All posts tagged "tucker carlson"

Rogue ex-MAGA insider reveals progressive star who 'terrifies' conservatives

A former Turning Point USA leader and mother to one of Elon Musk's 14 children revealed that MAGA influencers are most afraid of one progressive influencer.

Ashley St. Clair, an ex-MAGA influencer turned critic of the right wing, was a guest on the podcast "Mean But True" with Suzanne Lambert on Tuesday and described how Hasan Piker has quietly worried conservative figures, who view him as influential.

"They are very scared of Hasan Piker, that is the one that they are scared of," St. Clair said.

"Because Hasan has the ability to capture, what I believe to be someone like the alt-right men as well," she said. "There is a crossover between the people who gravitate towards a Nick Fuentes or Tucker Carlson, that could find better solace in someone like Hasan. They are terrified of Hasan Piker — terrified."

"If the levers of capital are all fixated against one individual, you should probably pay attention to that," St. Clair added.

Piker is a political commentator and content creator known for his left-leaning perspectives. He has built a large following on social media, primarily through streaming on Twitch and weighing in on political topics. He frequently discusses social issues and engages in debates with commentators across the political spectrum.

Piker commented on St. Clair's remarks in a post on X: "Time to have ashley on the broadcast to spill conservative influencer tea when i’m in ny this weekend."

Elon Musk's baby mama, Ashley St. Clair leaks that MAGA influencers are secretly terrified of Hasan Piker.

"They are very scared of Hasan Piker, that is the one that they are scared of" "If the levers of capital are all fixated against one individual, you should probably pay… pic.twitter.com/xLxoYTflzc
— Hasanabi productions (meme account) (@HasanabiProd) May 20, 2026

Trump torpedoed state's water supply to punish Boebert for Epstein files: Republican

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) claimed this week that President Donald Trump took revenge against Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) after she didn't follow his demands.

The rebel Republican told former Fox News host and MAGA influencer Tucker Carlson in a podcast interview on Wednesday that the president "vetoed a bill that would’ve brought water to a large portion of Colorado" in retaliation for Boebert's decision to support a petition to release government documents connected to late financier and convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Mediaite reported.

" Lauren Boebert, they took her over to the Situation Room," Massie said. "Like, this is where if they are trying to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden, this is where they are at the White House. They took her into the Situation Room and tried to whip her into taking her name off of the discharge petition."

"Over Epstein?" Carlson asked.

"Over Epstein, yep, and then the president vetoed a bill that would’ve brought water to a large portion of Colorado. Over Epstein. And this isn’t even, at this point, it’s not just about Lauren Boebert," Massie said. "Why are people in Colorado deprived of water because their representative wants to expose a sex trafficking ring?"

Massie also told Carlson he was upset by Trump's treatment of former ally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

"There’s three women – Nancy Mace, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Lauren Boebert – who signed their names on that discharge petition and all suffered," Massie said. "Marjorie practically gave up her political career over this. She and her children got death threats over this. Not from the left, from the right."

Carlson responded, describing Trump's reaction to — and the dismissal of — Greene's concerns.

"And she went to President Trump and said, 'One of my children is getting death threats,' and he said, 'That’s your fault.'"

"Yeah, despicable. He also told her that if she insisted on following through with this, she was gonna hurt his friends," Massie added. "And I suppose some of them have been hurt. Howard Lutnick was shown to be a bold-faced liar, right?"

Trump allies hit president with 'insane' evidence his MAGA rival is a major threat

Tucker Carlson Network is touting extraordinary audience metrics that have sparked celebratory posts from MAGA-aligned figures who say the data drop proves Donald Trump wrong when it comes to the president's claims about Carlson's relevance and reach following his departure from Fox News.

According to TCN's own reporting, Carlson "broke cable news ratings records at Fox, and today he’s reaching multiples of that audience independently, at 56.8 million views per episode across social media and podcast platforms." The network claims that "in the eight and a half weeks following the outbreak of the Iran war, audiences are turning away from legacy media lies and flocking to honest independent news coverage."

Conservative figures seized on the data to highlight Carlson's audience dominance. Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted sarcastically: "Pretty impressive for a low IQ guy that is unpopular," referencing Trump's comments about Carlson.

Podcaster Tim Pool amplified the claims with his own analysis, suggesting the scale of Carlson's reach is unprecedented: "I don't think people understand the magnitude of this reporting. Tucker has just shattered every viewer record for podcasting FIVE TIMES OVER. He's currently 7 times bigger than Joe Rogan on Youtube and is 20 times bigger per episode across all platforms. TWENTY TIMES BIGGER. Insane."

Conservative YouTuber JP Sears chimed in with another sarcastic jab at the president: "It's weird what the ratings look like when you're 'unpopular,' 'irrelevant,' and 'low IQ.'"

Far-right conspiracy theorist Owen Shroyer posed a rhetorical question to the broader MAGA base: "Remember when they told you Tucker was irrelevant now?"

The social media posts appear designed to counter narratives about Carlson's diminished influence following his exit from Fox News—a departure that came amid tensions with the network's leadership. By celebrating these audience figures, the MAGA figures are implicitly challenging Trump, who suggested Carlson's career had stalled outside the cable news ecosystem.

The posts also frame mainstream media skepticism about Carlson as proven wrong by raw viewership data, using the numbers as a cudgel against what they characterize as "legacy media" narratives.

I don't think people understand the magnitude of this reporting

Tucker has just shattered every viewer record for podcasting FIVE TIMES OVER

He's currently 7 times bigger than Joe Rogan on Youtube and is 20 times bigger per episode across all platforms

TWENTY TIMES BIGGER… https://t.co/xKWi2Z2kh0
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) May 1, 2026

'Anti-Christ would be smarter': James Carville mocks rebel Republicans' attack on Trump

Republican critics of Trump are missing the mark by labeling the president the "Antichrist," Democratic political strategist James Carville said.

"I've called Trump the MF word, and I've called him worse than that. I've called him a sack of [expletive]," Carville said Tuesday on Politicon. "Rod [Dreher], who is Vance's spiritual mentor and Tucker Carlson, who is a person of some substance in the Republican Party, have both called Trump the Antichrist. Well, even I haven't gotten there."

Carville said that "even I haven't gotten there," but not because he thinks they're too soft. Rather, Carville thinks that Trump's right-wing critics are simply giving him too much credit by calling him the Antichrist.

"All of the people that fight in the street about my name calling, understand this. I have not yet referred to Donald John Trump as the Antichrist. All right? Because I think the Antichrist would be smarter," Carville said.

Carville stressed that the Antichrist comments are significant because Dreher "is a much much much much bigger deal than anybody realizes" and Carlson is also "a big deal," he said.

However, "I'm just going to keep calling him a [expletive] and not even worry about," Carville concluded.

Ex-Fox News host said to be mounting major challenge to Trump's 2028 choice

Former Fox News host and right-wing podcaster Tucker Carlson's recent apology might signal more than just regret — it could mean he's considering a presidential run in 2028, an analyst suggested on Tuesday.

The Guardian's Arwa Mahdawi described how Carlson's admitting he was "tormented" by his decision to support President Donald Trump could ultimately challenge the president's pick to succeed him. Carlson hasn't directly said he plans to run, but Mahdawi points to multiple takes that suggest it could be on his mind.

"I don’t know how genuine this mea culpa is, but it’s the most recent example of the growing fractures within the Maga movement," Mahdawi wrote. "While Carlson privately admitted he hated Trump in text messages that surfaced during the 2023 lawsuit between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems, he has stood by him in public, drumming up support for the Maga agenda at rallies. He has been one of the president’s biggest supporters for a decade. And while that support has waned during Trump’s second term, largely driven by Carlson’s criticism of Israel and the Iran war, this public denunciation of the president feels like a pivotal moment."

He also can't be ignored, the writer added.

"He’s not a fringe figure: he knows how to work the attention economy," Mahdawi explained. "He had the highest-rated show on Fox before his abrupt departure and his YouTube channel has more than 5 million followers. And now, it seems, he has broader ambitions."

Author and co-host of the Pivot podcast sees Tucker's public apology as a strategic move and "less a road-to-Damascus moment and more a route-to-the-White-House moment."

"I think I absolutely know what’s going on here," Galloway predicted on the podcast last week. "He’s running for president … I think here and now Tucker Carlson is the most likely GOP nominee for president in 2028. Put him on stage with Rubio and Vance, he’s going to slice and dice them."

Trump has not publicly endorsed a successor for the 2028 presidential election, though Vice President JD Vance has been widely considered the frontrunner among administration officials and Republican party leaders. Other potential candidates who have been discussed include Secretary of State Marco Rubio and various other members of Trump's cabinet and allied figures within the Republican party.

Right-wing host's mea culpa over Trump support hides something darker: NYT column

New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg described how there is something more troubling behind right-wing podcaster and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson's recent apology for misleading people in his support of President Donald Trump.

In a column published on Friday, Goldberg described how the conversation between Tucker and his brother, Buckley, a former Trump speechwriter, exposed much more of their message — a false narrative.

"I'm all for embracing converts to the anti-Trump cause," Goldberg wrote. "But if you listen to the dialogue between Tucker and his brother, it's clear that rather than honestly reckoning with their role in America's derangement, they're developing a new conspiracy theory to explain it away."

Conservatives have mainly stood by Trump over the last 10 years, Goldberg argued, but only recently has MAGA shown a growing understanding that Trump could be unfit to lead as commander-in-chief.

The brothers have argued that the president's recent decisions show he has been influenced by foreign actors.

"Trump, they strongly imply, has been compromised — maybe even blackmailed and physically threatened — by Zionist or globalist forces seeking the deliberate destruction of the United States," Goldberg wrote. "On Tucker's podcast, Buckley described a systematic undermining of America through the George Floyd protests, mass migration and now the war with Iran."

"I don't want to minimize the malign role Israel has played in persuading Trump to launch his catastrophic war on Iran," Goldberg explained. "As former Secretary of State John Kerry has said, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel tried to persuade previous American presidents to strike the Islamic Republic, but only Trump was vain and gullible enough to agree. America's hand-in-glove relationship with Israel has become a liability, and we should end it."

"But it wasn't Israel or Zionist donors or some shadowy internationalist cabal that made Trump a buffoonish maniac who glories in threats of violence," Goldberg wrote. "If the second Trump administration is worse than the first, it's largely because the establishment figures once demonized by Carlson as deep-state subversives are all gone. Trump is who he always was. He's just more politically unfettered than before."

Now, Tucker and Buckley Carlson are pushing more disinformation, and "some former Trump acolytes are defaulting to an older conspiracy theory: The ones in control are the Jews." That aspect is most concerning, according to Goldberg.

"This need that some MAGA apostates feel to rationalize their previous poor judgment can be harmless, if irritating. It's dangerous only when they insist on creating a scapegoat," Goldberg added.

Trump has fired back at Carlson, calling him a "Low IQ person" on Truth Social, as the feud between the two continues to escalate.

This MAGA fanatic's pathetic grovel fools nobody

Friends,

Tucker Carlson told the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee that Trump is “a wonderful person. I know him well. By the way, the funniest person I’ve ever met in my life, actually. You can’t be funny without perspective or without empathy, which is true.”

But on Tuesday, Carlson admitted that he’ll be “tormented” for a long time by his support for Trump in the 2024 presidential election and that “I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people.”

Well, thank you, Tucker. I — and I’m sure many others — appreciate your apology.

And we hope your torment continues.

By the way, I’ve got to ask: Are you also tormented by — and apologetic for — supporting Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen?

And what about your minimizing the presence of white nationalists among those who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021? And your claim that the attack on the Capitol “barely rates as a footnote?”

Are you now tormented and apologetic for any of this?

And while we’re at it, Tucker, what about your racist screeds? Does any of the filth you’ve spewed for years make you ashamed?

You pushed the “great replacement theory,” claiming that immigrants made America “poorer and dirtier.”

You said a Black Democratic politician spoke like a “sharecropper.”

You told your viewers that America is a “civilization under siege” — by violent Black Lives Matter protesters, by diseased migrants from south of the U.S.-Mexico border, and by refugees importing alien cultures.

When hundreds of refugees from Africa began crossing into Texas from Mexico during the first Trump administration, you warned that Africa’s high birthrates meant the new arrivals might soon “overwhelm our country and change it completely and forever.”

Amid the nation’s outrage over George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer, you called those who protested the murder “criminal mobs.”

When Kyle Rittenhouse murdered two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, you asked rhetorically, “Are we really surprised that looting and arson accelerated to murder?” And: “How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?”

Are you troubled by any of this, Tucker? Are you apologetic? Ashamed?

And if not, why the hell not?

Why should anybody believe you when you say you’re now “tormented” and “sorry” for misleading people about Trump if you express no remorse for supporting his blatant lies about the 2020 election, for backing the rioters at the Capitol, for justifying the murders of protesters, and for poisoning America with your bigoted screeds?

Tucker, we know you’d like to be the Republican candidate for president in 2028 and you think distancing yourself from Trump on his idiotic war is the way to do it — especially with JD Vance as your likely opponent in the primaries.

Well, I have news for you, Tuck. You’re not fooling anyone with your newfound conversion. You’re the same intolerant, dogmatic, puerile fanatic you always were. And just as dangerous for this country and the world as ever.

Robert Reich is an emeritus professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/. His new memoir, Coming Up Short, can be found wherever you buy books. You can also support local bookstores nationally by ordering the book at bookshop.org

Prominent MAGA voice slammed for 'not smart' dig at reporter: 'Wrong in some telling ways'

Tucker Carlson's putdown of a political analyst has been mocked by The Bulwark, with Catherine Rampell noting the ex-Fox News anchor got the facts wrong.

Rampell, appearing in conversation with Tim Miller in a recent post from The Bulwark, responded to a clip of Carlson talking about a decade-old encounter between the pair. Carlson claimed Rampell's father sued a country club because they would not let him into the building.

Carlson said of Rampell, "There was a girl called Catherine Rampell, I think she worked for the Washington Post, but she was a Fox contributor. Not impressive. At all. I was sitting on the set with her during a commercial break once. She was a sort of liberal neocon type person, but not smart.

"We were talking, and I'm trying to be nice, and she's like, 'Where are you from? I grew up in Palm Beach. We moved there, and my dad sued the Bath and Tennis Club for discrimination because they wouldn't let him in.'

"And I'm listening to this, and I'm like, 'He sued a- your dad- and if I'm getting this wrong I want to apologize, but I remember this conversation like it was yesterday. 'Yeah, he sued because they wouldn't let us in.' It's not my job to tell you that these are private associations.

"What are you even talking about? That's repulsive to me. You should have the right to hang out with whoever you want to hang out with... The hatred behind that, the desire to destroy something you didn't build, was so evident. This girl's a hater, actually, that's what I realized talking to her."

Rampell responded, "He's wrong in some pretty telling ways. So, here is what actually happened and what I'm sure I relayed to him over a decade ago at this point. It was in the '90s that my father didn't sue country clubs. Tucker is actually right that freedom of association is allowed under the law.

"What happened was my dad waged a newspaper campaign against a bunch of these country clubs in the town because they were antisemitic and racist. Basically, what happened was it's not just that they didn't allow Jews, blacks, Asians, or Hispanics as members. Oh, they also didn't allow single women, by the way.

"They would not allow any of those racial or ethnic groups as guests. And we learned this or my family learned this because my brother was in preschool at the time and he was not invited to a birthday party, and we subsequently found out that the reason he was not invited is that the country club that Tucker is referring to, the Bath and Tennis Club, did not allow Jews in its doors, even four-year-old Jews, as it turns out."

Rampell further clarified Carlson's comments and her father's actions in a post to her X account, "Perhaps to no one’s surprise, Tucker Carlson just gave a full-throated defense of segregated country clubs.

"Out of the blue Tucker recently attacked me on his show by recounting a story I told him ~10 years ago. In his telling, my father sued a country club for not admitting him as a member. The actual story: In the ’90s, my father waged a newspaper campaign (not a lawsuit) against local country clubs because they were discriminatory.

"That’s the fight my dad waged — at significant personal and professional cost at the time — and I’m proud of him for it."

MAGA movement set to crumble after 'exodus' of key members: strategist

The MAGA movement has suffered a blow that could mark the beginning of the end, according to a political analyst.

Veteran Democratic Party strategist Max Burns believes the movement's loss of both Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson is a sign that MAGA support could be slipping.

Burns wrote in The Hill, "MAGA voters have long believed in taking Trump 'seriously but not literally.' This is just another way of saying Trump might lie to other people to advance his own interests, but he would never lie to the supporters who power his political movement.

"At least some of those faithful Trump supporters are finally ready to admit that they’ve been conned, and there’s no way back to believing the fairy tale.

"Greene and Carlson’s awakenings are just the beginning of an exodus from the MAGA movement, which just a year ago seemed to be reaching new heights of power. After a decade of chaos and disruption, Trump’s transactional politics is finally catching up with him. It’s just a shame that it took so long."

Carlson has emerged as a vocal critic of Trump's MAGA movement, primarily over the Iran war. Carlson directly challenged GOP leaders during heated interviews, demanding they answer basic questions about Iran policy.

Carlson, a mainstay on Fox News from 2016 to 2023, recently said he regrets backing Trump over traditional conservative values, The Guardian reported. He said, "You know, we’ll be tormented by it for a long time – I will be. And I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people. It was not intentional, that’s all I’ll say."

Greene has distanced herself from the MAGA movement over Trump's Iran war, which she views as a fundamental betrayal of core MAGA principles. Greene spent millions campaigning for Trump specifically because he promised to end foreign wars.

Greene suddenly resigned from Congress late last year. Greene had publicly distanced herself from Trump over his Iran war policies, declaring opposition to the conflict and characterizing it as a betrayal of MAGA principles.

Her decision to leave Congress marked the culmination of growing ideological rifts within Trump's movement and her frustration with the direction of the Republican Party under Trump's leadership during his second term.

'He's a moron!' CNN conservative fumes after ex-Fox News host apologizes for Trump support

MAGA commentator Scott Jennings had a stinging response to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson's comments that he was regretful for supporting President Donald Trump.

CNN anchor Kasie Hunt asked Jennings to comment on Carlson's remarks that he would be "tormented" by his decisions to endorse Trump, which led to a heated exchange between the two during the live broadcast. Carlson had issued a public apology Monday for having supported Trump in the 2024 election, telling his millions of followers that he was “sorry for misleading people.”

Jennings shared his thoughts on the move.

"I mean, is his preference that Kamala Harris had become the president of the United States?" an indignant Jennings asked. "That will come as a surprise to, I'm sure, a lot of people who used to view Tucker Carlson as a conservative and someone who, you know, had certain kinds of values. And what's he sorry for? That we got a new engagement here that might ultimately lead to taking away nuclear weapons?"

Hunt pushed back on Jennings' characterization of the war.

"We got into engagement, Scott? That is quite a way to put it," Hunt said. "We started a war with Iran."

"Is he now claiming he had no idea that Donald Trump held the position that he would never permit Iran to have nuclear weapons, if that's what he's saying today?" Jennings asked.

"He's kind of a moron," Jennings added. "I mean, I don't know how else to put it, or he's willfully misleading people. The president was clear he'll never let them have nuclear weapons. We just saw on '60 Minutes' on Sunday night, a broad agreement among the experts. They have 970 pounds of enriched uranium, enough to make 10 or 11 nuclear bombs. This is not acceptable to the president. He had that position back in 2024. He had that position back in the first term. He has that position today to say now that you're sorry, that you elected a president that wanted to take away nuclear weapons from this terrorist regime. I don't get it."