Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel, a conservative political advisor, are teaming up to launch a new media company, according to the Wall Street Journal. They are reportedly looking to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the venture and already have financiers, lawyers and media strategists interested.
The new company will host Carlson’s Tucker on Twitter videos, the makeshift talk show he has been filming since FOX pushed him out of his primetime hosting slot. Clips of the videos will still appear on Twitter, but viewers will have to subscribe via the new company to watch full episodes, according to the Journal. Carlson’s first video received 120 million views on Twitter, but more recent ones have only met a fraction of that.
While many of Carlson’s Twitter videos haven’t elapsed 20 minutes, viewers might have gotten a taste of what Carlson will publish on the new platform with his most recent episode, a two-and-a-half-hour interview with Andrew Tate, an internet personality recently indicted on human trafficking and rape charges. The site will add new shows and hosts as it matures, according to the Journal.
Carlson and Patel aren’t strangers to launching a company together. The two—who were roommates at Trinity College in Connecticut—founded The Daily Caller in 2010. They started the right-wing news site with $3 million from investment manager Foster Friess, and it was profitable by 2012, according to the New York Times. The site helped forge a path for online conservative publications, though its accuracy has often been called into question by independent fact-checkers. It is still publishing under Patel. Carlson severed ties with the site in 2020.
Who is Neil Patel?
Before co-founding The Daily Caller, Patel worked in politics. He was a longtime deputy to Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff to Dick Cheney, the vice president under former president George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009. A jury found Libby guilty of obstruction, perjury and lying to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2007. Donald Trump pardoned the former White House executive during his presidency.
After working for Libby, Patel became the chief policy advisor to Cheney. He represented the vice president at economic and domestic policy meetings, managed policy staff and oversaw the movement of classified documents to Cheney. The Bush White House nominated Patel to run the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the government agency that advises the president on the telecommunications industry. He was not confirmed.
Patel also co-founded Bluebird Asset Management, an investment advising firm, in 2009. He and co-founder Paul Konigsberg are the only listed employees on its website. Patel still works as a managing director at the company, according to his LinkedIn.
