Fox News’s Tucker Carlson will no longer host his high-profile talk show. His last show was Friday, the company announced in a news release Monday, a week after a nine-figure settlement by the company in a lawsuit related to the 2020 presidential election.
The release said the two parties “have agreed to part ways.” A rotating panel of people will host “Fox News Tonight,” the release said. Carlson himself did not release a public statement about his departure before press time.
Fox News settled the defamation suit that many saw as a slam dunk for Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million, right as the case was about to go to trial. The cable news organization said in a statement, “We acknowledge the court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.”
Text messages released in March as part of the lawsuit showed that even though Carlson spread disinformation about Dominion’s voting machines, he said privately of Trump, “I hate him passionately,” adding that he “can’t handle much more of this” and that he “truly can’t wait” to be able to stop covering Trump.
Carlson also had become a leading voice on television spreading far-right viewpoints. One of those was the “great replacement” theory, the idea that white people are being intentionally replaced by people of color. That led to the Anti-Defamation League calling for his firing.
“It’s about time,” the ADL’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, wrote on Twitter Monday. “For far too long, Tucker Carlson has used his primetime show to spew antisemitic, racist, xenophobic and anti-LGBTQ hate to millions.”
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., a member of the Jan. 6 investigative committee who lost her seat after going after former President Donald Trump, rejoiced on Twitter. “After all Tucker’s lies and defamation, it’s about time,” she wrote.
Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former attorney and a frequent target of Carlson, said he found much to dislike about Carlson. “Does the word ‘everything’ sum up my disdain for him and his vile rhetoric?” Cohen said.
Trump himself said he was surprised by the Carlson news and doesn’t know if it was a voluntary resignation or a firing. “I think Tucker’s been terrific … especially over the last year or so,” Trump said. “He’s been terrific to me.”
Carlson himself may have been taken by surprise. He ended his show on Friday by telling viewers, “We’ll be back on Monday.”
