By Jim Geraghty
Friday, October 31, 2025
“Christian Zionists, I dislike them more than anybody.” —
Tucker Carlson, in his
interview with the Holocaust-denying, Hitler-praising, Stalin-praising Nick
Fuentes.
Really?
We already knew that Carlson had warm and fuzzy feelings
toward Russian dictator and warmonger Vladimir Putin. (Everybody
who keeps insisting they just want peace always has these happy,
smiling meetings with Russian officials full of warm handshakes, big bouquets
of flowers, and gift exchanges, and then they turn around and furiously
blame the war on folks like our
old friend Jay Nordlinger. They can never seem to get around to mustering
any anger at the guys shooting drones into kindergartens.)
And we already knew that Carlson got along surprisingly
well with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, because we’ve seen him ask tough
questions and challenge his interview subjects — and when Carlson traveled to
Tehran (!) to interview the Iranian president, the former Fox News Channel host was downright deferential:
In Sana’a or Beirut, Pezeshkian’s
appearance on American media becomes proof of regime legitimacy. Screenshots
quickly circulate through WhatsApp groups and Telegram channels as the
interviewer moves on to the next question, having just handed Tehran a propaganda
victory that would otherwise cost millions of dollars in conventional influence
operations.
The problem, again, wasn’t the
subjects Carlson broached; it was the complete lack of sincere follow-ups to
Pezeshkian canned responses. In order to be a critical media consumer, it’s
important to be able to tell the difference. When the Iranian president claimed
religious edicts forbid nuclear weapons, Tucker could have asked which clerics
issued these fatwas or whether they could be reversed. When Pezeshkian asserted
that Iran “hasn’t invaded another country in 200 years,” a serious journalist
might have asked about Iranian-backed proxies that have destabilized the entire
region. He could have also asked why it is that Iranian officialdom calls
Israel the “temporary entity.”The Iranian leader’s flat denials about
sleeper cells demanded a reference to Jamshid Sharmahd, the American permanent resident who was
kidnapped from Dubai, shipped to Oman, and executed after a show trial in Iran.
Or Masih Alinijad, the Iranian-born US citizen and journalist whom
Perzeshkian’s regime tried to murder on American soil. From Tucker Carlson,
nothing.
If you watch the interview, you’ll
notice the glaring power imbalance: Carlson poses each question with the
tentative air of a schoolboy addressing his teacher: “Mr. President, thank you
very much for doing this.” Or “With respect, can you tell us. . . .” When
Pezeshkian offers the baffling explanation that “death to America” means death
to policies, not people, Carlson simply moves on. No challenge. No demand for
evidence.
So, we already knew Carlson’s got a soft spot for
dictators in Moscow and Tehran.
But of all the people in the world to dislike more than
anybody else, Carlson dislikes . . . Christian Zionists?
More than, say, the Taliban? Or more than what’s left of
al-Qaeda? Or what’s left of ISIS? The Houthis? The “Rapid Support Forces” massacring civilians and committing
ethnic cleansing in Sudan?
More than North Korea’s Kim Jong-un? Xi Jinping and the
thugs of the regime in Beijing? The junta in Myanmar?
More than Nicolás
Maduro and his thugs down in Venezuela?
More than MS-13? Tren de Aragua? The Sinaloa Cartel? More than the Jalisco Cartel New Generation? (Aren’t you glad you read
this newsletter so you can keep up to speed on all the violent and brutal
cartels that just don’t get the recognition they deserve?)
More than Antifa? More than “Rachel Corrie’s Ghost Brigade”? More than “Trantifa”? More than everybody who cheered the
assassination of Charlie Kirk?
More than the Luigi Mangione fan club? More than the Black Lives Matter grifters?
More than Sean “P. Diddy” Combs? I mean, whatever your
beef with Christian Zionists is, I’m pretty sure what Diddy was doing at his
parties was worse.
Andrew Tate? No, wait, we know Carlson called Tate “really smart” and contended all of the sex
trafficking charges against Tate were a set-up. Tate and his brother
Tristan face ongoing investigations and charges including human trafficking,
rape, and forming an organized crime group to sexually exploit women.
More than the Biden administration? More than President Biden’s autopen? More than the Obama
administration? More than Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass or Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson or any of the other mayors failing their
cities? More than Zohran Mamdani?
More than the Kardashians? Megan Markle? Prince Harry?
More than Red Sox fans? More than Dallas Cowboys fans?
More than Maryland drivers? More than Florida drivers?
More than drivers who are looking down at their phones when the traffic light
turns green? More than people who take up two parking spaces with one car?
More than Kathleen Kennedy over at Lucasfilm?
More than history’s greatest monster, Adam Gase?
More than atheists, vegetarians, or Crossfitters?
More than telemarketers?
There are more than 8 billion people on this earth,
divided into so many different groups, factions, belief systems, schools of
thought, philosophies . . . and the one that Tucker Carlson dislikes more than
any other is Christian Zionists?
I mean, it’s a free country, dislike whoever you want.
But if that’s the group that you’ve determined is the most repellent and
repulsive, over all others . . . I don’t know, man, it seems like you’ve got some sort of irrational, all-consuming hatred
driving your worldview. Carlson rattles off some specific names of who he
dislikes the most, and the biggest threat to American security on his list is
John Bolton.
You can see the difference between, say, National
Review and the Heritage Foundation in their respective responses to
Carlson’s interview of Fuentes.
Here’s what the editors of NR had to say:
The issue isn’t merely that Carlson
“platformed” a white-nationalist influencer.
This framing allows Carlson and his
defenders to portray the interview and others like it as an effort at open
debate, as a good-faith attempt at engagement with alternative views.
The deeper problem is that Carlson
didn’t actually challenge any of Fuentes’s noxious views that he has spelled
out quite clearly over the years. Fuentes has engaged in Holocaust
denial, called Adolf Hitler “really
f***ing cool,” and said that if his movement gained power, it would execute “perfidious Jews.”
Carlson didn’t even need to go back
through old clips to find objectionable statements. In his appearance, Fuentes
stated that the “big challenge” to unifying the country against tribal
interests was “organized Jewry in America,” and he expressed admiration for
Soviet butcher Joseph Stalin. He did not receive any pushback from Carlson.
It also can’t be said that
Carlson’s interviewing style is simply to let his guests speak. In June,
Carlson held a combative interview with Senator Ted Cruz that descended into an
extended shouting match. Why would Carlson choose to take an oppositional tack
to a senator who has been fighting for conservatism for decades, but not to a
podcaster who praises Stalin? The obvious answer is that Fuentes is an avowed
Jew-hater while Cruz is a staunch supporter of Israel.
And here’s what Heritage
Foundation President Kevin Roberts had to say:
“When it serves the interests of
the United States to cooperate with Israel and other allies, we should do so,
with partnerships on security, intelligence and technology. But when it
doesn’t, conservatives should feel no obligation to reflexively support any
foreign government, no matter how loud the pressure becomes from the globalist
class or from their mouthpieces in Washington.
The Heritage Foundation didn’t
become the intellectual backbone of the conservative movement by cancelling our
own people or policing the consciences of Christians, and we won’t start doing
that now. . . .
We will always defend truth, we
will always defend America and we will always defend our friends against the
slander of bad actors who serve someone else’s agenda. That includes Tucker
Carlson, who remains, and, as I have said before, always will be, a close
friend of the Heritage Foundation.
The venomous coalition attacking
him are sowing division. Their attempt to cancel him will fail. Most
importantly, the American people expect us to be focusing on our political
adversaries on the left, not attacking our friends on the right.
I disagree with, and even abhor,
things that Nick Fuentes says, but canceling him is not the answer, either.
When we disagree with a person’s thoughts and opinions, we challenge those
ideas and debate.
Okay, I’d like to challenge
Fuentes’s “idea” that for those who worship “false gods,”
When we take power, they need to be
given the death penalty, straight up. I’m far more concerned about that than
non-White people or mass migration. These people that are meeting with demons
and engaging in this sort of witchcraft and stuff, and these people that
suppressing the name Christ and suppressing Christianity, they must be
absolutely annihilated when we take power. . . . We need to put up a crucifix in every home, in every room,
in every school and every government office to signal Christ’s reign over our
country. . . . This is God’s country. This is Jesus’s country. This is not the
domain of atheists or devil worshipers or perfidious Jews. . . . No, you must
be a Christian. And you must submit to Christianity.
Now, listen here, you little schmuck. This country has
run on religious freedom from the start, including separation of church and
state, and the moment you start strong-arming people and forcing them to follow
Christ or face bodily harm, the first guy who will tell you to knock it off is
Jesus Christ!
Really, Kevin Roberts? You think this twerp is somebody
that serious thinkers of the modern right should spend a lot of time engaging
with? You don’t see any issue with putting the spotlight on this guy and giving
him more than two hours to spew his bullcrap with no pushback?
I’m sure the Venn diagram of my worldview and Rod
Dreher’s worldview overlaps quite a bit, with some distinct disagreements on
topics like the government of Viktor Orbán and its hellbent desire to cuddle
with every odious America-hating regime in the world.
Dreher wrote about an event at Florida Atlantic University in
Boca Raton — a great place, they invite the best speakers! — and alluded to his
discussion with Ben Shapiro:
So, eventually Ben showed up, and
while I’m not going to say what we talked about privately, I’m fairly confident
it’s nothing he hasn’t said publicly. We did agree that our friend J.D. Vance,
who we both want to be POTUS one day, at some rapidly approaching point, has to
take a firm, clear public stand against the Groypers (followers of Nick
Fuentes). This evil is not going to burn out on its own; it must be stopped . .
. if it can be, at this point.
As we left the Green Room headed to
the stage, we saw on our phones that Tucker had hosted Fuentes on his show. For
me, this was a bright red line that I was hoping Tucker would not cross. But
cross it he did. Here’s a link to the show, which went for over two hours.
Total softball interview, entirely sympathetic. Shockingly so.
For example, Fuentes shocks Tucker at this point in the interview by mentioning as an aside
that he is “a fan” of Stalin, and “always an admirer.” He doesn’t explain.
“We’ll circle back,” says Tucker, but doesn’t.
More than once in his essay, Dreher implores his old
friend JD Vance to stand up to all this:
Donald Trump and J.D. Vance could
go a long way in stifling the growth of this evil by forthrightly denouncing
it. J.D. is a sincere Christian; I believe that eventually — and I hope soon —
he will see what a threat these people are to the faith, and to the kind of
America he wants to lead. That day cannot come soon enough.
And:
J.D. Vance needs to make a clear,
unambiguous, definitive denunciation of these people, these weirdos from the
fringe who are rapidly moving towards respectability (and there’s nothing that
could have done more to make that happen than Tucker bringing Fuentes onto his
show, and presenting him as a normal figure). Many of us on the Right have
wondered for years why decent liberals in authority kept their mouths shut
about the left-wing anti-white bigots. And then the crazies took over the
party. It’s happening to the Right now. I don’t know where this is going, but
it’s nowhere good — and it’s getting there with accelerating speed.
Now, I’d like to see that, too. I think a lot of
conservatives would like to see the vice president loudly and proudly standing
up against the reprehensible antisemitism and other hatreds in the fever swamps
of the far right. I think a whole lot of Americans, left, right, and center,
would applaud it.
But I’m not holding my breath, you know?
ADDENDUM: When I write
columns for the Washington Post, I put a lot of effort into getting
all the little details right. Corrections or clarifications are embarrassing,
and I think we’ve had to run one in the three years or so I’ve been writing
over there, which is still one too many to me. I haven’t written for the New
York Times, but I know conservatives who have, and they say everything they
submit gets reviewed with a fine-toothed comb with the fact-checkers. You can’t
make any unproven assertion or uncited claim; every little detail must be
verified and proven.
And then, over in USA Today, you can be a liberal columnist
and write, “Republicans’ refusal to fund SNAP will hurt their own voters most.
They don’t care,” and everybody’s just fine with that, apparently.
No comments:
Post a Comment