Soon after former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, Fox News host Tucker Carlson said in a private conversation that he “passionately” hates the former president and “can’t wait” to ignore him.
The remarks came in a text message conversation on Jan. 4, 2021 that was revealed Tuesday in a legal filing from Dominion Voting Systems, Axios reported. The company is pursuing a $1.6 billion defamation case against Fox, alleging the network knew its coverage tying Dominion to election fraud schemes was false.
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“We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait,” Carlson texted an unidentified recipient shortly before 11 p.m., according to the filing.
The recipient responded that they “want nothing more,” adding, “it does feel very close. i imagine things will get nice starting around mid february.”
Carlson replied, “I hate him passionately.” He added that that day, he “blew up at” a Trump adviser, Peter Navarro, “in frustration.”
“I can’t handle much more of this,” he wrote.
The text messages were revealed as Trump thanked and congratulated Carlson for his coverage Monday night of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol storming. Carlson devoted that night’s show to airing previously-unreleased surveillance footage of the event, characterizing it as “mostly peaceful chaos” hyped up by politicians and the media.
READ MORE: Tucker Carlson reveals new Jan. 6 footage
“GREAT JOB BY TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT,” Trump posted Tuesday night on his Truth Social platform. He also congratulated Carlson on landing “one of the biggest ‘scoops’” by securing roughly 40,000 hours of the footage from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
A previous Dominion legal filing also recently shed light on Carlson’s private views of Trump.
As Fox News employees strategized their coverage of 2020 election fraud claims, Carlson cautioned his producer: “What [Trump]’s good at is destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.”
He was also quoted in the filing saying Sidney Powell, a chief promoter of election fraud theories, was “lying.”
