{"id":11522,"date":"2025-06-18T15:55:31","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T07:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=11522"},"modified":"2025-06-18T15:55:35","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T07:55:35","slug":"tucker-carlson-ted-cruz-get-in-heated-back-and-forth-over-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=11522","title":{"rendered":"Tucker Carlson, Ted Cruz get in heated back and forth over Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tucker Carlson and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) got into a fiery exchange on Tuesday over the senator\u2019s support for President Trump and his posturing toward Israel in its escalating conflict with Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conservative media personality on Tuesday released a clip from the interview \u2014 set to be released in full on Wednesday \u2014 in which he grills Cruz on details about Iran and its demographic makeup. When Cruz does not know the answers Carlson is seeking, the host blasts the senator for failing to know the details of \u201cthe country you seek to topple.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow many people live in Iran, by the way?\u201d Carlson asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know the population,\u201d Cruz responded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt all?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brad Lander, NYC comptroller and mayoral candidate, is arrested at immigration courthouse<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, I don\u2019t know the population,\u201d Cruz said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t know the population in the country you seek to topple?\u201d Carlson retorted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Cruz asked Carlson the same question back, the journalist responded quickly: \u201c92 million,\u201d adding, \u201cHow could you not know that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t sit around memorizing population tables,\u201d Cruz responded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conversation grew increasingly heated from there, as Carlson argued the numbers are \u201ckind of relevant because you\u2019re calling for the overthrow of the government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy is it relevant whether it\u2019s 90 million or 80 million or 100 million \u2014 why is that relevant?\u201d Cruz responded before pushing back against Carlson\u2019s suggestion that he doesn\u2019t \u201cknow anything about the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlson then offered another trivia question: \u201cWhat\u2019s the ethnic mix of Iran?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cruz said the country is Persian and \u201cpredominantly Shia,\u201d at which point Carlson cut in, asking, \u201cWhat percent?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two men then began shouting over each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay, this is cute-\u201d Cruz said when Carlson cut him off to say, \u201cYou don\u2019t know anything about Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, I\u2019m not the Tucker Carlson expert on Iran-,\u201d Cruz said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re a senator who\u2019s calling for the overthrow of a government, and you don\u2019t know anything about the country,\u201d Carlson said, shouting over the senator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, you don\u2019t know anything about the country,\u201d Cruz shot back. \u201cYou\u2019re the one who claims they\u2019re not trying to murder Donald Trump. You\u2019re the one who can\u2019t figure out if it was a good idea to kill General Soleimani, and you said it was bad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlson pushed back on Cruz\u2019s initial claim, saying, \u201cNo, I\u2019m not saying that. I\u2019m saying you don\u2019t believe they\u2019re trying to murder Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, I do,\u201d Cruz exclaimed, cutting in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause you\u2019re not calling for military strikes against them in retaliation,\u201d Carlson said, suggesting Cruz would be if he \u201creally\u201d believed they were trying to kill the president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Cruz retorted that \u201cwe are carrying out military strikes today,\u201d Carlson pressed the senator on his use of the word \u201cwe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou said Israel was,\u201d Carlson said to which Cruz clarified that the U.S. is supporting Israel\u2019s efforts but that Israel is carrying out the strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou just said \u2018we\u2019 were,\u201d Carlson said. \u201cThis is high stakes. You\u2019re a senator. If you\u2019re saying the United States government is at war with Iran right now, people are listening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hill has reached out to Cruz\u2019s office for additional comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlson, a long-time supporter of the president\u2019s, has found himself at odds with the commander-in-chief over their conflicting viewpoints on the best approach in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Israel launched a missile offensive against Iran last week, Carlson called Trump \u201ccomplicit\u201d in the escalation and warned the president\u2019s legacy was on the line depending on \u201cwhat happens next.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlson has for years been a critic of Republican leaders, diplomats and others who have advocated for military intervention in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He last week railed against so-called \u201cwarmongers,\u201d including his former colleagues at Fox and those in the party who he says are nudging Trump toward a needless war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe real divide isn\u2019t between people who support Israel and people who support Iran or the Palestinians,\u201d Carlson wrote on social media last week. \u201cThe real divide is between those who casually encourage violence, and those who seek to prevent it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Trump hit back, telling reporters, \u201cI don\u2019t know what Tucker Carlson is saying. Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president went a step further later on Monday, dubbing the former prime time host turned internet commentator, \u201ckooky Carlson\u201d and insisting \u201cIRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON,\u201d in a post on his Truth Social account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tucker Carlson and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) got into a fiery exchange on Tuesday over the senator\u2019s support for President Trump and his posturing toward Israel in its escalating conflict with Iran. The conservative media personality on Tuesday released a clip from the interview \u2014 set to be released in full on Wednesday \u2014 in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11525,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3423,2752,1969],"class_list":["post-11522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-carlson","tag-cruz","tag-know"],"yoast_head":"\nTucker Carlson, Ted Cruz get in heated back and forth over Iran - LISTEN WORLD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=11522\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tucker Carlson, Ted Cruz get in heated back and forth over Iran - LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tucker Carlson and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) got into a fiery exchange on Tuesday over the senator\u2019s support for President Trump and his posturing toward Israel in its escalating conflict with Iran. 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