‘I’ll Die Here’: Tucker Carlson Felt Chained to Fox, New Texts Suggest
Dying on the Hill
Carlson worried Trump’s post-election antics would the destroy the right-wing network, Confider reports
Tucker Carlson was apparently not just worried that Donald Trump’s post-2020 election lies would “destroy” Fox News, but thrown into an existential crisis by the former president. Newly-revealed texts from December 2020 obtained by the Daily Beast’s newsletter, Confider, suggest that Trump’s antics left the former headline host trapped and feeling like he was going to “die” at the network.
“It’s so sad,” Carlson lamented in messages over Trump’s tantrums after losing a second term as president to Joe Biden. “He’s going to break some shit. He already is. Wish I knew where to run. But I’ll die here.”
The latest batch of released texts draw an increasingly pouty portrait of Carlson who seemed to grow displeased with his former employer after the 2020 election. Following his abrupt ousting from Fox News last month, a leaked video caught Carlson bashing Fox Nation, the streaming service marketed around original content from the former host. His string of annoyances with colleagues and executives even included an ongoing “death match” with Fox’s communications and PR chief, Irena Briganti, who he attempted to get fired, sources told Rolling Stone.
The unredacted messages obtained by Confider also included messages from between Carlson and Fox host Jesse Watters — the latest heir apparent to the network’s long-standing racist tradition — in which Watters contemplates ushering in a new area of MAGA henchmen. “Wallace Cavuto and other [sic] have got to go. Need some fresh blood. Should hire some trump people,” Watters messaged Tucker on Nov. 13, echoing Carlson’s previous demands to fire White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich after she fact-checked Trump.
Fox has assembled a damaging “oppo file” — led by Briganti herself — should Carlson attack the network following his exit, sources told Rolling Stone last month. If the former host is feeling particularly rancorous, the network is reportedly prepared to disclose parts of the alleged dossier of dirt.
