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Before Fox News fired him, Tucker Carlson was among the most influential figure on the right-wing cable news outlet. Carlson had so much power on the right that when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said something that offended him, the GOP senator made a beeline for his show to smooth things over. Although Carlson, post-Fox News, doesn't have as much power as he did in the past, he still has plenty of followers on the far right. According to journalist/author Jamie Kirchick, Carlson is promoting a great deal of infighting among MAGA Republicans. And one MAGA Republican who has the most to lose, Kirchick reports, is Vice President JD Vance. In an article published by the Washington Post, Kirchick highlights Carlson's friendly relationship with Nick Fuentes — a white supremacist and Holocaust denier who, in 2024, attacked Vance for being married to an Indian-American woman, attorney JD Vance. "Ironically, the politician Carlson is harming most with his antics is the person he wants to succeed Trump: Vice President JD Vance," Kirchick explains. "Carlson, who praised Vance in his discussion with Fuentes as one of the very few people on the right who shares his foreign policy views, reportedly played a decisive role in convincing Trump to name Vance as his running mate. Vance, who has since employed Carlson's son as his deputy press secretary, invited Carlson to the White House when he guest-hosted the 'Charlie Kirk Show' following the assassination of its eponymous host. Having benefited from Carlson's scorched-earth campaign against 'the neoconservatives,' Vance now appears stuck with Carlson's antisemitic, conspiratorial, anti-American baggage whether he likes it or not." Kirchick continues, "Thus far, Vance has done nothing to distance himself from this kind of politics. When Politico exposed racist and antisemitic text messages sent by members of Young Republican clubs last month, the vice president forgivingly characterized the appalling behavior of these 20- and 30-somethings as “what kids do.” A more disturbing incident occurred last week, when Vance responded to a question from a student at the University of Mississippi. Sounding very much like one of Fuentes' 'groyper' followers, the young man in a MAGA hat asked Vance why the U.S. supports Israel “considering the fact that not only does their religion not agree with ours, but also openly supports the prosecution (sic) of ours.” According to Kirchick, Carlson is fueling — not discouraging — the civil war among MAGA Republicans. "The inevitable fracturing of President Donald Trump's MAGA movement is in sight, the instigator of its rupture that most narcissistic and destructive of media personalities: Tucker Carlson," Kirchick reports. "Since his firing from Fox News two years ago, Carlson has turned his podcast into a weekly circus featuring guests such as rancid conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Russian despot Vladimir Putin and Darryl Cooper, a Holocaust denier who claims Winston Churchill was the villain of World War 2 and whom Carlson praises as 'the most important historian in the United States.' Carlson’s approach with his guests is not that of a skeptical interlocutor, prodding their arguments for weaknesses, but rather, that of a reputation-launderer making reprehensible ideas respectable for mainstream conservative consumption. Even Trump calls Carlson 'kooky.'" Trump is cracking down on large universities over protests against Israeli operations in Gaza — protests he attacks as antisemitic. Yet a prominent figure in the MAGA movement is Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist and Holocaust denier who often criticizes other MAGA figures for not being far-right enough. "It was only a matter of time, then, that Carlson would invite Nick Fuentes up to his Maine cabin home studio for a chummy colloquy last week in which the self-professed Hitler and Stalin admirer ranted about 'neocon Jewish types behind the Iraq War,' 'organized Jewry,' 'Zionist Jews.… controlling the media apparatus,' and 'the historic animosity between the Jewish people and the Europeans,'" Kirchick explains. "The furthest Carlson went in rebuking Fuentes was to offer the friendly advice that he refrain from condemning 'the Jews' per se, because 'going on about the Jews helps the neocons.' Otherwise, the two were simpatico, particularly on the subject of Christian Zionists, who, Carlson said, have been 'seized by this brain virus.'" Kirchick adds, "Carlson's jovial exchange with Fuentes naturally stirred controversy, particularly within the conservative movement, which many pro-Israel Christians call home. So intense was the anger that the Heritage Foundation removed Carlson's name from a donation page on its website. The scrubbing must have been unauthorized, however, because the following day, Heritage President Kevin Roberts released a defiant video reaffirming the organization's relationship with Carlson." According to Kirchick, arguments over antisemitism are only growing more intense in the MAGA movement. "Finally, the battle lines are being drawn," Kirchick writes ". Earlier this week, Carlson said the controversy over his parley with Fuentes is really 'a fight over what happens after Donald Trump.' He's right." Read Jamie Kirchick's full Washington Post article at this link (subscription required).
