Ted Cruz Argues Tucker Carlson Is Going Down ‘Dark Path’ From Anti-Semitism to Anti-Americanism

Stephen A. Smith hosted a live SiriusXM town hall event with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Wednesday night, covering a wide range of topics from Cruz’s presidential ambitions to his strong criticism of Tucker Carlson and rising anti-Semitism on the far right of the MAGA base.

Cruz and Carlson have long had a combative relationship, and Cruz has emerged as one of Carlson’s sharpest critics following the former Fox News host’s highly controversial interview with white supremacist Nick Fuentes. Carlson’s bombastic rhetoric and his platforming of Fuentes has led to a fight within the right about whether or not to embrace hate speech and open bigotry.

During the discussion in DC, Smith eventually asked Cruz about the issue, “Some of the things that have been said, and we don’t have time to get into the specifics per se, but it was very uncomfortable to listen to some of the stuff they’ve said about race, some of the stuff that was articulated about the Jewish community or whatever. And you made news because of an interview you had with Tucker Carlson months ago, whenever that was. I want to know, what are your feelings about the state of this country? The climate, particularly when you see the kind of rhetoric that he’s been tackling?”

“Listen, Stephen, you and I are on exactly the same page on this. And I look at the question of antisemitism. I think 10 years ago in the Democrat party, you started to see an antisemitism rise. And a lot of the Democrat leaders looked the other way. They hoped it would go away. And I think it’s all but taken over their party. And Mamdani is a good example of just how extreme that can get. It’s also happening on the Republican side,” Cruz said, adding:

And in the last six months, I’ve seen more antisemitism on the right than any time in my life. And it is wrong. And from my perspective, I’m going to do everything I can to stop it.

I think Tucker is dangerous. I think what he’s saying is wrong. And I’m calling him out and I’m calling him out over and over and over again. When you have goose-stepping Nazis on your program, when you have a professor who says, gosh, I think Winston Churchill is the villain of World War II. When you have another professor who says there’s a good argument America should have supported the Nazis in World War II.

No, there’s not. And that’s garbage. And Tucker’s gone down a very dark path. And I don’t want to wake up in five years and see the Republican Party have gone down the path of the Democrats. If we have a country where both parties are viciously anti-Israel and welcoming and even celebrating of antisemitism, that is an ugly place. And one of the things, when you go down the road of antisemitism, it very quickly leads you to anti-capitalism and anti-Americanism.

And Mamdani’s a good example of that, where he’s an Islamist, but he’s also a socialist. And you look at Tucker, Tucker’s going down that road, too, in a way that I think is very dangerous. So, at least on my end, and I’m encouraging other Republicans – stand up and reject this. If you are a bigot, if you are a Klansman, if you are a Nazi, you’ve got no business in the Republican Party, and we don’t want you. And I don’t think you should be welcomed in either party, because I think we should – our country was built on equal rights for everybody.

Watch the clip above via SiriusXM.