As Iran targeted Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in retaliation for the U.S. airstrikes against the Iranian nuclear program, Tucker Carlson claimed on his podcast that the air base exists to protect Israel.

“That base exists to protect Israel, by the way. I know we’re constantly, Bari Weiss is constantly attacking Qatar,” the conservative commentator said, referring to the founder and editor of The Free Press. “Qatar has done more to protect Israel. But anyway, hosting this base that they don’t need at all, it’s the richest country in the world. They’re doing it to be nice.”

According to a joint statement issued by the U.S. and Qatar in 2020, Al Udeid base supports joint operations aimed at maritime security and other regional security concerns. 

As U.S. Central Command’s forward headquarters, Al Udeid has also played a critical role in nearly every U.S. operation within the Middle East and North Africa since 2009. These operations include the 2021 Afghanistan pullout, combat missions countering the Islamic State, and air missions within Iraq.

President Donald Trump recently visited the base during his tour through the Middle East and spoke to American personnel stationed there. During the speech he mentioned several new arms sales to Qatar and praised the base. “Qatar will also be investing $10 billion to support this massive base in the coming years,” Trump said. “There is no place like it, they say.”

Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) interview on Tucker Carlson’s podcast published on Wednesday devolved into a shouting match at times between the two GOP heavyweights, with insults and charges of ignorance and antisemitism dominating the two-hour conversation between one of the Republican Party’s biggest pro-Israel champions and one of the most vocal critics of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

The interview was relatively civil for the first hour, but began to devolve when Carlson and Cruz started debating the benefits of the U.S. relationship with Israel and the merits of Israel and the United States allegedly spying on one another. 

Carlson pressed Cruz to say that allies spying on one another was wrong, which Cruz responded to by asking why Carlson and others had an “obsession with Israel” while ignoring similar behavior from other allies. Carlson rejected that he was “obsessed with Israel” before noting that he has never taken money from AIPAC, which he referred to as “the Israel lobby.” 

The conversation started to become more animated as the two could not find common ground on the role and purpose of AIPAC, with Carlson insisting that the organization, which is made up of U.S. citizens advocating for the U.S.-Israel relationship, needed to be registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act — an argument sometimes used as an antisemitic dog whistle accusing Jewish supporters of Israel of dual loyalty — and Cruz vehemently disagreeing. 

The interview grew more tense after Cruz accused Carlson of having an “obsession with Israel” and asked why he was so focused on asking, “What about the Jews? What about the Jews?” without being critical of other foreign governments.

“Oh, I’m an antisemite now?” Carlson replied wryly. 

“You’re asking, ‘Why are the Jews controlling our foreign policy?” Cruz told Carlson after the latter said he had accused him of antisemitism in a “sleazy feline way.”

Cruz told Carlson to give him “another reason why the obsession is Israel,” to which Carlson responded: “I am in no sense obsessed with Israel. We are on the brink of war with Iran, and so these are valid questions.”

“You asked me why I’m obsessed with Israel three minutes after telling me that when you first ran for Congress, you elucidated one of your main goals, which is to defend Israel. I’m the one who’s obsessed with Israel,” Carlson said, adding, “Shame on you for conflating” Jews and Israel.

“Israel and Jews have nothing to do with each other?” Cruz asked after Carlson claimed there was not a correlation.

Carlson said he was “totally opposed” to Iran’s desire to kill all Jews and Americans, which Cruz replied to by saying: “Except you don’t want to do anything about it.” 

The two then sparred over Carlson’s focus on Israel’s influence on U.S. foreign policy, with Cruz claiming Carlson was placing too much emphasis on the Jewish state while ignoring the malign influence of other governments. 

“I don’t even like talking about Israel. I never do because it’s not worth being called antisemites from AIPAC recipients,” Carlson said. “But now we are on the verge of joining a war and I just want to be clear about why we’re doing this.”

Carlson stated that anyone who criticized Israel’s actions were “instantly called an antisemite for asking questions” and said Israel was “the only government that no one will ever criticize.” Cruz said he rejected that assertion, pointing to statements from Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), a progressive House lawmaker and frequent critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Carlson scoffed at Cruz’s Tlaib reference, explaining that he was referring to the consequences for “Republicans that I would vote for, including you.” 

Regarding Iran, the two sparred over the regime’s apparent efforts to assassinate Trump, which Carlson denied had occurred.

“I voted for Donald Trump. I campaigned for Donald Trump. He’s our president, and we’re on the cusp of a war. So if there’s evidence that Iran paid a hitman to kill Donald Trump and is currently doing that, where is that? What are you even talking about? I’ve never heard that before. Where’s the evidence? Who are these people? Why haven’t they been arrested? Why are we not at war with Iran?” Carlson asked.

The Justice Department, in November 2024, did, in fact, indict multiple individuals in connection to the assassination plot, arresting two individuals involved in the scheme in the United States and issuing a warrant for a third, described as an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps asset.

The plot had been extensively reported upon, both at the time and in the months since. Cruz criticized Carlson for his suspicions about the plot.

The former Fox host asked Cruz shortly after to explain why he’d be proud to say that he came to Washington with the goal of being the most pro-Israel member of Congress, to which Cruz responded by citing his Christian faith, after which the two sparred about Christian scripture. 

The senator subsequently argued that he does not solely cite his faith as his reason for supporting Israel in his professional capacity, telling Carlson that he had championed the Jewish state because of his belief that Israel is our best ally in the Middle East. 

“I think the most acute national security threat facing America right now is the threat of a nuclear Iran. I think China is the biggest long-term threat, but acute in the near term is a nuclear Iran. And I think Israel is doing a massive favor to America right now by trying to take out Iran’s nuclear capacity,” he continued, later adding, “You want to ask: how does supporting Israel benefit us? Right now, this tiny little country the size of the state of New Jersey is fighting our enemies for us and taking out their top military leadership and trying to take out their nuclear capacity. That makes America much safer.”

Returning to the subject of Cruz’s faith, the Texas senator said that his support for Israel was also rooted in his Christian faith, citing the biblical phrase: “Those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed.”

Carlson mocked the fact that Cruz’s faith informed his pro-Israel views, and asked specifically the biblical citation. After Cruz acknowledged he didn’t know the exact verse, the podcast host then incorrectly answered his own question, mistakenly saying it was in Genesis.  (The verse is from Numbers 24:9.)

The interview again devolved into chaos after Cruz acknowledged that upon sharp questioning that he did not know the exact population size of Iran, prompting both men to question what the other knew, if anything, about the country. Carlson accused Cruz of being dismissive of the consequences of the military actions he was calling for, while Cruz accused Carlson of adopting the foreign policy platform of progressive Democrats. 

The first 60 minutes of the interview, which was released on Wednesday, was largely civil with Carlson asking Cruz to explain his support for Israel’s operation to destroy Iran’s nuclear program and regime change in Tehran.

The Texas senator argued that his recent comments in favor of toppling Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were not an endorsement of a U.S. military invasion of Iran but rather of the idea of a democratic Iran. 

The two initially agreed that it would be better for the U.S. without an Iranian regime that aspires to destroy Western civilization and that they were frustrated by the interventionist versus isolationist binary that has increasingly characterized Republican foreign policy.

“For a long time, people have perceived two different poles of Republican foreign policy. There have been interventionists, and those have been people like John McCain and Lindsey Graham George W. Bush, and there have been isolationists, and the most prominent of those have been Ron Paul and Rand Paul and there are others. People perceive those are the two choices, you’ve got to be one of the other. I’ve always thought both were wrong. I don’t agree with either one,” Cruz said.

“For whatever it’s worth, I agree with you. I don’t know who set up that binary, but there are lots of choices, actually,” Carlson responded. Carlson is seen by many, however, as one of the leading figures of the isolationist wing.

The two men described themselves as non-interventionist hawks, with each saying they believed in the principle that the “central touchpoint for U.S. foreign policy and for any question of military intervention should be the vital national security interests of the United States” before disagreeing on whether the situation in Middle East qualified as such. 

Jewish Insider’s senior congressional correspondent Marc Rod contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump dismissed Tucker Carlson at several points on Monday over Carlson’s comments opposing Trump’s support for Israeli strikes on Iran.

Trump, in recent days, has distanced himself from isolationist figures in the party who have condemned the strikes on Iran. Asked Monday at the G7 Summit in Canada about Carlson’s comments accusing Trump of being “complicit” in the war, Trump quipped, “I don’t know what Tucker Carlson is saying. Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen.”

Trump later posted on his Truth Social platform, “Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that, ‘Iran CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!’”

Over the weekend, Trump had also criticized isolationists in his party,, declaring in an interview, “I think I’m the one that decides” what constitutes America First, adding, “For those people who say they want peace—you can’t have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon.”

Carlson, who recently called for the U.S. to abandon Israel and to not provide any further funding or weapons, again criticized U.S. support for Israel in an appearance on former Trump advisor Steve Bannon’s show on Monday, and claimed that the administration was following direction from “foreign governments” aiming to enact “regime change” in Iran and who were dictating to the U.S. who its enemies should be.

While arguing that involvement in the conflict was not in the U.S.’ interests, neither Carlson nor Bannon mentioned or acknowledged Iran and its proxy forces’ role in the deaths of Americans across the Middle East in recent decades.

Talk show host Tucker Carlson broke with President Donald Trump on Iran on Friday, writing in a scathing commentary in his daily newsletter that the United States should “drop Israel” and “let them fight their own wars.”

“If Israel wants to wage this war, it has every right to do so. It is a sovereign country, and it can do as it pleases,” Carlson wrote of Israel’s preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. “But not with America’s backing.”

Trump, for his part, has endorsed Israel’s attacks, which he called “very successful,” and underscored in an interview with Fox News on Thursday night that the U.S. would defend Israel if Iran retaliates. He also warned that the situation “will only get worse” if Iran does not agree to a nuclear deal “before there is nothing left.”

In recent days, Carlson has argued that fears of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon in the near future are unfounded and said that a war with the Islamic Republic would not only result in “thousands” of American casualties in the Middle East but “amount to a profound betrayal of” Trump’s base and effectively “end his presidency.”

Carlson reiterated that claim in his newsletter, accusing Trump of “being complicit in the act of war” through “years of funding and sending weapons to Israel.”

Direct U.S. involvement in a war with Iran, he said, “would be a middle finger in the faces of the millions of voters who cast their ballots in hopes of creating a government that would finally put the United States first.”

“What happens next will define Donald Trump’s presidency,” he concluded.

Right-wing talk show host Tucker Carlson appeared to remain seated as President Donald Trump said that “the hostages in the Middle East are coming back home to their families” during his inauguration speech on Monday, a comment that drew a wide and bipartisan standing ovation from a majority of attendees at the Capitol Rotunda ceremony. 

Carlson, who received one of the most sought-after seats in Washington to attend the inauguration in the rotunda — which has a limited capacity of about 600 people — drew unusually fierce criticism from several Republican lawmakers over his decision last September to host Darryl Cooper, a Holocaust distortionist who called Winston Churchill the “chief villain” of World War II, on his show. 

Three months later, Carlson held another controversial interview with Jeffrey Sachs, the Columbia University professor who, in a lengthy discussion with Carlson, espoused a litany of conspiracy theories about Israel and the broader Middle East. 

Carlson and the newly inaugurated Vice President J.D. Vance have a close professional relationship. The former Fox News host lobbied Trump aggressively to choose Vance as his running mate, and the former senator has appeared on his online streaming program.

Elon Musk is facing scrutiny for amplifying Tucker Carlson’s controversial interview with Jeffrey Sachs, the Columbia professor who, in a lengthy discussion with the former Fox News host released on Monday, espouses a litany of conspiracy theories about Israel and the broader Middle East, among other spurious claims that have drawn criticism.

“Very interesting interview,” Musk wrote in a post to X, his social media platform, on Monday night, while sharing the conversation with his more than 207 million followers. 

Musk’s comment is the latest example of how the brash billionaire tech mogul, who has become one of President-elect Donald Trump’s closest advisors in recent weeks, has stirred controversy for boosting extreme content on X — where he has perhaps most notably endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

In the interview, Sachs, who was once a renowned economist but now frequently promotes conspiracy theories on a range of issues, cast the fall of Syria’s authoritarian regime this month as the culmination of a decades-long plot led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to oppose any Middle Eastern government supporting the creation of a Palestinian state.

“The United States goes to war on his behalf,” he said of Netanyahu, arguing that “Israel has driven so many American wars.” 

Invoking a classic antisemitic trope about Jewish control of American politics, Sachs added that the U.S. “gave over Middle East foreign policy to Israel a long time ago, not to U.S. interest, but to Israel’s interest. That is the Israel lobby, and we don’t hear questioning of this at all.”

In the two-hour conversation with Carlson, who has hosted multiple anti-Israel guests on his streaming show, Sachs also claimed Americans were involved in the overthrow by Islamist rebel forces of Bashar Al-Assad, the ruthless Syrian dictator. He had led a “normal, functioning country,” according to Sachs, dismissing claims to the contrary as the product of misleading propaganda.

His comments otherwise touched on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, looming conflict with China and U.S. intelligence agencies, among other topics Carlson has frequently covered with a conspiratorial eye.

Musk, who also approvingly shared comments from Sachs on social media last month and has likewise appeared on Carlson’s show, did not specify in his post if he agreed with Sachs’ views on Israel and the Middle East, which do not align with the incoming Trump administration. Musk did not respond to a request for comment through X. He otherwise could not be reached.

A spokesperson for the Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment about Musk’s comment.

But as a key adviser to Trump who has been tapped to lead a new government efficiency department, his endorsement of the interview raises questions about how Musk’s assessment of Middle East policy could influence the administration’s plans to engage in the region. 

Musk’s recent actions suggest he could have a hand, for instance, in helping to shape policy toward Iran — whose ambassador to the United Nations he met with last month for a private discussion that fueled concerns among national security experts. Trump’s team has indicated that it will return to a maximum pressure campaign against Iran — and is reportedly weighing preventive airstrikes to contain its nuclear program.

In the interview with Carlson, meanwhile, Sachs said that war with Iran would be the final stage in what he described as Israel’s effort to “reshape the Middle East in its image,” while claiming that the Islamic Republic “has been asking for peace” and “reaching out to the Biden administration for the last two years.”

While Musk has voiced support for Israel and met with Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders, he has faced backlash for allowing antisemitism to flourish on X, his social media site. Last year, he helped lend credence to an antisemitic conspiracy theory that is embraced by white nationalists. He later apologized for the offending post. 

During the election, Musk, who spent more than $250 million to boost Trump, also funded a GOP super PAC behind a slate of contradictory ads that targeted Vice President Kamala Harris’ record on Israel. The ad campaign, which targeted Jewish and Muslim voters in different states, was criticized by members of both parties as a cynical effort to play both sides of a uniquely polarizing issue.  

Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Jewish activist who has emerged as a surrogate at Trump campaign events for speaking out against antisemitism within the Democratic Party, backed out of former President Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday over Tucker Carlson being granted a speaking slot. 

Kestenbaum, a recent Harvard graduate who spoke at the Republican National Convention in support of Trump’s 2024 bid, told Jewish Insider he decided against participating in the event over Carlson’s attendance. 

Kestenbaum said he was in discussions with the Trump campaign about speaking at the rally, but that the plans were scrapped to make room for speeches from Carlson, Elon Musk and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), among others. 

“I believe President Trump, through the advocating for the Antisemitism Awareness Act, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act protections, Abraham Accords, and other measures, is the best choice for American Jewry,” Kestenbaum told JI in a statement on his decision. “I will be voting for him and will continue to make the argument for him to moderate and liberal Jewish voters as the election closes.” 

“I also believe that Tucker Carlson is a dangerous antisemite who has no business in electoral politics. I will continue to call out far-left and far-right antisemitism. Whether it be the right or left, I will never attend an event with an antisemite,” he added. 

The Trump campaign did not respond to JI’s request for comment on Kestenbaum’s withdrawal from the event over Carlson. Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) have stood by the conservative commentator despite his decision to host Holocaust denier Darryl Cooper on his popular podcast last month.

At the Madison Square Garden rally, which featured a litany of derogatory and bigoted remarks towards minorities, Carlson mocked the media attention to Vice President Kamala Harris’ racial identity: “She’s just so impressive as the first Samoan Malaysian, low-IQ, former California prosecutor ever to be elected president,” Carlson said.

Carlson has emerged as a valued adviser to the Trump campaign, and will be hosting Trump as a featured guest as part of his cross-country speaking tour on Thursday in Glendale, Ariz. Carlson was given a primetime speaking spot on the final night of the Republican National Convention, and was feted in Trump’s presidential box in Milwaukee. 

Carlson also lobbied Trump to choose Vance as his running mate; the senator appeared on his podcast after the much-maligned episode with Cooper.  Vance was the guest at Carlson’s Sept. 21 stop in Hershey, Pa. on his nationwide tour.

Jewish Insider’s features reporter Matthew Kassel contributed to this report.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) introduced a new resolution on Friday blasting Tucker Carlson for hosting Holocaust revisionist Darryl Cooper on his online show last month.

Carlson’s interview with Cooper became a high-profile issue in the presidential race, given former President Donald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance’s (R-OH) ongoing associations with Carlson, and their refusals to condemn Carlson. Torres’ resolution could bring new attention to the situation — which has faded from headlines — in the final weeks of the presidential race.

Torres’ resolution, which currently does not have any co-sponsors, accuses Carlson and Cooper of “perpetuating harmful falsehoods, fostering antisemitism and undermining the fight against hate and bigotry.” It offers strong condemnations of both men.

“Carlson’s platforming of these harmful views represents an endorsement of Holocaust denial, which emboldens antisemitism and undermines efforts to combat hate and misinformation,” Torres’s resolution reads. “Tucker Carlson’s failure to critically challenge or denounce these falsehoods on his platform contributes to the spread of Nazi propaganda and historical revisionism, posing a direct threat to historical truth and the dignity of Holocaust survivors.”

Torres said he introduced the resolution because he said that too many on the right have been silent about Carlson and Cooper. He condemned what he described as “selective outrage” about antisemitism only when it comes from the opposite political camp.

“Tucker Carlson has immense influence on the political right. His decision to platform the Hitler apologia of Darryl Cooper is too dangerous to be ignored.” Torres told JI. “If you refuse to condemn antisemitism in your own ideological backyard, then you’re not part of the solution. You’re part of the problem. There are many on the right who have been deafeningly silent about the antisemitism of Tucker Carlson.”

Asked whether he expects any Republicans to sponsor his resolution, which makes no explicit mention of politics, Torres said that Congress “should stand for the proposition that America should have zero tolerance for antisemitism, zero tolerance for Holocaust denial and Hitler apologia. If that is not, if that does not transcend partisanship, then I’m not sure what would.”

The resolution also ties the conversation to trends of increasing Holocaust revisionism over the past decade. It lays out, in significant detail, Cooper’s false claims about the Nazis and the Holocaust and contrasts them with specific historical facts disproving them.

Torres added that he finds it “troubling that both Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are so close to Tucker Carlson as to be co-opted by him, and neither one has condemned the profound disservice, not only to the Jewish community but also to the truth itself.”

The Trump campaign and Carlson’s media company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI) was home in Rhode Island during the congressional recess late last week, “stewing” about Tucker Carlson’s widely viewed interview with a vocal Holocaust revisionist.

In response, he sent a text to a group chat of Jewish Democratic members of the House suggesting they speak out, which led, in a matter of days, to a joint statement from all 24 Jewish House Democrats, a rare example of unanimity from a group including members from both ends of the Democratic Caucus.

“My concern was that this kind of embrace of literal fascism is happening in plain sight on the far right, and people have become so desensitized to it that they are treating it as normal, and we cannot let it become normal,” Magaziner told Jewish Insider on Tuesday.

He emphasized that he was concerned not only about the interview itself, which garnered millions of views, but also that it was promoted by Elon Musk and that Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) refused to condemn it.

Magaziner said he drafted a statement on Friday and his colleagues were eager to join the statement.

“I’m very pleased that we were able to come together as a group, because it is an extremely ideologically diverse group, even when it comes to matters related to Israel, related to antisemitism, related to what it means to be Jewish in America,” Magaziner said. “It’s a very diverse group with often diverging opinions. But I’m glad that we were able to come together on this and come together quickly.”

Magaziner said there had been some discussion among the members of whether to mention Musk in the statement, given that the X owner deleted his post promoting the interview, but said the lawmakers ultimately decided to include the tech billionaire because he “never disavowed what Carlson and Cooper said” and “this is — just to be blunt — not the first time that Musk has dabbled with antisemitic ideas and statements.”

Magaziner acknowledged that Jewish House Democrats haven’t spoken in a similar unified voice to condemn antisemitism on the left, explaining that it was “easier in this case to find language that all members were comfortable with.”

But he said that he believes each of the Jewish Democrats has condemned antisemitism on the left “in the way that they felt was appropriate,” although there are differences of opinions of when and how to do so, and “what rises to the level of antisemitic versus perhaps misguided.”

Magaziner said, “we hope we can get our colleagues on the other side of the aisle” to speak out about Carlson and the interview, but noted that the Democrats didn’t reach out to their Jewish Republican counterparts about joining the statement.

“I thought it was important that J.D. Vance be included in the statement because he is running to be vice president,” Magaziner said. “And the reality is that our Republican colleagues were not going to sign on to a statement that was critical of J.D. Vance.”

Reps. David Kustoff (R-TN) and Max Miller (R-OH) declined to comment last week on the Carlson interview, and didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment about the statement.

Magaziner, when running for Congress, said he does not practice Judaism and highlighted his mixed heritage — his father is Jewish and his mother is Catholic. But he’s been involved with various efforts by Jewish House Democrats, particularly since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. His office described the statement on Carlson as a “statement from Jewish members of the House.”

The Rhode Island Democrat explained that other Jewish Democrats approached him early in his term about joining regular informal meetings and discussions among Jewish Democrats.

“I said to them, ‘I don’t know whether or not it’s appropriate for me to be a part of that,’” but the lawmakers “were very welcoming, and they recognized that even though I don’t practice, that I do have Jewish heritage, that my family has experienced the antisemitism and the many traumas that have come with being Jewish through the years and and they welcomed me into those discussions.”

He said he would have deferred to a more senior member if they had wanted to lead the Carlson statement, but the lawmakers asked him to draft it.

Every Jewish Democrat in the House signed onto a joint statement issued Monday night condemning Tucker Carlson for amplifying the views of a Holocaust denier and blasting Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), the Republican vice presidential nominee, for failing to denounce the interview.

The letter comes amid growing GOP alarm at the indulgence of antisemitism within their own ranks and concern about the political implications of the Trump campaign’s continued embrace of Carlson.

Joint statements from every Jewish Democrat — ranging from some of the most conservative Democrats in the House to committed progressives — are rare. This one was organized by Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI).

The Democrats condemned Vance by name, for having “refused to condemn Carlson for promoting” Darryl Cooper, a self-proclaimed historian, “when given the opportunity to do so. Acceptance of hateful ideologies by people in power puts Jews and other targeted minorities across the world at great risk.”

“The normalization of Nazism is unacceptable and dangerous, and must be forcefully condemned,” they continued. “Americans deserve to know that their leaders will rebuke the cancers of antisemitism and Nazism whenever and wherever they appear.”

The lawmakers said that Cooper’s “revisionist and morally repugnant retelling of history” presented in the Carlson interview “is an insult to the six million Jews who were methodically murdered at the hands of the Nazi regime and is especially dangerous now as antisemitism is on the rise globally.”

They also criticized Carlson for praising Cooper: “Not only did Carlson provide a platform for Cooper’s ignorance and hate to millions of viewers, he also promoted Cooper by calling him ‘the most important popular historian in the United States.”

And they blasted billionaire Trump backer and X owner Elon Musk for his now-deleted post calling the interview “very interesting.”

A source familiar with the situation said the Democratic lawmakers thought it was important to call out Carlson and Cooper, as well as bring attention to Vance and Musk’s connections to the controversy.

Several high-ranking Republicans also privately expressed deep concern about the Trump campaign’s failure to distance itself from Carlson and the interview.

“They ignore this at their own peril,” one senior lawmaker told Jewish Insider of the campaign’s dismissive posture toward the situation.

“The political implications of Trump and Vance handling this Tucker thing incorrectly are huge,” another member of Congress and a supporter of the campaign, told JI. “Every respected operative in this business could recognize how problematic this could become. This election will be won on the margins by swing voters in the suburbs. It’s nonsense to think something this outrageous couldn’t swing the race by alienating just enough people.”

“This is not the behavior of a winning team,” a third GOP lawmaker said of the situation. They added that they hoped the campaign would reverse course but had little optimism that a shift would happen. 

In a statement provided to JI by a Vance spokesman last week, the Ohio senator declined to distance himself from Carlson but spoke out against Cooper.

“Senator Vance doesn’t believe in guilt-by-association cancel culture but he obviously does not share the views of the guest interviewed by Tucker Carlson. There are no stronger supporters of our allies in Israel or the Jewish community in America than Senator Vance and President Trump,” a Vance spokesman said at the time. 

Later at a campaign stop in Arizona, Vance told a gaggle of reporters: “Agree or disagree with anything Tucker Carlson or his guests say, we believe in free speech. We believe if you don’t like an idea and – obviously the Holocaust was a terrible tragedy and it’s something that we have to make sure doesn’t get repeated anywhere in the world — the best way to ensure that doesn’t happen is to debate and push back against bad ideas. It’s not to suppress and censor them.”

Vance is scheduled to be interviewed by Carlson during the talk show host’s nationwide tour on Sept. 21 in Hershey, Pa. Sources close to the campaign have told JI that there are no plans to cancel Vance’s appearance. 

Many of the Republicans who spoke to JI for this story expressed discomfort about criticizing Carlson publicly for fear of retribution or harassment. 

Meanwhile, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) dismissed antisemitic elements of the right wing as a small fringe after he was asked about the subject during an interview at the MEAD Summit in Washington. Cotton said he does not “see it much from Arkansans,” who he said largely support Israel and “see the difference between right and wrong.”

“We should not truck with or tolerate that kind of Holocaust denialism or antisemitism, no matter what quarter it comes from, and whether it’s based on that kind of historical denialism, or what you see in certain quarters in America today, especially on our campuses,” Cotton said.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), the Republican vice-presidential nominee, declined to distance himself from right-wing talk show host Tucker Carlson for hosting a Holocaust distortionist who called Winston Churchill the “chief villain” of World War II, but spoke out against the crackpot guest whom he follows on his X accounts.

Carlson has drawn unusually fierce criticism from several elected Republicans over his decision to host Darryl Cooper, a self-proclaimed podcast historian, on his program. Carlson described Cooper as “the best and most honest popular historian in the United States,” and declined to push back on any of the false claims made during their conversation. 

In the interview, Cooper diminished the Holocaust by claiming that “millions of prisoners of war” had “ended up dead” in concentration camps, suggesting the Nazis did not have genocidal aims against Jews but were simply “unprepared” for the war, among other false assertions. 

A spokesman for the Ohio senator, who will appear with Carlson at an upcoming stop on the conservative commentator’s speaking tour, told Jewish Insider in a statement that, “Senator Vance doesn’t believe in guilt-by-association cancel culture but he obviously does not share the views of the guest interviewed by Tucker Carlson. There are no stronger supporters of our allies in Israel or the Jewish community in America than Senator Vance and President Trump.”

The statement went on: “As Senator Vance and President Trump stand steadfastly in support of our allies in Israel, radical Kamala Harris continues to cater to the antisemitic Hamas wing of her party.”

Carlson and Vance have a close professional relationship. The former Fox News host lobbied former President Donald Trump aggressively to choose Vance as his running mate, and the senator has appeared on his online streaming program numerous times. 

Vance’s appearance on Carlson’s speaking tour, taking place on Sept. 21 in Hershey, Pa., is still moving forward despite the controversy over the Cooper interview. Donald Trump Jr., who also has a close relationship with the political commentator, will separately appear with Carlson for a tour stop in Jacksonville, Fla., one week later after the Vance event. 

The White House on Thursday strongly condemned Carlson for platforming the Holocaust denier. Biden spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement: “Giving a microphone to a Holocaust denier who spreads Nazi propaganda is a disgusting and sadistic insult to all Americans, to the memory of the over 6 million Jews who were genocidally murdered by Adolf Hitler, to the service of the millions of Americans who fought to defeat Nazism, and to every subsequent victim of Antisemitism.”

Several Jewish Republican operatives privately expressed concern that Carlson’s behavior could be damaging to the Trump-Vance ticket, and worried about how the campaign will handle the matter. 

“It’s not cancel culture. The problem they have is: what’s going to happen when somebody raises their hand on the trail and says, ‘Sen. Vance, as a Marine, do you believe that the American boys who died storming the beaches of Normandy on D-Day were fighting a force that was just as evil as us? What do you say to World War II veterans? Do you agree with Cooper’s statement?'” one senior GOP staffer, who works for one of the most conservative members of Congress, told JI on condition of anonymity. 

“What happens when somebody stands up at the Tucker event, at the tour and goes, ‘Tucker, I really agree with what you said about the Jews.’ How do you prevent that while J.D. is on stage?” they added, arguing that this could be a broader problem that the campaign has to deal with now that Carlson has made it an issue. 

A second Republican campaign operative, also speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged the difficulties involved for conservatives in criticizing someone with a significant MAGA following as Carlson. 

“You can’t go after Tucker without his audience thinking that you’re targeting them and that you’re targeting Trump in some way. That entire audience, it’s millions of our party’s base voters. It’s understandably uncomfortable, certainly for Trump,” they said, noting that the former president’s “son has hitched his wagon to the guy.”

As Tucker Carlson faces backlash for airing a friendly interview with a Holocaust revisionist on his online show this week, some prominent Republicans are publicly raising concerns about the far-right pundit’s influential position in former President Donald Trump’s inner circle — as he increasingly imports extreme views and fringe conspiracy theories into party discourse.

In recent months, Carlson has played a key role in assisting Trump’s campaign as an informal adviser. Behind the scenes, he lobbied aggressively for Trump to choose Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) as his running mate — anointing an ideological heir to the MAGA movement. The former Fox News host also helped broker Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s endorsement of Trump, who last week rewarded the former Democrat with a leadership position on his presidential transition team — unnerving some party members.

In July, Carlson, 55, delivered a major primetime address on the last night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he sat with Trump in the former president’s VIP box. Later this month, Carlson is also slated to appear with Vance for a live interview in Pennsylvania, part of a nationwide tour of battleground states in the leadup to the election.

Meanwhile, Carlson, who helms an independent streaming service, has continued to invite a range of controversial figures onto his show, including some guests who have promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories as well as anti-Israel sentiments that he has abstained from challenging. But his decision to host a self-proclaimed podcast historian, Darryl Cooper, who has praised Adolf Hitler and believes Winston Churchill was the “chief villain” of World War II, has drawn unusually fierce criticism from top party members.

In the interview, Cooper diminished the Holocaust by claiming that “millions of prisoners of war” had “ended up dead” in concentration camps, suggesting the Nazis did not have genocidal aims against Jews but were simply “unprepared” for the war, among other false assertions. Dani Dayan, the chairman of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, said on Wednesday that Carlson and Cooper “engaged in one of the most repugnant Holocaust denial displays of the last years,” calling their discussion “antisemitic, ahistorical” and “an affront to the victims.”

The interview has alarmed leading Jewish Republicans who are frustrated that Carlson would approvingly amplify such views and dismayed by his influence in Trump’s campaign, where he is a close ally of Donald Trump Jr., a key adviser to his father.

While many Republican lawmakers have been reluctant to publicly criticize Carlson, a handful of GOP House members took aim at the commentator on Wednesday, underscoring the shocking nature of his recent interview with Cooper.

“Platforming known Holocaust revisionists is deeply disturbing — during my time in the State Assembly, I worked with Democrats and Republicans to help pass legislation aimed at ensuring all students in New York received proper education on the Holocaust, something Mr. Cooper clearly never had,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), whose district in New York’s Lower Hudson Valley includes a sizable Jewish constituency, said in a statement to Jewish Insider.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), a Republican facing a tough reelection, said that “Hitler conducted mass genocide against the Jewish people and triggered the most deadly war in human history,” arguing that there is “no whitewashing this evil man’s history.”

“I admired Winston Churchill for galvanizing Great Britain to fight alone after the fall of France and eventually defeating Nazi Germany with the U.S. and USSR,” Bacon added in a statement shared with JI. “Revisionist history on the Holocaust is a lie and does harm in the fight against antisemitism.”

Trump’s rapport with Carlson, who has long been rumored to harbor presidential ambitions of his own, also threatens to jeopardize his campaign’s efforts to make inroads with Jewish voters in key battleground states who have grown disillusioned with the Democratic Party in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. 

“He seems to have tremendous sway on the campaign and on Donald Trump —  and that doesn’t make me happy at all,” Fred Zeidman, a top GOP donor and Republican Jewish Coalition board member who backed Nikki Haley for president, said in an interview with JI on Wednesday. “Tucker Carlson is not leading the Republican Party in the direction of a party that I have been proud to be a member of.”

Eric Levine, a prominent GOP fundraiser who is reluctantly supporting Trump — and has assailed his decision to invite Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist, into the fold — called Carlson “a very troubling person” with “hateful” and “very odd views of the world.” The commentator has espoused “populist, isolationist” sentiments and “antisemitic tropes,” Levine told JI, voicing reservations with his proximity to Trump’s campaign. “I’d rather Tucker Carlson be further away than closer.”

Carlson’s team did not respond to a request for comment from JI, nor did the Trump campaign.

Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Jewish campus activist and erstwhile progressive Democrat who recently turned away from his party over its approach to Israel and antisemitism, delivered a speech at the RNC in July, where he voiced his support for Trump’s policies on anti-Jewish discrimination.

But Kestenbaum, who is scheduled to address the RJC’s annual leadership summit in Las Vegas on Thursday, suggested that he is still uncomfortable with some aspects of Trump’s coalition. “I loudly and publicly walked out of the RNC when Tucker Carlson spoke,” he said in a text message to JI on Wednesday, “and there should be no place for him or his politics of hate and falsity in our political system.”

He said he would continue to “call out far-left and far-right antisemitism” as he sees it.

As Trump draws some heightened scrutiny for his association with Carlson and other figures on the extreme right, there are no signs that the former president is distancing himself from the former Fox News host amid a tightening race with Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I continue to believe that Donald Trump is best served by appealing to the center of the party,” Levine, who is also an RJC board member, explained to JI on Wednesday. “We can hit the Ronald Reagan wing of the party to appeal to Reagan Republicans, moderates, independents, women. I just think that’s a more fertile area for votes, and I would encourage him to focus there and distinguish himself from Kamala Harris on policy.”

But as long as Carlson continues to have Trump’s ear, that hope seems unlikely to be fulfilled. “I wish Donald Trump wasn’t as close to him,” Zeidman said. “We’ve got to get our party back — and that’s not where Tucker Carlson is taking it.”

When Tucker Carlson said he wanted to know how the government of Israel treats Christians, he opted against interviewing Israeli Christians, choosing instead to speak to a Palestinian Christian pastor who founded an anti-Israel organization and justified Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Munther Isaac, the pastor featured in a 40-minute interview with Carlson that aired on X on Tuesday, gave a sermon on Oct. 8, 2023, in which he said the attack — a day prior — in which 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered by Hamas was a logical outcome. 

“What is happening is an embodiment of the injustice that has befallen us as Palestinians from the Nakba until now,” Isaac said in the sermon, using the Arabic word for “catastrophe,” that Palestinians use to mark the creation of Israel in 1948 and displacement of some 750,000 Palestinians. “Frankly, anyone following the events was not surprised by what happened yesterday… One of the scenes that left an impression on my mind yesterday, and there are many scenes, is the scene of the Israeli youth who were celebrating a concert in the open air [the Nova music festival] just outside the borders of Gaza, and how they escaped. What a great contradiction, between the besieged poor on the one hand, and the wealthy people celebrating as if there was nothing behind the wall. Gaza exposes the hypocrisy of the world.” 

On Christmas Eve last year, Isaac, the pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, in the West Bank, delivered a sermon in which he said that “if Jesus were to be born today, he would be born under the rubble in Gaza.” Jesus, who was Jewish and not Palestinian, a term that was only officially used for the region by the Romans a century later, was born in Bethlehem, which is near Jerusalem and not where the war is currently taking place. Bethlehem is currently under Israeli military control, but civilian matters – such as official religious tolerance – in the city are the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority.

Isaac is a board member of Kairos Palestine, an organization launched in 2009 whose founding document makes antisemitic statements, such as engaging in replacement theology to deny the Jewish people’s historic connection to Israel. The Kairos Document calls the Torah a “dead letter…used as a weapon in our present history in order to deprive us of our rights in our own land.” The document also states that “Christian love invites us to resist,” and describes the First Intifada, a campaign of attacks on Israelis as a “peaceful struggle.” The Kairos home page currently describes the war in Gaza as a genocide, and the organization supports boycotts against Israel. 

Isaac is also the director of the Bethlehem Bible College’s biannual “Christ at the Checkpoint” annual conferences, meant to promote Palestinian nationalism among Christian leaders, or as they put it “challenge evangelicals to take responsibility to help resolve the conflicts in Israel-Palestine by engaging with the teaching of Jesus.” Its manifesto states that “the occupation is the core issue of the conflict.” While the conference’s manifesto states that it opposes antisemitism and delegitimization of Israel, it also describes current Israeli policy as “discrimination or privileges based on ethnicity” stemming from “worldviews that promote divine national entitlement or exceptionalism.” 

Among the antisemitic statements made at the conference over the years, collected by NGO Monitor, an organization that researches the activities and funding of nonprofits relating to the Arab-Israeli conflict, are: “If God wanted the Jews to have the land…I didn’t want that God anymore!” “If you put King David, Jesus and Netanyahu [through a DNA test], you will get nothing, because Netanyahu comes from an East European tribe who converted to Judaism in the Middle Ages.” “Jews who reject Jesus Christ are outside the covenant of grace and are to be regarded as children of Hagar,” as opposed to Abraham and Sarah. The final quote is from Stephen Sizer, a British pastor who has engaged in Holocaust denial and blaming Israel for 9/11. 

Rev. Johnnie Moore, president of the Congress of Christian Leaders, said that “those of us who track these things know that Munther Isaac has long been the high priest of antisemitic Christianity; sadly, he spreads his hate from the city of Jesus’ birth.” 

“Since Oct. 7,” Moore added, “Isaac seems to have graduated from being an anti-Zionist Lutheran preacher to a terror sympathizer. There’s really just no other way to describe him.”

Jonathan Elkhoury, a Christian Lebanese refugee granted Israeli citizenship, said he was “appalled and ashamed” at Carlson’s choice to invite Isaac onto his show, preferring “rhetoric of lies and misinformation about Israel or its treatment of minorities” rather than “a voice that speaks about Christian life in the Holy Land.”

“Tucker Carlson should have taken his platform more seriously, and not invite political activists, in the disguise of a religious robe, to support the ongoing dehumanization of Israelis and the denial of the right of Israel to exist,” he said.

In his introduction to the interview with Isaac, Carlson said that Christians suffer disproportionately in wars in which the U.S. supplies weapons. 

However, the Christian population in the West Bank and Gaza declined significantly in recent decades since coming under Palestinian control, amid pressure from the PA and attempts to Islamize the city, in addition to difficulties relating to Israel’s security control of the area experienced by Palestinians regardless of religion.

Elkhoury said that when Israel had control over Bethlehem, the city had a population that was over 60% Christian. After the 1993 Oslo Accords, which gave the PA control of the city, the number of Christians has since declined to about 12%. 

There were 3,000 Christians in Gaza when Israel withdrew from the coastal enclave in 2005, a number that fell to about 1,100 as of last year, he said.

“Hamas prevented Christians [from] celebrat[ing] their holidays freely under its control since taking power, and Christians under the PA have faced many ongoing threats and attacks,” Elkhoury said. “The last one of them was an attack on the Jacob’s Well monastery in Nablus by a Palestinian mob last January.”

Israel’s Christian community, which is about 2% of the country’s population, has been rising steadily for the past few years, and is the only growing Christian population in the Middle East. Arab Christians are also the most educated population group in Israel, with a higher percentage of university graduates than Jewish or Muslim Israelis. 

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) said Carlson’s take on Israel’s treatment of Christians is “nonsense,” calling the former Fox News host “a cowardly, know-nothing elitist who is full of shit.”

“Tucker’s MO is simple: defend America’s enemies and attack America’s allies,” Crenshaw wrote on X. “There isn’t an objective bone left in that washed up news host’s body. Mindless contrarianism is his guiding principle…He uses his platform to sow doubt and paranoia and false narratives.”

Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host and right-wing media personality, suggested on Monday that the U.S. had lost its “moral authority” because it has refused to call for a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas.

“If you see a nation with awesome power abetting war for its own sake, you have a leadership that has no moral authority, that is illegitimate,” Carlson said at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he was participating in a discussion on the future of “storytelling.”

The answer came in response to a question asking him to assess why the U.S. had vetoed a U.N. resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.  

“It’s something that I try to express, and I’m often called a traitor for saying that. It’s the opposite,” Carlson added to applause. “I say that because I believe in the United States. I think it has been a morally superior country, and if we allow our leaders to use our power to spread destruction for its own sake, that is shameful.”

Carlson used a family-related analogy to illustrate his point. “The United States is for this moment the most powerful country in the history of the world,” he told the crowd, “so if you were to frame this in terms we’re all familiar with, which are the most basic terms, the terms of the family, the United States would be Dad, it would be the father, and the father’s sacred obligation is to protect his family and to restore peace within his walls.”

“If I come home and two of my kids are fighting, what’s the first thing I do, even before I assess why they’re fighting, before I gather the facts and know what’s happening? ‘Stop the fighting,’” he continued. “So if I come home and I have two kids fighting and I say ‘Go, go, beat the crap out of him!,’ I’m evil, because I’ve violated the most basic duty of fatherhood, which is to bring peace.”

He clarified that his comments, which did not mention Hamas, were not in reference to “any specific region of conflict,” but said he was “deeply offended by” U.S. conduct abroad. 

He concluded that he was “very distressed and concerned that we are entering an era where this awesome force for good is instead being used for evil.”

His new comments underscore the extent to which Carlson is leaning into his role as one of the leading figures promoting a neo-isolationist message that is now gaining traction even among some of the most hawkish Republicans in Congress. Only 18 Republican senators — less than half of the GOP caucus — voted for legislation that would advance military aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan over the weekend.

Elsewhere in the discussion on Monday, Carlson, who recently stirred controversy for interviewing President Vladimir Putin of Russia, reiterated his claim that the U.S. had provoked Russia into its war with Ukraine and said that his first visit to Moscow had been “radicalizing.”

Calling Putin “impressive” and “very capable,” Carlson, who was dismissed from Fox News last spring and now runs a media platform whose interviews run largely on X, formerly Twitter, also said that Moscow was “so much cleaner and safer and prettier, aesthetically,” than “any city in” the U.S. — an observation he described as “radicalizing, very shocking and very disturbing.” 

In another sign of how Carlson, 54, has embraced conspiratorial thinking as he cultivates an audience on the populist right, the longtime conservative  media commentator repeated a claim that the U.S. government had for years “prevented” him from arranging a sit-down with Putin by “spying on” his text messages and “leaking them to The New York Times,” which he said had “spooked the Russian government into canceling the interview.”

“My country’s intel services were working against me illegally,” he alleged, “and that enraged me.”