Mehdi Hasan Says There’s No Way Fox Fired Tucker Carlson Due to Racist Text: ‘I Don’t Think This Is the Full Story’

Mehdi Hasan does not believe Fox News reportedly fired Tucker Carlson over racist text published by the New York Times on Tuesday.

Carlson exited Fox last Monday, prompting speculation as to what exactly led to the ouster of the top-rated host on cable news. Before his termination, several unflattering texts from Carlson emerged in court filings by Dominion Voting Systems, with which Fox settled a defamation suit for $787.5 million two weeks ago. Since the settlement, previously unreleased communications have been leaked to the media.

The Times published a January 2021 text from Carlson to one of his producers recalling how he watched an “Antifa kid” being beaten up and briefly expressed a desire to see him killed. Carlson also took issue with the attackers, stating that group violence is “not how white men fight.”

Some have speculated the text – which Fox would have been aware of after discovery in the Dominion case – led to his ouster.

Appearing on Wednesday’s Deadline: White House on MSNBC, Hasan said he’s not buying that explanation for the firing.

“So, on the one hand, you know, you can’t not be shocked by this stuff,” he said. “On the other end, it is kind of, well, not that surprising. It’s Tucker Carlson.”

He went on to say the theory that the text was the culprit simply doesn’t pass the smell test.

“Even after reading the text, it still doesn’t add up for me,” Hasan said, adding:

[T]his is worse than other things he’s said – the text – because it is an expression of homicidal rage. On the other hand, I wouldn’t downplay what he says on his show. I wouldn’t say it was all that coded…

He pushed the great replacement theory, which is a neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, which two years ago, the [Anti-Defamation League] wrote to Fox and said, this is anti-Semitism. You really should get rid of Tucker Carlson. And Lachlan Murdoch said no, no, no, no. Don’t believe your lying eyes or lying ears. This is all fine.

And over the last two years, he’s pushed the great replacement again and again and again. He’s called immigrants people who make this country dirtier… He asked for Ketanji Brown Jackson’s LSAT scores. Never asked for Gorsuch’s or Kavanaugh’s. So, there’s plenty he said on air that you just have to wonder – was the Fox board not watching Tucker Carlson Tonight for the last few years?

He added, “I don’t think this is the full story yet. I think this is part of the story.”

Later in the interview, he said the “problem” isn’t Carlson, but his former network.

“It says that the problem is not Tucker Carlson,” Hasan stated. “The problem is Fox. The problem is the Murdochs.”

Watch above via MSNBC.