New court documents are pulling back the curtain on the not-so-rosy relationship between Donald Trump and Fox News star Tucker Carlson.
More of Carlson’s private messages were revealed as part of Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network.
According to Mediaite, Carlson admitted his negative opinion of Trump during a text conversation with an unknown staffer on Jan. 4, 2021, just days before the riot at the U.S. Capitol, the prime-time star wrote, “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights.”
The unknown staffer reportedly speculated that they believed the madness would cool down by “mid-February.”
“I hate him passionately,” Carlson replied. “I blew up at [former Trump official] Peter Navarro today in frustration. I actually like Peter. But I can’t handle much more of this.”
Carlson added that Trump and his lawyers “have so discredited their own case, and the rest of us to some extent, that it’s infuriating. Absolutely enrages me.”
“That’s the last four years,” Carlson continued. “We’re all pretending we’ve got a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it’s been is too tough to digest. But come on. There isn’t really an upside to Trump.”
The Fox News star has hosted the nightly political talk show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” since 2019, has outwardly been a staunch supporter of the former president for years but his private messages reveal a very different side to the story.
According to Mediaite, Carlson expressed fear to a producer that Trump could “destroy” the network if it did not handle its coverage of his 2020 election claims in a certain way.
“What [Trump]’s good at is destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong,” Carlson said.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy recently handed over 41,000 hours of Jan. 6th, 2021 footage to Carlson.
“[T]here was never any legitimate reason for this footage to remain secret,” Carlson told Axios. “If there was ever a question that’s in the public’s interest to know, it’s what actually happened on January 6.”
“By definition, this video will reveal it,” Carlson said. “It’s impossible for me to understand why any honest person would be bothered by that.”
Fox News has defended itself against the Dominion suit by arguing it was simply reporting on newsworthy allegations from the president of the United States and his surrogates.
Fox News issued a statement on the new release of exhibits, arguing the full context of the comments being cited by Dominion undermines their claims:
“Thanks to today’s filings, Dominion has been caught red handed again using more distortions and misinformation in their 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 to twist and even misattribute quotes to the highest levels of our company is truly beyond the pale,” a spokesperson said.
