More than a month after Fox News canceled his top-rated prime-time program, Tucker Carlson re-emerged with a familiar format hosted on Twitter this week.
Just two days later, the contents of the monologue Carlson was prepared to deliver before “Tucker Carlson Tonight” was abruptly taken off the air.
According to conservative pundit Emerald Robinson, the transcript dealt with several issues related to the left’s effort to stifle free speech. It began with a reference to former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who has since gone on to secure her own cable news program on MSNBC.
The monologue referenced Psaki’s interview with U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (R-NY), who had called for Carlson’s show to be canceled.
Yes, I have the April 24th monologue that Fox News stopped Tucker from doing on his show.
I can confirm that Tucker was going to discuss Ray Epps, AOC and Jen Psaki.
— Emerald Robinson ✝️ (@EmeraldRobinson) June 8, 2023
“As a former government official who claims now to be a journalist, Jen Psaki should know this, and defend America’s foundational principle,” Carlson wrote. “She refuses. Instead, Psaki nods along like a fan as Sandy Cortez calls for law enforcement to shut down news programming. The White House Correspondents Association and various other self-described advocates of press freedom stay silent too. Apparently they agree with Ocasio-Cortes, or they’re too afraid to say otherwise.”
Carlson then took issue with Ocasio-Cortez’s claim that his on-air remarks amount to “an incitement of violence,” adding: “Is this true? Even accounting for the fact that people tend to hear what they want to hear, it is not true. It’s a lie, as anyone who watches this show knows.”
After outlining several of the New York Democrat’s far-left positions, he provided a counterpoint to the left’s ongoing narrative regarding the supposed “insurrection” at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“As we’ve said many times, January 6th was not an insurrection, which is why no one has been charged for that crime,” he wrote. “No guns were brought into the Capitol. No plans to overthrow the government have ever been found. It was not an insurrection. But there was violence. A Capitol police officer called Michael Byrd executed Ashli Babbit, an unarmed protester, and was praised for doing it by politicians in both parties.”
Carlson then segued into a discussion about Ray Epps, a man seen encouraging a breach of the Capitol building who has not faced charges related to his activity. Some conservative figures have advanced the theory that Epps was an FBI plant meant to exacerbate unrest on Capitol Hill.
Fox News reportedly accused Carlson of violating the terms of his contract by posting his recent Twitter monologue, which elicited another pro-free speech response from his attorney, Bryan Freedman.
“Fox defends its very existence on freedom of speech grounds,” the lawyer stated. “Now they want to take Tucker Carlson’s right to speak freely away from him because he took to social media to share his thoughts on current events.”
