Sen. Ted Cruz on Friday called on his Republican colleagues to speak out against Tucker Carlson, saying they must overcome their fear of alienating the commentator and confront antisemitism within their own ranks.
“It’s easy right now to denounce Nick Fuentes. That’s kind of safe. Are you willing to say Tucker’s name?” the Texas Republican said during a speech at the Washington National Lawyers Convention of the Federalist Society, reported Jewish Insider.
“Now I can tell you, my colleagues, almost to a person, think what is happening is horrifying. But a great many of them are frightened, because he has one hell of a big megaphone,” he said.
Cruz’s remarks came amid growing tension in the Republican Party over antisemitism after Carlson conducted what has been condemned as a friendly interview with Fuentes, a neo-Nazi agitator and commentator.
Following Carlson’s interview, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts released a video defending Carlson from attacks by what he called the “globalist class,” standing by his right to host Fuentes.
The video drew backlash and internal dissent within the influential conservative think tank.
Roberts later claimed posting the video was a “mistake” — although he had not taken it down — but refused to criticize Carlson for his antisemitic statements and actions and continued to insist that he is a close “personal friend” of the podcaster.
Cruz, speaking to an audience of conservative lawyers, stressed that his objection to Carlson’s conduct was not about suppressing speech.
“My complaint about Tucker having Nick Fuentes on was not that he platformed him. That’s a choice you can make or not,” Cruz said. “But the last I checked, Tucker actually knows how to cross-examine someone.
“If you want to cross-examine and challenge him, that’s fine. But he didn’t. He fawningly gazed at him.”
Cruz said that while Fuentes and Carlson have the right to express their views, others have a responsibility to reject them.
Carlson has on more than one occasion suggested that Israel — or “Zionists” — exert undue control over U.S. policy, the media, or public discourse.
For example, at a memorial for Charlie Kirk he stated: “So it’s about 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem … and Jesus shows up and he starts telling the truth about people … they just go bonkers” and then mocked the idea. “Why don’t we just kill him? That’ll shut him up …” he said, while laughing.
The Anti-Defamation League said: “Carlson’s remarks dangerously reinforced the belief that Jews killed Jesus and that Jews have been a malevolent force throughout history.
“This antisemitic myth has led to expulsions and murders of Jews for centuries.”
In another episode of his podcast, Tucker said that Kirk was killed because of the many enemies he had, and described his recent Kirk’s recent opposition to an Israeli attack on Iran as creating some angry ones.
Many have noted that Carlson regularly uses language that implies Israel or an Israeli lobby “controls” or “pulls the strings” in U.S. politics or media — language that echoes classic antisemitic conspiracy tropes about Jewish control of governments, banks, and media.
In a recent broadcast, Carlson claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was telling everyone he knows that he controls President Donald Trump and tells him what to do.
Carlson provided no source material for such claims.
Carlson has also tied the Jeffrey Epstein scandal to the Israeli government, claiming that he was a secret operative of the Mossad.
Despite several investigations into the Epstein matter, no evidence has surfaced that he worked for any foreign intelligence agency, including Israel’s.
In Carlson’s documentary series “The 9/11 Files” and other segments, Carlson has given air to the idea that the official 9/11 narrative is false and that neoconservatives (often overlapped with pro-Israel Jews in discourse) or Israel helped engineer or allowed the attacks in order to advance a “greater Israel” agenda.
Cruz argues conservatives need to reject Carlson’s antisemitism.
“Fuentes and Carlson have a right to say what they are saying. But every one of us has an obligation to stand up and say it is wrong,” he said.
Cruz opened his remarks by condemning antisemitism on the left, saying that “there is a real and cognizable pro-Hamas wing of the Democrat Party.”
But, he added, antisemitism is not confined to one side of the political spectrum.
“When that happened on the left, those of us on the right were quite comfortable standing up and denouncing it. In some ways, that’s easy,” Cruz said. “But now it’s happening on the right.
“In the last six months, I’ve seen more antisemitism on the right than I have at any time in my life. It is growing. It is metastasizing.”
Invoking former President Ronald Reagan’s 1964 address, “A Time for Choosing,” Cruz urged conservatives to make their own stand.
“I believe now, today, is a time for choosing as well,” he said.
“I think it is a time for every elected official, I think it is a time for every editorialist, I think it is a time for every lawyer, for every student, to decide, where do you stand?”
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