Brutal New Texts Reveal Tucker Carlson and Producer Horrified By ‘Deadly’ Trump ‘Anger Spiral’ On Jan. 6

Fox News host Tucker Carlson and his then-producer Alex Pfeiffer expressed horror at then-President Donald Trump for the “deadly” and “vicious” anger and violence he inspired on January 6, in a series of brutal text messages that have just been revealed.

Even more damning comments made by Fox News hosts and executives in private in the aftermath of the election were revealed Tuesday in yet another new filing by Dominion Voting Systems, which is suing Fox News for defamation and seeking $1.6 billion in damages.

But one exchange is particularly interesting given Carlson’s current campaign to use security footage from January 6 to falsely claim the rioters were peaceful, if chaotic, “sightseers.”

The exchange is from Jan. 6 2021, although the time stamps say “01/07”, and the participants are Carlson and Pfeiffer — a former investigative producer for Tucker Carlson Tonight — according to the filing‘s list of exhibits, which notes certain texts are misdated due to a time zone difference.

In the exchange, Carlson and Pfeiffer argue over whether Trump is the main problem or the symptom of a “deeper” problem, but both acknowledge Trump’s role in inspiring the violence that Carlson’s show is now trying to erase.

Here’s the full text of the exhibit:

Producer – Millions believe that the election was stolen because of Donald Trump and demagogues like this Drew guy.

Producer – They take the president literally. He said it was stolen. They believe him. He is to blame for everything that happened today.

Carlson – The problem is a little deeper than that I’d say.

Producer – Obviously the problems are deep but at the core of it is Trump saying It was stolen.

Carlson – Not the core, Awful but a symptom

Producer – He promoted today’s rally a month ago and said it would be “wild”

Producer – Come on

Producer – There is just too much circular logic going around. Yes millions of people think the election was stolen, but they didn’t just wake up with that belief. They were told it was stolen and that was amplified in talk radio/memes etc.

Producer – *Don’t feel like arguing in that group chat. I agree with your text.

Producer – But sometimes things are simple. Our job is to react nightly to the news of the day not deliver a thesis on what ails America. The president of the United States has told his supporters daily for months that the election was stolen. His allies parroted this. He promoted a massive rally in DC. They all flew in. He then encouraged them to go to the Capitol and the rest is history. Yes he is symptom but today was its own event. If a boxer gets knocked out and dies in the ring. I could talk about how he grew up poor and thats why he chose such a dangerous profession.

Carlson – No our job is not to provide news coverage. Not even close. Our job is to explain what things mean

Producer – Well to explain what things mean it would require explaining why people think the election was stolen. I get that we have to thread the needle and we have an audience with certain beliefs. So it’s tough. It’s just frustrating. It’s impossible to accurately explain today’s events without mentioning the president and the lies. Not just the lies about the fraud, but maybe more importantly the lies giving people hope. As Charlie and I said in the group chat the other day, countless people ask us if Trump can still pull this off. It’s a shame so many think that.

Producer – People were enraged today because they thought Mike Pence would save the day.

Carlson – Trump has two weeks left. Once he’s out, he becomes incalculably less powerful, even in the minds of his supporters. My view is that the most important thing we can do — maybe the only thing we can do — is try to save the things that make America worth living in. For me that begins with the first and second amendments.

Producer – Agreed. I just worry in those two weeks time and the time after that he will inspire people to do even more stuff to put those rights in jeopardy.

Carlson – There’s no question he will. He’s a demonic force, a destroyer. But he’s not going to destroy us. I’be been thinking about this every day for four years.

Producer – You’re right. I don’t want to let him destroy me either. The Trump anger spiral is vicious.

Carlson – That’s for sure. Deadly. It almost consumed me in November when Sidney Powell attacked us. It was very difficult to regain emotional control, but I knew I had to. We’ve got two weeks left. We can do this.

Producer – This crazy q stuff has consequences.

Producer – It also takes lots of demagogues for them to believe this stuff. Trump never disavowed this Q shit or Lin Wood or any of the insanity.

Carlson – (REDACTED)

Pfeiffer – This is from Theo. The Q movement is sincerely dangerous. Don’t really know how to stop it. Hopefully Trump being out of the presidency deflates it as its central premise right now is that he will serve a second term and that people need to “Trust the plan.” Many of the people at the Capitol yesterday wore Q t shirts. It really takes a hold of people. From then: “We have these friends — He’s a doctor. She’s a nurse. Both apolitical before 2013. They went from generally supportive of Trump to MAGA to devoted Fox watchers to Alex Jones followers to Q folks. They believed that Trump would “fix” the election. When I pointed out to them that even if Trump ‘fixed’ the election, it wouldn’t matter now because the Senate would impeach. The woman’s answer was: then we suspend the Congress. Again, normal people. Didn’t even follow politics four years ago. Probably were soft Democrats. They now think there’s a ‘righteous restoration afoot’

Carlson – Not surprised. All misdirected religious impulses. Secular societies don’t work.

Other exhibits showed Carlson privately blasting Trump.

Fox News issued a statement responding to the latest documents on Monday:

Dominion’s lawsuit has always been more about what will generate headlines than what can withstand legal and factual scrutiny,” the network said, “as illustrated by them now being forced to slash their fanciful damages demand by more than half a billion dollars after their own expert debunked its implausible claims.

Their summary judgment motion took an extreme, unsupported view of defamation law that would prevent journalists from basic reporting and their efforts to publicly smear Fox for covering and commenting on allegations by a sitting President of the United States should be recognized for what it is: a blatant violation of the First Amendment.

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