New court documents released in the Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News show Tucker Carlson venting in private about President Donald Trump.
Text messages produced in the lawsuit are from private conversations during the final days of Trump’s presidency.
As viewers flocked to Newsmax, a furious Carlson texted a Fox producer that he was worried Trump would “destroy” the network if it didn’t cover his election challenge in a certain way.
After the 2020 election, large numbers of Trump supporters boycotted Fox over its apparent support for Joe Biden and the network heads’ enthusiasm for the 45th president to lose.
One text from Tucker says:
“What Trump’s good at is destroying things.
“He’s the undisputed world champion of that.
“He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.”
Tucker texted a staffer on January 4, 2021, saying:
“We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait.
“I hate him passionately.
“I blew up at Peter Navarro today in frustration.
“I actually like Peter. But I can’t handle much more of this.
“He was pushing voter fraud stuff. I have no doubt there was fraud, but at this point, Trump and Lin and Powell have so discredited their own case, and the rest of us to some extent, that it’s infuriating.
“Absolutely enrages me.
“That’s the last four years.
“We’re all pretending we’ve got a lot to show for it because admitting what a disaster it’s been is too tough to digest.
“But come on. There isn’t really an upside to Trump.”
Meanwhile, Maria Bartiromo was heartbroken over Trump’s loss and told her staff not to call Biden president-elect until Trump’s legal challenges run their course.
The texts show that Bartiromo said:
“I want to see massive fraud exposed.
“I told my team we are not allowed to say pres elect.
“Not in scripts or in banners on air.
“Until this moves through the courts.”
A Fox News spokesperson responded to the lawsuit court filings, saying:
“Thanks to today’s filings, Dominion has been caught red-handed again using more distortions and misinformation in their PR campaign to smear FOX News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press.
“We already know they will say and do anything to try to win this case, but to twist and even misattribute quotes to the highest levels of our company is truly beyond the pale.”
Here’s an interesting back-and-forth from mid-November 2020, when the election-theft claims were peaking. Top Fox News opinion hosts were fretting that network PR chief Irena Briganti was trying to drum up support for Fox News’s controversial election-night Arizona call. 2/ pic.twitter.com/1iF5T5PDrK
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) March 7, 2023
Tucker Carlson on Trump on Jan 4, 2021:
“I hate him passionately”
“We’re all pretending we’ve got a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it’s been is too tough to digest. But come on. There isn’t really an upside to Trump.” pic.twitter.com/pejdZEMIZM
— Jon Passantino (@passantino) March 8, 2023
In a Nov. 10 exchange with Steve Bannon, Fox host Maria Bartiromo says that she’d instructed her team not to call Joe Biden “president elect.” This was three days after Fox News and other outlets called the election for Biden. pic.twitter.com/ghXejFt4IK
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) March 7, 2023
