Fox News host Tucker Carlson underwent emergency back surgery Wednesday morning and then did his nightly show that evening.
“Tucker Carlson had emergency back surgery yesterday and did the show anyway. He thanks all those who tuned in and watched closely,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday.
The network did not give any specifics or reason for the emergency, but according to Vice, Carlson slept poorly on Tuesday night because of the pain he was experiencing after an unspecified incident on Monday.
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In the recording, Carlson, who hosts the top-rated Tucker Carlson Tonight, claimed the experience led him to understand the opioid crisis in the country in a deeper way.
“That was one of the most intense experiences of my life,” Carlson said. “They hit me up, they told me this morning, with such a huge dose of Dilaudid, which is more powerful than morphine, when I got there, that I had trouble breathing. Scared the s*** out of me. Didn’t have any effect at all. And then all night, I lay there, the nurse finally upped my dosage of Dilaudid to the point where every eight minutes I hit it and it was like getting shot. Just like, bam, feel it hit me, and it didn’t touch the pain.”
Carlson, who was speaking with his production crew, said he took the opioid propofol, which knocked him out. When he woke up, the pain was gone, he said. Carlson added he will avoid ever taking opioids again.
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Carlson described the experience as causing him to lose his spirit and drive to do anything.
“I just thought that was the most interesting f***ing thing that had ever happened to me. It wasn’t even that I survived it. It wasn’t even about me — it was about what it does to people,” Carlson said on the recording. “It explains so much of what we see around us. Just the lack of dignity. And that weird drive you have to be like, ‘That’s not in the right order. It should be this way.’ You know? It inculcates this not caring.”
Despite Carlson’s emergency, he hosted his shows as normal on Wednesday. His show was guest hosted by Jesse Watters on Thursday.
