Tucker Carlson Speaks Out on Fox News, Reveals What He Will ‘Never’ Do Again

Former Fox host appears to make first public comments about his sudden departure from the network

Tucker Carlson speaks with former president Donald Trump in a pre-recorded interview aired on debate night on Aug. 23, 2023. Tucker Carlson/X

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson appeared to publicly speak about his departure from Fox News for the first time, saying that he’s still not sure why the company parted ways with him.

During an interview posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, Mr. Carlson criticized his former network for the rule against President Trump appearing on the channel, alleging that its owner, Rupert Murdoch, doesn’t favor the former commander-in-chief. Because the former president and current GOP frontrunner wasn’t being featured on the network, Fox News essentially was “not really covering the news anymore,” he said.

“The Murdochs never got in my way. They were always good to me,” Mr. Carlson said in the Aug. 30 interview, which featured Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy. However, he added there were apparently “small-minded” individuals running the channel.

“It’s a company run by fearful women, you know what I mean?” he stated.

When it announced his departure, Fox News said in a news release that it had “parted ways” with Mr. Carlson. The company has never publicly said whether it fired him or not.

Debate Speculation

Meanwhile, Mr. Carlson addressed speculation that he was trying to upstage his former employer by releasing a video of his interview with former President Donald Trump during the same time as the first GOP presidential debate, which aired on Fox News.

Mr. Carlson, whose sudden departure from Fox in April upended the cable news landscape, said in a recent episode that the timing wasn’t up to him.

“To me, the Trump interview seemed like something—it looked like you guys were sticking it to Fox,” Mr. Portnoy stated in the episode.

“I would never want to stick it to Fox,” Mr. Carlson said, smiling. However, the ex-host became more somber and stated: “No, I’m not mad at Fox. I’m really not.”

Elaborating on the move, Mr. Carlson said, “Well, it was the night of the debate, but the reason that it was, is because he didn’t want to do the debate. I didn’t make that decision for him.”

President Trump, who said he wouldn’t attend the debate due to his high poll numbers and other reasons, “approached us and said, ‘You know, I’m not gonna do the debate,’ but if I’m being totally honest, I didn’t really believe him,” Mr. Carlson added. He noted that President Trump likely intentionally wanted the video released at the same time as the debate because the former president “doesn’t like Fox.”

“But they don’t like him. You know, they never did, and they always had rules about not allowing him on,” Mr. Carlson said, referring to Fox News’s stance. “My view was, I think it’s totally legitimate you just don’t like Donald Trump. I don’t hold that against anybody.”

Even after his departure from the network, Mr. Carlson said that his “view on Fox hasn’t really changed,” adding that management “let me say whatever I want, whatever I wanted really for 14 years and I’ll never stop being grateful for that.”

“And then obviously, I said too much, and I’m not exactly sure what I said that was bad. No one ever told me. But one day, they were like, ‘Nope! Can’t have this anymore.’ And they fired me,” Mr. Carlson said in what appears to be his first comments on the incident since he left April. “And I even told them as they were firing me, like, ‘It’s your business.’ I made a mental note. Never work for anyone else again and I never will.”

Other Debates

This week, President Trump suggested that he may attend future Republican primary debates, although it’s not clear if he will attend the second one on Sept. 27 in Simi Valley, California.

“I might,” President Trump said when asked by Todd Starnes during a recent radio broadcast. “I mean, you know, it’s possible.”

Referencing his 2016 campaign, the former president said he “liked debating” and added, “I guess I won because of the debates.”

“You know, they’ve been very good to me, so I might,“ he continued, ”but at this moment, I’m leading by so much that it seems to be foolish to do it.”

While there has been speculation that President Trump’s decision not to attend the first GOP debate may hurt his standing, a recent poll shows that his numbers are surging.

A poll released by Morning Consult on Aug. 29 shows that 62 percent of potential Republican voters said President Trump has the best chance of beating President Joe Biden, which the company said is a “tracking high.” It noted that the figure is up 9 percentage points over the previous week in August, and it matches a high in April 2023.

The former president has remained steady in other polls, too, according to an average from RealClearPolitics on Friday. President Trump currently has 53.6 percent support, as compared with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the No. 2 who is currently polling at 13.5 percent. Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, who had a significant amount of airtime during the first GOP debate, has 7.3 percent, and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has 4.9 percent.