Abby Grossberg, Carlson’s former producer who is now suing Fox News over, among other things, the toxic workplace she endured there, spoke to Anderson Cooper Tuesday night about the outsized power Carlson wielded over Republicans and the inappropriate ways he used it.

Grossberg cited as an example Carlson's interference in the protracted Republican fight that eventually resulted in McCarthy’s election. But that was only after days of numerous failed votes. Sometime in the middle of it all, Carlson and his staff tried to broker the outcome.

The plan was to have McCarthy on Carlson's show and “hear him beg and grovel,” Grossberg said she was told by Senior Executive Producer Justin Wells (who was fired when Carlson was). Freedom Caucus member and McCarthy opponent Matt Gaetz would appear next, “kind of set his terms, then Tucker will set his terms that McCarthy has to agree to,” she said.

According to Grossberg, Carlson and his staff thought this was the way to “make this whole thing happen on air and save the Republican Party.”

McCarthy did not agree to the plan. “But he did call Tucker the next day from his office, with Representative Thomas Massie, and had agreed to some of Tucker's terms according to a text that Tucker had sent me and he said that was a win.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Grossberg said, “I don't think journalists should have that kind of power to threaten and bully people and Tucker did and reveled in it.”

This is just one example of Carlson bulldozing his way into our democracy. We still don’t know exactly what got Carlson and his executive producer fired but it should have been this kind of behavior. Yet it obviously wasn’t given that Carlson remained on the air for several months afterward.

The fact that Republicans acquiesced is even worse. It’s probably still going on, too. If you don’t think Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and probably others at Fox News are inserting themselves into conservative policy and legislative affairs, I’ve got a degree from Trump University to sell you.