- After the celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti accused Fox
News host Tucker Carlson of assaulting a "gay Latino immigrant," Carlson said in a statement to Business Insider that he never assaulted the man and that the individual called his teenage daugher a "w----." - Avenatti wrote on Twitter that the incident occurred at a club in Virginia last month.
- Avenatti included a video with the tweet that he claims documents a portion of the alleged assault. The footage appears to show Carlson telling another man to "get the f--k out of here" while others seem to be trying to get Carlson and others in the room to calm down.
- The video does not appear to show Carlson physically assaulting anyone.
After the attorney Michael Avenatti said he was investigating a claim that the Fox News host Tucker Carlson "assaulted" a "gay Latino immigrant," Carlson responded that he did not assault the man and that the individual called his 19-year-old daughter a "w----."
Avenatti wrote on Twitter that the incident occurred at a club in Virginia last month.
Avenatti included a video with the tweet that he claims documents a portion of the alleged assault. The footage appears to show Carlson telling another man to "get the f--k out of here" while others seem to be trying to get Carlson and others in the room to calm down.
The video does not appear to show Carlson physically assaulting anyone.
At one point in the video, a man is heard saying, "There's no excuse for violence."
In a statement to Business Insider, Carlson said:
"On October 13, I had dinner with two of my children and some family friends at the Farmington Country Club in Charlottesville, Virginia. Toward the end of the meal, my 19-year-old daughter went to the bathroom with a friend. On their way back through the bar, a middle aged man stopped my daughter and asked if she was sitting with Tucker Carlson. My daughter had never seen the man before. She answered: 'That's my dad,' and pointed to me. The man responded, 'Are you Tucker's w----?' He then called her a 'f------ c---.'"
The statement continued:
"My daughter returned to the table in tears. She soon left the table and the club. My son, who is also a student, went into the bar to confront the man. I followed. My son asked the man if he'd called his sister a 'whore' and a 'cunt.' The man admitted he had, and again become profane. My son threw a glass of red wine in the man's face and told him to leave the bar, which he soon did.
Immediately after the incident, I described these events to the management of the Farmington Country Club. The club spent more than three weeks investigating the incident. Last week, they revoked the man's membership and threw him out of the club.
I love my children. It took enormous self-control not to beat the man with a chair, which is what I wanted to do. I think any father can understand the overwhelming rage and shock that I felt seeing my teenage daughter attacked by a stranger. But I restrained myself. I did not assault this man, and neither did my son. That is a lie. Nor did I know the man was gay or Latino, not that it would have mattered. What happened on October 13 has nothing to do with identity politics. It was a grotesque violation of decency. I've never seen anything like it in my life."
Avenatti and representatives of the Farmington Country Club did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Carlson's response.