Right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson referred to a murderous plot of people eating hummus in Jerusalem in a speech, comparing the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk to that of Jesus, at the activist's memorial service on Sunday. This led many commentators to accuse Carlson of engaging in antisemitic dog whistles and flirting with conspiracies about an Israeli hand behind the September 10 murder.
Carlson said that Kirk's Christian evangelism reminded him of the story of Jesus arriving in Jerusalem to denounce people in power.
"He starts doing the worst thing that you can do, which is telling the truth about people, and they hate it, and they just go bonkers. They hate it, and they become obsessed with making him stop," Carlson said in a TPUSA YouTube video. "And I can just sort of picture the scene in a lamp-lit room with a bunch of guys sitting around eating hummus, thinking about what to do about this guy telling the truth about us. We must make him stop talking. And there's always one guy with the bright idea, and I could just hear him say, "'I've got an idea. Why don't we just kill him? That'll shut him up.'"
Conservative journalist Laura Loomer questioned on X/Twitter on Monday why the Republican Party wasn't condemning Carlson for using the Arizona memorial to imply that Jews murdered Kirk.
"Tucker is poisoning the party," said Loomer.
The NGO StopAntisemitism said on social media that Tucker had desecrated the service for Kirk "with his ridiculous insinuation that Jews were behind his assassination."
Journalist Yashar Ali commented that it was difficult to see Carlson's remarks in any other way, particularly given his recent rhetoric and guests invited on his show.
"Almost every single Neo-Nazi I track on a daily basis believes strongly that Tucker was talking about Jews," said Ali.
Anti-Israel activist Jackson Hinkle clipped the segment of the speech and posted it to his X account, remarking, "mic drop."
Quds News Network also captioned the speech as Carlson suggesting "Israeli involvement in Charlie Kirk’s death."
Conspiracy theories alleging Israeli involvement in Kirk's death
Since the assassination of Kirk at Utah Valley University, conspiracy theories about Israel's supposed involvement in the murder have been spread online.
The proliferation of the theories led Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to issue a social media statement denying and denouncing the "disgusting rumors" being "peddled" out of "obsession, perhaps with Qatari funding.
“This is insane. It is false. It is outrageous,” Netanyahu said on Thursday. “Charlie Kirk was a giant. A once-in-a-century talent who defended freedom, defended America, defended our common Judeo-Christian civilization.”
Former Mossad director Yossi Cohen also addressed the conspiracy theories on Erin Molan's show.
"Absolutely not, we had nothing to do with it," said Cohen. "The Mossad does not do such things, and certainly not political assassinations. This is super false and evil."
In the wake of the assassination, Netanyahu eulogized Kirk as a "lion-hearted friend" who was "murdered for speaking truth and defending freedom."
Other Israeli leaders across the political spectrum decried the killing and issued statements honoring the memory of Kirk.