Conservatives were stunned by Tucker Carlson’s abrupt ouster from Fox News in April 2023. Many supporters followed him enthusiastically as he set off on his own. Over time, however, his rhetoric became increasingly unhinged, and the guests he chose to interview seemed a little too extreme for many of us.
Perhaps his most controversial moment came in September 2024, when he interviewed historian Darryl Cooper, who claimed that Winston Churchill was the “chief villain of the Second World War” and suggested that the Holocaust was essentially an “accident.” Carlson later praised Cooper as “perhaps the best and most honest popular historian in the United States.” His interview with Nick Fuentes was a close second.
In recent months, his comments about Israel have drifted further and further from reality — a vivid example of the old rule that change happens “gradually, then suddenly.”
Speaking to Megyn Kelly on Monday, Carlson suggested that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee is under a spell that makes him support Israel.
He was weighing in on what men like conservative commentator Mark Levin, whom he’s been feuding with, are trying to do: “It’s a species of witchcraft. It’s really simple.”
“You repeat something until it becomes true. You create truth by speaking. … You can talk reality into being,” he told Kelly, who nodded in agreement.
He referenced “shills like [former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike] Pompeo, who is getting paid from who knows how many different groups to lie to you.” Later in his remarks, he put Republican Sens. Ted Cruz (TX) and Lindsey Graham (SC), whom he is also feuding with, into this category.
But Carlson noted that “poor Mike Huckabee” and “guys like that” (i.e. those he sees as generally good people), “are just under a spell.”
Let’s just be honest about what this is. It’s not about Iran’s weapons; it’s about Israel’s ambitions. But there’s something deeper. There’s like almost a spell.Take Huckabee for example. You really think Huckabee’s being threatened? I know Huckabee well, I’m sure you do too. Nice man. What is this? I look at him and I see a man under a spell. I mean this and I’ll be mocked for it, but I mean it.There’s no practical, conventional explanation for some of this behavior. … But Mike Huckabee, I think he’s under a spell. He is not thinking clearly at all. So when Mike Huckabee … says, ‘God will destroy our country if we don’t support Bibi,’ it’s like, how could someone ever say something like that? I don’t know the answer, but I think it’s more metaphysical than political.
Amusingly, several people on social media have pointed out that one of Carlson’s weekend tweets sounds strikingly similar to a much-criticized remark from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
Carlson wrote, “Pray that the spell breaks and the world is saved.” Critics quickly compared that line to Omar’s earlier comment about Israel: “Israel has hypnotized the world; may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.”
Last week, I reported on Carlson’s reaction to the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran:
He opened his broadcast by saying the war happened because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “demanded it happen.” According to Carlson, the U.S. had no national security basis for entering this war. He accused Israel of seeking to destabilize both the U.S. and the Gulf States.
He also alleged, without evidence, that Mossad agents had been arrested in Qatar and Saudi Arabia while trying to plant explosives.
Following Carlson’s podcast, a spokesman from the Qatari Foreign Ministry confirmed that “there was no information regarding an Israeli intelligence (#Mossad) cell operation in the Gulf state at the moment.”
Several weeks ago, Carlson traveled to Israel for an interview with Ambassador Huckabee. He later claimed that he and his crew had been detained and interrogated at Ben Gurion International Airport.
The Daily Mail reported:
Carlson exclusively told the Daily Mail that shortly after the interview, Israeli officials confiscated his passport and hauled one of his colleagues off to an interrogation room.‘Men who identified themselves as airport security took our passports, hauled our executive producer into a side room and then demanded to know what we spoke to Ambassador Huckabee about,’ Carlson told the Daily Mail.‘It was bizarre. We’re now out of the country.’
The claims were denied by Huckabee, the U.S. Embassy, and the Israelis.
For years, Carlson prided himself on challenging conventional wisdom. But when political disagreements are explained with talk of spells and witchcraft rather than evidence or argument, something has gone badly wrong. The man who once claimed to be exposing conspiracies now seems increasingly consumed by them.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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