Tucker Carlson grilled Sen. Ted Cruz in an explosive on-screen confrontation that exposes the massive fault line ripping through MAGAworld.
In a preview of Wednesday’s Tucker Carlson Show, the pair engage a heated argument over U.S. involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict and start shouting over each other.
Carlson asks Cruz, “How many people live in Iran by the way?” Cruz responds, “I don’t know the population.”
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“You don’t know the population of the country you seek to topple?” Carlson asks.
Cruz shot back, “I don’t sit around memorizing population tables.”
Carlson says, “Well, it’s kinda relevant because you’re calling for the overthrow of the government.”
The two men then argue about the “ethnic mix” of Iran, which leads to Cruz shouting, “I am not the Tucker Carlson expert on Iran!”
Carlson retorts, “No, you’re a senator who is calling to overthrow the country, and you don’t know anything about the country!”
Carlson released a second tease from the interview hours later, where the pair argue over the prospect of spying on close allies of the U.S. Cruz says, “I assume all our allies spy on us.”
Carlson presses Cruz, asking, “Is it in America’s interest for Israel to spy on us, including on the president?”
The senator replies that it “is in America’s interest to be closely allied with Israel because we get huge benefits from it,” as Carlson cuts him off.
Cruz clapped back at the reaction to Carlson’s video on Tuesday, criticizing Carlson for choosing to post a “gotcha” moment as a preview online.
“He released a snippet playing a ‘gotcha’ on the population of Iran,” Cruz posted. “I declined to play that silly game.”
In a later post, the Texas senator claimed that, “I call him out,” and urged followers to watch the full interview once released.
Cruz and Carlson are not the only conservative figures fighting each other over Trump’s approach to Iran, in what is being seen as a MAGA civil war.
Trumpworld has seen a very public split over Trump involving himself in the Israel-Iran conflict. Podcaster Laura Loomer and Fox News host Mark Levin support Trump demanding Iran’s “immediate surrender.”
Other Trump acolytes including Charlie Kirk are calling out Trump’s anti-war campaign promise.
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon used his War Room podcast to demand an end to American involvement in the conflict.
The conservative rupture also saw Bannon turning on Fox News for not fully supporting the president, claiming they were not “pure MAGA.”
Bannon said because the network had supported potential replacements for Trump including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, “I don’t think anybody at Fox can possibly be true MAGA and hardcore MAGA.”
