Politics
WATCH: Tucker Carlson Spars With Ted Cruz Over Iran In Heated Debate
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz became the latest victim of Tucker Carlson’s vehement opposition to war with Iran after finding himself publicly upbraided for a stunning lack of knowledge about the country and its people.
Cruz, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, appeared as a guest on Carlson’s show, unaware that the former Fox News anchor was about to spring a trap on him in the form of specific questions about Iran. Thousands are fleeing the capital city of Tehran and hundreds have been killed after a week of bombing by Israel.
“This is the most powerful country in the world. If you’re calling for toppling a government, it’s incumbent on you to know something about the country and to think through the consequences of that,” Carlson said on “The Tucker Carlson Show.” “And you haven’t and you don’t. And I’m saying that’s reckless.”
Cruz countered, accusing Carlson of sowing “reckless rhetoric” about the pitfalls of U.S. military involvement.
“I’m not calling for the overthrow of a government,” Carlson shot back. “You are.”
The Texas senator dug himself further in a hole when he suggested Carlson was attacking President Donald Trump in an earlier newsletter alleging he was “complicit” in last week’s attack by Israel.
“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 retorted, reading a statement from Trump directed at anti-war critics like Carlson, the Daily Caller reported.
“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.
In response, Carlson belittled Cruz for his callout.
“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.”
“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 added. “And our country is dying.”
“I want to stop a lunatic who wants to murder us from getting nuclear weapons that could kill millions of Americans,” Cruz replied, which Carlson said is a “fair” point of view.
“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 to Obama and Carlson 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.”
A pivotal moment in the interview came when Carlson asked Cruz what he thought the population of Iran was.
“I don’t know the population,” the Senate foreign affairs honcho replied.
“You don’t know the population of the country you seek to topple?” asked a perplexed Carlson.
“I– how many people live in Iran?” Cruz asked, to which Carlson quickly replied, “92 million.”
“Okay, yeah… I–” Cruz stammered.
Cruz squinted. “How could you not know that?”
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