Tucker Carlson has made his long-anticipated public return after his unceremonious firing from Fox News in April.
On Tuesday evening, in a 10-minute segment on Twitter called Tucker on Twitter, the populist pundit was far from chastened by losing his prime time perch, employing all his knack for directness and sarcasm to tear into a number of issues that enjoy elite consensus.
With his typical abruptness, Carlson launched the show by questioning the mainstream narrative around the Kakhovka dam collapse that both sides in the Ukraine war have tried to blame on each other. Tucker noted that the Russians have had control of the dam and rely on it to supply fresh water to Crimea, an area of Ukraine that Russia annexed in 2014 and is home to the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Basing his conclusion on who stood to benefit the most, Carlson claimed that “any fair person would conclude that the Ukrainians probably blew it up,” along with destroying the Nord Stream pipeline in the Fall of 2022.
Carlson’s tone then shifted as he ridiculed “the American media” for blaming the dam’s destruction on Russia and reasoning that Putin must have ordered what is essentially an attack on his own side’s interests because he is “evil.”
He then took on the media’s positive portrayal of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, contrasting it with how someone might assess Zelenskyy if the media lens were lifted. In that case, Carlson said Zelenskyy would appear as “a comedian turned oligarch; a persecutor of Christians; a friend of BlackRock.”
Next, he played a clip of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) saying to Zelenskyy, “And the Russians are dying … It’s the best money we’ve ever spent.” He characterized the exchange as, “See, there’s nothing dark here. Just two middle-aged guys celebrating the killing of a population.”
He then continued by commenting on another GOP leader and presidential candidate, former Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley. Carlson accused Haley of using tautologies to justify her demand that America support Ukraine.
“We have to see this through. We have to finish it,” she said in a clip Carlson played.
Carlson claimed that as a result of being constantly subjected to rhetoric characterized by logical fallacies and reliance on slogans, Americans are possibly “the least informed people in the world.”
In the few minutes remaining of the opening episode, Carlson posed a series of questions about stories he alleges the media will not investigate, including, “What exactly happened on 9/11?” and “How did Jeffrey Epstein make all that money? How did he die?”
Carlson then did a segment about the existence of UFOs based on information provided by a military whistleblower, of whom Carlson said, “It was clear he was telling the truth.”
Carlson sounded a warning about excessive secrecy and how the powerful use it to “dehumanize” the general population before closing on an optimistic note with an expression of hope and gratitude for his new platform on Twitter.
On Wednesday, Fox News accused Carlson of violating his contract with the network by making the Twitter show, as reported by Axios, who obtained a copy of Fox’s letter.
After being ousted from Fox News, Carlson made his own breach of contract allegations against Fox, which include settling with Dominion Voting Systems “in a way which would indicate wrongdoing” on the part of Carlson, after promising not to do so.
It has been widely reported that Fox agreed to let Tucker go as part of the $878 million defamation settlement with Dominion after it sued Fox over claims that the company assisted in vote rigging during the 2020 election.
