(NewsNation) — Videos of and texts vy former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson continue to emerge, leaving the questions: who is leaking them, and why?
The network has publicly sought to put a stop to the leaks, sending Media Matters a cease-and-desist letter over the outlet’s publication of videos of Carlson on set, The Hill reported. In them, he asks a makeup artist if pillow fights break out in the women’s bathroom, slams Fox Nation and says he was “triggered” by a Dominion Voting Systems lawyer during his deposition in a defamation lawsuit.
Are the videos hurting or bolstering his reputation among fans?
Legal analyst Jesse Weber, podcast host Van Lathan and Republican strategist Noelle Nikpour joined “Dan Abrams Live” on Friday to discuss the issue.
“Somebody obviously had it out for him,” Nikpour said. “I think that there’s more to the story.”
Carlson was abruptly fired from Fox News in the week after the network settled its defamation lawsuit with Dominion for $787.5 million. The network said the two parties agreed to “part ways.”
But The New York Times reported that executives got wind of redacted text messages in the legal filings that raised alarm. In one, Carlson told a producer that as he watched a video of group of men attacking “an Antifa kid,” he found himself “hoping they’d hit him harder, kill him.”
“If they’re trying to justify their decision to fire him, it kind of backfired,” Weber said. “They’re really kind of in a PR problem themselves.”
Watch the discussion in the video player above.