Tucker Carlson Says He ‘Knows Nothing’ About Producer Suing Him. Text Messages Prove Otherwise
Tucker Carlson last week denied any knowledge of the producer suing him over allegations of a toxic and misogynist workplace, but text messages obtained by Rolling Stone demonstrate the two corresponded frequently while she worked on his show.
“I know nothing about her. I never met her,” Carlson told NPR last week of Abby Grossberg, the former senior producer on Tucker Carlson Tonight who filed the legal complaint and who worked on Carlson’s show for six months.
The text messages, however, reveal the two frequently corresponded on both group text threads and in one-on-one messages. In the messages, Carlson gave directives on guests to book and set the tone for the day’s programming.
In one example reviewed by Rolling Stone, Grossberg and Carlson communicate repeatedly about an attempt to bring then-aspiring House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) onto the show.
“No one else has stepped forward to challenge McCarthy. He’s still the only option. I keep hearing from people who know him that this process has improved him. I want to give him a chance to make the case that it has. Feel free to screenshot this text for his office,” Carlson texted Grossberg on Jan. 5, 2023.
“They apparently just had a ‘really good talk’ with McCarthy’s team about us,” Grossberg wrote Carlson on the same day. He responded, “I heard. Hope it works.”
In another exchange, Carlson asks Grossberg whether Mike Pompeo was joining the show the following day.
“Do we have Pompeo for tomorrow?” Carlson wrote on Dec. 14, 2022, to Grossberg and TCT senior producer Alex McCaskill. McCaskill responded, “He backed out. We should note it on air. He’s such a wimp.”
Grossberg replied as well: “After Pompeo passed, I told him any day he wants to come on next week he’s welcome. Crickets.”
The texts are part of a broader set of messages that Grossberg says demonstrates a working relationship with Carlson, contradicting his claim that they have little to no connection.
“So, ‘I know nothing about her’ is a blatant lie,” Grossberg tells Rolling Stone. “Unless he’s suffering from a profound memory loss, he must know that during the six months that I was there I dealt with him on almost a daily basis in my professional capacity as a senior member of his production team, carrying out his orders in an intensive daily effort to put on his show, which includes hundreds of texts exchanged.”
Carlson and Fox did not respond to requests for comment.
Both Grossberg and Carlson agree the two never met in person, a fact that Carlson’s supporters have emphasized in an effort to discredit the producer. But Grossberg says that’s because the show’s staff worked out of New York while Carlson was largely working from his residences in Florida or Maine.
Grossberg alleges in her lawsuit against Fox, Fox News, Carlson, and other Fox employees that Tucker Carlson Tonight cultivated a hostile and sexist work environment where she was “isolated, overworked, undervalued, denied opportunities for promotion, and generally treated significantly worse than her male counterparts, even when those men were less qualified than her.”
Carlson was ousted from Fox last week amid repeated controversies. He was part of a group of network hosts pushing Donald Trump’s false claims about a stolen election — claims that were at the heart of Fox’s $787.5 million payment to settle a lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems. The lawsuit included revelations that Carlson had spoken disparagingly of top company management.