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Neighbors and residents of a small Maine town where ousted Fox News star Tucker Carlson spends his summers have revealed his state of mind immediately after he was taken off the air last week.
Following his firing from Fox News, Carlson received messages of support from locals in Woodstock, Maine, where he spends most of his summers. Despite being a polarizing figure in the national political scene, residents in Woodstock describe Carlson as a good neighbor, and they say they have never experienced any antagonism from him in person, the UK’s DailyMail.com reports.
“More time for fishing?” friend and carpenter Patrick Fenney asked Carlson in a text message at around lunchtime on Monday, the day CEO Suzanne Scott reportedly told the now-former host his show was being taken off the air.
“He called me back at 1 and said he found out about it a half hour before I did,” Fenney told the news outlet on Tuesday as he stood inside Carlson’s satellite TV studio that he helped Carlson build in an old barn downtown.
“He told me it started out as a normal day. He got up, wrote the show, and then he got the phone call saying it was all over and that they were going to announce it,” Fenney said. “He was pretty shocked. He asked them why and they wouldn’t give him a reason.”
However, he said that Carlson also was not upset.
“He was not upset at all. He said that maybe he’d fish a little more this summer,” said the carpenter.
Dailymail.com added: “It was the sort of humble banter Carlson is known for locally, where he’s seen as one of the friendliest, down to earth guys you’d ever meet.”
The outlet said that production workers were preparing for Carlson’s upcoming show, which was scheduled to film in Woodstock in a few weeks.
The sudden firing caught crew members off guard, and they left without a clear idea of what would happen next, the outlet reported.
Carlson, who has been visiting the area since he was a child, owns a home in Bryant Pond, the urban center of Woodstock with a population of just 1,350 residents. In 2019, he sent a letter to the town informing residents he would like to retire there someday.
“He even has a plot at the local cemetery beside a 19th century universalist church, according to the regional Sun Journal,” DailyMail.com reported.
During the summer, he is a familiar face in town, often working from his studio on Main Street and taking breaks to chat with neighbors or greet fans who have traveled from out of state to meet him. He can also be seen doing yardwork, chopping wood, or painting shingles on his house. The stately home is located on a small island in Lake Christopher, just a few hundred feet from the shore, said the report.
Fenney has the keys to Carlson’s motorboat that he uses to travel to his house, which is still closed for the winter. Residents in the hardworking community describe Carlson as fitting right in and note that they don’t pay much attention to the news, the outlet said.
“You could walk down the road and knock on the next five doors, and people wouldn’t be able to tell you who the vice president is,” said Fenney. “They got other things to worry about. They don’t care. What they care about is if you don’t get your firewood and split it, you’ll freeze to death.”
He also said Carlson is “a very modest, not a fancy person.”
Others, including Susan Hatstat, 37, who works at a convenience store Carlson frequents when he is in town, agree.
“We always see him driving around in his old pickup truck,” she said. “He’s actually just a really good guy, always super polite. He’s normal when he’s here, nice to everybody. He doesn’t act like a celebrity. He comes here, grabs snacks, gets treats for his dogs.
“I like him, and his family’s really nice,” she continued in an interview with the news outlet. “His brother Buckley’s always here, and his nephew. Tucker’s been coming up here his whole life.”
Carlson also employed several locals for the production of his shows, the DailyMail.com noted.
“He is one of the most down to earth people I’ve ever met who was so-called famous,” Neil Olsen, a 75-year-old animal trapper who lives in the area, said. “I’m a layman, let’s just say. I’m a nobody, and I’m out there doing some fishing and trapping, and Tucker’s spending time with me.”
