‘I Don’t Know Why I Was Fired’

Former Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson says months after his sudden exit from the network he still doesn’t know “why I was fired.” Carlson added that “I’m not angry about it. You can believe me or not, but I think you can feel that I’m not. You know, I wish Fox well.”

In an interview with Russell Brand on his “Stay Free” podcast, Carlson said he’d had no hint his position as Fox News’ highest-rated prime time host was in danger when he was told in April that he’d already hosted his final telecast of Tucker Carlson Tonight. “I was surprised. I didn’t expect to get fired that morning at all in April,” he said. “So I was shocked, but I wasn’t really shocked and I wasn’t mad. It’s not my company. And when you work for someone else, that person reserves the right, and in fact has inherently the right to decide whether you work there or not.”

In the aftermath of Carlson’s sudden dismissal from Fox News, unflattering leaks—including text messages and recordings made during interviews for Tucker Carlson Tonight. “There was ugly leaking, you know, I’m a racist or whatever they leaked or someone there leaked to The New York Times
NYT
,” Carlson said Friday. “But that’s not true. And I think the people who run the company know that’s not true, I actually don’t think they did it. And I’m not mad about it. And I’ve been happy.”

Asked about Donald Trump and his 2024 campaign to return to the White House, Carlson said “I think looking back on this ten years from now, assuming we’re still around, I think we’re going to see Trump’s emergence as the most significant thing that happened in American politics in 100 years, because he reoriented the Republican Party against the wishes of Republican leaders.”