AT&T clashes with Tucker Carlson following 'misleading' segment
After Tucker Carlson took shots at AT&T for a business relationship it has with a Chinese telecommunications company, China Telecom, AT&T fired back with an almost immediate retort. Carlson’s point of contention was AT&T’s opposition to sanctions threatened by the Trump administration in its waning days against Chinese telecommunications companies, including China Telecom. Though the threatened sanctions were never imposed, Trump administration officials accused these companies of aiding the Chinese government in carrying out human rights abuses. Carlson even went so far as to accuse AT&T of “siding with a company that had a hand in genocide in China.”
AT&T quickly released a statement reading in part, “Unfortunately, the story that aired was misleading and failed to represent all the facts about the role AT&T plays in serving the telecommunications needs of American companies that operate around the world.”
Along with the statement, AT&T included the information it provided to Tucker Carlson Tonight before the show aired, including the reason why the company opposed the sanctions, which Carlson left out of the segment.
“Without a relationship with a licensed Chinese communications company, no non-Chinese provider can serve U.S. companies operating in China,” AT&T wrote. “In the absence of that, such support would be provided by a Chinese state-owned enterprise instead of AT&T or any other American company.”
Video Transcript
TUCKER CARLSON: A very successful, it's a critical company in the United States. Why would he jeopardize the image of AT&T by siding with a company that had a hand in genocide in China? It doesn't make sense to me.
- Fox News's Tucker Carlson took shots at AT&T and its CEO John Stankey Wednesday night, accusing the company of pushing back against sanctions the Trump administration threatened against Chinese companies like China Telecom. Officials within the Trump administration claimed that China Telecom aids the Chinese government in carrying out human rights abuses.
TUCKER CARLSON: AT&T worked to keep China Telecom off of something called the "entity list." We're told that China Telecom was set to be sanctioned because of its alleged support of human rights abuses by China's government, and there are very many of those.
- Immediately following the segment, AT&T fired back with a statement reading in part, "Unfortunately the story that aired was misleading and failed to represent all the facts about the role AT&T plays in serving the telecommunications needs of American companies that operate around the world."
AT&T also made public the information it provided to Tucker Carlson Tonight before the show aired, explaining why they opposed the sanctions, stating, "Without a relationship with a licensed Chinese communications company, no non-Chinese provider can serve US companies operating in China. In the absence of that, such support would be provided by a Chinese state-owned enterprise instead of AT&T or any other American company."
TUCKER CARLSON: US officials have said that China Telecom is backed by the Chinese military and under control of the nation's Communist Party, and of course that makes sense. AT&T is a proud partner of China Telecom, has a joint venture with China Telecom.
- And given that AT&T is the parent company of Fox News nemesis CNN, Carlson couldn't help but take a parting shot.
TUCKER CARLSON: I look forward to CNN covering the story in some detail given their often expressed concern for human rights.
