I hate him so much: New lawsuit texts show Tucker Carlson admits Trump era was a disaster

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Fox News host Tucker Carlson says he hates former President Donald Trump and dismissed his election lies even as he aired them on his show, according to a new court filing in the $1.6 billion lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems vs. network.

Text messages included in the filing show that Carlson was eager to put the Trump era behind him two days before the deadly riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

“We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump almost every night. I really can’t wait,” Carlson wrote to staff.

“I want nothing more,” replied one of those in the text thread.

“I hate him,” Carlson wrote.

Carlson then lamented Trump’s four years in office.

“We all pretend we have a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it has been is too hard to digest,” he wrote. “But come on. Trump really has no upside.”

A previous Dominion showdown showed Carlson expressing concern after the 2020 election about anger at Trump and potentially sending his viewers to the more far-right outlet Newsmax.

“He can easily destroy us if we play the wrong game,” Carlson wrote, calling Trump “a demonic force, a destroyer.”

Carlson also texted hosts Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity to complain about TrumpWorld conspiracy theories after the election, according to Tuesday’s filing.

“The whole thing seems crazy to me,” he wrote. “And Sidney Powell won’t release the evidence. Which I hate.”

Carlson added that Powell “makes everyone paranoid and crazy, myself included.”

Dominion’s lawsuit alleges that Fox News knowingly released false statements about election fraud and released a trove of internal communications showing prominent Fox News hosts acknowledging conspiracy theories that what they put out is not true. A filing included an admission by Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch that some hosts “endorsed” false statements.

Fox has denied any wrongdoing and a spokesperson on Tuesday accused Dominion of “using further distortions and misinformation in their PR campaign to discredit FOX News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press.”

“We already know they will say and do anything to try to win this case, but the twisting and even misrepresentation of quotes at the highest levels of our company is truly beyond the pale,” the spokesperson said.

The confrontation came as Carlson faced backlash for his revisionist history on Jan. 6 after he gained access to thousands of hours of Jan. 6 footage from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. Carlson aired the clips on his show this week, describing the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol as “neat and meek” and angry because “they believe the election they voted in was unfairly conducted, and they’re right .”

A growing number of Republican senators who were in the Capitol that day rejected Carlson’s spin.

“I was here. I was down there, and I saw maybe a few tourists, a few people who got caught up in things. But when you see police barricades breached, when you see police officers assaulted, all of that,” Sen. Thom Tillis, RN.C., told reporters, calling Carlson’s version of events “bullshit.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called it a “mistake” for Fox to release a version of events “that is completely contrary to what our chief law enforcement officer here thinks in the Capitol.”

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Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said in an internal memo obtained by CNN that Carlson’s segment was “filled with offensive and misleading conclusions” and that Carlson’s team never reached out to the department “to provide accurate context.”

“The program was conveniently selected from the calm moments of our 41,000 hours of video. The commentary failed to provide context about the chaos and violence that occurred before or during these less tense moments,” Manger said.

Former FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann predicted that Carlson’s January 6 round could play right into Dominion’s hands in what he described as “what could be a life-or-death civil suit.”

“It’s not just $1.6 billion, there’s also the potential for punitive damages,” he told MSNBC. “The evidence that we’ve seen so far suggests that it’s a very real possibility that Tucker Carlson, who could be a witness in that trial, is saying things that I think are misleading and false. [Dominion’s] The lawyers must be licking their chops at what’s being said because it reminds me of Donald Trump, where he said things that would make his legal case worse.”

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