Tucker Carlson’s sudden departure from Fox News is still shrouded in mystery. His hasty exit came amid a bitter legal battle that ended with a massive $787.5 million settlement, reportedly negotiated to “buy peace” for the network.
In the wake of Carlson’s ouster from his lofty perch as Fox News Channel’s ratings king, there are reports of conflict between the primetime host and executives. The free-spirited Carlson repeatedly tapped powerful elites and tackled sensitive topics that had been shunned by other cable news anchors.
On hot topics ranging from the response to the Covid pandemic to the 2020 election controversies to the January 6 riots to the Russia-Ukraine war and America’s involvement in it, Tucker Carlson spoke on behalf of of many disaffected Americans whose voices had been marginalized by self-esteem. called “mainstream media”.
While the host’s explosive Jan. 6 coverage was speculated to be a contributing factor in Fox News chairman Rupert Murdoch’s ousting of Tucker, more fuel has been added to the fire since the immediate fall. The Independent most recently reported that Murdoch had spoken with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky before Tucker Carlson’s ouster was set in motion.
Since his departure, there has been a constant, insidious and ineffective “leak campaign” that supposedly portrays Tucker Carlson as callous, insensitive and unstable, instead, it has succeeded in humanizing him even more.
It’s amid this gloomy backdrop that a charged conversation between Tucker Carlson and former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who left the Democratic Party, has resurfaced on Carlson’s show.
In the first episode of Tulsi Gabbard’s podcast on December 13, Tucker Carlson and Gabbard revealed that she almost joined the CIA, as well as disturbing information that sheds light on the machinations of Congress.
Tucker Carlson: “There are members of Congress who are controlled by Intel agencies”pic.twitter.com/N3Nytp7QF3
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) May 6, 2023
“There are members of Congress who are controlled by Intel agencies,” Carlson said. “I’m not speculating on that. You know, I lived there for 35 years. I know that. I had a very high-ranking, very high-ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee say to me at dinner, at a restaurant in Washington when I had been drinking, ‘we need to talk about this.’ And I said, ‘Oh, I’ll text you.’ He says, ‘I can’t text.’ And I said, ‘ why is that?’ And he says, ‘well, because the NSA reads my text.’ And I said, ‘The NSA reads, wait, you’re the head of the intelligence committee.’ You’re their boss. You’re overseeing our constitution , constitutional system. He says, ‘Yeah, but you know, I’m still being spied on.’
“First thing,” he continued. “Second thing, Michael McCaul. Who is, you know, the leader of the neoconservatives in the House, sort of neoconservatives, but, but, neoconservatives,” he continued. “I had an argument with him once last year on the phone. He told somebody that I was a Russian agent or something. He was outraged.”
“So I called him on the phone and I, you know, used bad language,” Tucker added. “I was really mad. And he said, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. I just realized that, you know, that’s what the Intel Briefers told me, that you were working for Russia. And I said, ‘this that’s what the Intel Briefers told you.” You believe your fucking intellectual information. Like, how old are you, son? You know, I’m from DC. My father was in this world. Like, yeah, you don’t , you are being manipulated by your Intel informants.
Throughout the impressive interview, Gabbard repeatedly agrees with Tucker Carlson’s assessments. Gabbard herself was accused of being a Russian asset, due to campaign contributions from Elena Branson, a woman believed to be a Putin operative, as well as donations from a pro-Russian activist named Sharon Tennison to at the Tulsi Aloha PAC.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard in March 2022 responded on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show to criticism for accepting a campaign donation. She insisted she did not know who Branson was when the payment was made to her 2020 presidential campaign. Gabbard also accused Hillary Clinton of waging a “smear campaign” against her. This is something Donald Trump knows very well.