NowThis today released unaired footage of Fox News host Tucker Carlson telling Dutch historian Rutger Bregman to go “f-ck yourself.”
The footage, released on Twitter, shows the two men talking about how the rich find ways to avoid paying taxes.
Bregman became a viral sensation late last month after going off-script during an appearance at the World Economic Forum at Davos, telling the billionaires in attendance that they should stop avoiding paying taxes.
The Utopia for Realists author was invited to appear on Carlson’s show for a presumably favorable interview, seeing as the Fox News primetime star has recently rebranded himself as a Trumpian economic populist who praises Bernie Sanders on income inequality issues while also spouting white-nationalist-friendly rants on immigration.
The pair sat down on Feb. 11, with Bregman appearing via satellite from Amsterdam, and while the conversation started out as friendly, it ultimately turned into a full-on meltdown after the historian suggested Fox News is bought and paid for by billionaires.
“I went to Davos to speak truth to power,” Bregman said of his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “And I’m doing the exact same thing right now. You may not like it. But you’re a billionaire funded by millionaires and that’s the reason why you’re not talking about these issues.”
“But I am talking about these issues,” Carlson replied.
Bregman said that Carlson was only jumping on the bandwagon, adding that he is saying now that he’s against the “globalist elite” and that it’s not “very convincing.”
Eventually Bregman said to the conservative host: “The thing is, you guys have brought into power a president who doesn’t even want to show his own tax returns. Who knows how many billions he has hidden in the Cayman Islands or in Bermuda. So I think the issue really is one of corruption.”
And then he brought up Carlson’s own bosses at Fox: “What the Murdochs basically want you to do is to scapegoat immigrants instead of talking about tax avoidance. So I’m glad you’re now finally raising the issue, but that’s what’s been happening for the past couple of years.”
And then began Carlson’s meltdown.
When Bregman claimed that “all the anchors on Fox, they’re all millionaires,” Carlson began yelling: “Fox doesn’t even play where you are.”
“Well, have you heard of the internet?” Bregman joked, while Carlson continued to yell on the other end. “I can watch things whatever I want.”
Bregman then continued: “You’re probably not going to air this, but I went to Davos to speak truth to power and I’m doing exactly the same thing right now. You might not like it, but you’re a millionaire funded by billionaires. And that’s the reason you’re not talking about these issues.”
“But I am talking about these issues,” Carlson shot back.
“Yeah, only now,” the historian said. “You jumped the bandwagon. You’re all like, oh, I’m against the globalist elite, blah, blah, blah. It’s not very convincing to be honest.”
“I want to say to you, why don’t you go fuck yourself, you tiny brain,” Carlson roared. “And I hope this gets picked up because you’re a moron. I tried to give you a hearing, but you were too fucking annoying.”
You can’t handle the criticism, can you?” Bregman quips at the end of the footage.
The segment did not air.
But you can watch it here:
Watch Fox News host Tucker Carlson call one of his guests a ‘tiny brain…moron’ during an interview. NowThis has obtained the full segment with historian Rutger Bregman that Fox News is refusing to air. pic.twitter.com/kERYPUaGLY
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) February 20, 2019
If Carlson had actually read Bregman’s book none of this would be surprising.
Matching him up against Carlson — who has railed against “gypsies,” decried immigrants for making America “dirtier” and California a “third-world country,” and said that America’s changing racial demographics represent “more change than human beings are designed to digest” — was bound to end in a fight, one for which Carlson apparently wasn’t prepared.