Tucker Carlson has broken his silence since Monday’s surprise announcement that he was fired from Fox News.
In a more-than-two-minute video posted to his Twitter, the former host of Tucker Carlson Tonight began by saying that stepping “outside the noise for a few days” has shown him “how many genuinely nice people there are in this country.”
“Kind and decent people, people who really care about what’s true and a bunch of hilarious people also — a lot of those,” he said. “It’s got to be the majority of the population, even now. So that’s heartening.”
Carlson also said he’s noticed how “unbelievably stupid” most of the debates on television are. He went on to say that they’re irrelevant and mean nothing, noting that five years from now, people won’t even remember seeing those debates.
“Trust me, as someone who’s participated. And yet, at the same time — and this is the amazing thing — the undeniably big topics, the ones that will define our future, get virtually no discussion at all,” he added. “War, civil liberties, emerging science, demographic change, corporate power, natural resources — when was the last time you heard a legitimate debate about any of those issues? It’s been a long time.”
Carlson continued, “Debates like that are not permitted in American media. Both political parties and their donors have reached consensus on what benefits them, and they actively collude to shut down any conversation about it. Suddenly, the United States looks very much like a one-party state. That’s a depressing realization. But it’s not permanent.”
The former Fox News political commentator said that he doesn’t think those orthodoxies will last because nobody believes them, and nobody’s life is improved by them. He explained that the “people in charge” know about this, and that’s why they’re “hysterical and aggressive.”
“They’re afraid,” Carlson said. “They’ve given up persuasion. They’re resorting to force, but it won’t work. When honest people say what’s true, calmly and without embarrassment, they become powerful. At the same time, the liars who’ve been trying to silence them shrink. They become weaker. That’s the iron law of the universe. True things prevail.”
Fox News announced it had agreed to part ways with Carlson and thanked him for his service on Monday. The decision seemingly came out of nowhere, with his program often ranking as the most watched on the network and of all cable TV on some days.
While Fox finds a replacement for Carlson, a rotating slate of guest hosts will fill in on a new show called Fox News Tonight.
