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Former Fox News star Megyn Kelly dropped a bombshell detail during her SiriusXM show on Thursday regarding the current status of onetime colleague Tucker Carlson, who was reportedly fired earlier this week by the network.
Or not. Kelly says that Carlson remains under contract with Fox.
“I wanna, I think, break some news for you. Tucker Carlson hasn’t actually been fired,” she said during her Thursday podcast on SiriusXM. “He’s still an employee of Fox News Channel.”
Kelly went on to explain that Carlson was contacted by CEO Suzanne Scott and told that he would not be allowed to do any more shows and that he was denied access to the company email. She also said that now, the two would have to “negotiate an exit” from the network.
She went on to claim that the call from Scott caught “Tucker completely off guard” but that he’s “not fired.”
“That’s my information, that he still needs to negotiate the exit and that right now he’s not free to launch a podcast or a digital show or negotiate with other employers at all because he’s still under contract,” Kelly continued.
She also said Carlson repeatedly attempted to find out why he was being taken off the air and was rebuffed by Scott. The firing came as Carlson had been negotiating a new contract that would have reportedly kept him at the network through 2029, according to an Independent report.
“To me, that is so disheartening,” she explained further, adding that Carlson managed to succeed himself while helping the network through one of its most turbulent periods — the dismissal of long-time CEO Roger Ailes and the loss of two of the network’s top stars at the time, Bill O’Reilly and herself.
“So, why now? What was it that led them to treat their No. 1 star with such disdain?” Kelly mused.
WATCH:
Former Top Fox News host and insider Megyn Kelly reveals Tucker not actually FIRED from Fox yet— This is what's REALLY happening…
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) April 27, 2023
The chief of the U.S. Capitol Police took another verbal swipe at Carlson during testimony before a Senate subcommittee on Thursday.
Chief J. Thomas Manger doubled down and ripped the former top-rated Fox News host for his reporting on the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol Building.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) asked Manger about Carlson’s utilization of the January 6 footage in his March 6 program covering the events of that day during a budget hearing held by the Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
“In, I think, February or early March of this year, Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy authorized the release of more than 40,000 hours of security footage from the awful events of January 6,” Van Hollen said.
“He released them to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who then used them to create a false narrative surrounding the events of that day, concluding that the attack on the Capitol was quote, ‘mostly peaceful chaos,’ and that, ‘The footage does not show an insurrection or riot in progress.’”
After noting that Carlson was taken off the air this week by Fox News, Van Hollen claimed, “But a lot of the damage has been done,” before asking: “Can you talk about the impact this false narrative has had on the men and women who work for you?”
Manger responded: “When he did that program, I put out a message to all of my employees, and I talked to them about the narrative that he tried to put forth, how disrespectful it was to the men and women of the Capitol Police. And I think what was fortunate is that that narrative that Mr. Carlson tried to put out had no legs. I think most folks understood exactly what it was, and so I think that was very gratifying to the members of the Capitol Police to see that.”
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“I appreciate that. And I agree with you that despite his best efforts, the American public understood exactly what happened on that day and that it was not the narrative that he put out,” Van Hollen said in response, according to The Epoch Times.
