Transcription
All right, let's go to uh the last person that we're going to address right here, and that is um Tucker Carlson. Um and so I'm going to I'm going to show you some some clips here. And and again, the the argument is going to be that um you know, I'm just picking on Tucker Carlson or or I'm uh I'm selectively editing stuff. I'm going to show you a clip that he was very proud of and I'm going to show you a clip that he's probably not as proud of. Um but we're just going to analyze the way that he's assessing things. Okay? So that's all we're doing here. I'm not asking anybody to to hate Tucker Carlson. I just want to bring something up that I I think is relevant, important.
All right. So, this is the, you know, how many people live in Iran question that he asked to uh Ted Cruz. How many >> people live in Iran, by the way? >> I I don't know the population at all. No, I don't know the population. You don't know the population of the country you seek to topple? What's the ethnic mix of Iran? >> They are Persians and predominantly Shia. Okay. No, it's not even you don't know anything about Iran. So, I'm not the the Tucker Carlson bird on a ranch. >> You're a senator who's calling the government. You're the one who know anything about the country. >> No, you don't know anything about the country. >> Republicans are >> Okay.
So that was a um that was a commonly shared clip and a lot of people were you know depending on how depending on how you viewed this. Some people were saying that that Tucker did a real like kind of gotcha thing with Ted Cruz and the other side would say well no if Ted Cruz actually wants to advocate regime change in Iran he should know basic things about the population the ethnic break breakdown because that's all going to factor in whether or not this is actually possible. And and I would say that there's that's a good point. Um, now the question is is for Tucker that didn't conclude because you don't know. First of all, I asked him the population. He said he didn't know. Now I'm sure if he guessed he would probably have made it within, you know, I don't know, maybe 10 or 20% of what the population was, but I don't know that, right? But Tucker had just looked it up because Tucker knew he was going to ask the question. And then Tucker starts to talk about the ethnic breakdown. And um Ted Cruz begins to say, well, it's it's predominantly Persian, predominantly Shia. And then at that point, Tucker interrupts him. Now, understand something. What Ted Cruz was saying in that moment was not incorrect. It is predominantly Persian. It's about 60% Persian. Um, and it is predominantly Shia Islam. But Tucker Tucker then interrupts him and says, "You want to top of this country, you don't know anything about it." Okay. Well, Tucker hadn't proven that case because because Ted Cruz didn't off the top of his head know the actual population numbers or or the complete ethnic breakdown of Iran doesn't mean he doesn't know anything about Iran. Um and and it certainly doesn't mean that he doesn't know anything about the Islamic regime and what it's been doing to the region and to the United States since 1979.
And and this is this is the part that that frustrates me with respect to Tucker on some of these questions that he asks is that he goes very very hard on someone that quite frankly probably agrees with Tucker about 70% of the time, but then he'll bring on somebody else who may disagree with him a lot, who may have wildly different um objectives for how to run society than Tucker Carlson. But provided that provided that whoever the guest is agrees with Tucker on Israel or the Jews or Winston Churchill, all of a sudden that person doesn't get any tough questions. And and I I want to I want to juxtapose this with an interview that was done with um Mike Huckabe where all of a sudden Mike Cuckabe kind of got the best of uh Tucker Carlson. So let's go ahead and take a look at this right now. a little bit longer. Oh, sorry. Volume. >> Christians are not doing very well. They're not doing very well in the Muslim control countries. There's almost no Christians in Qatar, for example, except those who live in the Christian ghetto who are the service workers. I'm sorry. And look, I don't want to argue with you. There there are many more Christians in Qatar than there are in Israel. That's not true. >> Well, it actually is true. And I refer you to Wikipedia, Mr. Ambassador. Wikipedia the I refer you to the government ofQar. >> Okay.
Th this is the part two that drives me a little bit nuts. He refers them to Wikipedia. Now listen, I I use Wikipedia for stuff, but I I don't I I'm not going to come to my final conclusion about something. The way I typically use Wikipedia is I'll I'll look at what it has to say because it generally does a good summary of things, but I always know it's coming from a left-wing bias. And how do I know that? because I've talked to the co-founder of Wikipedia who who was adamant about Wikipedia basically engaging in ideological capture that it's become intellectually dishonest. The reason why it still has some value is that to the extent that you can look at summaries of things and then it provides links to where that information came from so you can check original sources. But for Tucker to honestly, we'll just check Wikipedia. And then he'll say, "Oh, well," and you can see Mike Huckabe going, "Wikipedia?" Like, we all know this is owned by the left wing. And then, "Oh, we'll check with the government of Qar." Oh, the oh, the government of Qar has nice things to say about the government of Qar. Can you imagine Huckabe looking back at Tucker Carl and said, "Well, just check with the government of Israel." Tucker wouldn't accept that. But he does accept he does accept Wikipedia when it reinforces what he wants and he accepts the governor of Qar when it reinforces what he wants. But this is the part that Tucker really gets kind of slammed with. >> The government of Israel these are noble facts. Like I'm and I'm in Jordan by the way the numbers are down. In Syria the numbers are down. In Lebanon the numbers are down that >> about twice as many Christians >> but they live in the enclave. They're not native Qataris. >> Okay. We're we're mixing so many different categories here. I'm just saying I get things wrong all the time. You've just gotten something wrong. And I think it's important to acknowledge it. There are many more Christians in Qatar than there are in Israel. Fact. >> How many? Now you caught me. I don't know. I can look at my phone, but I was just there. And there are many more like whatever. >> Yeah.
You see that was So I guess I guess using Tucker's logic, Mike Huckabe could then go back and say you claim to know about Christians in the Middle East, but you know, you you don't even know. You don't even know anything about it, Tucker. Like would it have been fair for Mike Huckabe to now do to Tucker Carlson what Tucker Carlson did to Ted Cruz? Right? If we're being intellectually honest, the answer would be yes. Because one of the things that Huckabe was pointing out here is there's a big difference between Qatar or the UAE or other countries in the Middle East which have a vast foreign population. Many of them come from the Philippines. Many of them come from from other uh countries in Southeast Asia or whatnot where they might have different religious beliefs u or they might have Christian beliefs. again especially if they come from Philippines where we have a large Catholic population and and they come into Qatar and they live in little areas which are specifically for service workers and and in those areas they're allowed to have churches but if they leave that area and they attempt to proilitize if they attempt to find a church there is none it's against the law and the fact that Tucker Carlson is essentially accepting this narrative fromQatar which by the way spends billions on lobbying the United States government billions on influencing higher ed within the United States and around the world. The fact that he would accept this narrative because Tucker is smart enough to know better. He knows that there's not like some large Qatari Christian population where they can go to church or they can engage in evangelism or they can do any of that stuff. Basically, if you're a Christian in Israel, you can be a Christian in Israel. That this idea that Christians are just horribly persecuted in Israel, I I'm I'm sorry, that's just not factual. That's not factual. Um, but if you're a Christian and you try to go out and and like like prostilitize in Iraq or in um Saudi Arabia, like that's against the law. You can face very very serious penalties for that. And and Tucker is pretending like that doesn't happen or that doesn't exist.
The other thing Tucker has has started in on is this whole idea, and it's similar with Fuentes and it's similar with Candace, but it's the whole idea of Israel explains everything or the Jews explain everything. And and again, I'm going to juxtapose this with somebody else here in a minute. Um, anybody that has a like I have I have regularly defended Thomas Massie. I I don't think Thomas Massie should be primar. I I don't uh I don't think that Donald Trump should be going after Thomas Massie the way he is. I just don't. That's not because I agree with Thomas Massie on everything. We we disagree on some stuff. Uh, and we've had conversations about it before, but by the same token, usually when Massie talks about things, I understand the logic that he's using and and he's and he's very intellectually consistent. Um, now I get a little frustrated with Thomas Massie when I think he overemphasizes one point while seemingly ignoring others. But but in the end, I can bring that point up to Thomas Massie and provided that I present evidence, he he will say, "Okay, yeah, I accept that." or I concede that particular point. I'm looking at Tucker Carlson. He's not conceding any points here, or at least it doesn't appear to be. And and when you're not willing to acknowledge the verifiable fact that in most of the places in the Middle East, they they've eradicated most of their Jewish populations and and they've allowed for the systematic destruction of Christian populations. But but then you're willing but then you want to put all the emphasis on Israel as being really really hostile to Christianity when again I've been there. That certainly wasn't my experience. It's not the experience of the Christians I know who live in Israel. And so I look at Tucker, I'm like, what is the deal here? But again, it all has to go back to Israel explains everything. And that's not to say that Israel doesn't have influence on our foreign policy. I believe that they do. It's not to say they don't have influence in other aspects. I believe that they do. I believe other countries do as well based off of the amount of money they spend in lobbying in the United States. And anybody that wants to say I'm uncomfortable with this, cool. But Israel explains everything or the Jews explain everything has become the right-wing equivalent of anything I don't agree with is racist. Anything I don't agree with is sexist. Do you see what I mean? Like I'm watching it being used. I'm watching what I have always seen as a left-wing argument now being used by prominent members on the right, but for very specific topics, and Israel's become one of them.
And and I'll give you a perfect example of this. I have done episodes where I've said, I am critical of Israel on this and this and this, but I I generally support what they're doing here, here, and here. And the answer is, well, Nick, I don't think you, you know, I I don't think this is an appropriate position to take on this point, but I concede this point. or uh Nick, I I don't think you're giving enough weight to this problem that happened over here with Israel, like the USS Liberty or something like that. And I'll say, okay, well, we No, no, that's not what I get. What I get is, oh, you've been paid off. So, you see what I mean? Like, the standard is not evidence. The standard is if you don't fit in my camp, which ex which uses Israel or the Jews to explain everything, then you're a bad guy. And I don't care that you agree with me on the Second Amendment or taxes or immigration or foreign wars. I don't care that you agree with me on wanting to reduce the size of the federal government or cut out federal bureaucracy. I don't care that you agree with me on abortion. I don't care that you agree with me that transing the kids is bad. No, no, no. If you don't agree with me on this topic right here around Israel or the Jews, then you're my enemy. And I see this becoming more and more prominent with certain members on the right. And the moment I see it, my my immediate thing is I'm going to disregard that. Right? When Thomas Massie says, "I have a problem with what I think Israel did in this situation," I'm like, "Okay, good. Let's analyze that." I might disagree with you. I might agree with you, but let's analyze it. But when I see the immediate, the instantaneous, "Nope, you don't associate all the world's problems here or you don't you don't associate a sufficient amount of world's problems here. Therefore, you are my enemy and I don't care what you believe about anything else." I'm like, "Ah, yes, I recognize this." It's usually used on the left.
Now, let's do a juxtapose on this specifically with the war in Iran because obviously Dave Smith, um, Candace Owens, um, you know, Tucker Carlson, all of them very, very much against the war in Iran. But then they were so against it that they almost end up defending the Iranian regime. And I'm like, wait a second.