Rudy Giuliani says he ‘expected’ Fox News to fire Tucker Carlson in conspiracy-filled interview

Former New York City Mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani has said he “was expecting” the firing of Tucker Carlson by Fox News amid an interview littered with disproven claims.

Mr Giuliani, speaking on Thursday to Eric Bolling of Newsmax, heavily criticized Fox, which he said he had “a long history with.”

“I was expecting it; I was still shocked – shocked by it because he’s had, like, about a year or two, year and a half of what I would consider historic and inspired journalism,” he said of Carlson’s work, particularly citing the host’s coverage and controversial pieces regarding January 6.

Taking aim at mainstream media, including Fox News, Mr Giuliani said: “Everything we’re going to see now for the next year and a half can all be answered by: they don’t want Trump back.”

Then he praised the proliferation of streaming media platforms, adding: “I expect to see Tucker with a bigger audience very, very soon on ... any number of online locations.”

He said “it wasn’t even so much that Tucker was that much for Trump, he had to become that way. Really, he was laying out the circumstances that show how incredibly crooked they are. I mean, they manipulated January 6; they were more than willing to create the fiction of an American insurrection in order to get rid of Donald Trump. For that, you should probably be thrown out of the country.”

He claimed that “nobody’s dead” – despite four members of the crowd dying on January 6, one police officer dying the following day from a stroke, and several others dying by suicide in the aftermath – and insisted particpants were unarmed despite admissions to the contrary.

“They’re talking about an insurrection, except an insurrection without a gun.” (One rioter who had been armed with a loaded handgun was sentenced to 87 months in prison while another recently admitted to carrying 25 rounds of ammunition.)

While Bolling did not correct the claims, he appeared to try to steer the conversation away from January 6 and back to Fox and Carlson.

The Independent has reached out to Bolling for comment and Mr Giuliani could not immediately be reached.