When Tucker Carlson’s Maine neighbors talk about him, it has nothing to do with the show that rocked the media and political worlds during Carlson’s stint with Fox News.
“He is one of the most down-to-earth people I’ve ever met who was so-called famous,” Neil Olsen, 75, said, according to the Daily Mail.
“I’m a layman, let’s just say. I’m a nobody, and I’m out there doing some fishing and trapping, and Tucker’s spending time with me,” he said.
“And I could just tell, he just wants to be a down-to-earth person. I haven’t met anyone who’s been around this guy that didn’t like him,” he continued.
Carlson has a home in Bryant Pond, located within the town of Woodstock in western Maine. Carlson has largely worked from Maine in the summer since the days of the pandemic when he had a studio built there. He also owns a home in Florida.
Susan Hatstat, 37, who works at a convenience store, called her frequent customer “just a really good guy, always super polite.”
“He’s normal when he’s here, nice to everybody. He doesn’t act like a celebrity. He comes here, grabs snacks, gets treats for his dogs. I like him, and his family’s really nice,” she added.
“You go around some people and they’re stuffed shirts, if you know what I’m saying. Tucker isn’t what people think he is,” Olsen said, recalling a conversation he and Carlson had about religion.
“So I said to Tucker, there are like eight different religions, and everybody thinks theirs is the best, so seven of them have got to be wrong,” he said he told the former Fox News host.
“And his quote to me was something I’m going to live by the rest of my life: He said, ‘Neil, for me, in all religions, we all know that there’s something special out there,’ and for him it’s God. I just thought that was a great answer,” Olsen said.
Olsen recalled one time when Carlson invited him and his family to watch a show at the studio.
“One of my daughters really, let’s just say, wasn’t a Tucker fan,” he said.
“When she left there, he didn’t necessarily win her over with all the political aspects, but she left there knowing, hey, he’s actually a nice guy,” he continued.
EXCLUSIVE: Tucker Carlson’s shocked neighbors in his quaint Maine town rally behind him https://t.co/u6XygGMvYV pic.twitter.com/WofFq63Icy
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) April 28, 2023
Patrick Feeney, a carpenter who cares for Carlson’s property when he is not there, called him “very generous, very honest — super honest. Wouldn’t do anything dishonest,” according to the Sun Journal.
Feeney said that on the day he was fired, “Tucker did not seem upset or nervous at all. I don’t think it’s going to be a hiccup in his life.”
Perhaps the best testimony to the way Carlson has become a fixture in Maine life was a headline from the Bangor Daily News on the Associated Press story that announced Carlson had been fired.
“Maine man loses television job,” the headline read.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.