Text messages show Tucker Carlson wanted to ‘start threatening people’ for criticizing Trump

Tucker Carlson spoke about trying to steer the general direction of Fox News in a more pro-Trump direction and threatening colleagues who disagreed with his vision after the 2020 election, according to text messages obtained as part of the Domain Voting now resolved. Case of defamation of systems against the network.

In messages dated November 19, 2020, obtained by the daily beastCarlson is reportedly responding to a message from producer Justin Wells regarding a story seen as critical of Trump, which included references to “the rising number of coronavirus cases across the country and the ongoing turmoil over President Trump’s refusal to to award the election to President-elect Joe Biden.”

“We are not going to be successful if this continues,” Carlson reportedly said in the messages. “The brand will be too damaged. We should jump to a couple of examples just to send a clear message. Let’s start with this one. Can we find out who did this?

I’m happy to start threatening people individually,” he added. “It’s too much. And again, it will hurt us a lot if we let it continue.”

At the time, parts of the Fox News audience rioted after the conservative network accurately announced certain early election results for Joe Biden.

the independent has contacted Carlson for comment.

The alleged texts are the latest disclosure in the Dominion lawsuit, which Fox settled for $787.5 million last month, and come as Carlson is planning his post-Fox future.

The wildly popular news commentator left Fox abruptly in April after the deal. Fox News has not explicitly described the reason for the split, but network executives were dismayed by Carlson’s criticism of Fox’s leadership and by racist and misogynistic comments revealed in private text messages.

Carlson announced this week that he would be relaunching a version of his show on Twitter.

The move means Carlson could forfeit at least $25 million from Fox Corp in connection with a non-compete clause in his previous contract. Disc News reports.

On Tuesday, the commentator allegedly sent an aggressive letter to senior leadership at Fox News accusing the outlet of breaching its contract by allegedly leaking his private communications as part of an “adverse employment action against him” and by settling with Dominion. in a manner that damaged Carlson’s reputation and future business prospects, Axios reports.