Fox News host Tucker Carlson in a phone interview with The Washington Post revealed that his wife was home alone when a mob of Antifa protesters descended on their house in Washington, D.C., Wednesday night.
Carlson – who was at his desk at the Fox News bureau in Washington preparing for his 8 p.m. live show – told the newspaper that his wife Susan Andrews hid in a pantry because she thought she was facing a "home invasion."
“I called my wife,” he said, after he saw she sent him multiple text messages. “She had been in the kitchen alone getting ready to go to dinner and she heard pounding on the front door and screaming. ... Someone started throwing himself against the front door and actually cracked the front door.”
Carlson told The Washington Post that Andrews, “thinking it was a home invasion, locked herself in the pantry and called 911.”
Luckily, none of their four children were home at the time. By the time he spoke to his wife on the phone, the police, as well as his brother who lives nearby, were already there.
Carlson said that he doesn’t know who was responsible just yet, but that he plans to find out.
He said the stunt “wasn’t a protest. It was a threat.”
“They weren’t protesting anything specific that I had said,” said Carlson. “They weren’t asking me to change anything. They weren’t protesting a policy or advocating for legislation. ... They were threatening me and my family and telling me to leave my own neighborhood in the city that I grew up in.”
The “Tucker Carlson Tonight” host did not appear on his show the night following the incident. Fox News' Brian Kilmeade filled in for Carlson and said it was because of a "previously planned vacation." One can imagine Carlson just wants to be with his family at this time.
But Carlson was phoned in during the show and said that it has been "affirming" that "for every masked lunatic in front of my house, there have been, you know, a hundred people, some of whom I don't agree with politically, calling or sending texts of support and kindness and it's just a reminder of what a really nice country it is. And if you work in our businesses, you know, you lose sight of that."
Video shows a group of angry protesters standing on the Carlson’s lawn Wednesday night, chanting threats such as, “Tucker Carlson, we will fight! We know where you sleep at night!” and, “Racist scumbag, leave town!”
It was reported that protesters knocked on the door, rang the doorbell, and left a sign with the family’s home address on it.
One is heard in now-deleted videos saying she wanted to “bring a pipe bomb” to Carlson’s house.
It was later revealed that the Carlson’s home was vandalized. Their front door was damaged and an anarchist symbol was spray-painted across their driveway.
The protesters dispersed minutes after the police arrived. It is unclear whether any arrests were made.
The protest was reportedly organized by a self-proclaimed Antifa group called “Smash Racism DC.” The group’s Twitter account was suspended by Twitter after it had posted the Carlson’s home address online as well as the addresses of his brother, Buckley Carlson, and his Daily Caller co-founder, Neil Patel. Read more here.
Fox News issued a statement on the incident calling it “reprehensible”:
“The incident that took place at Tucker’s home last night was reprehensible,” said CEO Suzanne Scott and President Jay Wallace in a joint statement. “The violent threats and intimidation tactics toward him and his family are completely unacceptable. We as a nation have become far too intolerant of different points of view. Recent events across our country clearly highlight the need for a more civil, respectful, and inclusive national conversation. Those of us in the media and in politics bear a special obligation to all Americans, to find common ground.”
The incident is currently being investigated by D.C. police as a hate crime.