Tucker Carlson Apologized With A Non-Apology For Telling A Dutch Academic To ‘Go F*ck Himself’

Tucker Carlson addressed a bubbling scandal Wednesday night on Fox News, concerning a viral clip that made its way around the internet earlier in the day in which he called his guest, Dutch academic Rutger Bregman, a “moron” and told him to “go f*ck himself.” Bregman had made headlines at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month when he called out a room full of progressive billionaires for taking private jets to a conference about climate change. He also accused them not paying enough in taxes.

Once the Fox News crowd got a hold of the blistering speech, Carlson invited him on his program to congratulate him, but obviously things did not go as planned. Bregman seemingly was prepared with an ambush and quickly went on the attack, accusing Fox News as being part of the problem, leading to the explicit exchange.

The clip obviously never aired on Fox News, however Bregman was apparently recording the interview himself, and the clip was subsequently leaked by NowThisNews.

“I did what I try hard never to do on this show and I was rude,” Carlson said on last night’s broadcast, after he explained that he felt like he had little other choice when Bregman questioned his journalistic integrity:

“I called him a moron and then I modified that word with a vulgar Anglo-Saxon term that is also intelligible in Dutch. In my defense, I would say that that was entirely accurate but you’re not allowed to use that word on television. So once I said it out loud, there was no airing the segment.

As out turns out, Bregman taped our exchange, he released the audio today, and if you’d like you can listen to it. There is some profanity and I apologize for that. On the the other hand it was genuinely heartfelt. I meant it with total sincerity.”

This might be the first time in history that someone has described telling someone to “go f*ck” themselves as “genuinely heartfelt” and “totally sincere.”

Bregman also tweeted out a screenshot of an email Carlson sent him after the segment. “I loved what you said at Davos, so I had high hopes for our interview,” Carlson wrote. “But you turned out to be far dumber, far more dogmatic and less impressive than I expected. You’re professional academic, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but it was still disappointing. Also for what it’s worth, you’re an asshole.”

Others questioned the “real” reason why Carlson refused to run the clip. After all, he could have just edited or bleeped out the foul language.

https://twitter.com/WGladstone/status/1098613272239063040

You can watch the original, unedited clip below: