Name: Tucker Carlson Breaks Silence in First Video Message Since Leaving Fox
Uploaded: 2023-04-27T21:44:12.000Z
Description: "Good evening, it's Tucker Carlson!" Tucker Carlson has proclaimed again to America in his first monologue since parting ways with Fox News.

Stefania Cox is an NTD News anchor and national correspondent based at the network's global headquarters in New York City. Stefania anchors "NTD Newsroom," and co-anchors "NTD News Today" weekdays at 10:00 am ET.

Stefania Cox

Cary Dunst is the news anchor for NTD Evening News. He is also the co-host of NTD Good Morning.


Cary Dunst

NTD Plus

News

We present news that is truthful and based on facts, outside of the political fog. Instead of focusing on the negative things happening around us, our mission is to give our viewers a good morning with empathetic and uplifting stories. Our aim is to provide an antidote to negativity by shining a light on the best side of people. We speak to inspiring people who positively impact communities, pursue topics that represent our common human values, and will never miss an opportunity to bring you heartwarming stories.

NTD Good Morning

Smart Spending: How to Save on Summer Travel

UAE Suffered More Iranian Missiles Than Israel, Paving Way for Iron Dome: Analyst

NTD Newsroom comprises teams of reporters, editors, and producers assigned to cover breaking news and other stories.


NTD Newsroom

Washington Event to Rededicate US as ‘One Nation Under God’

Best-Selling Author Concerned Christians May Be Next in China’s State-Sanctioned Organ Trade

Jason Perry is an Army veteran and NTD's National Security Correspondent based at the network's global headquarters in New York City. Jason primarily covers border security, national defense, foreign wars, and veterans' issues.

Jason Perry

Pentagon Paves the Way to Buy 10,000 Containerized Missiles

US Reports No Hantavirus Cases From Cruise Outbreak

Juliette Fairley is a freelance reporter for NTD and The Epoch Times and a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Born in Chateauroux, France, and raised outside of Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, Juliette is a well-adjusted military brat. She has written for many publications across the country. Send Juliette story ideas at JulietteFairley@gmail.com

Juliette Fairley

Daniel Monaghan is a reporter for NTD News covering culture, social issues, and education. He holds a BA in Political Science and Government.

Daniel Monaghan

US News

Politics

Executive Branch

Rubio: China is ‘Top Geopolitical Challenge’

The Associated Press is an American not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. 

The Associated Press

Jury Awards $49.5 Million to Family of Woman Killed in 2019 Boeing Max Crash

Andrew Moran has been writing about business, economics, and finance for more than a decade. He is the author of "The War on Cash."

Andrew Moran

China News

Trump Departs China After 2-Day Talks With Xi

Haika Mrema

Medical Plane Crash in New Mexico Mountains Kills 4, Sparks Wildfire

Accommodating, Enabling China’s Regime a Failed Strategy: China Expert

NTD Good Morning Full Broadcast (May 15)

NTD Good Morning Full Broadcast (May 14)

Kevin Hogan is an NTD News data reporter and national correspondent based at the network's global headquarters in New York City. Kevin covers breaking news, as well as U.S. and global current events. He conveys the news through data visualizations and investigates pressing issues.

Kevin Hogan

NTD Good Morning Full Broadcast (May 13)

NTD Good Morning Full Broadcast (May 12)

President Trump Leaves for China Today; Calif. Mayor to Plead Guilty to Acting as CCP Agent | NTD Good Morning (May 12)

NTD Good Morning Full Broadcast (May 8)

NTD Good Morning Full Broadcast (May 7)

NTD Good Morning Full Broadcast (May 6)

NTD Good Morning Full Broadcast (May 5)

Fast, compelling, first-hand news from China. China in Focus airs Monday–Friday at 8 p.m. ET.

China in Focus

China Sends Warships to Pacific Drill as Tensions With Japan Rise

Reuters is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages.

Reuters

2 US Embassy Personnel Assigned to Cartel Case Killed in Car Accident

Gunman Kills 8 Children, Including 7 of His Own, in Louisiana Mass Shooting

Flora Hua is a reporter based at NTD's global headquarters in New York City, where she covers China news, U.S.-China relations, and human rights issues. Flora primarily contributes to NTD's "China in Focus."  

Flora Hua

Trump: Seized Iranian Ship May Have ‘A Gift From China’

Joseph Lord is a congressional reporter for The Epoch Times.


Joseph Lord

Aldgra Fredly is a freelance writer covering U.S. and Asia Pacific news for The Epoch Times.

Aldgra Fredly

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani Hospitalized in Critical Condition: Spokesman

Wildfires Across Georgia and Florida Have Destroyed Nearly 50 Homes and Are Forcing Evacuations

News you can trust from the U.S. and around the world. Critical information and insight. We cover the stories that others don’t. NTD News Today airs Monday–Friday at 11 a.m. ET.

NTD News Today

US Warns of China Hacks via Routers, Smart Devices

Juliet Song is an international correspondent exclusively covering China news for NTD. She primarily contributes to NTD's "China in Focus," covering U.S.-China relations, the Chinese regime's human rights abuses, and domestic unrest inside China.

Juliet Song

2 Americans Among Suspected Communist Rebels Killed in Clashes With Troops, Philippine Officials Say

Ryan Morgan is a reporter for The Epoch Times focusing on military and foreign affairs. He was previously a news writer for NTD. 


Ryan Morgan

Mari Otsu is NTD's White House correspondent based in Washington. 

Mari Otsu

World News

Middle East

Iran

3 US Warships Fend Off Iranian Attacks, Trump Says Ceasefire Still Holds

Health News

3 Dead in Suspected Hantavirus Outbreak on Cruise Ship in Atlantic Ocean: WHO

"Good evening, it's Tucker Carlson!" Tucker Carlson has proclaimed again to America in his first monologue since parting ways with Fox News.

Carlson broadcast his monologue on Wednesday night at his usual 8 p.m. ET time slot—when he would have addressed the nation from Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight"—but this time from his <a href="https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1651376097349578753">Twitter</a> account.

The conservative current affairs commentator and host revealed his observations after taking a couple of days off since his sudden split from Fox News on April 21.

"One of the first things you realise after you step outside the noise for a few days is how many genuinely nice people there are in this country, kind and decent people, people who really care about what's true. And a bunch of hilarious people also; a lot of those. It's got to be the majority of the population, even now. So that's heartening.

"The other thing you notice when you take a little time off is how unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are. They're completely irrelevant ... trust me, as someone's who's participated."

He then went on to say that big topics that will define our future get "virtually no discussion at all"—topics like war, civil liberties, emerging science, demographic change, corporate power, and natural resources.

"When was the last time you heard a legitimate debate about any of those issues?" Carlson asked, saying that both of America's main political parties and their donors have agreed to "shut down any conversation" about them.

"That's a depressing realization, but it's not permanent ... It won't work. When honest people say what's true—calmly and without embarrassment—they become powerful. At the same time, the liars who have been trying to silence them shrink, and they become weaker. That's the iron law of the universe—true things prevail.


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Good evening <a href="https://t.co/SPrsYKWKCE">pic.twitter.com/SPrsYKWKCE</a></p>
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) <a href="https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1651376097349578753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 27, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



"Where can you still find Americans saying true things? There aren't many places left but there are some, and that's enough. As long as you can hear the words, there is hope. See you soon," Carlson said.

The video of the now-former prime-time host received more than 5 million views within the first hour.

In recent days, Carlson had done some popular programming, including <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/ai-could-cause-civilizational-destruction-musk-warns_5195736.html">interviews</a> with Tesla founder Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump. Last month, he also broadcast never-before-seen <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/mainstream-media-outlets-file-lawsuit-over-jan-6-footage-released-to-tucker-carlson_5189665.html">Jan. 6 footage</a> of Jacob Chansley, also known as the QAnon Shaman, who has <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/qanon-shaman-jacob-chansley-released-early-from-prison-after-newly-disclosed-jan-6-footage_5160755.html">since been released</a> from jail.
<h2>‘Parting Ways’</h2>
Neither Fox News nor Carlson have commented publicly on the separation.

A news release issued by the company on April 24 said the two had “agreed to part ways.”

“We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” it said.

Anchor Harris Faulkner commented on her Fox News program that the two parties had come to a “mutual” agreement. She did not elaborate.

During Carlson’s final Fox News broadcast on Friday, April 21, he told viewers he would be back on Monday, April 24, indicating that he hadn’t expected the split and that it was likely initiated by Fox.

The Epoch Times has reached out to Carlson and Fox News for comment.
<h2>Popular Voice on Cable</h2>
“Tucker Carlson Tonight” was one of cable news’s consistently top-rated programs for years and a leading program among the 25–54 demographic.

Carlson began hosting it in 2016 and often attracted millions of viewers per episode. In March, the program drew the highest audience on cable TV, averaging 3.251 million viewers per show, according to Nielsen data shared by Fox News.

Following the announcement, Fox Corporation took a nearly $1 billion hit—around 3 percent—to its market value on Monday, trading at a low of $29.27, adding to its more than 16 percent decline in the last 12 months.

Fox also suffered a ratings loss on Monday night without Carlson. Host Brian Kilmeade was the <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/brian-kilmeade-fills-tucker-carlsons-news-slot-after-ouster-from-fox_5219283.html">first</a> of a rotating slate of hosts who will replace Carlson on Fox’s temporary program “Fox News Tonight,” until a new host is named, the company has said.

A company spokesperson told Reuters that Fox’s Monday show was still ranked top across the board. He said it grew from the last show hosted by Carlson on Friday, pointing to Nielsen data that showed it pulled in about 2.6 million viewers.

MSNBC at 8 p.m. on Monday night saw 1.51 million viewers, while CNN had 728,000 viewers, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Meanwhile, conservative news outlet Newsmax grew the viewership for its 8 p.m. ET time slot, with “Eric Bolling the Balance” picking up 531,000 viewers.

While Kilmeade had more viewers than Carlson on Friday, it was less than Carlson’s average Monday viewership across the last two months, which averaged 3.3 million viewers, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Carlson demonstrated an average viewership of around 3.2 million viewers in the first quarter of 2023, according to Nielsen Data.
<h2>America Responds</h2>
Besides the ratings, many analysts are saying they believe Carlson’s exit will have a sizable impact on Fox News.

“It’s a huge deal,” said Matthew Tuttle, the head of Tuttle Capital Management, an investment firm that is betting against Fox Corporation shares, according to Reuters. “The 8 p.m. slot is important and they will lose viewers in that spot.”

Megyn Kelly, who left Fox News for NBC in 2017 over displeasure with the network’s managerial decisions, said on Monday on her conservative-leaning podcast that Fox had made a serious mistake letting Carlson go.

“I don’t know what drove Fox News to make this decision. And it was clearly Fox News’ decision because they’re not letting him say goodbye,” Kelly <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/megyn-kelly-responds-to-tucker-carlson-leaving-fox-news-terrible-move_5217628.html">said</a>. “That’s my supposition. That’s not inside knowledge … talk about misjudging your audience yet again.”

After being cancelled from NBC in 2018, Kelly has since gone on to host her own satellite radio show and podcast.

Kelly said she thinks Carlson might “go independent like I have,” in comments to Newsmax on Monday. “He will no longer answer to a corporate master. He will be free to say whatever he wants to say, within the bounds of defamation law, of course, and he’ll be totally unleashed.”

Journalist Glenn Greenwald credited Carlson with holding several views that conservatives are divided over. Greenwald, who had appeared regularly on Carlson’s show, wrote on Twitter that Carlson “was the cable host who most: Opposed US proxy war in Ukraine; Denounced CIA, FBI and DHS for its systemic lies and corruption; Devoted himself to a pardon for Julian Assange; Objected to regime change efforts in Cuba; Criticized Trump Admin’s militarism."

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a Democrat running for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination, linked Carlson’s departure to his coverage of information that was unfavourable to COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Kennedy has been a prominent critic of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

“Fox fires @TuckerCarlson five days after he crosses the red line by acknowledging that the TV networks pushed a deadly and ineffective vaccine to please their Pharma advertisers,” Kennedy wrote on Twitter. “Carlson’s breathtakingly courageous April 19 monologue broke TV’s two biggest rules: Tucker told the truth about how greedy Pharma advertisers controlled TV news content and he lambasted obsequious newscasters for promoting jabs they knew to be lethal and worthless.”

Meanwhile, Carlson has received offers from conservative news networks like Newsmax, OANN, and The Blaze.

Glenn Beck, founder of The Blaze and another former Fox News host, said on his Monday show that Carlson could easily join his network.

“We would love to have you here, you won’t miss a beat, and together, two of us will tear it up—just tear it up,” Beck said.

OANN founder and CEO Rob Herring has also invited Carlson to begin discussing terms for joining his cable network.

Elon Musk has also said he wants to turn Twitter into a platform where Carlson and other independent content creators could prosper.

On the other side of the political spectrum, left-leaning voices have been celebrating Carlson’s departure.

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) claimed Carlson’s Fox News program “was a sewer of countless lies and hate,” and that Carlson is “one of the leading election deniers and opponents of democracy in America.” Pascrell said it’s “a good thing” that Carlson will no longer have his Fox News platform.

Some Republicans also criticised Carlson for his opinions.

“After all Tucker’s lies and defamation, it’s about time,” former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) wrote on Twitter in response to the announcement.
<h2>CNN to MSNBC to Fox</h2>
Carlson was a host for both CNN and MSNBC earlier in his career, before signing on as a Fox News contributer in 2009. He landed a co-hosting position in 2013, replacing Dave Briggs on "Fox & Friends Weekend." In 2017, be quickly became Fox’s most popular personality after replacing Bill O’Reilly in the network’s prime-time lineup.

Carlson lives in Florida with his wife. The Daily Mail found him driving a golf cart with his wife outside of his Boca Grande house on Tuesday, telling the outlet that, “Retirement is going great so far.”

“I haven’t eaten dinner with my wife on a weeknight in seven years,” he said. He then joked when asked about his future plans, “Appetizers plus entree,” and drove off.

In the wake of his surprise exit from Fox, a speech that Carlson gave the night before the separation for the 50th anniversary celebration of conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, went viral.

The <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/tucker-carlson-delivers-keynote-speech-at-heritage-foundations-50th-anniversary-gala_5212197.html">speech</a> provided a good outline of Carlson’s view of the current state of society, in which he described widespread moral decay and issued warnings about the future of Western civilization if things don’t turn around.

“I have concluded it might be worth taking just 10 minutes out of your busy schedule to say a prayer for the future, and I hope you will,” Carlson said in the keynote speech.

“You look around and you see so many people break under the strain, under the downward pressure of whatever this is that we are going through,” he said.

“And you realize that the herd instinct is maybe the strongest instinct. I mean, it may be stronger than the hunger and sex instincts, actually. The instinct, which again, is inherent to be like everybody else and not to be cast out of the group, not to be shunned.”

“But you look around and you see these people and some of them really have paid a heavy price for telling the truth and they are cast out of their groups, whatever those groups are, but they do it,” he said later in his speech. “Anyway, I look on at those people with the deepest possible admiration.

“I’m paid to do that. I face no penalty,” he said. “Someone came up to me, ‘You’re so brave.’ Really? I’m a talk show host. It’s like I can’t have any opinion I want. That’s my job. That’s why they pay me.

“It’s not brave to tell the truth on a cable news show and if you’re not doing that you’re really an idiot, you’re really craven. You’re lying on television? Why would you do that? You’re literally making a living to say what you think and you can’t even do that, please.”

<em>Lorenz Duchamps, Ryan Morgan, Jack Phillips contributed to this report.</em>

<em>From <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/tucker-carlson-addresses-america-from-usual-8-pm-slot-on-twitter_5224596.html">The Epoch Times</a></em>

Videos

04_Top Stories

Latest Clips

Tucker Carlson

Management

Melanie is a reporter and editor covering world news. She has a background in environmental research.

Melanie Sun

02_Second Lead

Latest and breaking news, documentaries, movies, and lifestyle content on NTD+.
 
Empower your knowledge and elevate your spirit with NTD+, your go-to destination for truthful news, insightful documentaries, and captivating lifestyle content that enriches your life.