Tucker Carlson Grills Ted Cruz After Senator Admits Israel Probably ‘Spies on Us’: ‘That’s OK With You?’
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Tucker Carlson grilled Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) this week after Cruz admitted in an interview that Israel “probably” spies on the United States.
“Does Mossad share all of its intelligence with us?” asked Carlson during the interview, which is set to be published in full on Wednesday afternoon.
Cruz replied, “Probably not, but they share a lot. We don’t share all of our intelligence with them, but we share a lot. It’s a close alliance.”
After Carlson asked, “Do they spy domestically in the United States?” Cruz said, “Oh, they probably do and we do as well, and friends and allies spy on each other, and I assume all of our allies spy on us.”
“That’s OK with you?” pressed Carlson.
“You know what? One of the things about being a conservative is that you’re not naive and utopian,” claimed Cruz. “As a conservative, I assume people act in their rational self-interest.”
Carlson shot back, “So it’s conservative to pay people to spy on you?”
“It’s conservative to recognize that human beings act in their own self-interest and every one of our friends spies on us,” answered Cruz.
Carlson questioned, “Do you like it? That’s my question. I’m not asking whether they have motive to do it, of course they do. I understand that and I’m not mad at them, but you’re an American lawmaker, so I just want to know your attitude […] Is it in America’s interest for Israel to spy on us, including on the president?”
“Um, it is in America’s interest to be closely allied with Israel because we get huge benefits for it,” Cruz argued.
Carlson then interrupted the senator, pressing, “But I just want to stop on the spying for a second. That it takes place, as you know, and including on the president of the United States, and several presidents, and I just want to know if that’s OK and why is it OK? Wouldn’t an American lawmaker say to a client state, ‘You’re not allowed to spy on us. I’m sorry, I know why you want to, I’m not mad at you, but you’re not allowed to and I don’t care for it. I don’t want to be spied on by you?’ Is that– It’s kind of weird not to say that, but you don’t seem able to say that.”
In another preview of the interview, Carlson humiliated Cruz for not knowing basic statistics about Iran despite supporting military action against the country.
“How many people are living in Iran, by the way? asked Carlson, to which Cruz admitted, “I don’t know the population.”
Carlson shot back, “You don’t know the population of the country you seek to topple?”
After Cruz seemingly tried to catch Carlson out with the same question, asking, “How many people live in Iran?” Carlson replied, “Ninety-two million.”
