If you thought Tucker Carlson being fired from Fox News meant we wouldn’t have to constantly hear his dangerous brand of disinformation anymore, you were mostly mistaken. The conservative pundit, lover of a highly-sexualized green M&M, and a man who once got roasted so hard by Jon Stewart on television that he stopped wearing bow ties is still on Twitter and other platforms, and while he hasn’t gone into too much detail about why he was fired, that hasn’t stopped him from helping rumors to spread (so, nothing new there). This time, he’s managed to do so with an emoji response to a tweet by Chadwick Moore, who is writing Tucker’s upcoming biography.
In a video posted alongside the tweet, Moore — who we’re sure is doing this purely out of the goodness of his heart, and not just because he has a book coming out — states that Carlson’s firing was the result of Dominion requiring it as a part of dropping their lawsuit against Fox News. Whether or not this is true is up for debate, but as far as far-right conspiracy theories go, it’s not the most unreasonable. However, after discussing how close he is with Carlson, Moore (who was Carlson’s final guest) then goes further down the rabbit hole.
He discusses the monologue Carlson was due to make on Monday, had he not been fired, and implies that this is the main reason he was let go so unceremoniously. The speech would have been about Ray Epps, a Trump supporter from Arizona who’s become the target of a conspiracy theory that alleges he was a federal agent that incited the riot at the Capitol on January 6. The accusation is unfounded, and stems from the fact that Epps was caught on camera telling his fellow rioters to head down to where Congress sits, yet wasn’t charged with sedition or any of the other crimes that other rioters have been slapped with. Everyone’s least favorite Republicans have piled in on this unsubstantiated theory, including Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Ted Cruz.
Epps, a former member of the dangerous far-right Oath Keepers militia, told 60 Minutes he’d been forced to sell his home and move into an RV because of all the threats he’d faced since becoming the center of the conspiracy theory. He became emotional when discussing how unfair it all seemed:
“No matter how many times they push this conspiracy theory, this lie, it’ll never become truth. Truth stands on its own. What I’m telling you is the truth.”
Despite the video, Epps maintains he didn’t head to the Capitol that day. And, contrary to what the theory implied, his photo did initially appear on the FBI website that was set up to get information about people of interest who’d been in D.C. on January 6 — it was just taken down once he’d spoken to the agency. The FBI confirmed to 60 Minutes that “Ray Epps has never been an FBI source or an FBI employee.” This was backed up by Thomas Joscelyn, who worked for the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, who also spoke to 60 Minutes:
“I wouldn’t defend Ray Epps or anybody else who was on the Capitol grounds that day. I would just defend the facts. And the facts are that there’s still absolutely zero evidence that Ray Epps was a federal agent, or a federal provocateur, or had any kind of contact with the FBI or any other federal agencies.”
Of course, the FBI has a long and sordid history of trying to discredit movements by using informants and agitators, although it has to be said this has historically focused on left-wing and civil rights organizations. And while it appears the agency has moved on to targeting the very present and real threat of right-wing groups, the notion that solely paid agitators were responsible for what happened that day ignores the months of political instability and fake news that fueled events, as well as the actions of people like Donald Trump and his cronies.
For now, we still don’t know exactly why Tucker was fired. Some assume it’s because of that old Fox tradition of one too many sexual assault accusations, whereas others think it’s because of the fact the discovery phase of the Dominion case revealed how little respect he had for his audience and fellow conservatives. All we know for sure is that he’s gone for now — but sadly, not forgotten.
