WASHINGTON — Conservative pundit Tucker Carlson is teasing a fiery interview with US Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, he plans to release Wednesday afternoon, in which the two men clash over foreign policy and potential US military strikes against Iran.
The session lays bare divisions within President Donald Trump’s “America first” Republican coalition as more traditional defense hawks square off against others calling for the United States to do everything possible to avoid foreign entanglements.
Cruz, a fervent, outspoken supporter of Israel, has been pushing back on Carlson and others questioning the wisdom of joining Israel in its military campaign against Iran over its pursuit of a nuclear weapon.
Carlson released a portion of the interview late Tuesday, including an exchange in which he asked Cruz how many people live in Iran. Cruz acknowledged he didn’t know the number.
“You don’t know the population of the country you seek to topple?” Carlson asked, saying the answer is 92 million. “How could you not know that?”
“I don’t sit around memorizing population tables,” Cruz said.
“Well, it’s kind of relevant because you’re calling for the overthrow of the government,” Carlson said.
When Carlson started another line of questions about Iran’s ethnic breakdown, Cruz cut it off by saying Carlson was trying to use a “cute” approach asking about information that wasn’t relevant to the issue at hand.
“You’re a senator who’s calling for the overthrow of a government and you don’t know anything about the country,” Carlson said.
“No, you don’t know anything about the country,” Cruz retorted as the two men rapidly spoke over one another.
In another clip the two men sparred over whether to confront Israel about its spying on the United States.
Cruz posted his regular podcast Wednesday in which he previewed the interview, which he said was two hours long.
Cruz said he agrees with Carlson on 80% of issues, such as rejecting COVID-19 vaccine mandates, protecting free speech and safeguarding gun rights.
“I will say on foreign policy, Tucker has gone bat crap crazy,” Cruz said. “He’s gone off the rails. He is suddenly a hardcore isolationist.”
Cruz said Carlson asked a month ago to interview him and the day of the interview happened to be this week. The interview got pretty rough with Carlson “throwing haymakers” from the start, Cruz said.
Attacking AIPAC
Carlson spent a lot of time attacking the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel advocacy group, Cruz said.
“It was just unhinged,” Cruz said. “There are conspiracy sections of the internet that are worried that, like AIPAC is running the world, it’s just not reality. And he didn’t like it when I called him on it.”
Cruz on Tuesday had defended Trump’s authority to order a limited strike against Iran without congressional permission.
Cruz said a strike to eliminate the Fordo nuclear research facility, which would require US help because Israel doesn’t have the required bunker buster bombs, is no doubt being discussed by Trump administration officials and Israel.
“I don’t know what the president is going to decide on that front,” Cruz told reporters. “Taking out Fordo would make America much safer and what Israel is doing right now is an enormous favor to the United States.”