Even when he was carrying water for Donald Trump, there was always a sense that Tucker Carlson didn’t much care for Donald Trump, which is ironic because Trump bent reality enough for Tucker Carlson to completely distort it nightly on his Fox News show. Of late, Tucker Carlson’s intentional distortions include cherry-picking footage from January 6th to argue that it was basically a police-led peaceful protest, which is so insane that a number of Republican Senators are rebuking Carlson, calling it “bullsh*t.” This wasn’t just Mitt Romney, either: Mitch McConnell and Thom Tillis, among others, took Tucker to task.

What’s maddening is that Carlson is defending the hardcore supporters of a man that he loathes, people who would terrify him in person, as Anderson Cooper rightfully pointed out last night.

Cooper: You know, I mean, the idea of Tucker Carlson being in that mob that day and not wetting his pants is hard to imagine pic.twitter.com/vjQ3E97UTs

— Acyn (@Acyn) March 8, 2023

We already knew from private texts and emails that Tucker Carlson, et. al. didn’t believe any of the election denial conspiracy theories they were helping to spread. It turns out, in private, Carlson also hates the man they were defending.

Tucker Carlson told a Fox employee that he hates Trump passionately as revealed in the latest filing in the Dominion defamation lawsuit. pic.twitter.com/BBIWbzVjL4

— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) March 8, 2023

Carlson also called Trump’s post-election behavior “disgusting,” said that his refusal to attend Biden’s inauguration was “so destructive,” and also added, “We’re all pretending we’ve got a lot to show for [the last four years], because admitting what a disaster it’s been is too tough to digest. But come on. There isn’t really an upside to Trump.”

Fox News clearly has no love for Trump, who hasn’t appeared on the network in months (while Ron DeSantis has appeared nearly daily). Fox News is trying to shake him loose, but they still need each other. I’m not sure either can do as well without the other. Fox News is a propaganda network for the Republican party. Donald Trump is the leader of the Republican party. They hate each other and yet, try as they might, they have not yet been able to destroy each other. The split within the party — and the party apparatus — is still the best hope the Democrats have in the 2024 election.