Tucker Carlson texts show struggle with his own inflammatory views

Sacked Fox News host says in private message that he ‘rooted for the mob' against an Antifa demonstrator, 'hoping they’d … kill him'

Tucker Carlson in 2019. Fox fired him on April 24. Getty

Texts sent by Tucker Carlson in the hours after the January 6, 2021, insurrection contributed to a string of events that played a part in the former Fox News host’s firing, The New York Times has reported.

Describing a video of a group of men he called supporters of former president Donald Trump violently attacking “an Antifa kid”, Carlson wrote: “It’s not how white men fight.”

The message concerned the Fox board, whose members saw it a day before the news outlet’s trial against Dominion Voting Systems began and worried it would become public.

Fox News last month settled a defamation case brought by Dominion over claims the network had peddled lies about the validity of the election results of 2020, when Mr Trump lost his re-election bid.

Dominion had asked for $1.7 billion and Fox settled for more than $787 million.

Fox fired Carlson shortly after the settlement on April 24, stunning viewers and ending the six-year run of the network's most popular show, Tucker Carlson Tonight.

The show fed on and fuelled America's culture wars and came to define the Republican Party's talking points.

Carlson frequently touted conspiracies including the “great replacement” theory that posits non-white people are being brought to the US with the goal of eventually outnumbering the white population.

In 2018, he sparked outrage when he said immigrants made the US “poorer and dirtier”.

Carlson's text message, obtained by The New York Times, reveals a man grappling with the tribal and violent impulses his own show had long helped foster.

“I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they’d hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it,” he wrote in the text that was part of the Dominion lawsuit but which had been redacted in court filings.

“Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isn’t good for me. I’m becoming something I don’t want to be.

“The Antifa creep is a human being. Much as I despise what he says and does, much as I’m sure I’d hate him personally if I knew him, I shouldn’t gloat over his suffering.”

He went on to say: “If I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?”

Proud Boys — in pictures

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  Members of the Proud Boys storming the US Capitol on January 6. AFP

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  Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they storm the US Capitol in Washington on January 6. AFP

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  Proud Boys march with demonstrators during a protest against the Covid-19 vaccine in New York. AFP

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  Members of the far-right Proud Boys, including leader Henry 'Enrique' Tarrio, rally in support of former president Donald Trump. Reuters

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  A leader of the Proud Boys and four other members of the far-right group were indicted on sedition charges on June 6, 2022, in connection with the January 6 assault on the US Capitol. AFP

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  Tarrio faces charges related to the failed attempt by Trump supporters to block Democrat Joe Biden's election victory. AFP

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  A British filmmaker followed Tarrio as part of a documentary film. AFP

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  Tarrio holds an American flag during a protest. AFP

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  Proud Boys gather on the National Mall in Washington. Reuters

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  Tarrio speaks to the media following his release from the DC Central Detention Facility where he had been held since September 2021. Reuters

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  Proud Boys gather outside the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting at the George R Brown Convention Centre in Houston, Texas. AFP

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  Proud Boys gather outside the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting in Houston after the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting. AFP

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  The National Rifle Association convention took place right after the massacre of 19 children at a Texas primary school. The Proud Boys showed up to support the organisation. AFP