Bannon Says After Fox’s Ouster of Tucker Carlson, There’s No Reason to Watch ‘Anything on the Murdoch Empire’

Former Trump campaign manager and White House advisor, Steve Bannon, weighed in on Fox New’s apparent firing of Tucker Carlson on Monday and declared that without Carlson’s “populist voice,” he sees no reason for anyone to watch the “Murdoch empire” anymore.

“Breaking news. Some of you’ve seen this. Tucker Carlson and Fox News have parted ways. The last show of Tucker Carlson Tonight was Friday night. So this actually obviously came to a head over the weekend,” Bannon began. Mediaite reported later on Monday that multiple sources at Fox News said Carlson was in fact fired.

“No announcement from Tucker to date. We’re going to try to track down Posobiec and maybe Darby or some other folks. But blockbuster news, which I’ve said, hey, the reason to watch Fox, you got Maria in the morning. You’ve got Jesse, right. He’s getting there. But Tucker is really the reason to watch Fox,” Bannon continued, adding:

With this I don’t know why anybody needs to watch anything on the Murdoch empire, because Tucker was the mainstay of the the populist voice over at Fox. And it’s just this is blockbuster news. Tucker’s announced he’s leaving and not just at the last show was Friday night. So tonight they’re going to replace him with, I don’t know, Fox News Tonight or something, but no Tucker Carlson at Fox News. It looks like no Tucker Carlson at Fox Nation, the streaming service. We will get more details.

Bannon’s comments may be a prelude to a wider revolt on the far-right against Fox, which has been in the crosshairs of both Bannon and former President Donald Trump for months – although in recent weeks Trump and the network appeared to have mended fences. Bannon remains a key figure among the MAGA base and his conspiratorial War Room podcast is one of the highest-rated political podcasts in the country.

Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy released a statement and tried to frame Carlson’s departure as a boost for the network, which is to the right of Fox News.

“For a while, Fox News has been moving to become establishment media and Tucker Carlson’s removal is a big milestone in that effort. Millions of viewers who liked the old Fox News have made the switch to Newsmax and Tucker’s departure will only fuel that,” Ruddy wrote.

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