Former TV host Tucker Carlson has made his first public appearance after being fired from Fox News last month.
Carlson, 53, spoke Thursday night at the Oxford Performing Arts Center in Oxford, Alabama, for the annual Rainbow Omega fundraiser.
A sold-out crowd of 1,189, paying prices between $50 and $125, gathered at the arts center to hear Carlson deliver a wide range of commentary during an hour-long speech.
According to the Anniston starimmediately approached the subject of his recent resignation from Fox News in its opening sentence.
Pictured: Carlson speaking at the event in Alabama on Thursday
Carlson, who made $20 million a year at Fox, quipped, “I’m probably the first unemployed person you’ve ever invited to speak.
‘It is funny. I never give speeches because I’m at work. When I accepted this speech six months ago or something, I didn’t realize how much free time I would have.
“You never know, do you?”
The newspaper reported that Carlson spoke at length about his love for the state of Alabama, as well as American politics.
The event was organized as a fundraiser for Rainbow Omega, an Alabama residential facility that houses adults with developmental disabilities.
Carlson left his Fox News show on April 23, with no official reason why the company let go of their most-watched anchor.
The decision was made six days after Fox settled with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million.
Since then, a slew of rumors about his firing have emerged. They range from claims about Carlson’s lyrics that emerged in the aftermath of the lawsuit, including claims that he hated Trump.
There were also rumors that Carlson may have been fired over a gender discrimination suit brought by a former female booker of his show.
Pictured: Carlson and his wife Susan Andrews are pictured for the first time since his resignation since parting ways with Fox late last month
He told a DailyMail.com reporter that “retirement is going great so far” outside his home in Boca Grande, Florida
It has also since emerged that Carlson sent an inflammatory text message the day after the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6 — which the Fox News board learned about on the eve of their defamation trial.
The pivotal role of the January 7, 2021 text message was originally reported by The New York Times.
In text to one of his producers, Carlson recalls seeing a mob of three white men attack an “Antifa kid” and wanted the victim killed.
But, Carlson wrote, he realized it was wrong to want the “Antifa boy” to die.
Carlson, whose critics call him a white supremacist, also argued that white people in general don’t act so dishonorably as to launch a three-on-one attack.
Since his departure, Fox News ratings have plummeted
He did not specify the race of the “Antifa boy.”
“At least it was three to one,” Carlson wrote. ‘Puncing on someone like that is, of course, dishonorable. White men don’t fight like that.’
After his firing from Fox News, their ratings plummeted as fans of the firebrand host left the network in droves.
On Monday, MSNBC scored a primetime win over Fox News in both key age demographic and total viewership.
The network beat its competitors with an average of 1.693 million total viewers and 176,000 in the critical 25-54 age group.
Fox News averaged 1.598 million viewers between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. and 164,000 viewers across the demographic.