Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) engaged in a heated discussion over whether the United States should get involved in the Israel–Iran aerial conflict that started this past week.
“How many people live in Iran, by the way?” Carlson asked Cruz.
“I don’t know the population,” Cruz responded.
“At all?” Carlson then asked
“No, I don’t know the population,” Cruz said.
“You don’t know the population in the country you seek to topple?” Carlson asked, adding that Iran has a population of roughly 92 million.
“Why is it relevant whether it’s 90 million or 80 million or 100 million—why is that relevant?” Cruz asked.
Carlson then asked about Iran’s ethnic makeup. Cruz said it was Persian and that they were mostly adherents of Shia Islam. The two then started talking over one another.
On multiple occasions, Carlson accused Cruz of not knowing enough about Iran and suggested Cruz wants the United States to overthrow the country’s regime and its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“No, you don’t know anything about the country,” Cruz then said. “You’re the one who claims they’re not trying to murder [President] Donald Trump. You’re the one who can’t figure out if it was a good idea to kill General [Qasem] Soleimani, and you said it was bad.”
Cruz’s first statement referred to U.S. officials having prosecuted individuals accused of plotting to kill Trump who were allegedly backed by the Iranian regime. Similar statements were made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a Fox News interview over the past weekend.
Soleimani was killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2020.
Later on, Cruz said, “We are carrying out military strikes today,” to which Carlson pressed the senator on why he used the term “we.”
Since the aerial conflict started, Israel has launched many strikes against Iranian infrastructure, including nuclear facilities, while Iran has retaliated by firing hundreds of missiles at Israel. Trump has said the United States isn’t involved, although he suggested Washington could launch strikes against Iran if it doesn’t negotiate.
Cruz said that the United States is backing the effort but that Israel is conducting the strikes.
“You just said ‘we’ were,” Carlson said. “This is high stakes. You’re a senator. If you’re saying the United States government is at war with Iran right now, people are listening.”
Responding to the video’s release on Wednesday, Cruz commented on Carlson’s claims in his “Verdict” podcast, saying that Carlson has “suddenly” become a “hardcore isolationist ... even when we’ve got a lunatic theocratic zealot who is trying to murder Americans and has murdered hundreds of Americans.”
Carlson, who has backed Trump, has emerged as a key figure among conservatives who say the United States shouldn’t get involved in the Israel–Iran conflict. For years, he has criticized Republicans who want the United States involved in overseas military efforts, including in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Trump rebuked Carlson over the weekend, telling reporters, “I don’t know what Tucker Carlson is saying. Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen.” And in a Truth Social post directed at Carlson, Trump wrote in all caps that “Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”
The Epoch Times has contacted Cruz’s office for comment.
