Tucker Carlson ‘most dangerous demagogue in this country,’ Cruz says

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sounded the alarm on Tuesday about the rise of antisemitism in the Republican Party and the American right, warning that the tide may be turning against supporters of Jews and Israel.

Speaking to a symposium on Jew-hatred hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition and National Review, the Texas senator cited the difference in reaction among elected Republicans to former Fox News host and current podcaster Tucker Carlson, who turned sharply against Israel and its supporters in recent years, compared to neo-Nazi influencer Nick Fuentes.

“I believe Tucker Carlson is the single most dangerous demagogue in this country,” Cruz said. “If you look at Republican politicians, Nick Fuentes is easy to denounce, and I actually think it’s a tell among the Republican politicians if they’ll denounce Fuentes but are scared to say Tucker’s name. That tells you a great deal.”

“Virtually every single one of my colleagues in the Senate on the Republican side agrees with me,” Cruz said. “Yet almost none of them will say Tucker’s name.”

Carlson hosted Fuentes on his video podcast for a friendly interview with the Holocaust denier in October.

Speaking to an audience of about 200 RJC and National Review members, administration officials, Hill staffers and Jewish leaders at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, Cruz warned that the anti-Israel and antisemitic politics of figures like Fuentes and Carlson are having a malign influence on young conservatives.

“The Christian church is asleep,” Cruz said. “I have seen more antisemitism in the last 18 months on the right than at any point in my lifetime. A year-and-a-half ago, I could not have imagined we would be here having this conversation.”

“I’m not sure it is accurate as a descriptive matter that we are winning right now,” the senator said, of philosemitic conservatives. “We’re winning with folks in this room with some gray or salt-and-pepper in their hair, but in the college classroom I’m a lot less certain.”

Cruz noted that the model of success for opponents of Israel that has flourished on the Democratic left could be replicated in the Republican Party.

“I don’t want to wake up in five years and find myself in a country where both major political parties are unambiguously anti-Israel and unapologetically antisemitic,” he said.

Despite a testy interview with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee in February, Carlson apparently retains close ties with the Trump administration. He was reportedly spotted returning to the White House days after the Huckabee interview.

Cruz’s keynote speech drew the loudest applause among speakers that included fellow Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and administration officials, including Leo Terrell, chair of the Department of Justice taskforce to combat antisemitism, and Yehuda Kaploun, a rabbi and U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.

Cotton and Cruz both pushed back against claims from some on the right that U.S. military action against Iran primarily benefits and was at the behest of Israel.

“Before this war started, Iran had thousands and thousands of missiles, and this vast missile arsenal far, far exceeded the combined missile defenses of the United States, Israel and our Arab friends,” Cotton said. “That is an unacceptable threat to the United States.”

“If it’s an unacceptable threat to the United States, it’s an existential threat to Israel,” Cotton added.

“We are not bombing Iran for Israel,” Cruz said. “We are bombing Iran for America.”

© JNS