Tucker Carlson returns to Twitter after suspension

Tucker Carlson returned to Twitter after a one-month-long suspension, according to a post from the Fox News host on Monday night.

“We’re back” is what Carlson wrote on the platform. He was suspended for endorsing a Babylon Bee Twitter post that joked that U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, also known as Richard Levine—a biological male who is described as transgender—is the site’s “Man of the Year” for 2022.

In a statement several weeks ago, Twitter claimed that the Babylon Bee post violated the site’s rules, claiming the joke was “hateful content,” according to the satirical website’s founder, Seth Dillon. Carlson’s account also re-posted a comment from Charlie Kirk saying Levine spent “54 years of his life as a man.”

The move comes after tech entrepreneur Elon Musk and Twitter came to an agreement for Musk to take the company private for $44 billion on Monday.

“A free Twitter would mean a direct challenge to the people in charge of our country’s institutions many of whom are incompetent,” Carlson said on his top-rated Fox News program on Monday evening. “For the first time in years, we’ll be able to talk honestly about our leaders. We’ll be able to have the kind of conversations that make democracy possible.”

Musk’s takeover of Twitter triggered questions about whether certain users, including former President Donald Trump, would return to the platform. Trump, however, told news outlets Monday that he plans on staying with his social media site Truth Social and won’t return to Twitter.

“We’re taking in millions of people, and what we’re finding is that the response on Truth is much better than being on Twitter. Twitter has bots and fake accounts, and we are doing everything we can,” Trump said. So far, Trump has only made one post on Truth Social since it was launched in February 2022.

In mid-April, Trump told Americano News that “Twitter’s become very boring” in recent months because “they’ve gotten rid of a lot of good voices on Twitter … a lot of their conservative voices.”

The deal was cemented roughly two weeks after the billionaire first revealed a 9 percent stake in the platform. Musk said last week that he had lined up $46.5 billion in financing to buy Twitter, putting pressure on the company’s board to negotiate a deal.

Twitter said the transaction was unanimously approved by its board of directors and is expected to close in 2022, pending regulatory sign-off and the approval of shareholders.