Cruz Urges Right to Condemn Antisemitism After Carlson Podcast

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called on conservatives to speak out against what he saw as a recent rise in antisemitism within the Republican party, days after a conservative leader drew outrage for defending Tucker Carlson’s interview with a white nationalist.

Speaking Friday at the conservative Federalist Society’s annual convention, Cruz said that in the last six months, he’s seen “more antisemitism on the right than I have at any time in my life.”

The Texas Republican took aim at Carlson for interviewing Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist and Holocaust denier.

Carlson “spread a poison that is profoundly dangerous,” said Cruz, a Senate Judiciary Committee member.

Cruz said he wouldn’t have taken issue with Carlson’s decision to invite Fuentes on his podcast had he cross-examined and challenged him. But he said Carlson instead “fawningly gazed” at Fuentes while he expressed admiration for Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

“Fuentes and Tucker and the rest of that ilk have a right to say what they are saying, but everyone of us has an obligation to stand up and say it is wrong,” Cruz said.

Cruz was the introductory speaker for a panel of judges on the tradition of religious respect in the US. His remarks set the tone for the panel, which focused largely on antisemitism and criticisms of Israel.

Many of the panel members had traveled to Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack by Hamas. The trips were sponsored by the World Jewish Congress to bring US judges to the country.

Judge Amul Thapar, of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, echoed concerns shared by Cruz and other panel members about what they see as rising antisemitism on college campuses. He said he joined a trip to Israel to ask “hard questions” of Israeli generals so he could address “misunderstandings” about the war in Gaza among college students.

Judge Andrew Oldham, who sits on the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, said he was motivated to join a judges’ trip to Israel by his Christian faith — “the central tenet of my identity on this Earth.”

Oldham, too, said he’s worried about college campuses, where he’s found people “so filled with hate, so intolerant.” Oldham said conservatives and the legal profession had an obligation to speak out against antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment.

“We have to have an absolutely moral clarity in how we talk about it,” Oldham said.

Conservative Split

Cruz is the latest prominent conservative to weigh in on a schism within the movement over the Republican party’s support of Israel in its war with Hamas and rising antisemitism.

Kevin Roberts, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, defended Carlson’s interview with Fuentes. He called the podcast host a “close friend to the Heritage Foundation” and said the “venomous coalition” attacking him was sowing division in a video posted on social media Oct. 30.

The Heritage Foundation leader also said that conservatives “should feel no obligation to reflexively support any foreign government, no matter how loud the pressure becomes from the globalist class or from their mouthpieces in Washington.”

Roberts’ video prompted quick backlash from other Republicans. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement on social media, reposting Roberts’ video, that conservatives shouldn’t “carry water for antisemites and apologists for America-hating autocrats.”

The Washington Post has also reported that members of Heritage’s antisemitism task force resigned in protest.

Roberts released a second video Wednesday saying that “venomous coalition” was “a terrible choice of words” and called for everyone “to speak up against the scourge of antisemitism no matter the messenger.”

Prominent conservatives have for years been accused of having ties with antisemites.

During President Donald Trump’s first term, white nationalists, including Fuentes, marched in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 during the “United the Right” rally.

A number of participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol during the certification of the presidential election also had ties to extremist, neo-Nazi and antisemitic groups, including the far-right Proud Boys.