Tucker Carlson, who is the host of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Fox News, announced Monday evening that he won't be returning till next week, saying that he would be taking a “long-planned vacation,” according to The New York Times.
The vacation has been planned in advanced. Carlson said on his show he will be trout fishing.
This announcement comes just days after Carlson’s top writer, Blake Neff, resigned. Since 2017, Neff had been writing for “Tucker Carlson Tonight”. He resigned after a series of racist, sexist and vulgar comments that he had posted under a pseudonym on an online message board became public on Friday, CNN reported.
Fox News found out about the comments, and that Neff had been writing them for over five years, calling it “abhorrent conduct” and saying “we swiftly accepted his resignation,” according to ABC News.
Carlson commented on the incident on his show Monday night saying:
“Over the weekend you may have seen stories about a writer on this show called Blake Neff. For years, since he was in college, Blake posted anonymously on an internet message board for law school students. On Friday, many of those posts became public. Blake was horrified by the story, and he was ashamed. Friday afternoon, he resigned from his job. We want to say a couple of things about this.
“First, what Blake wrote anonymously was wrong. We don’t endorse those words. They have no connection to this show. It is wrong to attack people for qualities they cannot control. In this country, we judge people for what they do, not for how they were born. We often say that, because we mean it. We will continue to defend that principle, often alone among national news programs, because it is essential. Nothing is more important.
“Blake fell short of that standard and he has paid a very heavy price for it. But we should also point out, to the ghouls now beating their chests in triumph at the destruction of a young man, that self-righteousness also has its costs. We are all human. When we pretend we are holy, we are lying. When we pose as blameless in order to hurt other people, we are committing the gravest sin of all. And we will be punished for it. There’s no question.”
However, this is not the first time that Carlson or other Fox News hosts have taken a break from their show after a controversial issues. Back in August 2019, Carlson took a vacation just two days after saying white supremacy is a “hoax” and that it’s “actually not a real problem in America,” according to The New York Times.