'I love Trump:' Fox's Tucker Carlson tries to walk back texts attacking Donald Trump

WASHINGTON – No, really: Tucker Carlson doesn't hate Donald Trump – far from it, he says.

"I love Trump, like, as a person," Carlson told a talk show host this week as he sought to explain away past texts in which he told a Fox News colleague how much he hated the former president.

The Fox prime time host told WABC radio that "I'm enraged that my private texts were pulled” and that they gave a distorted view of his relationship with the president he has long supported.

The texts

Carlson was responding to texts that became public as part of a defamation suit filed against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems over reporting in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.

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In a text to a producer after a Trump campaign tip proved to be false, Carlson wrote: “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait."

He added that “I hate him passionately" and "I can’t handle much more of this."

'Defending his policies'

In the WABC interview regarding Trump, Carlson said, "I spent four years defending his policies" and he will continue to do so.

The critical texts were released without context, he said.

The most critical ones, Carlson said, were sent after a Trump aide provided him with bad information about the vote count in Georgia; the Trump source had said that ballots came from dead people, but it turned out at least some of those voters were alive.

Carlson said he was "infuriated" and "mad" about the bad tip, and reflected that anger in his texts.

'Funny and insightful'

The Trump text flap happened while Carlson is also under criticism for defending the pro-Trump insurrectionists of Jan. 6, 2021.

Carlson told WABC that he explained the texts to Trump himself after the former president called him up "all wounded about those texts."

In proclaiming his love for the ex-president, Carlson said: "I think Trump is funny and insightful.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fox's Tucker Carlson walks back texts attacking Donald Trump