Tucker Carlson says he's 'not angry' about being fired: 'I wish Fox well'
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson says he holds no ill will toward the network, which fired him earlier this year days after it settled a blockbuster defamation lawsuit.
“This is not the first time I’ve been fired. And I think in our business, when you work for a big company in media and you know, you say what you think, there’s an expectation that you could get fired,” Carlson said during a conversation on actor Russell Brand's podcast. "I’ve always had that, and I’ve always tried to take the long view, not just on media, but on life."
"All graves go unvisited in the end. I always think that. So I was surprised, I didn’t expect to get fired that morning at all in April," he continued. "So I was shocked, but I wasn’t really shocked and I wasn’t mad."
Carlson added that Fox is "not my company," saying "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."
He also held previous jobs hosting cable news programs for MSNBC and CNN before coming to Fox, and founded the conservative website the Daily Caller.
The pundit said he did not know why he had been fired by Fox, but assured Brand "I’m not angry about it. You can believe me or not, but I think you can feel that I’m not."
"And you know, I wish Fox well," Carlson added.
Fox has not publicly said why the company fired Carlson, previously its top-rated prime time host. A number of media reports surfaced in the weeks following his ouster suggesting a factor in Fox's decision to pull him off the air was the content of certain text messages he had sent to fellow employees at the network bashing network leadership around the time of the 2020 election and making other controversial statements.
The texts between Carlson and a number of other top Fox stars were made public as part of Dominion Voting Systems' blockbuster suit against the outlet, which it settled out of court for $787 million.
Carlson remains under contract with Fox, which last month sent its former host a cease-and-desist letter over his new Twitter show, which has published a handful of episodes since he left the network.