Right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson blasted his former Fox News colleague Sean Hannity on Friday, calling Hannity and other MAGA hawks “warmongers” for cheering Israel’s missile strikes against the Iranian regime.
The Context
Israel launched a series of strikes against Iran early Friday, local time, which decimated the regime’s military chain of command, hit critical nuclear facilities and took out top Iranian nuclear scientists.
After the strikes, Iran pulled out of scheduled nuclear talks with the U.S. and retaliated against Israel with a wave of rocket attacks that struck Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial center and also home to the country’s central military base.
Israel and Iran have been engaged in an increasingly destructive array of tit-for-tat strikes against one another since Hamas—backed by the Iran-led Axis of Resistance—carried out its attack against Israel on October 7, 2023. But the strikes commenced by Israel early Friday marked the most serious escalation yet between Jerusalem and Tehran.
What To Know
When Israel struck Iran, it capped a long-running foreign policy battle being waged in President Donald Trump‘s inner circle.
Carlson, a staunch isolationist, was among the voices urging against escalating tensions between Iran and Israel, which were at a tipping point before Israel’s strikes against the regime early Friday. He also supported Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, as he spearheaded the nuclear discussions with Iran.
On the other side of the coin were Hannity and conservative media host Mark Levin, who, among others, were deeply skeptical that Iran would agree to end its nuclear program and expressed support for Israel taking military action.
On Friday, Carlson tore into Hannity, Levin, conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch and conservative megadonors Isaac Perlmutter and Miriam Adelson.
“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,” Carlson wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
He added: “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.”
Newsweek reached out to Fox News for comment via email on Friday.
Hannity and Levin took a victory lap on Fox News shortly after Israel carried out its first strike against Iran early Friday, with Hannity rattling off a list of Iran’s provocations and nuclear threats and Levin saying that “the Iranians are about to get their asses kicked and it’s been coming since Jimmy Carter.”
“They think this is Joe Biden‘s administration, that they would get away, get nuclear weapons and then the world would sit there, wouldn’t know what to do about it,” he said, adding that Israel “is not going to sit there and take it.”
Hours after the strikes, Carlson put out what he called his potential “final newsletter before all-out war” and accused Trump of being “complicit.”
“While the American military may not have physically perpetrated the assault, years of funding and sending weapons to Israel, which Donald Trump just bragged about on Truth Social, undeniably place the U.S. at the center of last night’s events. Washington knew these attacks would happen,” Carlson wrote. “They aided Israel in carrying them out. Politicians purporting to be America First can’t now credibly turn around and say they had nothing to do with it. Our country is in deep.”
“Despite being complicit in the act of war, the president hopes last night’s events will help his ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran,” Carlson added. “Steve Witkoff was scheduled to participate in the next round of talks on Sunday, but whether that will still happen is up in the air.”
Israel’s strikes against Iran came after months of Trump urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack Tehran, saying that it would torpedo America’s already tenuous negotiations with the Iranian regime.
What People Are Saying
On Friday, after Israel’s strikes, Trump again pushed Iran to come back to the table, writing on Truth Social: “Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire. No more death, no more destruction, JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. God Bless You All!”
After Iran initiated its retaliatory rocket attacks against Israel, a U.S. defense official told Newsweek: “Yes, the U.S. is assisting in shooting down missiles targeting Israel.”
What Happens Next
Israel and Iran have been bombing each other since the first wave of strikes early Friday, with Israel saying it plans to “escalate” in response to Iran’s retaliatory attack. Iran, meanwhile, has warned that it will target the military bases of any countries that assist Israel.
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