Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has rekindled his feud with commentator Tucker Carlson, offering one of the most pointed denunciations of Carlson’s decision to host Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier and avowed white nationalist, on his talk show to date.
“Now is a time for choosing. Now is a time for courage,” Cruz said at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual conference in Las Vegas on Thursday night, criticizing an interview in which Fuentes called Jews “unassimilable” and Carlson accused Christians, including Cruz, of suffering a “brain virus” for their support of Israel.
“If you sit there and nod adoringly while someone tells you that Winston Churchill was the villain of World War II, if you sit there and nod while someone says, ‘There’s a very good argument America should’ve intervened on behalf of Nazi Germany in World War II,’ if you sit there with someone who says ‘Adolf Hitler was very, very cool,’ and that their mission is to combat and defeat global Jewry, and you say nothing?” Cruz, who did not mention Carlson by name, said. “Then you are a coward, and you are complicit in that evil.”
Carlson, who has become one of the most outspoken conservative critics of Israel, at one point distanced himself from Fuentes in their sit-down, describing antisemitic tropes like “blood guilt” as antithetical to his Christian faith. But his interview has set off a wave of backlash by Republicans who say Carlson basically gave Fuentes a free pass and, by inviting him on a platform with millions of viewers, is allowing antisemitic rhetoric to seep into the party mainstream.
The interview has also exposed a growing schism within the conservative movement after Kevin Roberts, the head of the influential Heritage Foundation, released a video denouncing the “venomous coalition” in response to Carlson and arguing that Fuentes, despite holding views that Roberts said he “abhors,” should not be “canceled.”
“The Heritage Foundation didn’t become the intellectual backbone of the conservative movement by canceling our own people or policing the consciences of Christians, and we won’t start doing that now,” Roberts said in the video.
That defense was met with criticism from Republicans, including Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the former Senate GOP leader, who said that conservatism is “only as strong as the values it defends” and should not “carry water for antisemites.”
This is not Cruz’s first run-in with Carlson. The two sparred in June when Carlson hosted the senator on his show for a lengthy and heated back-and-forth that ended with Cruz calling Carlson “obsessed” with Israel.
The assassination of Charlie Kirk revived that feud last month when Carlson claimed that Kirk shared his Israel-critical views and was “tormented” by his pro-Israel donors.
“I knew Charlie well & indeed the very last conversation we had was how deeply concerned he was about the rising, toxic wave of antisemitism on the right,” Cruz said at the time, responding to Carlson on social media.
Cruz carried that message into his speech in Las Vegas on Thursday, alluding to recent controversies with Candace Owens and other conservative influencers accused of antisemitism.
“Everyone here knows we’re seeing more and more antisemitism,” he said. “In the last six months, I’ve seen more antisemitism on the Right than I have in my entire life.”
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Cruz made similar remarks a week earlier while speaking at a megachurch in San Antonio, Texas.
A spokesperson for the Tucker Carlson Network, his streaming platform, did not respond to a request for comment.
