Tucker Carlson targets Republican lawmaker

Tucker Carlson dismissed the outcry over his controversial interview with Nick Fuentes by shifting the focus to a Republican lawmaker who celebrated bombing Palestinian babies. He pointed to comments from Florida Representative Randy Fine, who made the remarks after Hamas committed a terrorist attack in Jerusalem in November 2023. Fine wrote on X: ‘Guess the ceasefire is over and Hamas wants more Palestinian babes to die! #bombsaway.’

Carlson pointed to these comments as evidence that Fine has said ‘much worse’ things than Fuentes. Carlson recently came under fire for interviewing the 27-year-old, who has made repeated anti-Semitic claims over the years, on his podcast. The former Fox News host was speaking as a guest on conservative media star Megyn Kelly ‘s national tour in White Plains, New York, on Wednesday.

‘We have a member, a sitting member of Congress . I spoke to the Speaker of the House about this today,’ Carlson told Kelly. ‘We have a sitting member of Congress from Florida, Randy Fine, who was literally texted or put on Twitter : “We should kill them [Palestinians] all, every single one.” Someone texted a picture of, literally… a dead baby, and he laughs at it. ‘And it’s like this guy’s a lawmaker is appropriating money to a military committing genocide, and that’s cool? It’s not cool,’ Carlson continued. ‘Let’s just be honest, that is much worse than anything Nick Fuentes has said, period.’

In February, Fine posted on X claiming that ‘Palestinian’ is just another word for demon’ and in May told his followers, ‘So much for ‘innocent Palestinian civilians’ #bombsaway.’ Fine responded to Carlson’s latest attacks by claiming the podcast host was bought and paid for by the Gulf nation of Qatar. ‘I had believed he was just paid off by the Qataris and other enemies of America to parrot this nonsense,’ the Representative wrote on X.

Pro-Israel influencers and politicians on social media have long claimed that Carlson receives money from Qatar to spread talking points critical of Israel. There is no evidence behind these allegations. ‘Now I wonder if the guy is just really, really, really dumb,’ Fine concluded. Following his interview with Fuentes, Carlson was condemned by GOP leaders, including Senator Ted Cruz and former Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, for providing a ‘platform’ to the controversial political commentator.

Fuentes’s anti-Semitic statements have included comparing the Holocaust to baking cookies. Carlson told his critics to ‘buzz off’ when asked about the fallout from the Fuentes interview. ‘You’re not my editor, Buzz off. I mean, I don’t know. If you want to go yell at Nick Fuentes, I’ll give you his cell. Call him and go sit and yell at him and feel virtuous or whatever,’ Calrson told Kelly.

‘I care about what my wife thinks, my children think, and God thinks, and that’s it. I don’t need to prove that I’m a good person to you. You may think I’m a terrible person,’ Carlson added. ‘I want to understand what people think, and I’m committed to that. And if you don’t like it, don’t watch. That’s my view. But that doesn’t mean that I share the views.’