Tucker Carlson broke two days of public silence on Wednesday evening by issuing a cryptic message hinting about his future, saying that there remain a few places where “you can still find Americans saying true things.”
The 2-minute, 16-second clip did not directly address his leave-taking from Fox News Channel or the reasons for it, but he began by praising being able to take time off from the daily media grind.
The top-rated host said the previous two days “outside the noise” had given him a chance to interact with “genuinely nice people” before warming to the topic of political debate, implying, without stating, that Fox News itself is complicit.
“The other thing you notice when you take a little time off is how unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are. They’re completely irrelevant. They mean nothing. In five years we won’t even remember that we had them. Trust me, as someone who’s participated in them,” Mr. Carlson said.
He posted the clip at 8 p.m. EDT, the same hour that “Tucker Carlson Tonight” used to be on Fox News Channel.
Mr. Carlson didn’t say what his next move will be, but emphasized the importance of saying things that are “true.”
“When honest people say what’s true, calmly and without embarrassment, they become powerful,” he said in the video post. “At the same time, the liars who’ve been trying to silence them shrink and they become weaker. That’s the iron law of the universe. True things prevail.”
“Where can you still find Americans saying true things? There aren’t many places, but there are some and that’s enough,” he said.
But “as long as you can hear the words, there is hope. See you soon,” he concluded.
Several organizations, including the Heritage Foundation and One America News Network, have made public offers to Mr. Carlson since his departure from the Fox News Channel.
The theme throughout the video was dismissal of conventional political debate and the endless news cycle.
“The undeniably big topics, the ones that will define our future, get virtually no discussion at all. War, civil liberties, emerging science, demographic change, corporate power, natural resources. When was the last time you heard a legitimate debate about any of those issues? It’s been a long time. Debates like that are not permitted in American media,” Mr. Carlson said.
“Both political parties and their donors have reached consensus on what benefits them and they actively collude to shut down any conversation about it. Suddenly the United States looks very much like a one-party state. That’s a depressing realization but it’s not permanent. Our current orthodoxies won’t last. They’re brain-dead. Nobody actually believes them,” he continued.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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