Tucker Carlson Confronts Ted Cruz on Iran: ‘You Don’t Know Anything’

Conservative commentator and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson got into a heated back-and-forth this week with Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas about the latter’s views on Iran.

Carlson told Cruz he doesn’t know “anything about the country” whose government he seeks to “topple,” in an interview set to air on Wednesday.

The Context

Israel ignited a new war with Iran on Thursday when it fired a series of strikes that decimated Tehran’s military chain-of-command and destroyed critical nuclear infrastructure. Iran retaliated by launching missiles of its own and the conflict has rapidly escalated in the days since, with President Donald Trump said to be weighing a U.S. strike against Iran’s underground nuclear stronghold in Fordow.

The conflict—and America’s role in it—has splintered Trump’s MAGA coalition, as the movement’s isolationist wing stands staunchly opposed to hawkish pro-Trump lawmakers who favor a more hard-line stance toward Iran.

That split has also put Carlson—a longtime anti-interventionist who’s been railing against “warmongers” in his party—directly at odds with Cruz, who has cheered Israel’s strikes against Iran and said there’s “no reason” a “theocratic lunatic” like Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei should possess nuclear weapons.

What To Know

Cruz appeared on Carlson’s show on X, formerly Twitter, for the interview. The ex-Fox News staple posted a short clip of the conversation to X on Tuesday night, a day before it’s set to air in full, in which he tore into the Texas Republican over his stance on the Iran conflict.

“How many people live in Iran, by the way?” Carlson asked Cruz.

“I don’t know the population,” Cruz replied.

“At all?” Carlson said.

“No, I don’t know the population,” Cruz repeated.

Carlson continued pressing the GOP lawmaker: “You don’t know the population of the country you seek to topple?”

Cruz then turned the question back on Carlson, saying, “How many people live in Iran?”

“92 million,” Carlson replied, adding: “How could you not know that?”

“I don’t sit around memorizing population tables,” Cruz said.

“Well, it’s kind of relevant because you’re calling for the overthrow of the government,” Carlson said.

Cruz fired back at the former prime-time host, asking why it’s “relevant whether it’s 90 million or 80 million or 100 million? Why is that relevant?”

“Well, because if you don’t know anything of the country—” Carlson began, before Cruz cut him off.

“I didn’t say I don’t know anything about the country,” the Texas senator said.

“OK, what’s the ethnic mix of Iran?” Carlson said.

Cruz said that Iranians are “Persian and predominantly Shia,” prompting Carlson to ask him the percentage breakdown.

“OK, this is cute,” Cruz said, cutting Carlson off again. But Carlson continued: “You don’t know anything about Iran—”

Cruz then appeared to mock Carlson: “I am not the Tucker Carlson expert on Iran—”

“You’re a senator who’s calling for the overthrow of the government and you don’t know anything about the country,” Carlson interjected.

Cruz shot back, saying Carlson doesn’t “know anything about the country. You’re the one who claims they’re not trying to murder Donald Trump.”

Carlson said he never made that claim and went on to say he doesn’t believe Cruz thinks Iran is trying to assassinate Trump—and that if Cruz did believe it, he would have been calling for the U.S. to carry out military strikes against Iran in retaliation.

“If you really believed that—” Carlson began, but Cruz interjected, saying, “We are carrying out military strikes today.”

“You said Israel was,” Carlson said, referring to Israel’s ongoing military campaign against Iran, which has decimated Iran’s military and intelligence chain-of-command, destroyed nuclear infrastructure and killed key nuclear scientists.

“Right,” Cruz said. “With our help. I said ‘we.’ Israel is leading them, but we’re supporting them.”

Carlson latched onto Cruz’s comments, pointing out that the National Security Council’s spokesperson denied that the U.S. is taking an active part in Israel’s attack on Iran.

“We’re not bombing them,” Cruz said of Iran. “Israel’s bombing them.”

“You just said ‘we’ were,” Carlson pressed.

“We are supporting Israel as they’re—” Cruz said, before Carlson cut in: “This is high stakes. You’re a senator. If you’re saying the United States government is at war with Iran right now, people are listening.”

Cruz is among several lawmakers, both Republican and Democratic, who support the U.S. taking on a more prominent role in the battle.

South Carolina GOP Senator Lindsey Graham said this week that Trump should go “all in” on Iran and Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania said America’s “commitment to Israel must be absolute.” Democratic Representative Greg Landsman of Ohio also lamented that “diplomacy has been given every opportunity” and “force is now necessary.”

On the other side are Carlson and other right-wing figures like former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.

“You think we’re going to join in the offensive combat [operation]?” Bannon asked Carlson on his War Room podcast earlier this week.

“Yes, I do,” Carlson said. “I do.”

“Well, we have to—we can’t—we have to stop that,” Bannon said.

Greene, meanwhile, scorned people in the MAGA movement who are “slobbering” for the U.S. to get involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran.

What Happens Next

The U.S. has taken a defensive posture in the conflict at the moment, intercepting some of the missiles Iran has fired toward Israel. But Israeli officials have called for the U.S. to play a larger role, including by giving Israel bunker-busting munitions, without which Israel cannot destroy Iran’s main nuclear facility in Fordow.

Axios reported that Trump is seriously considering launching a strike on the facility and two that Israeli officials told the news outlet that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes the U.S. will join the war in the coming days.