Fox News host and Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson responded to a question on whether he will run for president in 2024 in a Thursday interview.
Semafor co-founder and editor-in-chief Ben Smith questioned Carlson on his “ambitions” to launch a presidential run during an interview hosted by the Knight Foundation and Semafor News.
“I’m curious about your ambitions,” Smith said. “There are friends of yours, to the extent you’ve still got them in Washington, who are talking about your running for president in 2024 and I’m curious what your thought process is around that.”
“I have zero ambition, not just politically, but in life,” Carlson said. “My ambition is to write my script by 8 p.m. And I’m not just saying that, as anyone who works with me or knows me, I don’t think that way. I don’t want power. I’ve never wanted power. I’m annoyed by things, I want them to change, but I’ve never been motivated by the desire to control people.”
Carlson described his instincts as “libertarian,” though he does not associate himself with the Libertarian Party.
“So, that’s a ‘you’re not running?'” Smith pressed.
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“I’m not running, I mean come on,” Carlson replied. “I’m a talk show host, and I enjoy my job, by the way. And what a blessing it is to say what you really think like, ‘only women can get pregnant.’ I dare you to say that. Can you say that? No, you can’t say that. I can.” (RELATED: Tucker 2024? Here’s Where Carlson Stacks Up Against The Competition)
Smith asked Carlson about his concerns with the political civil conflict arising throughout the country and whether he has the ability to faith in institutions. The host said he can by telling the truth, correcting his mistakes and urged the country needs to “de-racialize” the nation.
“Yes, I’m trying my very hardest to tell the truth, and when I screw it up, I correct it immediately if it’s a factual error. When my views on things change, I say so, I don’t pretend I didn’t used to think that,” he said. “I admit it.”
“The scariest thing that could happen to America is to wind up in a country that cleaves along racial lines,” he continued later. “Identity politics is the route there … so the most important thing we can do and we should do — people who have an audience — is to de-racialize the conversation. The Democratic Party is like, ‘It’s white people, white men versus everybody else.’ I hate that. That’s not true.”
Smith claimed Carlson’s audience enjoys when he “pours gasoline on those fires,” asking if ratings had any involvement in his reaction to these issues. The Daily Caller co-founder said he does not read ratings charts and doesn’t know what his show’s ratings are.