- A new book claims that Ron DeSantis pushed — and possibly kicked — Tucker Carlson's dog under a table.
- Both Carlson and the DeSantis campaign strongly deny it, calling the claim "absurd."
The Iowa Caucus is less than four months away, and Ron DeSantis' campaign is responding to a claim that the Florida Governor kicked Tucker Carlson's dog.
"This is absurd," the former Fox News host wrote in a text to Insider. "He never touched my dog, obviously."
New York Magazine published an excerpt from controversial author Michael Wolff's forthcoming book "The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty," which includes a passage on a purported meeting between DeSantis and the former Fox News host in April 2023.
According to the excerpt, Ron and Casey DeSantis had lunch at Carlson's home in Boca Grande, Florida, where the couple exhibited a "total inability to read the room" as DeSantis listed off "an unself-conscious list of his programs and initiatives and political accomplishments."
Most strikingly, though, was the claim that at one point during the lunch — where Carlson's wife, Susie, was purportedly present — DeSantis pushed, and possibly kicked the Carlson family's dog under the table.
"The Carlsons are dog people with four spaniels, the progeny of other spaniels they have had before, who sleep in their bed," reads the excerpt. "DeSantis pushed the dog under the table. Had he kicked the dog?"
The book also claims that Carlson came away from the meeting believing that DeSantis was a "fascist."
Asked about the claims, DeSantis campaign spokesman Andrew Romeo also issued a strong denial.
"The totality of that story is absurd and false," Romeo said in a statement to Insider. "Some will say or write anything to attack Ron DeSantis because they know he presents a threat to their worldview."
"But rest assured that as president the one thing he will squarely kick is the DC elitists in both parties either under or over the table, and that's why they are so desperately fighting back," he added.
Wolff has faced questions about the accuracy of his books before. He published three different books during Donald Trump's presidency, each of which were filled with lurid descriptions of the behavior of the president and his inner circle.
Several of the claims from Wolff's first Trump book, Fire and Fury, were disputed by the subjects involved, and the book contained some factual errors.