Voting Machines Defamation Lawsuit

Tucker Carlson, left, and former President Donald Trump, talk while watching golfers on the 16th tee during the final round of the LIV Golf Invitational at Trump National in Bedminster, N.J., July 31, 2022. A defamation lawsuit against Fox News is revealing blunt behind-the-scenes opinions by its top figures about Donald Trump, including a Tucker Carlson text message where he said “I hate him passionately.” Carlson's private conversation was revealed in court papers at virtually the same time as the former president was hailing the Fox News host on social media for a “great job” for using U.S. Capitol security video to produce a false narrative of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Longtime conservative commentator Tucker Carlson said on a podcast that “there's no chance I would support the Republican Party" ahead of the November midterm elections, dismissing the political affiliation he's defended as a pundit for decades, including as one of Fox News Channel's most popular hosts.

“Not gonna support the Democratic Party,” Carlson was quick to add, speaking late last week on the show “Can't Be Censored.” “I don't know what I'm going to do.”

Carlson, who has amassed a large following on his own podcast since being fired from Fox News in 2023, has more recently diverged from the party, a disillusionment supercharged by President Donald Trump's decision to go to war with Iran in February.

Carlson supported Trump in 2024. After the war began, he apologized for supporting the then-presidential candidate and “misleading people," saying it wasn't intentional.

He's repeatedly criticized the war as being at the behest of Israel at the expense of Americans, and attacked the party for failing to represent its own voters, citizens and nation.

“They are making decisions on the basis of other criteria, what’s best for this company, what’s best for Israel, what’s best for our donors,” he said. “That’s not just, like, they are off in the wrong direction, like, that is unacceptable, that’s treasonous, it’s immoral, it can’t continue."

“I’ve been a consistent defender for 35 years of the Republican Party, I mean very consistent defender, but there’s no defending this," he said. “So no, I’m out. And if I’m out, then I think a lot of other people are out.”

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