![Tucker Carlson: ‘They had to settle this; Rupert [Murdoch] couldn’t testify. I think that deal was made minutes before the trial started.’](https://media.guim.co.uk/cdaa8d7dd2234ccc9b20c636d14de61761f5d62c/0_116_3500_2101/1000.jpg)
Tucker Carlson “knows” he was fired by Fox News in April as a condition of the $787.5m settlement with Dominion Voting Systems regarding the broadcast of Donald Trump’s lie about election fraud, the former host says in a new book.
“They agreed to take me off the air, my show off the air, as a condition of the Dominion settlement,” Carlson tells his biographer, Chadwick Moore. “They had to settle this; Rupert [Murdoch, the 92-year-old Fox News owner] couldn’t testify. I think that deal was made minutes before the trial started.
“I mean, I know it was.”
According to its publisher, All Seasons Press, Moore’s book – called Tucker - is based on “hundreds of hours interviews with Carlson, his family, colleagues, acquaintances and enemies”. It will be published in the US on 1 August. The Guardian obtained a copy.
Before being taken off air by Fox News in April, Carlson was the dominant force in the network’s primetime lineup, generating controversy and ratings with far-right views, aggressively expressed.
He has since begun broadcasting on Twitter, stoking a face-off with Fox, to which he remains under contract.
Dominion denies that Carlson was fired – a characterization he resists, saying he was merely taken off air – as part of the settlement of its defamation suit.
Moore prints the company’s denial, saying a Dominion attorney “wanted to make clear personally that Dominion made no requests or demands whatsoever regarding Mr Carlson’s employment with Fox or his appearance, or non-appearance, on Fox News”.
Fox News has also “categorically” denied that Carlson was removed in connection with the Dominion case. A spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Moore has discussed Carlson’s view of his departure from Fox in appearances on rightwing media. Carlson’s own words on the matter have not been previously seen.
In interviews with Moore, Carlson denies making libelous claims about Dominion. He also describes the call he received on 24 April, telling his time on Fox was over.
Carlson says he thought Suzanne Scott, the Fox News chief executive, was calling to congratulate him on the sixth anniversary of his move to the 8pm prime-time slot.
“I was first confused, and then shocked,” he says. “It was just, ‘We’re taking you off the air.’ No explanation why, and they’ve let me guess ever since. That’s literally all I know. I asked if I violated my contract. They said, no, I’m not fired, I’m still under contract.”
Carlson also says pressure from political leaders in Washington may have contributed to his being “canceled”.
Asked if he thinks his comments about the Russian invasion of Ukraine might have contributed to his removal, he says Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch “definitely didn’t like my views” but adds that Lachlan, the co-chair of News Corp, told him it was fine they disagreed.
On the page, Carlson, who is widely accused of being pro-Russian, calls Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, a “monster” – but insists “the Murdochs were great about Ukraine”.
Carlson does, however, complain to Moore about “attacks” by Fox through the US media. Among such attacks is a New York Times report about a text message in which Carlson used allegedly racist language while discussing violence at protests for racial justice, saying footage of Trump supporters beating an “Antifa kid” was “not how white men fight”.
Last month, a former producer on Carlson’s show, Abby Grossberg, reached a $12m settlement with Fox after suing for gender discrimination and alleging network lawyers pressured her to make misleading statements in the Dominion case.
Fox faces other defamation suits, over the broadcast of Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, from a former government disinformation expert and over Carlson’s claims about the January 6 attack on Congress.
