Cruz Says Carlson Is Driving Antisemitism Fight On The Right
DES MOINES, Iowa - Sen. Ted Cruz told a Faith & Freedom audience that antisemitism is rising inside the Republican coalition and named Tucker Carlson as the most dangerous influencer in that fight, according to a transcript of a public event clip posted Monday on X.
The Texas Republican framed the issue as a party fight, not just a foreign policy dispute over Israel. In the clip, Cruz said Democrats had already allowed antisemitism to grow on the left, then warned Republicans that the same pattern was now appearing on their side.
What Happened
Cruz opened the clip by saying, "there's a threat in particular that worries me deeply, which is we are seeing anti-Semitism rising across this country," according to the local transcript preserved by the video intake pipeline.
He accused Democratic leaders of looking away as antisemitism rose on the left, then shifted the warning toward his own party. "I'll tell you in the last year and a half, we have seen anti-Semitism rising on the right," Cruz said in the transcript. "And we've seen more of it than I've ever seen in my lifetime."
Cruz then named Carlson directly. He said a "handful of self-appointed, outspoken influencers" were "pushing anti-Semitism on the right" and accused them of attacking Israel, Jews and President Donald Trump.
"The single most dangerous one of all of them is Tucker Carlson," Cruz said, according to the transcript. He also named Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and said those figures were "battling for the soul of our party and the soul of our country."
The clip was posted by the X account @ShadowofEzra. The video intake brief says the speaker matches Cruz and that the backdrop identifies a Faith & Freedom Coalition event. The brief also warned writers not to use the X caption's phrase "existential threat" as a Cruz quote because those exact words do not appear in the transcript.
The Response
Cruz tied the fight to Christian Zionism, a belief among many evangelical Christians that support for Israel is religiously and politically important. In the transcript, Cruz said "there has been no constituency in America" stronger in support of Israel than evangelical Christians.
He accused Carlson of saying on his show that nobody on earth was hated by Carlson more than Christian Zionists, specifically Cruz and Mike Huckabee. That portion is Cruz's characterization of Carlson's comments, not an independent transcript of Carlson's program.
Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and U.S. ambassador to Israel, responded to Carlson in an Oct. 28 X post. "Wasn't aware that Tucker despises me," Huckabee wrote. "I do get that a lot from people not familiar with the Bible or history. Somehow I will survive the animosity."
Cruz amplified Huckabee the same day on X. "Mike Huckabee is a pastor and a patriot who loves America, loves Israel, and loves Jesus," Cruz wrote, according to the post indexed by X search. "I'm proud to be in his company!"
What People Are Saying
"There is a threat in particular that worries me deeply, which is we are seeing anti-Semitism rising across this country," Cruz said in the video transcript.
"In the last year and a half, we have seen anti-Semitism rising on the right," Cruz said. "And we've seen more of it than I've ever seen in my lifetime."
"The single most dangerous one of all of them is Tucker Carlson," Cruz said, naming Carlson after accusing right-side influencers of pushing antisemitism.
"They are battling for the soul of our party and the soul of our country," Cruz said of Carlson, Greene and others.
"Somehow I will survive the animosity," Huckabee wrote on X after Carlson's comments about Christian Zionists drew conservative pushback.
By The Numbers
ADL's 2024 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents counted 9,354 antisemitic incidents across the United States, according to the organization. ADL said that total was up 5 percent from 2023, up 344 percent over five years and up 893 percent over 10 years.
The same ADL page says the 2024 total was the highest number the organization has recorded since it began tracking antisemitic incidents 46 years earlier. ADL categorizes incidents across harassment, vandalism and assault.
Cruz's argument is narrower than the ADL dataset. He is not only saying antisemitism is rising nationally. He is saying the right now faces an internal fight over whether opposition to Israel, attacks on Jewish identity and attacks on Christian Zionism are becoming acceptable in conservative media.
The Big Picture
The clash puts a sharp edge on a split that has been building inside Republican politics. Pro-Israel conservatives, especially evangelical leaders and GOP foreign policy hawks, see support for Israel as central to the party's moral and strategic identity. America First skeptics of overseas commitments argue that U.S. leaders should put American interests ahead of Israeli priorities and resist pressure for Middle East intervention.
Cruz is trying to draw a boundary between policy disagreement and antisemitism. His critics inside the right are likely to argue that opposition to Israeli government policy, foreign aid or Christian Zionist theology should not be treated as hatred of Jews.
The next test is whether Republican candidates and conservative media figures treat Cruz's warning as a party-line defense of Israel or as the opening stage of a larger fight over what America First means after Trump. The answer could shape 2026 primary contests, evangelical turnout and the GOP's foreign policy message long before the next presidential race begins.
