Former Fox News prime time host Tucker Carlson is expected to make his first public appearance at a charity event Thursday since abruptly parting ways with the network.
Carlson is slated to attend Rainbow Omega’s annual fundraising event at the Oxford Performing Arts Center in Oxford, Alabama, on Thursday.
The May 4 event advertises Tucker Carlson as the featured guest, making it his first public appearance since his sudden exit from Fox News last week. It appears many sections are sold out for the 7 p.m. event, but as of the writing of this post, $65 balcony seats were still available for purchase.
The event is presented by Rainbow Omega, which serves adults with developmental disabilities, describing its mission as one to “glorify God by ensuring that adults with developmental disabilities have a permanent and safe home where their abilities and potentials are respected and nurtured in a Christian environment.”
“The vision of the founders was to provide a sheltered community for adults with developmental disabilities and to provide parents an answer to the question ‘What will happen to my child when I can no longer provide care in my home?’” the organization’s website reads.
“One of our parents put it best when she said, ‘Rainbow Omega is an answer to a prayer that I didn’t know how to pray,’” it adds.
Carlson’s scheduled appearance will come over a week after his abrupt departure from Fox News, which the company announced last Monday.
“FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” an April 24 press release from Fox read, noting that his final show aired on Friday, April 21.
Onlookers have since spotted Carlson spending time with his family, and the popular conservative personality released a hopeful message two days after the initial news broke.
“Where can you still find Americans saying true things?” he said. “There aren’t many places left but there are some and that’s enough. As long as you can hear the words, there is hope. See you soon.”
In the days following, left-wing media outlets have leaked footage — which many speculate was given to them by Fox News — in a purported attempt to maim Carlson’s character.
One such video, for example, shared by Matter Matters, showed Carlson complaining about how Fox News’s streaming service Fox Nation does not work and “sucks.” In another leak to the New York Times, Carlson explains in a text to producers that he could feel the mob mentality taking over his own mind as he watched a video of individuals beating up an “Antifa kid.”
“Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously,” Carlson wrote in part.
“It’s not how white men fight,” he added, explaining how he could feel the mob mentality taking over his own mind as he watched the video further:
I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it. Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isn’t good for me. I’m becoming something I don’t want to be. The Antifa creep is a human being. Much as I despise what he says and does, much as I’m sure I’d hate him personally if I knew him, I shouldn’t gloat over his suffering. I should be bothered by it. I should remember that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed. If I don’t care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?
Despite the steady stream of leaks, conservatives are continuing to rally around Carlson, asserting that the leaks — many of which show him joking around — are not bombshells but rather, are humanizing Carlson even more.