Weekend Listen: Tucker Carlson on How Trump Failed America

Summary

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Big Take Weekend Listen: Tucker Carlson on How Trump Failed America

Podcast: Big Take (Bloomberg & iHeartPodcasts)
Host: Michelle Hussein
Guest: Tucker Carlson
Date: July 19, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this high-stakes interview, Michelle Hussein talks with Tucker Carlson, former Fox News host and influential conservative commentator, about his highly publicized break with President Donald Trump amid the ongoing US-Iran war. The episode explores Carlson’s personal and political evolution, his accusations of Trump’s betrayal of the “America First” promise, his critical take on US foreign policy—particularly regarding Israel—and his bleak assessment of the current state of American democracy. Critical territory includes Carlson's controversial positions on Israel, his influence on the Right, and speculation on third party efforts in US politics.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Tucker Carlson’s Break With Donald Trump

• War With Iran as Catalyst:

  • Carlson harshly criticizes Trump for the US’s involvement in the Iran war, asserting it has "gravely hurt the United States" and breaks Trump's commitment to avoiding new wars ([01:50], [09:34]).
  • He is explicit about feeling “betrayed” by Trump, whom he says allowed US foreign policy to be steered by Israel “to our great detriment” ([09:34], [12:07]).

• Influence and Responsibility:

  • Carlson reflects on his deep involvement in supporting Trump’s presidency, acknowledging the personal pain in his public break and the sense of impotence he felt in trying—and failing—to change Trump’s mind ([10:45], [11:42]).
  • "I felt like all of my efforts came to naught, and I didn't feel like a winner. I felt like a loser." – Tucker Carlson ([10:45])

2. The Power Structure Behind US Foreign Policy

• Who’s In Charge?

  • Carlson disputes the idea of the US President as the world’s most powerful person, pointing instead to the outsized role of global capital, international business, and pro-Israel influence in Washington ([13:31]–[15:09]).
  • “Global capital is more powerful than any voting bloc in the United States, period. And Israel as a nation . . . is enormously powerful because so much of the money that funds campaigns in the United States comes with the express purpose . . . of tying American foreign policy to Israel's.” – Tucker Carlson ([13:35])

• Controversial Claims About Israel:

  • Carlson repeatedly claims Israeli pressure dictated US actions in Iran, and pushes the fringe narrative that "Israel’s goal is chaos . . . further destroying Europe," which Hussein questions and contextualizes for listeners ([29:01]).
  • “Netanyahu means that. He said it. No one watches. See, the thing is, nobody watches.” – Tucker Carlson ([29:03])

3. Tucker’s Personal & Family Background

• Formative Influences:

  • Carlson shares anecdotes about his father’s independent and international life—born an orphan, Marine Corps, government work—which shaped his worldview and his contrarian, anti-establishment tendencies ([06:31]–[07:54]).
  • “He was consistently more right than the majority of public opinion in the United States. He was just an independent thinker . . . very American in that way.” – Tucker Carlson ([06:31])

• Emotional Reflection on Breaking with Trump:

  • Describes his agony at having to publicly criticize someone he once liked and felt aligned with ([09:34]), and his struggle with the limits of his own influence ([10:45]).

4. Legacy of Trumpism and Republican Party’s Future

• Trump’s Betrayal and Systemic Failure:

  • Carlson laments what he sees as Trump’s capitulation to “the uniparty” and the failure to reform Washington.
  • “If Trump can't fix the system, can it be fixed? That was really scary.” ([16:00])
  • "Trump betrayed not just the country, but the people who vested their hopes in him. And that is low and wrong." ([40:01])

• J.D. Vance and the Future of the GOP:

  • Sees Ohio Senator (and now VP) J.D. Vance as an honest exception but doubts he could transform the party's direction as vice president ([39:29]–[40:01]).

• Third Party Movement:

  • Carlson reiterates he has no plans to run himself, but believes a viable third party is urgently needed as both parties align on “economics and foreign policy” ([35:12], [36:38]).
  • “It's not acceptable to have a system where the average person has no representation.” ([37:10]–[38:29])

5. Deepening Global Instability and Domestic Crisis

• Consequences of War:

  • Carlson predicts severe political consequences for Republicans in upcoming midterms due to the unpopularity of the wars ([34:27]–[34:31]).
  • Foresees worsening “decadence” and political alienation at home, warning of possible revolution or even civil war if people lose faith in democracy ([43:47], [45:12]).

• On Political Violence and Extremism:

  • Hussein presses Carlson on his rhetoric about civil war; he disavows violence but warns that suppressing nonviolent outlets for dissent breeds unrest ([44:42]–[46:07]).
  • “Democracy is the pressure relief valve that keeps people from storming the Bastille.” ([46:07])

6. Controversies Over Gender, Feminism, Social Change

• Traditionalism and Gender Roles:

  • Carlson discusses his belief in traditional gender differences, claims economic interests drive women into the workforce to the country's detriment, and critics argue his positions perpetuate sexism ([46:37]–[50:57]).
  • “Feminism is an optimistic run by big business to lower the price of labor and to free up a massive and incredibly productive female workforce. And that's been bad for the country.” ([48:47]–[50:57])

• Defending Personal Views:

  • When questioned on the impact of feminism and changes in women’s lives, he acknowledges individual fulfillment but maintains broader skepticism about women's happiness and the intentions of modern movements ([50:09]–[52:23]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Trump’s Responsibility for the Iran War:

  • “He’s weak. I’m not pretending otherwise. But it’s also just a factually verifiable statement that Israel pushed us into this and Trump allowed them to do that... The Secretary of State himself said that on camera. So... it’s a fact.” – Tucker Carlson ([12:07])

• On Being Disillusioned With Power:

  • “Men tend to think they’re more powerful than they really are...I felt like all of my efforts came to naught, and I didn’t feel like a winner. I felt like a loser.” – Tucker Carlson ([10:45])

• On Betrayal:

  • “Trump has been disloyal, totally disloyal to the United States. He cheated on the United States with a foreign power.” – Tucker Carlson ([41:46])

• On the Republican Party’s Fate:

  • “I mean, they’re going to be spanked. Yeah. They’re going to be punished for it, of course. But the question is, does that make the country better?” – Tucker Carlson ([34:31])

• On Third Parties & Political Consensus:

  • “They fight over these issues ... transgenderism, and they'll tell you ... they just got completely different worldviews ... but on economics and foreign policy ... they are aligned.” – Tucker Carlson ([36:38])

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Important Timestamps & Segments

• Tucker’s Initial Blame of Trump ([01:50]–[02:28])
• Carlson’s Family & Early Influences ([05:51]–[07:54])
• How the Iran War Caused the Carlson-Trump Split ([09:34]–[12:07])
• Discussion of US Power, Israel, and Global Forces ([13:31]–[15:09])
• Reflections on 2016, Trump’s Rise, and Systemic Corruption ([15:09]–[19:05])
• Carlson Details the Fallout With Trump Over Iran ([21:03]–[23:16])
• Iraq War Regret & Learning From the Past ([25:01])
• Accusations of Israeli Influence & Debate on Genocide ([27:50]–[31:40])
• On America’s Drift and Need for Representation, Discussion of Third Parties ([34:27]–[38:29])
• Assessment of J.D. Vance & GOP Future ([39:16]–[41:39])
• Warnings of Revolution/Civil War ([43:47]–[46:07])
• Views on Gender, Family, and Feminism ([46:37]–[52:23])
• Future Hopes and Final Reflections ([52:37]–[53:09])

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Contextual Notes

• Michelle Hussein provides fact checks and rebuttals, especially regarding Carlson’s claims about Netanyahu’s intentions and the nature of Israel’s actions (see closing remarks [53:32]).
• Carlson’s controversial stances on Israel have drawn widespread criticism from organizations like the Anti-Defamation League and the Nexus Project, who accuse him of enabling antisemitism (closing notes).
• Hussein contextualizes Democratic leadership on the Iran war, detailing their limitations in restraining Trump and Republican war powers.

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Tone & Style

The conversation is frank, combative, and intensely reflective. Carlson oscillates between personal candor, frustration at his lack of influence, and defiance against the political status quo. Hussein provides persistent and direct challenges, guiding the conversation through uncomfortable topics with even-handed skepticism.

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For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This episode provides an unvarnished look at the bitter right-wing divide over Trump’s second-term foreign policy, the continuing fallout of the US-Iran war, and the ideological and emotional ruptures within the American conservative movement. Carlson’s personal narrative and public positions, both admired and reviled, reveal much about the current mood on the American right, and the risk of further polarization and instability. The episode is particularly notable for its candor, controversial claims, and the window it offers into post-2024 conservative politics.

Transcript

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[Michelle Hussein]

Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio News

[Tucker Carlson]

I've defended Republicans for 35 years in public, and then we wound up in a war with Iran that has gravely hurt the United States. Trump has been disloyal, totally disloyal to the United States. He cheated on the United States with a foreign power.

[Michelle Hussein]

Tucker Carlson on Breaking with the leader he helped re elect at the point that we're talking right now, President Trump, without Benjamin Netanyahu by his side, has said the ceasefire is over and the United States in the last 24 hours has hit more than 80 Iranian targets. Right Isn't the more honest and direct thing to do hold him fully accountable for his actions?

[Tucker Carlson]

It's his fault. He's the US President and a huge part of the job is resisting pressure from outside forces. And he didn't. So he's weak.

[Michelle Hussein]

From Bloomberg Weekend, this is the Michael Hussein show. I'm Michelle Hussein. What was envisaged as a short but overwhelming war against Iran by the United States and Israel has turned out five months on rather differently. Ceasefires have proved fragile. Iran's power over the Strait of Hormuz is still apparent. And the war may yet have a significant political fallout in the United States. A president who promised no more wars has in fact repeatedly used force in his second term. But it is the Iran war that has sparked a spectacular fallout between Donald Trump and one of his most prominent allies, the former Fox News host and conservative commentator Tucker Carlson. He worked hard to get Donald Trump re elected. He was dismayed when the first strikes against Iran took place last year. Then came the start of this war in February, and at that point, the Carlson Trump relationship imploded. Since then, in episode after episode of the Tucker Carlson show, he has gone after what he's portrayed as a betrayal of America first. And he's gained a larger audience along the way. Episodes now get tens of millions of views across social media and podcast platforms each time. And Tucker Carlson has more than 17 million followers on X. He has long been a polarizing figure, disliked on the left from his bow tie wearing Fox News days. Now, though, he has lost friends and allies. That's partly because of his rift with the Republican Party, but also because of the way that he talks about Israel, amplifying narratives and stereotypes, his critics say, that cross the line into anti Semitism. Our conversation was recorded between London and Maine where Tucker Carlson lives. And we do go into some tough territory. There are a number of responses and, and some extra information that you'll hear at the end. In fact, for this episode in particular, please do read my notes, which you'll [e-mail] Michelle that's where you'll get a sense of why a question was asked in a certain way. What might have been left out of an answer, how I prepared and indeed what I read afterwards, the places where I've added context. So that's the background and here's how my conversation with Tucker Carlson began. Thank you for talking to us.

[Tucker Carlson]

Oh, of course.

[Michelle Hussein]

You know, I was thinking about your home in Maine. Cause I was reading the last bit of this book where you, you write quite emotionally about tidying up the house at the end of the summer. And I was thinking that you don't have to do that anymore. Right. Cause you live there all year round now.

[Tucker Carlson]

That's true. That's true. I'm grateful.

[Michelle Hussein]

Yeah. Tucker, you know, in this conversation we are going to range far and wide, how you see the us how you see the rest of the world, especially the Middle east right now. But before we do that, I really wanted to understand your influences because I think you're clearly in the midst of a really intense time in your life as well as in the news. Can we talk a little bit about your father? First of all, of course. I was reading as I prepared for this, what you and your brother wrote about him when he died last year. And I was just struck by what an unusual life he had and obviously curious about how that influenced you. A difficult start to life. In many ways.

[Tucker Carlson]

He had, well, it influenced us enormously. He had a. He had the most interesting life of anyone I've known personally. He was born an orphan, grew up in an orphanage, in foster care, then was adopted, never finished high school, joined the Marine Corps, went into journalism, started working for the government, traveled the world, knew everybody. It was just a fascinating, self educated person, intensely curious, very smart, very honest, kind of swashbuckling, complicated, and just a great guy. And my brother and I had the privilege of growing up alone with him when we were little. Our mother left when we were small and my father got custody because she wasn't there. And so we grew up with them in this kind of eccentric, not kind of eccentric, extremely eccentric environment, but a happy and wholesome one. And for many years I really never told anybody other than my wife about my childhood because it sounded so bad. But it wasn't bad. It was great and we really sincerely enjoyed it, but it was not mainstream at all in the sense that my father never felt like he had to believe something because everyone else believed it. He came to his own conclusions. He wasn't always right, but he was very often right. And he was consistently more right than the majority of public opinion in the United States. He was just an independent thinker and very American in that way. And there's so little of that left.

[Michelle Hussein]

And I also thought particularly internationally minded. He had, you know, seen a lot in the 60s in the US but then you wrote that he was involved in intrigues around the world in the last 25 years, years of his life.

[Tucker Carlson]

He was. And I, I wrote that obituary on an airplane the day after he died and was sort of confused about what he had been doing from the mid-80s until he passed and, and was criticized widely. You know, your dad worked at the CIA. You must have known that. You know, I still am not exactly sure what he was doing. He did work, apparently with various intel agencies. He was not an employee of CIA he didn't have a badge or anything like that. But I think, you know, the American intelligence network is a global network and they work with all kinds of other countries, intel agencies, and it's, it's not exactly clear very often where, you know, where one starts and the next begins. And so it's not easy in retrospect to piece together even what your own father did for a living.

[Michelle Hussein]

There was another part of what you said about him that jumped out to me, which is that his motto was who dares wins? You know, people in the UK will know that. Well, as the, as the sas. But I wondered if that has come to you in this period because you have had a very public break with President Trump, with the Republican Party. At the same time, you've seen a big increase in the reach of your show since the Iran war began. Has that spurred you on in, given you more conviction that the path you're on now is the right one?

[Tucker Carlson]

No. You know, I've, I've never been business minded. I mean, I was fired three and a half years ago. I probably could have retired. So I'm not thinking about our ratings. I've never thought about my ratings again. You don't have to believe me, but it's just true. Ask anyone who's worked for me. I don't even know what they are. I was in agony when I criticized Trump. I like Trump. I didn't want to. And I endorsed Trump and campaigned with Trump and spoke at the Republican National Convention. And I've defended Republicans for 35 years in public, and I had zero interest in having a spat with them. And so I felt driven to my positions. Trump allowed the US Government to be completely steered by this tiny little country in the Middle East, Israel, to our great detriment. And I watched it happen. I was offended by it. I argued against it directly to him. That had no effect at all. And then we wound up in a war with Iran that has gravely hurt the United States. And it was out of my frustration that I said that, but not some calculation that I'm going to get rich or something by saying it. You know, that's just true.

[Michelle Hussein]

Yeah, but it must be energizing to have a greater reach right now than you did a few months ago.

[Tucker Carlson]

So I look at it different. It's funny, I don't know that we do have a. I mean, I really don't know if that's true, but from my perspective, you know, the, the year that preceded this war, I spent pretty, I don't know, tireless is the right word, but, I mean, I was very focused on preventing a war with Iran and wrapping up the war between Russia and Ukraine, which is also damaging the United States gravely and Europe gravely. And from my perspective, I had no effect at all. Like, nothing I wanted to happen happened. I had no power, I had no influence. And I think I'd kind of talked myself into believing that I could have some effect, and at the end, I didn't. And so that part of that was my vanity and my silliness. And, you know, men tend to think they're more powerful than they really are, and I think that happened to me to some extent. Um, but I felt like all of my efforts came to naught, and I didn't feel like a winner. I felt like a loser.

[Michelle Hussein]

At the point that we're talking right now, President Trump, all by himself, without Benjamin Netanyahu by his side, has said the ceasefire is over and the United States, in the last 24 hours, has hit more than 80 Iranian targets. Right. So isn't the more honest and direct thing to do hold him fully accountable for his actions as the most powerful man in the world?

[Tucker Carlson]

I don't think he's the most powerful man in the world. I have held him directly accountable. It's his fault. He's the U.S. president. He was elected. That's his job. And a huge part of the job is resisting pressure from outside forces. I mean, and many presidents have, to varying degrees, resisted attempts to control them from outside, and he didn't. So he's weak. I'm not pretending otherwise. But it's also just a factually verifiable statement that Israel pushed us into this and Trump allowed them to do that. The Secretary of State himself said that on camera. So it's. This is not like a conspiracy theory. It's a fact. The United States is unwilling to, or maybe unable, who knows, to restrain Israel. Like, you know, I'm on the outside. I. I'm not talking to Trump anymore. I haven't spoken to him since late February, so I don't really know. But I, you know, have a news feed, so I know that we did not restrain our ally and partner in this war, Israel. And so, of course, it was never going to work.

[Michelle Hussein]

Okay. But it's one thing to seek to influence the US President. Many countries have done that with greater or lesser success over the years. It's another thing to look at the elected leader of the world's only superpower, only real superpower at this point, and say he is not the most powerful man in the world. Are you really saying that Netanyahu is a more powerful figure than Trump?

[Tucker Carlson]

No, I don't.

[Michelle Hussein]

So who is the most powerful man in the world?

[Tucker Carlson]

The United States is not the world's only superpower. China has a larger economy. China didn't just lose a war to Iran, so who knows what Chinese military strength actually amounts to? We are much less powerful than a lot of us thought we were four months ago. So we're not the only superpower at all. And that actually, that assumption is part of the problem that leads to hubris and overreach. And it's a very familiar path. But you overstate your powers. I would say that there are all kinds of forces in the world. One of them is China. There's also the international business community. We have a globalized economy, so there's no such thing as an American business or a British business or a German business. You know, these are all interconnected. And global capital is more powerful than any voting bloc in the United States, period. And Israel as a nation, I'm not just including the 9 million people who live in Israel, but also its many agents in the United States are enormously powerful because so much of the money that funds campaigns in the United States comes with the express purpose, the intent of, of tying American foreign policy to Israel's foreign policy. So, like, it's a complicated thing, but the closer you look at it, and I've looked pretty closely, the more you understand that the elected president of the United States has power for sure, but he does not have sovereignty. He does not have unlimited power or full freedom of motion to act on behalf of his voters. He just doesn't. I mean, we're watching it now on this and many other topics.

[Michelle Hussein]

We will come back to all of this. I want to go back in time, though, to this remarkable 10 years. President Trump came to power 10 years ago. You also got your primetime show on Fox News 10 years ago that made you a household name in the United States. So tell me about 2016, because you wrote this piece in Politico, which is also in this book, at the start of that year in which you, you said that Trump was not your ideal candidate for president, but that he did have things to teach the Republican Party, amongst them that the depth of anger on immigration and also the fact that Washington really is corrupt, you said, and you saw Trump as being someone who could address that in some way. So tell me first about how you saw him then and why you wrote that.

[Tucker Carlson]

Well, I hate to sort of delve in My own personal psychodramas. Cause they're not that interesting, but it's. They're inextricable from the rise of Trump, because I was a product of the system in Washington very much, and I believed in the system. And the rise of Trump was one of the reasons that I was forced to confront the fact that the system was not serving the population of the country that put it there and was paying for everything and in whose name all these things were being done. There was just too wide a disconnect between what people wanted and what they were getting. Really simple. And I couldn't really see that. And Trump's rise was forced, that question. And I just noticed that everyone around me, people I liked and respected, hated Trump in an irrational way. And I didn't understand what the hate was about. And I understood ultimately what it was, which was he was threatening them. He was threatening their hegemony over our system, like they were benefiting the country, was withering. They didn't want a conversation about that. They didn't want to change course. And in the end, I just took Trump's side because I thought that he was an alternative to this system that we had that had grown, you know, sclerotic or corrupt, whatever word you want to use, it wasn't working as intended. And I was really upset about it. I mean, Trump was running against not just the Democratic Party, but the Republican Party, and I thought we needed that. And so that's why it was so heartbreaking. In fact, it was. It was almost paralyzing for me to see what happened in February. And you wake up and you realize this guy you think is taking on both parties has joined the consensus of those parties, the uniparty on economics and foreign policy. And, like, wait a second, you know, if Trump can't fix the system, can it be fixed? That was really scary. It's still scary when I think about it.

[Michelle Hussein]

You had, though, before 2016, seen him as a difficult personal character. At one point, you said he was interesting but horrible, right?

[Tucker Carlson]

Yeah.

[Michelle Hussein]

I think you didn't like the showmanship. You didn't like the gold everywhere.

[Tucker Carlson]

No, I mean, culturally, it was always just a huge stretch. You know, I just come from a culture that's so different, and it was just beaten into me as a child. Don't talk about yourself. Don't brag about yourself. You know, never boast. And here's a guy whose entire life, whose brand is basically bragging. And that was difficult, but I thought to myself, okay, you know, I don't like that. I don't have the same taste. I don't have the same affectations. I don't have the same instincts about a lot of things. But this is a guy who's brave enough to take on a system that really needs to be reformed and cannot be reformed from within. I still think that I'm just so shocked and disappointed that he joined the people he hated.

[Michelle Hussein]

You did have this extraordinary influence yourself, didn't you? Even in the first term? Because when you put someone on your show, someone like Chris Ruffo, for example, talking about critical race theory, within hours they could. And he did get a call from the White House saying, come in and talk to us, and he ended up drafting an executive order. How did that feel? Because you must have gained a sense of your own power through that.

[Tucker Carlson]

Well, I tried to ignore it. In fact, I don't even remember that, to be totally honest with you. I don't read about myself. The second you start thinking, like, I'm in charge now, I'm an important person, that's when your soul rots. And I just always wanted to remember that. In the. Not famous enough words of Conan o', Brien, in the end, every grave goes unvisited. Like, that's the perspective that people need, that, you know, we do our best, but in the end, nobody cares. And we're not in charge of history. We're not God. And so I. So anyway, no, I. I really fought against thinking, oh, you know, I. I have got a cable news show on some stupid cable news network that takes prostate health and pillow ads. And so I would try to not think about that at all. I never visited the White House. I never went to the movies or dinner there.

[Michelle Hussein]

But he called you, didn't he, in the first. President Trump used to.

[Tucker Carlson]

Yeah, I talked to Trump all the time.

[Michelle Hussein]

I mean, that doesn't happen. That doesn't happen to just anyone.

[Tucker Carlson]

Well, but I knew him. Trump called me before. Before he announced in 2015. I'll never forget it. I was in the car, and he's like, I'm gonna run for president. And I made fun of him because he did this in 2000. So 26 years ago, he, like, faked a presidential campaign to sell a book. So I laughed and I said, oh, yeah, you're gonna sell another book. And he goes, no, actually, I think I'm gonna surprise you this time. And I just want to be clear. Trump is one of the most entertaining, charming, insightful people, fun to be with people in the world. And anyone who's ever had dinner with Trump can tell you, I don't care how much you hate him or dislike his policies or whatever, you have dinner with Trump. You're going to have a great time. So, no, I. I always liked him. Always. You know, but anyway, I didn't expect this.

[Michelle Hussein]

So, summer of 2025, when Israel began military action against Iran and the US then joined in and bombed the nuclear sites, you were clearly publicly upset about what you called warmongers, but you did patch things up with the president.

[Tucker Carlson]

Correct.

[Michelle Hussein]

How did that happen?

[Tucker Carlson]

I mean, it got so intense. So I don't work for Trump. I've never. Obviously never worked for Trump. I'm not in any business deals with anything related to Trump. I don't. I'm not beholden to Trump. So I always tried to be honest. I wasn't always as direct with him as I probably should have been. But on these questions, I was very direct. And I said, you're getting led around by the nose by Israel, and everyone can see it. Nobody cares about the Iran nuclear program. There are a lot of bad people with nuclear weapons. We don't want more of them. But this is not about nuclear weapons. This is about sucking us into a regime change war against Iran. I flat out told him that a bunch of times, and he's like, no, no, no, that's not true. But it was true. It turned out to be provably true now. So that was extremely upsetting to me. So I was supposed to meet with him in the White House. Israel bombed. We allowed them to bomb. We paid for it, of course. We paid for their missile defense. When the response came into Tel Aviv, like, it was our war with Israel prosecuting it for us. So I was so mad that I didn't. I was supposed to meet him at the White House. I didn't go. And then he called me, and we had this kind of intense conversation, and I was very upset, and I just said, look, it's demeaning for the United States. Like, you're the president. I don't even hate Netanyahu. It's not. It's not even about that. It's. We're the United states. We've got 350 million people. You cannot be led around by a tiny country. Like, what are you doing? And he really hated that I said that because it's true. It was true. It is humiliating. This whole thing is humiliating to the United States and to me as an American whose family's been here for hundreds of years. It's outrageous. Anyway, and then he, like, said, I was Crazy. He gave some statement. Tucker Carlson's crazy. Well, obviously, I'm half crazy. I mean, I know that. And so somebody pushed me and said, you should call him. And so I called him and he picked up first ring and I said, yep, I'm kind of crazy. Like, I've never denied that. I mean, look at me. But anyway, he laughed and. And then our relationship, you know, that was like one day. But when we actually killed the Ayatollah, bombed a girls school, like, this whole thing was so nuts that I was like, I. I'm out. I can't. This is too much. It's too damaging to my country.

[Michelle Hussein]

Who else did you call? You've been friends over the years with so many others who are in that circle. J.D. vance, for one, Stephen Miller, another. What are the other conversations you've had? If you're as exercised as you clearly were and are, I can't believe your only conversations were with the President between

[Tucker Carlson]

the 12 day war in June and the Regime change war on February 28th. I talked to everybody. I mean, I visited the. I don't know how many times I went to the White House. I know I went three times in the month preceding, but I went many times and saw Trump and saw, you know, it's a very small building, so you run into people and. Yeah, well, I talk to everybody about it constantly. I think that my views represent the views of most Americans. My views are not ideological, they're not radical. What's radical is taking orders from Netanyahu to enter a war that's going to hurt your country. That's crazy. That's extremism. It's religious extremism. By the way, I'm not a religious extremist. I'm just kind of a garden variety Christian. And so I'm not the crazy person here, actually. I'm representing common sense. And I know that. And no amount of screaming at me or calling me a Nazi or an anti Semite, which I'm obviously not, none of that is gonna change my view. And I told Trump, you're gonna destroy. I appeal to him because I think that's what he cares about most, honestly. Obviously. I said, you're gonna destroy your legacy, your administration. Like your name will never be uttered except with reference to this disaster that you're do that. That's what happened to Bush. I knew Bush well. I knew Bush well. And Bush had all kinds of plans in 2000 when he got elected to do this, do that, improve America. What's Bush remembered for now? You know, the Iraq war and the financial crisis.

[Michelle Hussein]

Yeah, that's it. You supported the Iraq war.

[Tucker Carlson]

I certainly did support the Iraq war. Oh yeah. I bought into it completely. And I not only supported it, I argued against and attacked people who opposed it. I'm sorry. And I'm. I remain sorry. But I also was chastened and I learned something which is you can get carried away by propaganda and you can end up lying. You know, I didn't mean to lie, but I did. And so don't do that again. And I'm resolved I'm never going to allow that to happen to me again. Ever. I will never do that again. And I haven't.

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[Tucker Carlson]

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[Michelle Hussein]

So in that period when you're arguing to anyone who will listen or anyone you bump into in the White House against the war with Iran, do they say to you, we're doing this for Israel? Like, why are you so convinced that Israel has actually controlled this, not only influenced it, but controlled it?

[Tucker Carlson]

Well, because again, there's a ton of pressure from Israeli agents, the neocons, whatever you call them. We've watched it for four months. The United States, the President himself will say, no, no, we're, we're doing this. And Israel will just immediately do the opposite and destroy the peace negotiations. I'm not even attacking Israel, by the way. They have a different view of what the end of this should look like. They have a different set of interests, they're a different country, they have a different goal.

[Michelle Hussein]

But this suggestion that you've made on Israel's goals, that the Israeli goal is chaos, it's dysfunction, what would be the natural, obvious, well documented effects of this? Migrant crises in Europe, further destroying Europe, that's always been an Israeli goal. Destroy Europe?

[Tucker Carlson]

Yes.

[Michelle Hussein]

Do you really mean that?

[Tucker Carlson]

Well, I don't know. Netanyahu means that. He said it. No one watches. See, the thing is, nobody watches. Nobody watches.

[Michelle Hussein]

Where, where is he said his goal, where has he said his goal is to destroy Europe?

[Tucker Carlson]

Rome is the enemy. Rome, meaning Christian Europe. The Prime Minister of Israel has said this on camera. I would refer you to the Internet. You should watch it. It's fascinating. Why would Rome.

[Michelle Hussein]

Don't think he's making a reference to history and the Romans destroying the temple rather than present day Rome in Europe.

[Tucker Carlson]

Why would. Well, I don't know. Why would something that happened in 70 A.D. be relevant for a secular head of state? I don't understand that. Like, what is he saying? I mean, look, the worldview here is totally different. That same prime minister has said repeatedly that we are fighting Amalek. And people are so biblically illiterate, they don't know what he's referring to. He's referring to the Amalekites. And there are a couple of different stories in the Hebrew text and what we call the Old Testament that describe what he's talking about. And what he's talking about is, is the elimination, truly the genocide of a group commanded by God and described in great detail called the Amalekites. So this is not a Western view of war. The Western view of war is, you know, we punish the wrongdoers and most People have nothing to do with this, so we don't kill them too.

[Michelle Hussein]

So Israeli leaders, and many ordinary Israelis as well, reject the idea that this is a genocide. I hear that that is your view. I will just say that the idea of fighting a war in a just ways is not simply a Western idea. It's not only a Western Christian idea that there are limits to war and you only strike in self defense. I'm a Muslim and I can tell you that actually if you, if you read the Quran, that idea is there as well. So it's not a purely Western concept.

[Tucker Carlson]

Oh, I wouldn't claim that it is a purely Western concept. My point is it's the basis of Western civilization. And to extent that other civilizations share that view. I applaud it, of course. And by the way, you say that the Israelis, some Israelis don't think it's genocide. Well, everybody else on the planet, so far as I can tell, looking at the facts, concludes it's genocide. I don't know if there's any other group on planet Earth who doesn't see this as genocide.

[Michelle Hussein]

Many governments don't see it that way. Your government doesn't. The British government doesn't.

[Tucker Carlson]

Well, your government and my government are paying for it. So of course they're implicated in the genocide and they share the guilt of this genocide. It is happening. There's no excuse for it. We should do everything we can to stop it immediately.

[Michelle Hussein]

You know, the bigger picture of the use of force in this second Trump administration is that the president, quite apart from striking Iran with the help of Israel, has used force many times.

[Tucker Carlson]

Yes.

[Michelle Hussein]

Yemen, Venezuela, Nigeria, Syria, Iraq, Somalia. This has actually been a very frequent phenomenon of the last year and a half, and he's been comfortable with it.

[Tucker Carlson]

So I've noticed.

[Michelle Hussein]

This is the man that you worked really hard to get reelected.

[Tucker Carlson]

Yes.

[Michelle Hussein]

Perhaps you didn't pay attention to something that was always there.

[Tucker Carlson]

Oh, I paid close attention to it. That's why I was so involved. I knew that he was under enormous pressure to do the things that he has since done. I knew exactly who was pressuring him. And I was arguing the counter case and doing everything I could to make the counter case.

[Michelle Hussein]

Who pressured him to hit Nigeria or the targets in Syria or Iraq or Yemen? Who was pushing him on Venezuela? Was he pushed into all of these things?

[Tucker Carlson]

Well, of course. By the way, every president is pushed in different directions on all kinds of different topics, not just foreign policy and not just by the Israeli lobby or whatever. And again, the whole job is figuring out who to Listen to when to bow to the pressure, when to resist the pressure. Like that is the job. Okay, so none of this is new. Every part of American Middle Eastern policy is driven by donors to both parties, of course. I mean, it's a lie to pretend otherwise. Some of that is just inevitable. You take money from people. You need money to run a campaign. I'm less judgy, maybe, than I sound. I understand how it works. You have to listen to everybody. By the way, people should listen to the Israeli lobby. They've got a perspective. You should listen to the Muslim lobby. I mean, it's a big country. Everyone gets a say. I get it. And ultimately, when you're looking at the potential of a third world war, which we are, I was obviously very distressed by what he did in Venezuela. I thought it was crazy and embarrassing and immoral. You can't just roll in and arrest a president and say, I own your oil, like that's crazy. And I thought that, and I said that to some extent, but I didn't. I didn't lose control of myself on camera because I felt like what really matters are the biggest things. And maybe. Maybe my calculation was wrong. It wouldn't be the first time, but I just wanted to avoid this war because I knew that once we got into this, we wouldn't get out until we were gravely diminished. Gravely diminished. I don't think that's good for us or for the world.

[Michelle Hussein]

What do you think it's going to do to the Republicans in the midterms?

[Tucker Carlson]

I mean, they're going to be spanked. Yeah. They're going to be punished for it, of course. But the question is, does that make the country better?

[The Hartford Insurance Advertiser]

No.

[Tucker Carlson]

I mean, not really. I don't see any political leader right now speaking for the majority of Americans. I mean, the American economy is so lopsided at the moment that younger people are legit struggling, at least by American standards. And I don't see any political leaders really thinking about how to fix that or moving their priorities from, you know, a whole suite of different foreign conflicts back to the United States and spending the time thinking about how do I elevate my people? How do I help the people who put me here? I just don't see that mindset.

[Michelle Hussein]

Is your third party idea a real one? You floated it. You've said you want to help build one.

[Tucker Carlson]

Yeah.

[Michelle Hussein]

What are you thinking?

[Tucker Carlson]

Well, I just want to be clear. I'm not running for any office ever. Okay. You know, I'm not being coy or pretending, you know, and then I'M going to, like, announce. I'm not announcing the president. I'm running for president. That's a nightmare. And I'm not doing that. But I. I just want to help. I want the promise of democracy to be real, that, like, you vote for someone and that person makes a good faith effort to represent your interests. Like, it's not complicated. Self government is not that complicated. It's disappearing. But there are a lot of very ominous trends in the United States domestically that are just completely being ignored, and I would like someone to address them. And after Trump's performance over the past year, it's hard to believe that he's the guy who's going to reform. I mean, he is closely allied with the leaders of both parties and this whole partisanship thing. And this is true in the UK, Too, with respect. It's. It's kind of a ruse, actually. Like, they fight over these issues. They'll pick an issue, transgenderism, and they'll tell you that, you know, they just got completely different worldviews on transgenderism, and that's like the most important thing. But what that cloaks, what it hides, what is designed to obscure, is the fact that on economics and foreign policy, the big questions that determine the fate of nations, they are aligned.

[Michelle Hussein]

I don't think that's true, Tucker. In the UK of the big parties on economic issues, there are very distinct differences.

[Tucker Carlson]

Then I shouldn't. I mean, I've made this mistake so many times. I have family there. I spent a lot of time there. And I imagine that I understand the system that I don't understand very well. So I should probably shut up about UK Politics.

[Michelle Hussein]

Okay, but tell me about the third party. Is it. Well, I'm wondering whether you're watching the rise of Nigel Farage, you know, someone you've, you've talked to, you've had him on your show. Is that some kind of a model? And are you serious about a third party, or are you just throwing it out there? Just, you know, I am.

[Wise Money Transfer Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Tucker Carlson]

I know Nigel very well, and I was just with him in London not long ago. But I will say, yes, I'm watching the rise of reform, and with some amazement and delight. Not that I think reform is the answer, necessarily, but I. An option is a good first step. And, and I do think that, you know, and there are meaningful differences between the Democratic and Republican parties to the extent that their voting bases do disagree in real ways. I'm saying that the people who run the parties are fundamentally aligned. And one of the ways, you know, that is because Trump brings us to war on February 28 without making the case to the American public, without convincing even the majority of Americans this is a good idea. Like, no one was for this from day one. So you would think, given this is a country with a long history of boisterous public protests, that there would be massive protests against the war. No, None. Zero. Well, why is that? Where were the Democrats on this? Like, they could mobilize a million people and put them on the National Mall in Washington. But they didn't. Because they're for it. That's why. Because Chuck Schumer is 100 for this. There may be details he disagrees with, but basically he's wanted regime change on behalf of Israel in Iran for many years. So that's not acceptable. It's not acceptable to have a system where the average person has no representation.

[Michelle Hussein]

He's just one Democratic leader. And there are others who have very different views on the war.

[The Hartford Insurance Advertiser]

Really.

[Tucker Carlson]

Much more like name a Democratic leader. Zorani has a sincere.

[Michelle Hussein]

Zoran Mamdani.

[Tucker Carlson]

He's the mayor. He's the mayor of New York. Okay. That is, he has no foreign policy portfolio.

[Michelle Hussein]

That is, that is a prominent and arguably very influential position right now to hold as a Democratic politician. But let me go back to the Republican Party.

[Tucker Carlson]

He's a famous person with no power to affect foreign policy. So he's kind of. I'm sort of in that category, so I kind of know what that is. He doesn't have a vote on these questions, but the people who do are aligned. And that is not democracy. And it would be nice to have a democracy. We had one. I would like it again. That's it.

[Michelle Hussein]

Okay. The Republican Party, the fact that you've left it, does that mean you've given up on J.D. vance leading the Republican Party, being the next presidential candidate and it being a different Republican Party to what you see now?

[Tucker Carlson]

Well, I think if J.D. vance for president, of course, we would not be at a war with Iran. It's impossible for me to imagine J.D. vance standing up and saying we need to have two wars to defeat a phantom nuclear program. It's like too insane. You know, I think he has too much self respect to say something like that. I don't think he believes it. I think J.D. vance would have led the Republican Party into closer alignment with its own voters. But he was not the president. He's the vice president, and he doesn't have the authority.

[Michelle Hussein]

Yeah, but he could be the next presidential candidate.

[Tucker Carlson]

Yeah. I mean, we'll see. I mean, I, you know, I wish he had been elected president in 2024, but that didn't happen. I'm. I love JD. I've never been shy about that. I've taken a lot of abuse for saying that. Probably haven't helped him at all by saying that. I don't agree with him on everything, of course, but I think he's an honest, very smart, decent person that puts him above almost all politicians I've ever met. And so I'm on some basic level rooting for him. But it's just hard to imagine how the Republican Party, after this, after truly betraying its own voters. It betrayed its own voters. It told them Washington is an inside game. A small number of people are getting very rich. They commit crimes with impunity. They're protected by the US Government. It's called the deep state. And we're going to uproot it. And then, not only did they not uproot it, they attacked anyone who asked to see the Epstein files. Like what? You know, betrayal is the worst thing. So, like, if my neighbor leaves his wife and kids and runs off with a stripper, I disapprove of that. If my dad leaves me and my siblings and my mom and runs off with a stripper, I never get over that for the rest of my life because that's betrayal. And that's exactly what happened. Trump betrayed not just the country, but the people who vested their hopes in him. And that is low and wrong. And every culture, every people, every person recognized that, intuitively recognizes betrayal as the worst thing. That's why Judas is remembered, why his name lives in infamy for all eternity, because he. Not because he took the wrong side, but because he betrayed. So, yeah, that's what this is. It's betrayal. And I think it's very hard to get past that in the short term.

[Michelle Hussein]

Have you been in touch with JD Vance in recent months? What's the state of play between the two of you?

[Tucker Carlson]

No, I haven't. I mean, I haven't been to Washington. I, you know, I'd love to go see him. I can't. You know, I can't. Trump's all mad at me. They're all mad at me. Calling me an anti Semite or what's just so ludicrous. Look, I think at this point, it wouldn't be good for me to contact anybody. I'm seen as disloyal. Disloyal. First of all, loyalty goes two ways. Second, the loyalty that matters is the loyalty of our leaders to the country. They Represent. Okay. And they're disloyal. Trump has been disloyal to the United States. Totally disloyal to the United States. He cheated on the United States with a foreign power. So I'm not the one who's been disloyal.

[Michelle Hussein]

So what are you going to do next?

[Tucker Carlson]

I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know where I'm having lunch today. But I would say I am open to any alternative that serves or makes a good faith effort to serve the American people above and really probably to the exclusion of foreign interests and corporate interests. Like it's an orientation. Okay. That you know what makes a good parent loving your kids? It's not reading some book on it or knowing the instructions or some esoteric knowledge, you know, that makes a good parent. No, it's just the desire to help your kids. And that desire comes from love. And if you have leaders like that, they don't always make the right decisions. They're not perfect. But over time their people will thrive. Just like a family presided over by parents who love their kids will thrive. So we don't have that. We have leaders who have contempt for us, who take us for granted, who use us, who lie to us, who really don't care about us at all. And we know that because when life expectancy declines, when people die younger, when the middle class disappears as it did 11 years ago, and nobody says anything about it. So I'm just looking for an alternative to that. Like that's not hard. We should be able to find that.

[Michelle Hussein]

It's a really bleak picture. You paint the United States right now.

[Tucker Carlson]

It's not a normal human picture. Look, you have successful systems. It happens in companies, it happens on sports teams. It happens in any human organization. Success breeds decadence, which spurs collapse. Like this is a very recognizable cycle. And the United States has been the most successful country in the history of the world. And so needless to say, just like in successful families, fourth generation affluence, you have an entire ruling class that is living testament to this. You know, it it like this is what happens when you succeed over time. You get flabby and you get decadent and you become contemptuous of the people you lead and you forget the qualities that made the organization successful in the first place. And then you have a reset. And hopefully it's a non dramatic reset where people just kind of come to their senses and recall why they were successful in the first place and do those things like, that's my hope I don't want revolution, but we're gonna get a revolution if this continues.

[Michelle Hussein]

And you have talked on your show about America heading towards civil war. Do you really believe that? Because that is a, I mean, not just bleak, it's also a really inflammatory thing to say. And I, and I can't help thinking about political violence and the awful ways we've seen it in the US within the last year. Do you, you know, when you say words like that to millions of viewers and listeners, how much do you, how much do you weigh up, like the responsibility that you have given your reach?

[Tucker Carlson]

Well, the responsibility is 100% on the people who are perpetrating political violence. I abhor all violence. I abhor the violence of war. I abhor the violence of abortion. I abhor the violence of euthanasia. So there's no chance I'm going to take credit for political violence. I'm against it. What I'm saying is that if you convey to people that their vote does not matter, that there's no non violent way to be heard, they will by definition, over time, resort to violence. I don't want that. Democracy was supposed to be the answer to revolution. We've never had a revolution in the United States. Despite a couple of world wars, a civil war, a Great Depression, the anti war movement in the 60s, civil rights movement. We've had a lot of drama in the United States, the murder of a couple of several presidents. We've never had a revolution in the United States. Why is that? Because democracy is the pressure relief valve that keeps people from storming the Bastille.

[Michelle Hussein]

We're nearly at the end. Tucker and I, we started talking right at the beginning about your dad. I know your family's important to you. You've mentioned them. So I'm curious about one more thing, which is that I heard you on a recent episode talking about marriage, wives respecting husbands, authority, resting with the man as the final decision maker. You are a f father of daughters. And so I just wanted to understand what you believe, whether you think in their relationships, like their husbands should always be the final decision makers.

[Tucker Carlson]

Well, obviously I'm never going to talk about my children. It's like an insane question that I'm going to ignore without being offended, but I can give you my views, which are these. In a happy marriage, you know, everything is symbiotic. I don't really think anybody's in charge of a happy marriage at all. I think people, at least I know in my own. I've been married 35 years. Next month you know, I wouldn't say I have more power than my wife, you know, at all. And I think any happily married man feels that way. There's no one whose opinion I care more about. There's no one who's bidding I'm more anxious to do. If my wife wants something, I'll just do it, you know, And I think most men who love their wives feel that way. So, you know, it's certainly not a matter of bossing anyone around. But yeah, somebody has to be, ultimately has to make the decision. And women in general want the man to make the decision, as you well know. And men who won't make. Well, no, I, I do know and I do know. And, and the women who won't admit that are not telling the truth. And. And in fact, the thing that I have noticed that women dislike most is men who won't make decisions and they have contempt for them. And I've never met a woman who didn't feel that way. I've met a lot of women who pretend they don't feel that way. But in real life, I think that women see that as weakness, which it is, and they despise it. They have contempt for it. So I don't think we should lie about the way people are. Men and women are not the same. They're not even close to the same. They're incredibly different. Yeah, and that's not bad. I think it's a good thing. It's a source of endless wonder for me. I didn't grow up with any women at all. I had no mom, I had no sister. So, like, I'm still learning. I find women. The most interesting sort of thing about life is trying to understand women. And I really have tried my hardest. I've probably gotten to about 60%, but it's like, fascinating to me. But I do think we've pat like the pretending that men and women are the same, which has kind of been mandatory, certainly. It's like wrecked the uk, I can say, and I think really hurt the United States also. That's going to end. The rest of the world makes fun of it. It's too stupid.

[Michelle Hussein]

It's like the muddling of gender and biological sex.

[Tucker Carlson]

It's just the whole thing. It's like at every part of our society, it's like there is an active effort to deny that there are any innate sex differences. And until you know that and grapple with it honestly, you can't have a happy relationship with a member of the opposite sex. And that's one of the Reasons we don't have very many happy relationships between members of the opposite sex because liars have told us that acknowledging sec. Innate sex differences, sex differences determined before birth, leads to the oppression of one of the sexes. And in fact, it's. It's wound up, resulting in the oppression of women in the United States. I'll speak for my country by big companies. Our economic system has applied a lot of pressure on young women to choose, like working at Citibank over having kids. And I think women should be able to choose whatever they want. If you want to work and not have kids, that's up to you. I don't believe in coercion. However, I do believe in honesty. And most people, men and women, find the deepest expression of joy in their lives, in their families, in their spouse, and in their children. And if you lie to them and wind up denying them that greatest source of human joy, you are evil. And so I just want to say that out loud that feminism is an optimistic run by big business to lower the price of labor and to free up a massive and incredibly productive female workforce. And that's been bad for the country.

[Michelle Hussein]

I mean, I'll tell you why I asked this, because I was curious about your views. And it is really hard for young women figuring this out, having a family as most, but not all want to do, and, you know, trying to reach your full potential in the workplace. And I know that my life chances have been fundamentally different from my mother's, and a lot of that is because of the feminist movement. Right. She had aspirations to work outside the home. It just wasn't possible. There was more of a patriarchal system. There wasn't childcare. You know, it would have been frowned upon. And I've been really lucky to be able to have a marriage and children and contribute to my family's economic well being. And I would say I do owe that to the feminist movement. That balance.

[Tucker Carlson]

Yeah, I mean, a lot of women feel that way. And by the way, congratulations. I'm all for happy endings and people getting what they want and people being content. I mean, I'm totally for that. So I would never in any way criticize your choices. But are women in the west happier than they were in 1972? And the answer is no. And the second fact we should grapple with is that, that yes, there are all kinds of different views about how a family should be organized. And there are people who take the traditional side and we talk a lot about them. But there's another side to this that is an economic interest. In convincing women that their loyalty belongs to a company and not a family. And I think there's going to be a real change. I notice it now among young people. I have a bunch, as I've said, and I employ a bunch. And they're all getting married way younger than kids did when I was just out of college. And they all want to have kids way more than young people did in 1991 when I got married. So, like, I do think people are starting to realize that the government doesn't care for you. Your employer, they don't care about you. They told me at Fox they love me. I'm gonna. We love you. And then one morning, they, like, fired me without notice. It's fine. I'm happy they did. But they didn't care about me. Of course not. Or my family, which is fine. I never thought they did. But if you tell young people like, the company is dad and the company really loves you, you're lying to them. Don't do that. Right.

[Michelle Hussein]

It's been an intense six months in the news. This has been quite an intense conversation. Before I let you go, can you just cast your mind ahead 12 months to summer of next year, Donald Trump will still have 18 months left in the White House.

[Tucker Carlson]

Gosh. My hope is that the Iran situation will be resolved. I just, I would like people to come to their senses. I don't think Trump is as big a factor now. Trump is weak. It's obvious he couldn't restore peace. The strong leader restores peace. That's what strength looks like. It's, it's order and peace. He hasn't been able to achieve that. So he's, I'm not sure how even really relevant he is, but I just hope all global leaders wake up to the fact that we're kind of on the precipice of something awful. And walk it back.

[Michelle Hussein]

Tucker Carlson, thank you very much.

[Tucker Carlson]

Thanks for having me. I enjoyed it.

[Michelle Hussein]

Thanks for talking to me. On with the rest of your day this afternoon. What have you got planned? How are you gonna decompress?

[Tucker Carlson]

Oh, decompress. I mean, I'm. My life's intense all the time. No, I've got a live show in a few hours, so I'm gonna go write that.

[Michelle Hussein]

And before we go, a few notes here in addition to those that you can [e-mail]. michelle, we did approach the White House for comment on what Carlson said, accusing President Trump of being disloyal and controlled by a foreign power. A White House official said Israel is one of our strongest allies. No country or leader pressures President Trump to do anything. He makes decisions, decisions based on what serves America's interests and will never allow our country to be taken advantage of. You'll also have heard Tucker Carlson suggesting that Benjamin Netanyahu has said Rome is the enemy. This appears to be a reference to a video in which the Israeli prime minister is asked what book he is reading and he names one called Jews versus Rome. It's about Jewish revolts in ancient Rome, and Netanyahu adds the words, we lost that one. I think we have to win the next one. Carlson also references the story of Amalek in the Old Testament. This is a complex area because there is more than one biblical mention of that tribe which attacked the Jews in ancient times. Netanyahu's office have said that where he has compared the present day to fighting Amalek, he means Hamas rather than all Palestinians. The way Carlson talks about Israel has been criticized by the Anti Defamation League, which says he regularly legitimizes the idea that Israel or Zionist actors exert hidden, malevolent control over the US Government. And similarly, the Nexus Project, which describes itself as a Jewish watchdog organization, has called Carlson one of the most important enablers of antisemitism in the United States today. And finally on Senator Chuck Schumer. His position on the Iran war is detailed in my notes. He has spoken of confronting Iran's malign activities, but when the strikes began, he said vital questions on the administration's plans were not being answered. He also pushed for a Senate resolution that would have curtailed the President's war powers. That failed because senators largely voted along party lines and the Republicans have the numbers on Capitol Hill. And with that, my final note which is on the team. The producers are Jessica Beck and Chris Martlew. The video producer is Andy Haywood. Our social media is by Alex Morgan and the music is composed by Bart Warshaw. The audio mixing was by Richard Ward. Our executive producer is Louisa Lewis. And at Bloomberg Weekend, our thanks to Brendan Francis Newnham and our executive editor Catherine Bell. Until next time. Goodbye.

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[Michelle Hussein]

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