Tucker Carlson put Sen. Ted Cruz on the hot seat during a fiery grilling over the senator’s knowledge of some key facts about Iran.
The exchange erupted during an interview with Cruz on "The Tucker Carlson Show" Tuesday evening.
Tensions have been boiling over between Iran and the U.S. ever since Israel launched an attack on Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure Friday, with President Donald Trump on Tuesday making it clear that the U.S. is now involved when he posted to social media: “We now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran.”
“How many people live in Iran, by the way?” the former Fox News host asks.
“I don’t know the population at all,” Cruz answers.
“You don’t know the population you seek to topple?” Carlson presses.
Cruz then fires back, asking Carlson whether the host knew Iran’s statistics, adding that he doesn’t spend his time “memorizing population tables.”
After the clip surfaced, Cruz “called out” Carlson as releasing “a snippet playing a ‘gotcha’ on the population of Iran.” The Texas senator added, “I declined to play that silly game,” and accused Carlson of attacking President Trump.
Reports of another explosion in Tehran emerged Wednesday morning as the Israel Defence Forces said it attacked an Iranian centrifuge production site. The strike came as multiple sources familiar with the matter told CBS News Trump was weighing up joining Israel's attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, including Tehran’s underground Fordow nuclear site.
Despite the pushback, Carlson continued to litigate his case.
“Why is it relevant if it's 90 million, or 80 million, or 100 million – why is that relevant?” Cruz asks Carlson. Meanwhile, videos of people attempting to flee Iran in the hundreds started to surface on social media following Trump’s evacuation warning.
“Ok, what’s the ethnic mix of Iran?” Carlson asks.
“They are Persians, and predominantly Shia,” he says before Carlson interjects, “You don’t know anything about Iran!”
Iran has not conducted a census on language or ethnicity for over three decades – the last time was in 1976 – making it impossible to gauge the country’s linguistic and ethnic composition, according to the human rights organization, Minority Rights Group.
However, the official language is Persian, and Persian dialects extend to include other language diasporas, such as Azeri, Turkic dialects like Kurdish, Gilaki, and Mazandarani, Luri, Baluchi, Arabic, and other non-Turkic languages, says MRG.
Later in the interview, Cruz then made a statement that appeared to take U.S. accountability for the military strikes in Iran.
“We’re carrying out military strikes today,” he says.
“You said Israel were [...]” Carlson corrects. “Right, right, with our help,” Cruz adjusts.
Meanwhile, Cruz, who wrote “Yep, I stand with Trump. Iran can’t have a nuclear bomb,” on X Tuesday night, leaped to defend himself following the heated interview.
Recently, Carlson made his position on Iran clear after he called out the “warmongers” in the Trump administration, for calling upon the president to order “direct US military involvement in a war with Iran.”
“The real divide isn’t between people who support Israel and people who support Iran or the Palestinians. The real divide is between those who casually encourage violence and those who seek to prevent it — between warmongers and peacemakers,” he said.
“Who are the warmongers? They would include anyone who’s calling Donald Trump today to demand air strikes and other direct US military involvement in a war with Iran. On that list: Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Rupert Murdoch, Ike Perlmutter, and Miriam Adelson. At some point, they will all have to answer for this, but you should know their names now,” Carlson insisted.
His accusations prompted Trump to respond on Truth Social, lambasting him as “kooky.”
Trump’s position on Iran and his unwavering support for Israel have sent turmoil into the MAGAverse, with politicians split and rattled over what the president’s true priorities are.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Trump loyalist, signaled her support for the president was wavering when she sided with Carlson in an X post Monday.
“Tucker Carlson is one of my favorite people [...] He unapologetically believes the same things I do [...] And foreign wars/intervention/regime change put America last, kill innocent people, are making us broke, and will ultimately lead to our destruction. That’s not kooky,” she said.
The Independent contacted Cruz and Carlson for comment.
