NPR’s Steve Inskeep faced thunderous criticism for interviewing a seemingly contrite Tucker Carlson, who’s been trying to distance himself from President Donald Trump.
The former Fox News host, who spoke at the 2024 Republican convention, told NPR that the 80-year-old president should be removed from office over the Iran war, although he also claimed Trump wasn’t really in charge when he started the war and he now claims to regret much of his cable TV career.
“The idea that Trump didn’t know the risks — and once again, I’m in an unusual position because I talked to Trump,” Carlson said. “I said, this war is not about Iran’s nuclear program, which you told me and the world that you eliminated back in last summer in June. This war is being pushed by Israel with three aims.”
Carlson said he told Trump that Israel wanted to dominate its region, weaken six rival Gulf states and push U.S. military bases out of the Middle East.
“I said this to Trump, to his face, in the Oval Office days before the war began,” Carlson said, “and he looked at me and said, ‘Yes, you’re right. But in the end, we all die anyway, so it doesn’t matter.’ That’s exactly what he said.”
The 57-year-old Carlson has become an internet personality with a huge following since Fox News fired him after the network settled a $787 million defamation lawsuit related to 2020 election lies that he and other hosts spread on air as Trump tried to overturn his loss to Joe Biden.
However, critics were not interested in hearing Carlson attempt to rehabilitate his image.
“Apology not accepted,” declared attorney Bradley P. Moss.
“Earlier this year, Tucker Carlson said that ‘the defining fact of our lives is that whites around the world are being eliminated,’” reminded Media Matters’ Matthew Gertz. “Journos who don’t watch his show are helping his effort to rebrand so he isn’t a liability for his protege JD Vance’s 2028 run.”
“Tucker Carlson is a white nationalist failed TV personality looking for a post-Trump rebrand bump (and potential campaign launch),” opined Devin Burghart, of the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights. “Apparently NPR learned nothing from the Glenn Beck apology tour. NPR, please stop sane-washing fascists.”
“I see a mainstream journalist fell for the Tucker Carlson trick again, as if he hasn’t tried it before,” sighed Talking Points Memo’s Sarah Posner.
“This guy was one of the world’s biggest and must successful race-baiting grifters. I am so glad he has suddenly decided to stop being a grifter!” yelped TV writer Michael Schur, aka Ken Tremendous.
“The long awaited antiwar left-right coalition is gonna happen this time I can feel it,” groaned author Eoin Higgins, posting a photo of Charlie Brown charging toward a football.
“NPR is the latest to rush in & give white supremacist Tucker Carlson a mainstream media boost, helping to normalize him as he floats creating a third party and running for president,” observed podcaster Brittany Page. “I listened to the whole thing. Not one single question about his constant promotion of racist conspiracy theories.”
“‘We’ll all die anyway.’ – Trump ‘We are all going to die’ – Joni Ernst JD Vance Says If His Work Leads to ‘the End Times,’ then that’s ‘Okay’ (I’m sensing a pattern),” pointed out the Washington Sun’s Matt Lewis.
“Tucker Carlson, like Madge Greene, is a broken clock. At my house, broken clocks go in the trash,” quipped musician Jack Brand.
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