Too toxic for Fox News, Tucker Carlson snags a key role at GOP convention

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On Tuesday, Donald Trump Jr. said that Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch no longer commands the same fear and respect in the Republican Party he once did. “You had to bend the knee to him,” Trump Jr. said. “I don’t think that’s the case anymore.”

As this week has unfolded, it appears that Murdoch is the one bending the knee. In the twilight of his career and life, the 93-year-old billionaire arrived at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee to watch in person as former President Donald Trump was formally nominated, a rare occurrence. An aide to Murdoch declined to comment for this story.

Murdoch has accompanied top executives at Fox News and the Wall Street Journal in visiting their teams in Milwaukee. Yet Murdoch was sure to notice Tucker Carlson, the former Fox primetime star whom the Murdochs fired last year after a raft of scandals at the network, standing nearly shoulder-to-shoulder with Trump in the candidate’s own viewing box. Carlson was heartily welcomed by former colleagues as he entered Fox’s green room at the convention site on Tuesday night, according to someone present. And Carlson is set to deliver a major address tonight, before Trump’s acceptance speech. Fox News has not yet announced whether it would air Carlson’s talk.

The two men — MAGA hero and media mogul — passed within feet of each other at a Milwaukee hotel lobby yesterday, as documented by Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman on social media.

Embraced and shunned by Murdoch and Fox

For years, Murdoch and Fox executives had indulged the false claims of both Trump and Carlson, recognizing their strong appeal to viewers. But the relationship between Murdoch and the then-president became turbulent. After Fox correctly, if perhaps prematurely, projected that Joe Biden had won Arizona on Election Night 2020, Trump scorned Murdoch and Fox. The then-president also claimed, without evidence, that Biden had cheated.

Carlson repeatedly pushed false claims that the January 6 siege of the U.S. Congress was a “false flag” operation instigated variously by FBI plants and Antifa operatives. Murdoch and Fox brass had stood by Carlson as one of his top writers resigned after it was revealed he had written racist, sexist and homophobic posts — and even as Carlson’s own commentaries were denounced as hateful.

Ultimately, under legal duress, Fox distanced itself from both Carlson and Trump.

In April of last year, Fox fired Carlson from his hosting job less than a week after the network’s parent company paid out $787.5 million to a voting machine company over false claims that it had rigged the 2020 election in President Biden’s favor. Carlson was one of the named defendants. Carlson was also the subject of a lawsuit brought by a former producer over allegations of sexism and harassment. Fox settled that suit for $12 million. Murdoch relinquished formal roles at his companies in favor of his elder son Lachlan last fall.

In the months that followed, it seemed that Murdoch preferred any other Republican presidential candidate to Trump. He fixed variously on Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.

The editorial pages of his family’s newspapers — the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post — reconciled themselves to Trump as the nominee, as did Fox News, but worked to undercut Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance’s chances to become the Republican vice-presidential candidate. Vance’s rhetoric rankled the Murdochs by favoring some regulatory actions to address concerns of working-class voters and by his reluctance to support Ukraine against Russia militarily.

Murdoch failed on that front, too.

Still, as his nomination has neared, Trump has appeared to warm to Murdoch once again.

"I speak with Rupert Murdoch a lot," Trump said last week on the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton radio show. "I think Rupert's 94 or 95. "He's substantially older than Biden ... he's 100% sharp," Trump said of the 93-year-old Australian-born media mogul.

Tucker Carlson’s revival

Instead, it is Carlson’s influence that appears to reverberate inside the Milwaukee convention hall.

He, along with Trump Jr., had lobbied Trump on behalf of Vance, and he was the one standing and applauding alongside the former president on the convention’s opening night. His influence has helped to elevate the profile of Hungarian President Viktor Orbán, now a political ally of Trump. He has sought to force himself into the news cycle through interviews with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Steve Bannon, Aaron Rodgers and Alex Jones among others.

Other Fox figures are speaking at Trump’s convention as well: Former House Speaker and political analyst Newt Gingrich, former Trump adviser and Fox commentator Kellyanne Conway, and former host Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is engaged to Trump Jr.

For what it’s worth, Guilfoyle was fired by Fox after allegations of abusive and improper behavior toward junior colleagues. Fox paid $4 million to settle those claims.

For decades, politicians seeking Murdoch’s support or at least the absence of his sting in print and on the air have performed a rite called “kissing the ring.” Aspiring U.S., British and Australian leaders have flown thousands of miles to see him in person and make their case, as a way of demonstrating respect.

That is something Murdoch has in common with the former president. This week, Trump unveiled as his running mate a senator who had entered the political fray as a full-blown critic, comparing Trump to Hitler. Vance has since promised to defy U.S. Supreme Court rulings against Trump, showing that he too has, in Trump Jr.’s evocative phrase, “bent the knee.”

Now, by going to Milwaukee, so has Murdoch.