Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson cleared the record regarding whether he harbors hard feelings toward his former employer.
During his latest video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Carlson addressed speculation that his interview with former President Donald Trump was intentionally planned for the same night as the first GOP debate. According to the former Fox News anchor, the timing wasn’t up to him.
TRUMP’S GOP SUPPORT HAS ONLY CLIMBED SINCE THE INDICTMENTS BEGAN
Dave Portnoy founded Barstool Sports and just completed the most impressive business transaction of our lifetime. He also just got into an epic fight and shared the video with us first. Watch. pic.twitter.com/6LSFLTczzM
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 31, 2023
“To me, the Trump interview seemed like something — it looked like you guys were sticking it to Fox,” Carlson’s guest and owner of Barstool Sports, Dave Portnoy, said during the episode.
“I would never wanna stick it to Fox,” Carlson said with a sly smile that aroused Portnoy into laughter. Then Carlson’s expression turned serious. “No, I’m not mad at Fox. I’m really not.”
“But the timing of it,” Portnoy pushed.
“Well, it was the night of the debate, but the reason that it was, is because he didn’t want to do the debate. I didn’t make that decision for him,” Carlson clarified. “He approached us and said, ‘You know, I’m not gonna do the debate,’ but if I’m being totally honest, I didn’t really believe him.”
However, Carlson accepted that it was likely intentional on Trump’s part to have the interview air at the same time because Carlson relented that the former president “doesn’t like Fox.”
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“But they don’t like him. You know, they never did, and they always had rules about not allowing him on,” Carlson said. “My view was, I think it’s totally legitimate you just don’t like Donald Trump. I don’t hold that against anybody.”
Carlson still offered criticism of his former network for seemingly making a rule against Trump’s appearance on the network because the owner, Rupert Murdoch, doesn’t like him. Carlson claimed that by not having Trump on, Fox was “not really covering the news anymore.” Portnoy agreed that by doing so, Fox was “no different than any of the other networks.”
