money Tucker Carlson's Attorney Has A Blunt Response To 2024 Presidential Speculation
A lawyer for Tucker Carlson fired off a legal warning to a political action committee raising money for what it claims is an effort to “draft” the former Fox News host into the 2024 presidential race.
“Mr. Carlson will not run for President in 2024 under any circumstances,” attorney Harmeet Dhillon wrote in a letter to the PAC cited by both The Hill and Mediaite.
The letter accused the organization of “damaging” Carlson and “defrauding” his supporters, and said it did not have permission to use his name and likeness in ads that had begun to appear on Newsmax.
“If you do not immediately cease and desist your efforts to solicit money to ‘draft’ Mr. Carlson, we will use every legal means at our disposal to vindicate his rights and protect his supporters from these misrepresentations,” she wrote.
The PAC’s Twitter account vanished after the letter was made public, with The Hill reporting that the PAC itself had shut down after raising just $212.
Dhillon also fired off some tweets warning of “SCAM PAC season,” saying that anyone who donates to these organizations “is getting ripped off and will probably get their name on a list for endless political donation pitches on behalf of some other candidate.”
Dhillon, who launched an unsuccessful bid to unseat Ronna McDaniel as chair of the Republican National Committee, added:
One reason I ran for RNC chair is that our party is absolutely infested, to the point of near-collapse, with political consultants whose only aim in life is to find some host, willing or unwilling, from which to feed, like a parasite. We see it everwhere we turn. I'm sick of it.
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) May 22, 2023
Carlson, a far-right conspiracy theorist, was accused of “gaslighting” viewers with an alternative history of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol based on cherry-picked footage from the site. Republicans and Democrats alike denounced his claims, including his statement that the rioters were mere “sightseers.”
Fox News parted ways with its star host last month in a shocking announcement that came days after the right-wing network agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit over lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Carlson, who has also given air to racist conspiracy theories and white nationalist talking points, has since resurfaced on Twitter.
Some have speculated that Carlson could turn to politics, perhaps with a presidential bid next year.
Carlson trolled a reporter on the topic earlier this month, telling Business Insider he was planning a presidential announcement in New Hampshire before quickly walking it back.
“Totally kidding,” he wrote to the reporter. “Sorry. I can never control myself. I’m fundamentally a dick. My apologies.”
Dhillon’s statement appears to formally close the door on that notion.
