Appearing on Russell Brand's podcast, conservative iconoclast Tucker Carlson explained why he despises Republican White House hopeful Nikki Haley and right-wing media mogul Ben Shapiro. According to Carlson, both thoughtlessly advocate for policies that risk wider wars, threatening the lives of his children and attempting to “use the power of the state to make me be quiet and enslave me.” (RELATED: Tucker Carlson Drops Wild Interview With Oscar Winner)
In an excerpt from Brand and Carlson's conversation, the former Fox News host implied that anyone who gives Israel a free pass to conduct military operations as it pleases poses a danger to his children because they would be deployed overseas if the conflict spiraled out of control.
“I would say two things. First, we have a right to be mad, at least. And let me just again speak for Americans, middle-aged Americans, which is what I am. You know, I've got four draft-age children, so if you're playing recklessly, fast and loose with their lives, then I have a right to despise you, and I do,” Carlson told the British comedian.
“So if you're Nikki Haley, who's running for president, or Ben Shapiro or half the people I see on television casually mentioning the possibility of nuclear war or sending Americans to fight in the Middle East, or in any way involving us in a war that has nothing to do with prosperity and peace at home – nothing, in other words, to do with us Americans – then I have a right to call you out and be really offended because it's my family,” he added. “They live here. It's not a joke to me; there's nothing abstract about it.” (RELATED: Steve Bannon Makes Dire Warning To Tucker Carlson)
But Carlson didn't stop there:
And that is the difference between what's happening in the Middle East from what's happening in Ukraine, about which I had very strong feelings, but I didn't think there was a realistic possibility that my kids could be enmeshed in it. Now there is. So, I think, you know, get some self-respect. I would say to my fellow Americans, get a clearer picture of what's important. Your children are important. Okay, that's number one, your children. And if they're threatening your children, I don't care what their justification is; they're your enemy. That's how I feel about it, okay? Number one. Number two, in the United States, the right defends free speech. For most of my life, the left defended free speech in the United States, till about 2014-15. Donald Trump, a lot of things happened, the parties inverted, the wings inverted, the left became avowed enemies of free speech, and it was really up to the right to defend the first- our First Amendment, the right to say what you think is true, not be a slave. Because, by the way, if you can't say what you think is true, you're not, you're not a citizen, you're not a human being, you're a slave. So the right has been the group defending that sacred God-given right. With the rise of this war in the Middle East, you're watching people on the right say ‘Well, actually, you know, there's a difference between hate speech and free speech.' Well, no there's not, actually. You may hate certain sorts of speech. Certain kinds of speech may be immoral, according to me. I think certain kinds of speech are immoral. But if you're suggesting they should be illegal, you can use the power of the state to make me be quiet and enslave me, then you are again my enemy. And you're seeing a lot of people on the right say that in the United States, and I'm absolutely shocked by it. I can't even believe what I'm watching. And I can't overstate my rage or my contempt for them, because these are the people- and by the way, if they're not defending free speech in my country, no one is, and we're done. And we're going to have hate speech laws, which, again, are just laws criminalizing speech that the people in charge hate, that they're threatened by. That's it, that's all they are. They're not on behalf of some oppressed group. Many of those groups are not actually oppressed, but leave that aside. Maybe they are oppressed, but it's not on their behalf that these laws will be passed. It's on behalf of the people in charge. And that's completely wrong and you don't live in a free society. You don't live in a society of citizens and human beings, you live in a slave state when you have that. And the right, the people on the right who are calling for it should be deeply ashamed of themselves.
Shapiro responded to Carlson's attacks earlier on Wednesday by accusing him of lying, as reported by Mediate:
Shapiro responded to Carlson by claiming he was lying about his policy positions on the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, adding that he “never called for American boots to defend Israel.”
He added, “I've invited Tucker to sit down multiple times over the past few weeks to clear the air and discuss our differences. He's said he's willing, but his team has told us that he's busy for months because of all of his foreign travel. That offer remains open.”
For months, the two popular conservative commentators have criticized each other for their foreign policy positions. Back in January, Carlson accused Shapiro of not caring about the U.S. due to his stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Fellow Daily Wire co-founder Jeremy Boreing defended Shapiro and demanded Carlson sit down with the conservative commentator instead of “shadowboxing a caricature” of him.
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