'Confused and then shocked': Tucker Carlson believes Fox fired him as part of $787.5m Dominion settlement

After Fox News agreed to a $787.5 million settlement in Dominion Voting Systems' defamation lawsuit in April, another Fox News bombshell grabbed the media's attention: the right-wing cable news outlet had fired far-right Tucker Carlson, its top-rated host.

The news came as a major shock, as "Tucker Carlson Tonight" had been generating Fox News' highest ratings. But Fox News' execs, including owner Rupert Murdoch, seemed to believe that Carlson, ratings and all, had become a liability for them.

According to "Tucker" author Chadwick Moore's new biography, the former Fox News host believes that firing him was a condition of the Dominion settlement.

The Guardian's Martin Pengelly reports that Carlson told Moore, "They agreed to take me off the air, my show off the air, as a condition of the Dominion settlement. They had to settle this. Rupert couldn't testify. I think that deal was made minutes before the trial started. I mean, I know it was."

Pengelly notes that Dominion "denies that Carlson was fired…. as part of the settlement."

In Moore's book (due out on August 1), Carlson says that the firing came as a shock. When Fox News exec Suzanne Scott called him on April 24, according to Carlson, he thought at first that she wanted to congratulate him on "Tucker Carlson Tonight's" six-year anniversary in the 8 PM EST time slot.

Carlson told Moore, "I was first confused, and then shocked. It was just, 'We're taking you off the air.' No explanation why, and they've let me guess ever since. That's literally all I know. I asked if I violated my contract. They said no, I'm not fired — I'm still under contract."