Tucker Carlson Reveals He Was 'Excited' by Obama's Presidency

Tucker Carlson on Thursday confessed he had initially been excited about former President Barack Obama's 2008 election victory.

The statement, which many people may find surprising coming from the conservative commentator, was made at an event in Oxford, Alabama, in what was Carlson's first public appearance since his departure from Fox News.

On April 24, Fox News Media announced it had parted ways with Carlson. The news made international headlines as his political talk show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, had been a massive ratings success for the network since its premiere in 2016.

Carlson's departure came days after a $787.5 million settlement was reached between Fox News and Dominion. The voting machine company had accused the network's anchors of making false claims about the 2020 presidential election results and baseless claims about Dominion voting machines.

Legal documents that were part of Dominion's lawsuit were released that revealed Carlson had said in private text messages from 2021 that he "passionately" hated Donald Trump.

Carlson spoke little of his Fox News departure at Thursday's event aside from some joking comments made at the beginning of his speech, according to The Anniston Star.

"I'm probably the first unemployed person you ever invited to speak," Carlson said, according to the Alabama newspaper. "It's funny. I rarely give speeches because I'm working, and when I accepted this speech six months ago I didn't realize how much free time I would have."

After expressing his admiration for Rainbow Omega, the faith-based nonprofit organization that hosted the fundraising event, Carlson turned his attention to national politics.

"If you treated your children like the federal government treats our population, they would all be in rehab," he said.

Brian Graves of The Aniston Star wrote that Carlson also claimed he was hopeful about Obama when the former president first arrived to the White House.

"Obama's first term was how we were going to get past race. I didn't vote for the guy, but everybody I knew was excited, and so was I," Carlson said. "We elect some guy I disagree with but we get to the point we stop picking at the scab and move forward as one country—why wouldn't I be for that? As a Christian, I was totally for that."

According to the Star, Carlson said his feelings changed during Obama's second term, when "all of a sudden we're not post-racial. All we're going to talk about is race and make each other hate each other on the basis of race."

The former Fox News host then reportedly said no one has ever "attacked me on racial terms" and that he doesn't think "there is widespread racism in the country. I have never seen it—not one time."

International political strategist George Ajjan told Newsweek that "Carlson trivially equates his experience not personally being attacked on the basis of race with an absence of racism in America."

"It's a typical mechanism, like the positive vibes surrounding Obama's election, of convenient self-absolution from acknowledging, not to mention confronting, a systemic cultural problem," Ajjan said.

Earlier this week, media outlets reported on a Carlson text message from 2021 that has been deemed racist by many. Carlson's message, which was also acquired during the discovery process of Dominion Voting Systems' defamation lawsuit against Fox, described watching a video showing at least three "Trump guys" beating an "Antifa kid."

Carlson allegedly wrote in the message that "jumping a guy" is "dishonorable" and "not how white men fight." He also said he found himself "rooting for the mob" against the man being attacked, "hoping they'd hit him harder, kill him," before he expressed regret at having such thoughts.

Robert Schmuhl, a professor emeritus in American studies and journalism at the University of Notre Dame, told Newsweek that for "Tucker Carlson to talk about race as he did in his recent speech just pours gasoline on a fire he started."

Schmuhl continued, "He talks about the Obama years without providing the necessary context that his own commentary at the time contributed to the polarization that helped divide America politically, socially and racially. If anything, we are even more divided today than during the Obama presidency, and Carlson himself deserves some of the blame for the way he discussed race on his program."

Newsweek reached out to Carlson's attorney via email for comment.