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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called on Dominion Voting Systems to answer questions about the company's alleged role in Tucker Carlson's firing by Fox News.
"If the public reporting is accurate that Dominion Voting Systems demanded that Tucker Carlson be fired as part of a litigation settlement, then I am happy that Dominion does not operate in Texas, and I don't think that they should do so in the future," the Republican governor wrote in a tweet on Saturday.
"We may disagree with other's positions, but we should never try to improperly silence views contrary to our own."
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Abbott added that if Dominion "wants to do business with Texas in the future, they should first answer questions about what role, if any, they played in silencing a prominent conservative journalist. The answers to those questions, and other factors, should guide whether we want them to operate here."
A Dominion spokeswoman told Newsweek that nothing about Carlson "was part of the settlement agreement and any claims otherwise are false."
His tweet linked to an Axios article that reported Carlson's lawyers had sent a letter to Fox accusing the network of fraud and breach of contract.
The letter alleges that Fox broke promises not to settle with Dominion "in a way which would indicate wrongdoing" on Carlson's part, as well as not to take any actions in a settlement that would harm his reputation.
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The outlet, citing two sources, also reported that Carlson was told by a member of the Fox board that he was taken off the air as part of the Dominion settlement. A Fox spokesperson told Axios it was "categorically false" that Carlson was fired as part of the settlement.
Fox announced on April 24 that it was cutting ties with Carlson, its most popular prime-time anchor.
The network did not explain why it cut ties with Carlson, but the move came soon after Fox News agreed to pay $787 million to settle the voting company's defamation lawsuit, averting a trial that would have exposed how the network promoted lies about the 2020 presidential election. Text messages sent by Carlson were made public as part of that lawsuit.
Earlier this week, Carlson announced he would be putting out a "new version" of his Fox show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, on Twitter.
He called Twitter the last "big" remaining platform that allows free speech.
"Starting soon, we'll be bringing a new version of the show we've been doing for the last six and a half years to Twitter," he said. "We'll bring some other things, too, which we'll tell you about. But for now we're just grateful to be here."
Newsweek has contacted Abbott's office, a lawyer for Carlson and Fox News for comment via email.
Update 5/14/23, 10:30 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to add a comment from a Dominion spokeswoman.
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