Tucker Carlson railed against the liberal “mob” tonight in response to the Media Matters report on his past comments.

By now you’ve probably heard Carlson’s comments, or at least heard about them, unearthed by Media Matters from multiple interviews he did several years ago with Bubba the Love Sponge. The comments ranged from Carlson dropping the c-word to “I am not defending underage marriage at all, I just don’t think it’s the same thing exactly as pulling a child from a bus stop and sexually assaulting that child.”

Carlson said in a statement that “Media Matters caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago,” and declined to “express the usual ritual contrition.”

Tonight he opened his show by railing against the liberal “mob,” telling his audience it’s pointless to explain how “words were spoken in jest” or taken out of context because “you are a sinner begging the forgiveness of Twitter.”

Without directly talking about those comments of his, Carlson ripped the “press release written by Democratic party operatives” and basically said he doesn’t want to play their game:

“One of the only places left in the United States where independent thoughts are allowed is right here, the opinion hours on this network, just a few hours in a sea of television programming. It’s not much, relatively speaking. For the left, it’s unacceptable. They demand total conformity. Since the day we went on the air, they’ve been working hard to kill this show.”

He concluded by saying Fox News is fully behind him and his show, and that “we’ve always apologized when we’re wrong and will continue to do that…but we will never bow to the mob, ever, no matter what.”

You can watch above, via Fox News.

[image via screengrab]

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]