Fox News host accused in barroom scuffle

In this March 2, 2017, file photo, Tucker Carlson, host of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" poses for photos in a Fox News Channel studio in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
In this March 2, 2017, file photo, Tucker Carlson, host of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" poses for photos in a Fox News Channel studio in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

In a statement released by attorney Michael Avenatti, a country club patron said he’s considering whether to pursue criminal charges against Tucker Carlson after cellphone video showed the Fox News host appearing to threaten him during a scuffle at the bar.

“You better get the f*** out of here!” Carlson yells repeatedly in the Oct. 13 video as Juan Manuel Granados sits at the Farmington Country Club bar in Charlottesville, Va. A moment later, an unidentified man standing with Carlson grabs Granados by his collar and appears to yank him up from his seat, at which point bystanders break up the confrontation.

Carlson has not disputed that the incident took place. But the conservative news host denied assaulting Granados and accused him of provoking the scuffle by insulting Carlson’s daughter.

“It took enormous self-control not to beat the man with a chair, which is what I wanted to do,” Carlson wrote in a statement to reporters over the weekend, after Avenatti published the video on Twitter.

In Carlson’s version of events, he was having dinner at the club with two of his adult children and some friends.

“Toward the end of the meal, my 19-year-old daughter went to the bathroom with a friend,” he said in his statement, which news outlets obtained from Fox News. “On their way back through the bar, a middle-aged man stopped my daughter and asked if she was sitting with Tucker Carlson.”

Upon learning she was the conservative commentator’s daughter, Carlson said, the man called her a misogynistic slur.

The woman returned to the table crying, according to Carlson.

Avenatti subsequently released contradictory statements from Granados and two unnamed people who he said witnessed the altercation.

In his version, Granados told the woman, without realizing she was Carlson’s daughter: “I can’t believe you’re having dinner with him,” which started the dispute.

A Section on 11/12/2018

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