Tucker Carlson and Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz clashed in a Wednesday interview over President Donald Trump’s response to Iran amid its ongoing conflict with Israel.
Trump declared on Wednesday that Iran must surrender unconditionally, asserting the country can never possess a nuclear weapon. On “The Tucker Carlson Show,” Carlson and Cruz sparred over whether Trump was appropriately handling the conflict.
“This is the most powerful country in the world. If you’re calling for toppling in government, it’s incumbent on you to know something about the country and to think through the consequences of that,” Carlson said. “And you haven’t and you don’t. And I’m saying that’s reckless.”
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Cruz accused Carlson of espousing “reckless rhetoric” lacking a factual basis.
“I’m not calling for the overthrow of a government,” Carlson shot back. “You are.”
Cruz noted that Carlson published a Friday newsletter alleging that Trump was “complicit” in Israel’s Thursday attack on Iran. Cruz characterized Carlson’s allegation as an attack on the president — which Carlson denied.
“I never attacked Donald Trump. I campaigned for Donald Trump … after antisemitism, this is the last refuge,” he said. “‘You’re an antisemite and you hate Trump.’ I love Trump.”
“You put out a whole newsletter saying Trump has abandoned ‘America First,’” Cruz alleged. The senator then read a statement from Trump that was a response to critics such as Carlson, The Atlantic reported.
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“Here’s what Trump said in response: ‘Well, considering that I’m the one that developed ‘America First,’ and considering that the term wasn’t used until I came along, I think I’m the one that decides that. For those people who say they want peace—you can’t have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon. So for all of those wonderful people who don’t want to do anything about Iran having a nuclear weapon—that’s not peace.’ That was directed at you,” Cruz said.
Carlson mocked Cruz in response.
“You got me. Busted. My views — look, I like Trump, I campaigned for Trump,” he said. “I know Trump, I talked to him last night. I’m not against Trump and you know that.”
Cruz replied that Carlson opposed Trump’s current foreign policy, prompting Carlson to clarify his views.
“I think that we should be very careful about entering into more foreign wars that don’t help us when our country is dying,” he said. “And our country is dying.”
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Carlson further alleged that Cruz was ignorant about Iran.
“I want to stop a lunatic who wants to murder us from getting nuclear weapons that could kill millions of Americans,” Cruz said, which Carlson acknowledged was a “fair” take.
“You say, ‘I can’t see how that benefits America in any way.’ That is bizarre!” Cruz added. “And by the way, isolationism, your foreign policy is the foreign policy of Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama. And it doesn’t work.”
Carlson dismissed the comparison as “so silly.”
“I am the product of the last 25 years watching carefully, being involved in the periphery,” he said. “And I see an unending string of foreign policy disasters that have impoverished and hurt our country.”
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Carlson also warned on “Bannon’s War Room” Monday that if the United States goes to war with Iran, it would ruin Trump’s second term in office.
Trump has sent mixed signals about whether the U.S. would join in Israel’s offensive operations against Iran, asserting on Sunday that “it’s possible” America would ultimately enter the war, though it was not at the time.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
