'I'm not doing that': Tucker Carlson stands up for truth during Heritage Foundation keynote address

On Monday, it was announced that Tucker Carlson was leaving Fox News and that his final episode aired last Friday, the same day Carlson gave the keynote speech at the Heritage Foundation's 50th Anniversary Gala where he spoke broadly of social pressures to move towards progressivism and said "I am a free citizen, and I'm not doing that."

During his speech, Carlson spoke about how he has seen many people break "under the downward pressure" of what the herd mentality has caused in America, such as putting pronouns in a bio, and said, " There's one person who's like no, I'm not doing that. Sorry, you don't want to fight, but like, I'm not doing that. It's a betrayal of what I think is true. It's a betrayal of my conscience, of my faith, of my sense of myself, of my dignity as a human being, of my autonomy."

"I am not a slave. I am a free citizen, and I'm not doing that. And there's nothing you can do to me to make me do it. And I hope it won't come to that. But if it does come to that. Here I am, here I am," Carlson said.

"It's Paul on trial," he added. The reference is to the apostle Paul who was arrested for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and after several years was put on trial in Rome for heresy. He was later executed.

Carlson had previously said in his speech, "You look around and you see so many people break under the strain, under the downward pressure of whatever this is that we're going through. And you look with disdain and sadness as you see people you know become quislings, you see them revealed as cowards. You see them going along with a new new thing which is clearly a poisonous thing. A silly thing you know, saying things you know, they don't believe because they want to keep their jobs."

The statement from Fox over the split read, "Mr. Carlson’s last program was Friday April 21st. Fox News Tonight will air live at 8 PM/ET starting this evening as an interim show helmed by rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is named."

Carlson's show premiered in November 2016 and was often the top-rated show on cable news, frequently exceeding 4.5 million viewers per episode, and had its final episode aired last Friday.