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Former Tucker Carlson Tonight producer Alex Pfeiffer said dealing with far-right conservatives pushing voter fraud conspiracies was like “negotiating” with “especially dumb terrorists" who have sex with their cousins.
Pfeiffer's thoughts on Fox News personality Tucker Carlson's audience became known after more than a million pages of internal Fox messages released in connection with Dominion Voting Systems' lawsuit against the network became public.
Dominion's lawsuit alleges the network's hosts and producers privately shared misgivings and criticisms about former Republican President Donald Trump's falsehoods about election fraud even as the network continued to promote his claims.
Pfeiffer himself—who worked for Fox at the time but has since left—received a message from Fox Corporation executive Raj Shah about softening Carlson's stance on baseless claims made by conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell, a member of Trump's legal team.
Requesting that Pfeiffer have Carlson address Powell's claim she had an affidavit linking Dominion and the country of Venezuela, Shah wrote:
“Might wanna address this, but this stuff is so f**king insane. Vote rigging to the tune of millions? C’mon.
Pfeiffer replied that “it is so insane but our viewers believe it so addressing again how her stupid Venezuela affidavit isn’t proof might insult them." But Shah said Carlson should mention the affidavit on the air anyway and describe it as “not new info, not proof” and later “pivot to being deferential.”
Pfeiffer also questioned allegations that Dominion "rigged" its own machines to subvert the 2020 election result:
“One funny thing. Dominion was used in Ohio and Florida. Trump won them. Did they forget to rig those or all part of the plan?”
Later, Shah asked Pfeiffer if he had seen that Newsmax host Greg Kelly “came after you," to which Pfeiffer offered a rather scathing criticism of election fraud conspiracy theorists:
"Yeah. This whole thing is surreal. Like negotiating with terrorists, but especially dumb ones. Cousin f**king types not saudi royalty.”
The news quickly took social media by storm and prompted many to call out the network's culture of hypocrisy.
Pfeiffer's name has featured significantly in Dominion's lawsuit against Fox News.
Last month, news outlets reported Carlson, perhaps the network's biggest mouthpiece for lies about election integrity, cast doubt on Trump's claims in text messages to Pfeiffer, referring to Trump as a "demonic force" and a "destroyer" in the aftermath of the Capitol riot.
In fact, Pfeiffer agreed with Carlson, responding that “many on ‘our side’ are being reckless demagogues right now" as Trump railed against Fox News for calling the state of Arizona for Democrat Joe Biden on Electon Night.
Carlson worried the network's decision would have an adverse impact, saying the team had "worked really hard to build what [they] have" and that it infuriated him to see "those f**kers... destroying our credibility."
And when Pfeiffer agreed with him, Carlson said Trump was good at “destroying things," adding:
"He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.”
Carlson later sent a text to Pfeiffer in which he suggested that Trump needed to concede “that there wasn’t enough fraud to change the outcome” of the 2020 election.