Text messages made public through a court hearing on Thursday show some of the Fox News Network’s top hosts decrying former President Donald Trump’s advisers and their election fraud claims as “insane.”
The correspondence and testimony were made available as part of an ongoing $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting System against Fox News.
“Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane,” Tucker Carlson said in a text message to Laura Ingraham, scarcely two weeks after the election.
Powell, along with Rudy Giuliani, were two of Trump’s top lawyers who filed election challenges on the former President’s behalf, and they are part of the lawsuit.
“Sidney is a complete nut,” Ingraham replied. “No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy.”
Carlson remarked that their claims were putting hosts in a difficult spot because their best intentions were leading them to believe what some of Trump’s team were alleging.
“Our viewers are good people and they believe it,” he wrote.
Tucker Carlson, to Laura Ingraham: “Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane.”
Ingraham: “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy.”
That wasn’t exactly what they were saying on the air. https://t.co/19VeYLDqhu
— Jeremy W. Peters (@jwpetersNYT) February 16, 2023
Related: Tucker Carlson Blasts Fox News For Cutting Away From Trump Press Conference On Alleged Voter Fraud
Fox News Hosts, Execs Dismissed Election Fraud Claims
Further text messages showed the hosts felt they were in a quandary – they personally believed the claims to be false but wanted their viewers to decide as opposed to openly rebuking the allegations being put forth.
Carlson referenced a tweet by reporter Jacqui Heinrich which fact-checked a tweet by Trump criticizing the network coverage. Heinrich argued there was no evidence of voter fraud from Dominion.
“Please get her fired,” Carlson said in a message to Sean Hannity. “It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.”
“I did not believe it for one second.” That’s Sean Hannity, talking about the Big Lie in his deposition in the $1.6 billion defamation suit against Fox News by Dominion. https://t.co/wK220Uuhla
— Jeremy W. Peters (@jwpetersNYT) December 21, 2022
Previous testimony by Hannity has him declaring he “did not believe it for one second” in regard to statements by Powell that Dominion machines were being used “to trash large batches of votes.”
Proving defamation will be a difficult burden for Dominion, as The New York Times reports that they must prove “hosts and executives knew what was being said on the air was false and allowed it anyway.”
This is an incredibly slippery slope considering opinion hosts at other networks like CNN and MSNBC surely know many of their guests are lying on certain subject matters.
If Trump were to sue CNN over the Hunter Biden laptop story, would the phones and devices of those network hosts be seized in discovery? Would they be held responsible for someone like James Clapper hinting that it was ‘Russian disinformation’?
Fox News’s most prominent hosts and top executives were privately repulsed by Donald Trump’s post-election actions, with Tucker Carlson referring to Trump as a “demonic force,” according to new legal filings in a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit. https://t.co/F5D4cTZUR5
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 17, 2023
Carlson Criticized Fox News
Carlson took a swipe at his own network when colleague Neil Cavuto cut away from a press conference held by Kayleigh McEnany and RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel regarding alleged voter fraud in November of 2020.
McEnany claimed that the Trump campaign “want(s) every legal vote to be counted, and we want every illegal vote …” before Cavuto interjected.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa – I just think we have to be very clear,” he said. “She’s charging the other side as welcoming fraud and welcoming illegal voting.”
“Unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t in good countenance continue to show you this.”
Neil Cavuto cuts away from White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany because he deems her words too dangerous to hear.
Instead of letting us decide, he interprets her meaning for us, even using words she never said.
Fox News: We Report & We Decide (shut up and obey). pic.twitter.com/fDPfoNhVvM
— Xeriland (@Xeriland) November 10, 2020
Carlson took a subtle jab at Cavuto and his own network for making the decision to cut away from McEnany.
“In a democracy, you can’t ignore honest questions from citizens,” Carlson said.
“You can’t dismiss them out of hand as crazy or immoral for asking,” he continued. “You can’t just cut away from coverage you don’t like.”
TUCKER: “You can’t just cut away from coverage you don’t like” pic.twitter.com/7wsDLc0evK
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 10, 2020
Carlson had also been critical of Fox News for what some supporters of Trump had considered a premature call of Arizona in favor of Joe Biden on election night, 2020.
“I’m not privy to the math, I’m not certain how, even after the explanation from Chris Stirewalt, how that decision was made,” Carlson criticized. “I think our viewers trust us, but people are concerned.”
And now you have Tucker Carlson openly pushing back on Fox News calling Arizona for Biden.
“I’m not privy to the math, I’m not certain how, even after the explanation from Chris Stirewalt, how that decision was made… I think our viewers trust us, but people are concerned.” pic.twitter.com/7oizkc0ZFV
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) November 4, 2020
If this lawsuit succeeds, and the new standard for journalists or opinion show hosts is that you can’t air anything you personally believe to be false, there would be nothing to report on.
