-New bombshell text messages from the latest filing in the Dominion lawsuit
against Fox News have revealed what Fox hosts,
like Tucker Carlson, were really saying
about Donald Trump and his presidency in private even though in public,
Tucker and his GOP allies were still trying
to rewrite the history of what happened
on January 6th. For more on this,
it's time for "A Closer Look." ♪♪
[ Cheering and applause ] Fox News has a very unique and very weird relationship
with its audience. You see, Fox does something that virtually no other
mainstream media outlet does. They tell their viewers that they can only trust
Fox News, and no one else. They're like a creepy husband
from a Lifetime movie. [ Laughter ]
"Don't you see, Janet? Your friends are lying
to you, Janet. I'm the only one you can trust!" [ Laughter ] Say whatever else you want
about the mainstream media, and there's plenty to say
about how corporate media limits the scope of acceptable
debate in American politics on issues
like income inequality or military spending
or healthcare, but generally speaking, they don't treat their audience
like captive cult members. Like you can think
whatever you want about MSNBC, but last I checked,
Steve Kornacki wasn't standing [ Laughter ]
at his big election board,
saying, "The rest of the media will tell you
that Wisconsin is here, but I'm the only one
who will tell you that, actually,
Wisconsin is here." [ Laughter and applause ] One of the biggest proponents
of that message is Fox host Tucker Carlson, who's been telling
his audience, for years, that the rest of the media
is knowingly lying to them, specifically,
because they hate Donald Trump. -Reporters hate Trump
with an all-consuming mania. They hate him so intensely
that, at times, it's been amusing to watch. They've succumbed
to Trump hatred that is so intense,
it has destroyed their judgment and, in some cases,
affected their character. The people who run things
hate Trump obsessively. They always have.
You know that. They're not hiding it. Progressives despise
Donald Trump so much, they've begun to dislike
the country that elected him. Hate has clouded their vision and distorted their values,
completely. One of the reasons progressives
say they hate Donald Trump is because he lies a lot. What infuriates
official Washington is not when Trump lies. It's when he tells the truth. [ Laughter ]
One of the great
unsolved mysteries of the past four years is
why certain types of people, with certain types of jobs,
hate Donald Trump so much, really hate him,
obsess over him, think about him when they
wake up in the morning, would hurt him, if they could. [ Laughter ]
Why the fixation? The reason the ruling class
despises Donald Trump is because they can't control him. -They hate him because they
can't control him. [ Laughter ]
He's talking about Donald Trump the way everyone else talks
about the Cocaine Bear. [ Laughter ] [ As Carlson ]
Why the fixation?
Why do they hate him so much? Is it because he forsakes
all the liberal pieties and says things
you're not allowed to say? Is it because he's a brave
truth teller and scourge of the establishment who refuses to play along
with the woke media regime? Or is it because he's
an apex predator [ Laughter ]
who accidentally inhaled
several kilos of highly illicit
Colombian powder
[ Laughter ] that fell from an airplane
in the skies above Tennessee and is now rampaging
across the country, out of his [bleep] mind... [ Laughter ] ...savagely murdering hikers
and drug dealers while being chased relentlessly
by Keri Russell? And, if that's the case... [ Laughter ] ...why do you hate
the Cocaine Bear so much, Keri? Is it because the bear
speaks truth to power? [ Laughter ] Is it because he stands up
for the working class against the ruling elite
or is it because he viciously disemboweled several
bystanders and drug kingpins while loudly sniffing
at public appearances because of how
much cocaine he's done? -[ Sniffing ] [ Applause ]
Oh, my God, he is Cocaine Bear! [ Laughter ] Also, I'd argue nothing
is creepier than the way Tucker Carlson
joyously says he's amused. -Reporters hate Trump
with an all-consuming mania. They hate him so intensely
that, at times, it's been amusing to watch. -Ugh! That's like Data
from "Star Trek" reviewing a Richard Pryor album. [ Laughter ] Don't get me wrong,
I still prefer Joyless Tucker to when he actually laughs. -[ Laughing ] [ Laughter ] -Oh, my God, that's a sound
more terrifying than hearing a bear snort
a line of cocaine. [ Laughter ]
That's two Cocaine Bear
references. I wonder if there's going
to be a third. We'll have to wait and see.
It's a long "Closer Look." [ Laughter ] [ Applause ] I also love that,
even as recently as 2020, Tucker was still pretending
it was some sort of grand mystery
why people hated Donald Trump. Like even if you forget
all the racism and lying and corruption
and bigotry, how about the fact that he was
just annoying as [bleep]? [ Laughter ]
Like if he was just a guy you met at a party,
after 20 minutes of listening
to him scream uninterrupted about injecting bleach, and windmills killing birds
and toilets not flushing and how everyone loves him
because he's the greatest ever, you'd pull your spouse aside
and say, "Can we please just go home?
This guy won't shut the hell up,"
and then they'd say, "We can't. He's our Uber driver. He just followed us in here." [ Laughter and applause ] Anyway, that's what Tucker
was telling his viewers for virtually the entirety
of Donald Trump's presidency -- The media and the left
hated Donald Trump intensely and obsessively.
Those were the words he used. Well, now, we know,
thanks to a new cache of messages contained in a court
filing from Dominion's ongoing defamation lawsuit
against Fox News, that, in private,
he felt much differently. -Thanks to the $1.6 billion
defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems
against Fox, we now know what Tucker Carlson
really thinks about Donald Trump and about Donald Trump's
presidency. -...Carlson texted
an unknown person on January 4, 2021, adding... [ Oohs and laughter ]
-Oh, my God! It turns out the Trump hatred
was coming from [ Echoing ]
inside the house! [ "Screaming Violins" plays ] [ Lightning strikes ] [ Screaming laughter ] [ Carlson laughing,
spooky background ] [ Laughter and applause ] That's right,
Tucker Carlson said he couldn't wait to ignore Trump and that he hated
Trump passionately. That's as damning as the time
I got caught texting Trump... [ Laughter ] The only thing I thought Tucker
was capable of hating with a passion were female M&M's
who are a seven or lower. [ Laughter and applause ]
In fact, it turns out,
Tucker said all kinds of insulting and denigrating
things about Trump in private, while claiming it was
everyone else who had succumbed to intense
Trump hatred in public. At one point, according
to the Dominion filings, he called Trump... In another message, he said,
of Trump's businesses... [ Laughter ]
In more newly released messages, he called the Trump legal team's
election lies... ...and said... He called Trump's decision not to attend Joe Biden's
inauguration... ...and said,
of Trump's behavior... [ Laughter ]
You know, I never
would've imagined that Tucker
might watch this show, until I saw those text messages. [ Laughter ]
I mean, seems like our message might really resonate
with that guy. [ Laughter ]
I mean, if you're watching,
hey, Tuck. [ Laughter and applause ] In fact, Tucker's contempt
for Trump was so profound, and his mockery of the Trump
team was so biting that, according to a new court filing,
he was even texting pictures of Rudy Giuliani's
leaking hair dye [ Laughter ]
from the infamous press
conference with the message... [ Laughter ]
Interesting fact --
when Rudy's mind is blown, you can tell
because his head starts to leak. That's --
[ Laughter ] [ As Giuliani ]
Uh-oh! Anyone got
a monkey wrench? I need to tighten
my brain gasket. [ Laughter ]
And it's worth keeping all
of this in mind when you're watching
what they say and do now because, sure, you might be
thinking to yourself, "Fox is just one TV channel," but one of our two major parties
is captive to it. In fact,
the GOP speaker of the House, Kevin McChicken, I think --
I can't remember -- [ Laughter ]
just gave Tucker exclusive access
to thousands of hours of security footage
from January 6th. In fact, Tucker's still doing
his shtick. Despite all the revelations
on Monday, he had this to say
about the 2020 election, while introducing
his supposed exposé on the insurrection
on January 6th. -On January 6th, two years ago, thousands of protesters walked
from a Trump rally on the Ellipse,
outside the White House, to the U.S. Capitol,
where the certification of the presidential election
was underway. The protesters were angry. They believed that the election
they had just voted in had been unfairly conducted,
and they were right. In retrospect,
it is clear the 2020 election was a grave betrayal
of American democracy. Given the facts that have since
emerged about that election, no honest person can deny it. -You're like a guy selling
fake bags in Times Square, who's not even trying anymore. "Um, excuse me, this Hermès bag is spelled with a "P,"
like Herpes. [ Laughter ] [ New York accent ]
It's pronounced Herpès. [ Laughter ] Also, I love the choice of words
when he says, "No honest person can deny"
that. So, since it's now been proven that you're not
an honest person, does that mean
you can deny that? And, if you deny that, then does
that mean denying it is a lie? And if denying it is a lie,
does that mean you would deny it because you're a proven liar,
which would then mean that denying it is
actually the truth? Deciphering this bull[bleep]
is like staring at an M.C. Escher painting,
which, incidentally, is what Tucker Carlson
always looks like he's doing. [ Laughter ] Tucker's cherry-picked footage
from January 6th was such transparent nonsense that even Republican leadership
called it out. Various GOP senators called it "dangerous and disgusting"
and "a lie," and one even went so far as to call Tucker's report
"bull[bleep]." And I have to say, even if you
didn't know any of that, just watching what he aired is
embarrassing enough on its own. Like, for example, Tucker tried
to claim the infamous footage of Missouri Senator Josh Hawley
running away from the mob [ Laughter ]
was, somehow, misleadingly
edited by Democrats, but Tucker's proof for that
was very underwhelming. -To prove that Josh Hawley
was a coward, the committee released video
of him loping out of the building
on the afternoon of January 6th, with a police escort. The tape became a staple
on social media. Democrats laughed with derision. But, in fact, the surveillance
footage we reviewed shows that famous clip was a sham, edited deceptively
by the January 6th Committee. The clip was propaganda,
not evidence. The actual videotape shows
that Hawley was one of many lawmakers being ushered
out of the building by Capitol Hill police officers. And, in fact, Hawley was
at the back of the pack. The coward tape was a lie, one of many from the
January 6th Committee. -Wait, that's your proof, that he was slower
than everyone else? [ Laughter ] You're just adding a second
insult on top of the first one. [ Laughter ]
Of course he wasn't
the only one running. It was a violent attack
on the Capitol. The point is not just
that he was a coward, it's that he was a hypocrite. He raised his fist to the mob,
then he ran away from them. Basically, he's the one
who gave the bear all the cocaine,
in the first place. [ Laughter and applause ] "Hey, bear,
I'll share my party favors, but you better not go berserk
in the woods. Whoa, bear!" [ Laughter and applause ] What was really a sham was the entire Trump presidency
and the propaganda pumped out by Fox hosts,
like Tucker Carlson, as evidenced
by these new court filings. This whole scandal
has been shocking, you know, nauseating,
but also, much like a coked-up bear rampaging
through the woods... -It's been amusing to watch. [ Laughter ]
-This has been a closer look. ♪♪
[ Cheering and applause ]
