It was no surprise when Joe Kent showed up on Tucker Carlson’s podcast a day after quitting his counterterrorism job in President Donald Trump’s administration. Here was a top official who resigned to protest the war with Iran turning to right-wing media’s leading critic of the conflict.
“The Israelis drove the decision to take this action,” Kent said in Wednesday’s interview.
But before long, the conversation moved in a different direction as Kent nodded to conspiracy theories that pro-Israel forces were behind the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“I’m saying there are unanswered questions,” Kent said.
The conversation encapsulated two schisms within the Republican Party and the right-wing media system, both of which have reached high into the national security establishment of the Trump administration.
There’s a foreign policy debate over the wisdom of Trump’s war with Iran and the future of United States’ longstanding alliance with Israel.
But there also are fears that the focus on Israel is the leading edge of an antisemitic fringe that has gained ground by portraying Jews as shadowy manipulators, echoing some of history’s most hateful tropes.
Tucker Carlson is playing a central role
At the center of both issues is Carlson, a former Fox News host who remains influential among conservatives. He was previously denounced for hosting Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist and antisemite, on his podcast last year. During the interview, Fuentes complained about “organized Jewry in America.”
On Wednesday, Carlson was sharply critical about Israel, saying “its lobbying in the United States pressured the president.”
Matt Brooks, president of the Republican Jewish Coalition, described Kent’s appearance on Carlson’s podcast as “part of an ongoing problem.”
He noted that his group opposed Kent’s nomination as director of the National Counterterrorism Center because of ties to right-wing extremism. Trump ignored those concerns even though, as he said after Kent’s resignation, “I always thought he was weak on security” and “I didn’t know him well.”
Kent’s resignation letter trafficked in antisemitic conspiracy theories while raising concerns about the war with Iran.
He blamed “high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media” for encouraging conflict. Indeed, Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu encouraged Trump to join forces in an attack on Iran.
But Kent also went further, saying it’s “the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war.” He also said his wife, a Navy cryptologist who was killed by a suicide bomber in Syria, died “in a war manufactured by Israel.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, described the letter as “virulent antisemitism.” Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat, said “scapegoating Israel isn’t just a tired antisemitic trope — it’s anti-American.”
Kent has previously rejected all forms of “racism and bigotry.”
Trump has said nothing about Kent’s remarks on Israel. He’s previously disputed the idea that Israel pushed him toward war, saying “I might might have forced their hand.”
Unified Republican support for Israel has fractured
Questions about Israeli influence are not unique to right-wing circles. Progressives have also faced accusations of antisemitism for their response to the war in Gaza, which began with an attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
But it’s been a widening fault line within the Republican Party, which has been a bedrock of support for Israel over the years. Conservatives are still reckoning with the fallout from Carlson’s interview with Fuentes.
For example, board members and other staff resigned from the Heritage Foundation after the think tank’s president defended Carlson.
Trump tried to sidestep the issue, declining to criticize Fuentes and praising Carlson for having “said good things about me over the years.” The president previously dined with Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago in between his two terms, and Carlson has continued to visit the White House.
Mort Klein, president of the conservative Jewish Group Zionists for America, said Wednesday that he supports Trump but “I’d like him to do more” about antisemitism.
“I want him to be stronger on those issues,” Klein said.
Carlson has said that he is not antisemitic. But he has said anti-Jewish hate is less pervasive in society than bias against white people, and that some Christian politicians who were fervent supporters of Israel, such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, were guilty of heresy.
Israel divide simmers in right-wing media
The Iran war is poised to continue fracturing right-wing media.
Ben Shapiro, co-founder of The Daily Wire, called Carlson’s Fuentes interview “an act of moral imbecility” and accused the host of misleading his audience with falsehoods and conspiracy theories.
He’s also feuded with Candace Owens, who has promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories. Dennis Prager, a conservative commentator, wrote in an open letter to Owens that “I cannot think of anyone in public life engendering as much suspicion of Jews, Zionism and Israel as you.”
Megyn Kelly, like Carlson a former Fox News Channel anchor now helming her own independent media empire, said the war was sold to the American people by “Israel firsters, like Mark Levin.” Levin, a radio and Fox personality, has been among Trump’s most fervent supporters of the war.
Levin, for his part, called Kelly an “emotionally unhinged, lewd and petulant wreck.”
It promises to continue.
Levin posted on social media an invitation to Kent to appear on his show in the coming days.
“Sure,” Kent replied. “Let’s go.”
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