Fox News host Tucker Carlson sent a series of private text messages to his colleague regarding his relationship with former President Trump, which was released by Dominion Voting Systems as part of its defamation suit against the network.
According to a January 4, 2021, text message, Carlson revealed he has a strong dislike toward Trump.
“I hate him passionately,” a text sent by Carlson to a colleague read. “What he’s good at is destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.”
Two days before the January 6 Capitol Hill protests, Carlson wrote that he was very close to being done having to talk about the former president on-air.
“We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait,” Carlson wrote.
The Fox News host has spent much of his time defending Trump against Democrats and the liberal media, such as his ties to Russian collusion, participating in protestors storming the Capitol, and other false allegations.
He has also praised Trump’s accomplishments, such as his efforts to secure the southern border.
However, behind the scenes, Carlson was reportedly taking on another narrative.
“That’s the last four years. 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,” Carlson wrote in a text message on a separate occasion.
Carlson’s texts were used in a series of exhibits from Dominion, which is suing the network as part of its $1.6 billion lawsuit for defamation against Fox, arguing that they knowingly aired false claims about the company.
On the other end, Fox is pushing to dismiss the case on First Amendment grounds, saying Dominion is “twisting” and “misattributing” quotes for its good.
On Tuesday, Dominion also alleged that owner and co-chairman of Fox Corp, Rupert Murdoch, reportedly said that hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham “went too far” on post-election coverage.
In a statement following the release of the text messages, Fox News said, “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.”