lower part of a video image – beneath split-screen videos that showed Donald Trump addressing supporters live in New Jersey and Mr Biden speaking at the White House earlier in the day.
“Wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested,” read the chyron.
Fox News said the “chyron was taken down immediately and was addressed”. Carlson claimed the Fox News producer responsible for the chyron resigned.
“Those words were up for less than 30 seconds, but the effect was immediate. Inside Fox, the women who run the network panicked,” he said in his long rant.
He said the channel “scolded the producer who put the banner on the screen” and claimed the producer later resigned.
He questioned why Democrats reacted to the chyron with anger.
“But why were they angry? If the banner on Fox was false? Why the hysteria? Lies don’t seem to bother anyone anymore. If some cable news producer had called Joe Biden a genius or accused him of being secretly Sudanese, would anyone be yelling about it?” Carlson said.
“Would Fox News have apologized for it? Probably not. But calling Joe Biden a wannabe dictator, that stung.”
In a mocking tone, Carlson proceeded to enumerate the various ways in which Mr Biden “could never be” considered a dictator. He sarcastically referred to government surveillance of phones and bank accounts, as well as a purported suppression of “peaceful protests” such as the events that unfolded during the Jan 6 riot.
The comments come as Daily Beast reported that Fox News producer Alexander McCaskill had parted ways with the network.
Fox News has sent Carlson a cease and desist letter ordering him to stop releasing shows on Twitter.
Fox’s attorneys wrote to Carlson demanding he stop posting Tucker on Twitter videos, the first two episodes of which attracted a combined 169 million views.
The right-wing network has been locked in a bitter contractual dispute with its former primetime anchor since he left in the aftermath of the $787m Dominion Voting Systems pay out in April.
