Tucker Carlson said on Monday that he was sticking with Fox News amid mounting criticism of the network from some supporters of President Donald Trump.
The moment: Midway through “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” the host said he was actually working with Fox News to expand his historically popular nightly talk show.
“Before we get to the next segment, a quick note about this show. Over the weekend, we got a lot of calls asking if we’re leaving Fox News. Ironically, at that very moment we were working on a project to expand the amount of reporting and analysis we do in this hour across other parts of the company,” Carlson said.
- “This show is not going anywhere. It’s getting bigger. The people who run Fox News want more of it not less, and we are grateful for that. We’ll have specifics soon. But as always, thank you for your trust in us. We’ll do our best to be worthy of it.”
Last week, Carlson indirectly criticized his Fox News colleague anchor Neil Cavuto for cutting away from White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany when she repeated Trump’s claims of illegal voting.
- “You can’t just cut away from coverage you don’t like,” Carlson said without naming Cavuto.
How we got here: Fox News has angered Trump and many of his supporters with its coverage of the 2020 election results — from calling Arizona for Democrat Joe Biden on election night to grilling Trump campaign officials.
- Pro-Trump marchers in Washington, D.C., on Saturday chanted, “Fox News sucks!” and it wasn’t the first time since Election Day.
Axios reported last week that Trump wants to start a conservative media company to take down Fox News.
- According to ABC News’ John Santucci, the president’s advisers thought they could poach Carlson and his fellow Fox News host Sean Hannity for the new project.
