Acknowleding that he's "implicated in this for sure," former Fox News host Tucker Carlson lamented his support for President Donald Trump on his show this week and issued an apology for "misleading people" into supporting him.
Carlson has broken with Trump over different issues over the last several months. His remarks come shortly after he criticized Trump for launching a war with Iran and urged U.S. military aides to refuse any orders involving the killing of Iranian civilians. Trump responded by calling Carlson and other high-profile conservative critics “stupid,” attention-seeking, and out of step with his political movement.
Overall, Carlson has strongly criticized U.S. military involvement in Iran, describing the initial assault as “absolutely disgusting and evil” during an interview with ABC News in late February. Carlson said the war is "going to shuffle the deck in a profound way."
Carlson, joined by his brother, Buckley Carlson, appeared to express regret for galvanizing Trump's supporters over many years, saying:
“You and I and everyone else who supported him — you wrote speeches for him, I campaigned for him — we’re implicated in this for sure. It’s not enough to say, ‘Well, I changed my mind’ or, like, ‘Oh, this is bad. I’m out.’ It’s, like, in very small ways, but in real ways, you and me and millions of people like us are the reason this is happening right now.”
“I do think it’s, like, a moment to wrestle with our own consciences. We’ll be tormented by it for a long time — I will be. And I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people."
"It was not intentional. That's all I'll say."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
But Carlson's words ring a bit hollow.
Fox News reportedly made the decision to fire Carlson on short notice, with the host finding out just 10 minutes before the news was announced on April 24, 2023. While the network has not confirmed the reason for Carlson’s departure, a source suggested his extreme Christian nationalist and white nationalist views were a contributing factor.
Days before his firing, he appeared at the Heritage Foundation’s 50th Anniversary gala and gave a speech in which he labeled abortion as "child sacrifice," portrayed American politics as a clash between "good and evil" and recommended the solution was to dedicate "10 minutes a day to pray about it."
Despite this, he used his program to spread racist conspiracy theories that were themselves supported by members of Trump's administration. Consider when he suggested "race politics" were responsible for political divisions in the aftermath of a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, even going so far as to downplay the existence of white nationalist talking points in the shooter's manifesto.
The shooter subscribed to the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory, which suggests white European populations and their descendants are being demographically and culturally replaced with non-European peoples, a conspiracy Carlson has often touted. The Trump administration has promoted "remigration," calling for the mass deportation of non-white immigrants and minorities.
Carlson's departure came mere days after Fox News paid over $787 million to settle a case brought by Dominion Voting Systems, which argued Fox News and its top hosts spread—in lockstep with Trump—conspiracy theories about the 2020 election being rigged despite knowing that these claims were false.
Carlson was perhaps Fox News' biggest conspiratorial mouthpiece, and text messages he'd sent to other Fox personalities—which featured heavily in Dominion's lawsuit—showed he was acutely aware of the damage he was doing as he continued to lie anyway.
While Carlson's words appear to reflect another significant break in the MAGA movement, people were not convinced Carlson was genuine at all.
It certainly sounds like Carlson might need to reflect even more.
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