Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
- Tucker Carlson remains influential in conservative media despite being fired from Fox News in April.
- Sources close to Carlson told Axios that the political commentator is looking to get out of his contract with the network.
- As a result, they say, his team is "preparing for war" with Fox News, Axios reports.
Tucker Carlson, the former face of Fox News, appears to have no plans of giving up his platform as a conservative commentator — and sources say he's willing to take down his previous employer in order to maintain it.
Carlson, 53, is enlisting the help of powerful allies to push Fox to release him from his contract so that he can either work for another right-wing outlet or start his own, sources close to him told Axios.
In April, the company announced that Fox News and Carlson "agreed to part ways," and the network would essentially pay the commentator $20 million per year until his "pay or play" contract expires in January 2025, through the end of the next presidential election.
Rival outlets — including right-wing Rumble and Newsmax — have reached out offering to pay Carlson more than his Fox contract, Axios reported. In the days following his dismissal, Fox News lost half of its 8 p.m. audience.
"The idea that anyone is going to silence Tucker and prevent him from speaking to his audience is beyond preposterous," attorney Bryan Freedman, Carlson's legal counsel on the contract dispute, told Axios.
Now, sources say Carlson's right-wing allies are rallying around him in the aftermath of the abrupt firing. Some even suggest he's considering a direct-to-consumer outlet on which his supporters can pay for Carlson's content.
"They're coming to him and saying: 'Do you want me to hit Fox?'" a close Carlson friend said to Axios. "He's been saying: 'No. I want to get this done quiet and clean.' "
The friend added: "His team is preparing for war. He wants his freedom."