Tucker Carlson: New audio reveals Fox News host calling Iraqis 'semi-literate monkeys' and using homophobic slur

Right-wing presenter says he is victim of 'outrage machine' but will 'never bow to the mob'

New audio recordings have emerged purporting to show Fox News host Tucker Carlson calling Iraqis “semi-literate, primitive monkeys” and questioning Barack Obama’s identity as a black man.

The Tucker Carlson Tonight presenter can be heard saying white men deserve credit for “creating civilisation” and using a homophobic slur while joking with radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge.

Media Matters for America (MMFA), a self-declared watchdog of “conservative misinformation”, said the clips originated from between 2006 and 2011.

It comes less than two days after the left-leaning group posted audio of Mr Carlson comparing “primitive, basic” women to dogs.

Addressing the initial recordings the 49-year-old refused to show “ritual contrition” for “saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago”.

On his programme on Monday night he said he had been a victim of the “great American outrage machine”. He added: “It’s a bewildering moment, especially when the quotes in question are more than a decade old.

“There’s really not that much you can do to respond – it’s pointless to try to explain how the words were spoken in jest or taken out of context, or in any case bear no resemblance to what you actually think.”

Fox News supported him, he said, adding that “we will never bow to the mob” and asking: “Why are the people who considered Bill Clinton a hero lecturing me about sexism?”

In the fresh audio Mr Carlson is heard to say, during what MMFA said was a discussion about Canada: “Iraq is a crappy place filled with a bunch of, you know, semi-literate primitive monkeys, that’s why it wasn’t worth invading.

“But Canada’s a solid place with good-looking women and good fishing. We should invade.”

Speaking further about the war in Iraq, he says: “I hate the war. You know, I’m not defending the war in any way, but I just have zero sympathy for them or their culture. A culture where people just don’t use toilet paper or forks.”

During a 2006 call-in to the Bubba the Love Sponge Show, Mr Carlson discusses Mr Obama with the hosts. “How is he black, for one thing?” he asks of the then-senator. “He has one white parent, one black parent. I mean, why isn’t he white?”

And a few months later, he jokes with them about appearing on the programme. One asks him: “Tuck, how do you like coming on with us? Because I like you. I mean I’m not trying to fa* out on you or nothing, but I like you.”

Mr Carlson replies: “Well I like you too. You always say, ‘I mean that in a non-fag way’, but I actually mean it in a completely f****t way.”

The Independent has contacted Fox News for comment.