Tucker Carlson railed against unnamed elites — and hinted at intentions to stay in the limelight — in his first public remarks since his abrupt firing from Fox News earlier this week.
No mention of his removal was made during the short video posted to his Twitter account just after 8 p.m. Wednesday — right around his former time slot on the conservative news channel.
Carlson had a gentle opening to the roughly two-minute clip, saying, “One of the first things you realize when you step outside the news a few days is how many genuinely nice people there are in this country.”
Then he got into a more familiar groove.
“The other thing you notice when you take a little time off is how unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are,” he said. “They’re completely irrelevant. They mean nothing. In five years, we won’t even remember we heard them. Trust me, as somebody who participated.”
Carlson’s firing came Monday, nearly a week after FOX News reached a $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over the network’s broadcasting of lies that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.
The reason for Carlson’s dismissal remained a matter of fervent media speculation as of Wednesday night, with the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post reporting that revelations from the pretrial process may have put Carlson on the wrong side of Fox execs.
His short Wednesday night monologue touched on the populist themes that were a hallmark of his show.
“Both political parties and their donors have reached consensus on what benefits them and they actively collude to shut down any conversation about it,” Carlson fumed.
“Where can you still find Americans saying true things?” he continued. “There aren’t many places left, but there are some and that’s enough. As long as you can hear the words, there is hope. See you soon.”