A new PAC aimed at getting Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in the upcoming presidential election released its first advertisement.
The Draft Tucker PAC, which was formed by fans and supporters of the television personality, asked viewers to sign a petition urging Carlson to enter the 2024 race.
“Republicans need a new leader, and Tucker Carlson is ready to lead,” says the narrator of the video, which was released on May 18. “No one in America is more articulate and pins down leftists in both parties better than Tucker.”
The ad compares Carlson to the late conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, who was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Donald Trump in 2020. Limbaugh died from advanced lung cancer two weeks later.
Fox News terminated the Tucker Carlson Tonight host in late April – a surprise announcement that shocked many of Carlson’s fans.
“His firing came less than a week after Fox settled a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, which had sued the network for airing false claims that it had conspired to rig the 2020 presidential election, for $787.5 million — the largest publicly disclosed monetary settlement ever in an American defamation action,” reported The Washington Post. “Though Carlson largely avoided trafficking in those specific conspiracy theories, his private messages were among thousands of internal communications made public during its progress through the courts that caused angst and embarrassment for Fox and heightened the company’s legal jeopardy.”
The PAC filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission in the weeks after Carlson's departure from Fox. It is chaired by Chris Ekstrom, a former Texas congressional candidate and Republican donor. Ekstrom told The Hill that he finds neither Trump nor Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is believed to be on the eve of announcing his presidential campaign, “fully satisfactory.”
“I’m very concerned that they’re going to not move the debate as far right as it ought to be,” Ekstrom said. “If Tucker Carlson entered the race in a reasonable amount of time and just continued in the same territory that he was covering at Fox, I think that’d be a rude awakening for both President Trump and Governor DeSantis.”
In a video on April 26, Carlson hinted that he would not be retiring from the media.
“Where can you still find Americans saying true things?” he said, per The Guardian. “There aren’t many places left but there are some and that’s enough. As long as you can hear the words, there is hope. See you soon.”
A week later, rumors circulated that Carlson was in talks with former President Donald Trump to moderate a debate that would not be hosted by the Republican National Committee. Fox News is scheduled to hold the first primary debate.
Carlson announced on May 9 that he will be working on a new version of his eponymously named show that will air on Twitter. The media personality said Twitter was the only platform that permits free speech and knocked mainstream outlets as partisan.
“The news you consume is a lie. A lie of the stealthiest and most insidious kind,” said Carlson. “Facts have been withheld on purpose along with proportion and perspective. You are being manipulated.”
