'I was gonna be damned if I was going to apologize for something that I believe': Piers Morgan defends free speech, says never bow to the 'woke brigade'

Piers Morgan — until recently a co-host of "Good Morning Britain" — told Fox News' Tucker Carlson on Monday that he more or less was forced out of his job after refusing to apologize to Duchess of York Meghan Markle for not believing things she said during an interview with Oprah Winfrey last month.

But Morgan — a fierce free speech advocate — told Carlson his gut told him to stay strong in the face of pressure from Markle, his bosses, and the government of the United Kingdom, which regulates television there.

What are the details?

"I was basically corralled into a position where I was told, 'You either gotta apologize for effectively disbelieving Meghan Markle's version of events here, or your position is untenable, and you have to leave,'" he told Carlson. "And my gut was, 'I was gonna be damned if I was going to apologize for something that I believe.' I just wasn't gonna go down that road. I've seen too many people when they're bullied by the woke brigade into apologizing."

Morgan noted how celebrity Sharon Osbourne "was bullied into apologizing for defending me against a disgusting slur that I'm a racist ... and then she lost her job anyway." He also noted the plight of Alexi McCammond, who was forced to give up her Teen Vogue editor position before she even started when offensive tweets of hers surfaced dating back to when she was a teenager.

Morgan noted that even though McCammond said she was sorry, "that wasn't enough, so apologies don't ever get you anywhere."

As for his own plight, Morgan told Carlson that he was "under attack from Miss Markle ... to basically conform to her version of events, and I had to believe her, and if I didn't, I was a callous racist, and I should be condemned, and ultimately — as it turned out later that day — lose my job. And I think that's a pretty perilous slope. A journalist's job ... is to express skepticism."

Morgan added: "Frankly I should be allowed in a democracy that values freedom of speech ... to say, 'I'm sorry, I don't believe you,' but I wasn't. ... It was Meghan's way and Meghan's narrative and Meghan's truth. That phrase was actually used by Oprah Winfrey: 'This is your truth.' What does that mean? When did we get to your truth? This is the kind of defense ... we would hear liberals attack [former President] Donald Trump for: for reinventing facts, for creating his own truth. But when Meghan Markle does it, the same liberals that attacked Donald Trump cheer and applaud and say, 'This is her truth, and it must be believed, and if you don't believe it, you're a racist.' Well, I'm sorry; I'm not a racist. I just don't believe her."

What free speech truly is

Carlson told Morgan he found it curious that Markle and Winfrey behaved like victims when Morgan doesn't hold their kind of power. "They got you fired," Carlson continued, "but you're oppressing them. The strong pretending to be weak in order to crush people below them."

Morgan added that the cancel culture he fell victim to will end only when others stand up and say enough's enough — and when we remember what free speech truly is. To illustrate, he told Carlson that Winston Churchill once said, "Some people think free speech is absolutely fine, right to the point they hear an opinion that they don't like, and then it's an outrage."

"That's not what free speech is," Morgan continued. "Free speech is about listening to an outrageous opinion you don't agree with and being able to accept that somebody else doesn't feel like you. That's what free speech is."

Piers Morgan joins 'Tucker Carlson Today' for first interview since 'cancellation' | Previewyoutu.be