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Fox News hosts texts exposed in lawsuit show Tucker slamming Trump as ‘a demonic force’

February 17, 2023 | | Print Article

As protestors were storming the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, Fox News host Tucker Carlson sent a text to his producer, Alex Pfeiffer, in which he allegedly claimed then-President Donald Trump is a “demonic force, a destroyer.”

“But he’s not going to destroy us,” Carlson allegedly told Pfeiffer.

The shocking statement is one of many juicy communications revealed in a 192-page court filing from Dominion Voting Systems that went public on Thursday as part of the notorious election tech company’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News.

Citing a sealed exhibit, lawyers for Dominion, which many believe facilitated the theft of a presidential election in 2020, claimed, “From the top down, Fox knew ‘the dominion stuff’ was ‘total bs.’ Yet despite knowing the truth – or at minimum, recklessly disregarding that truth – Fox spread and endorsed these ‘outlandish voter fraud claims’ about Dominion even as it internally recognized the lies as ‘crazy,’ ‘absurd,’ and ‘shockingly reckless.'”

For proof, Dominion’s legal team pointed to several text messages that flew back and forth between popular Fox News personalities and their producers.

As the network’s most influential — and most controversial — host, Carlson’s thoughts in the days and weeks following the 2020 election figure prominently in the filing.

Two days after the 2020 election, Americans will recall that a winner had yet to be declared.

When Fox News called Arizona for Joe Biden just before midnight, East Coast time, on the night of the heated election, the network’s biggest names — Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity — “immediately understood the threat to them personally,” Dominion claims.

In another text exchange between Carlson and Pfeiffer on November 5, Carlson was evidently furious.

“We worked really hard to build what we have,” he reportedly wrote. “Those f***ers are destroying our credibility. It enrages me.”

“He added that he had spoken with ‘Laura and [S]ean a minute ago’ and they are ‘highly upset,'” according to Dominion.

“At this point, we’re getting hurt no matter what,” Carlson reportedly told Pfeiffer.

“It’s a hard needle to thread, but I really think many on our side are being reckless demagogues right now,” the producer replied.

“Of course they are,” Carlson shot back. “We’re not going to follow them.”

He then allegedly cautioned Pfeiffer about Trump.

“What [Trump]’s good at is destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that,” Carlson wrote. “He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.”

Despite privately claiming on January 6 that Trump is “a demonic force,” Dominion’s lawsuit argues that the host “invited his leading sponsor Mike Lindell on his show, where Lindell spouted these same conspiracies on air after previewing them for Carlson’s staff during a pre-interview.”

The filing also highlights many eyebrow-raising texts from high-profile Fox News executives.

Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch — owner of News Corp, which controls the network. — reportedly sent a text in response to Rudy Giuliani’s infamous press conference with attorney Sidney Powell, who repeatedly vowed to “release the Kraken” on what they both insisted was blatant election fraud.


(Video: YouTube)

“Really crazy stuff. And damaging,” Murdoch allegedly wrote.

Ingraham reportedly told Carlson and Hannity via text, “Sidney Powell is a bit nuts. Sorry, but she is.”

“Such evidence may prove crucial to Dominion’s efforts to prove actual malice, the legal standard requiring a showing that someone knowingly lied or made statements with reckless disregard for the truth,” Law & Crime reports.

The standard was set in a Supreme Court ruling, New York Times v. Sullivan.

In a statement, Fox News defended its broadcasts.

“There will be a lot of noise and confusion generated by Dominion and their opportunistic private equity owners,” the network said, “but the core of this case remains about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution and protected by New York Times v. Sullivan.”

Melissa Fine
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