New Delhi: Tucker Carlson, former host of Fox News Channel, said that Americans were lied to about the threat of global Islam after the September 11 attacks. “Now, I know that’s not true,” he told Sky News’ Yalda Hakim.
Carlson’s latest statements are very much in line with his latest critical stand against the Trump administration. They are also significant as Carlson said he believed the lie himself as a Fox News anchor and spread lies about Muslims on TV. He has also declared that he no longer supports the Republican Party. When Hakim asked if he thinks the United States is complicit in the ongoing war, he said, “Of course, we paid for it.”
“That’s one of the reasons I’m upset by it. That’s my country. These are my tax dollars. This is my reputation. This is the moral authority of the nation that my ancestors built. So, yes I feel very implicated and enraged by it,” he said.
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The disillusionment post-war
However, Carlson does not have any anger toward Israelis because he said, “They’re delusional.” That “delusion” he added isn’t a Israeli-specific phenomenon—the United States is very familiar with it.
“We felt a little bit of that after 9/11,” he said. “The net result was to convince Americans that they were under siege from global Islam.” He admitted that he himself has peddled such lies on television, calling the Muslim community crazy, a suicide cult created by Mohammed. “I was hysterical, I believed that.”
This is why he understands why Israelis believe that all Arabs are out to kill them. “We must kill them before they kill us. They believe that,” he added.
Carlson, who started his podcast after being fired from Fox News Channel in 2023, appears to be going through a disillusionment since US President Donald Trump decided to join Israel’s war against Iran. He apologised to his listeners for backing Trump in the 2024 elections. In another podcast, he even used an expletive against Trump and said, “I don’t take you seriously.”
MAGA supporters and devout Republicans are predictably upset with Carlson. Far-Right Laura Loomer called him “full blown Islamist propagandist” and accused him of trying to “destroy MAGA and the GOP”. One openly anti-Islam X user turned Carlson into a woman wearing bright red lipstick and a keffiyeh. Carlson is also receiving praise for changing his mind for the better and retracting the past rhetoric on Islam. Meanwhile, most didn’t seem to believe in his political pivot. “Wow. It only took 25 years, but better late than never,” wrote a user named Laura Miers.
He didn’t lie as stated in the heading, he believed that lie and propagated it.