Don Cherry capped off his multiple interviews Tuesday with an appearance on Fox News' 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' in which he emphasized once more that the words "you people" are what lost him his longtime job as a broadcaster on 'Hockey Night in Canada.'
"I suppose if I had to do it over again then I would have said ‘everybody,’" Cherry told Carlson during the nearly six-minute-long interview. "But ‘you people’ are the people that they listen to. The silent majority, as you know, are always silent. The police are with me, the forces are with me, everybody’s with me, the firefighters and the whole deal. It doesn’t make any sense. I was brought in and I was told that I was fired after 38 years. I stand by what I said and I still mean it.”
MORE: Don Cherry speaks for first time since firing: 'I don't regret a thing'
The 85-year-old Mississauga, Ont. native criticized immigrants in his hometown and Toronto for not wearing poppies in recognition of Remembrance Day tradition on Nov. 9's edition of 'Coach's Corner.'
Don Cherry tells Tucker Carlson: I was fired after 38 years of broadcasting for using the words “you people” pic.twitter.com/RYbTXLcmNE
— GoatWorldSports (@GoatWorldSport1) November 13, 2019
"You people love, they come here, whatever it is, you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey. The least you could pay [is] a couple of bucks for a poppy or something like that," Cherry said on the segment. "These guys pay for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada. These guys pay the biggest price."
Cherry's decades-long tenure as the co-host of 'Coach's Corner' each Saturday during the NHL season has earned him as much criticism for his controversial comments as it has praise for his presence as an ambassador of the game. He claimed ignorance when asked why that statement was controversial and reiterated his position that he should have said "everybody should be wearing a poppy" rather than use the words "you people."
"As you know, people are very sensitive like that, and that’s what got me," the longtime hockey pundit told Carlson.
Don Cherry appears on Tucker Carlson and says he should’ve used the word “everybody” instead of “you people” because people are sensitive. Tucker Carlson’s response is that they aren’t sensitive but they are fascists and they have no real feelings pic.twitter.com/mfIs8IhkSJ
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) November 13, 2019
This coming weekend will mark the first Saturday in 38 years that Cherry has not appeared on 'Hockey Night in Canada', a fact that he lamented during the appearance. A six-year NHL coach before entering the sports media industry, Cherry insisted he did not mean to say anything harmful in the appearance that ultimately lost him his job — which he said earlier Tuesday that Sportsnet only would have let him keep if he "wiped the floor with myself, and returned as a tamed person."
"We’re all immigrants and the whole deal — nothing happened that night, nobody said anything that night, they ran it that night, they ran it later," Cherry told Carlson. "The funny thing is, I never heard a thing [about a problem with the segment] that night. I heard it the next day. The silent majority as you know is always silent, and the other people, whoever they want it to be, they listen to them."
“All I was saying is, in Toronto, wear your poppies," Cherry said as a final statement in his appearance. "These soldiers died for our way of life… they died so we can have our way of life. At least wear a poppy in their honor.”
You can watch the interview in full here.