‘Off The Rails’: Ted Cruz Rips Tucker Carlson For Going ‘Bat Crap Crazy’ On Foreign Policy

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Wenesday blasted conservative commentator Tucker Carlson over his foreign policy stance, saying that the former Fox News host has gone “bat crap crazy” in adopting “hardcore isolationist” views.

On his podcast, “Verdict with Ted Cruz,” the Texas senator previewed an interview he had with Carlson slated to drop on Carlson’s podcast on Wednesday. During the discussion, Cruz and Carlson get into a heated debate over Iran and President Donald Trump’s position on the Middle East conflict.

“I agree with Tucker on 80% of the issues … during the idiotic COVID lockdowns, Tucker’s monologue every night on Fox was the single best thing on television, which I told him at the time, and I agree with him,” Cruz said after recording the interview with Carlson. “I will say on foreign policy, Tucker has gone bat crap crazy. He’s gone off the rails. He is suddenly a hardcore isolationist.”

Cruz added that he knew going into the interview with Carlson that it would be a “rough and tumble fight” over foreign policy, especially after Israel launched an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities and military leaders last week.

“Tucker has spent the last several days attacking Donald Trump,” Cruz said. “He’s blasted Trump as ‘complicit’ in this horrible attack, and he keeps saying World War III is going to happen. He’s just been over the top.”

The senator said the two-hour interview with Carlson immediately became “combative,” with Carlson “throwing haymakers.” A short clip of the interview posted by Carlson on X shows the conservative commentator asking Cruz about the population of Iran, a question that Cruz couldn’t answer.

“How could you not know that?” Carlson asked.

“I don’t sit around memorizing population tables,” Cruz replied.

“Well, it’s kind of relevant because you’re calling for the overthrow of the government,” Carlson said.

Cruz shot back, “Why is it relevant whether it’s 90 million or 80 million or 100 million? Why is that relevant?”

Cruz added on Wednesday morning that Carlson criticized Trump throughout the interview and “spends 20 minutes” talking about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and “how he thinks the AIPAC lobby is dominating American foreign policy.”

“It was just unhinged, and I get there are conspiracy sections of the internet that are worried that AIPAC is running the world. It’s just not reality,” he said. “And [Carlson] didn’t like it when I called him out on it, and I did.”

The senator also accused Carlson of denying that Iran has attempted to assassinate President Trump, despite the Department of Justice charging an Iranian in November who it accuses of being “tasked by the Iranian Regime with surveilling and plotting to assassinate President-Elect Donald J. Trump.”

“He just said, ‘That’s not true. I’ve never heard anything about it. I don’t know anything about it,” Cruz added. “Well, it happens to be a fact. It happens to be that the DOJ has indicted Iranian hitmen for attempting to murder Donald Trump.”

Earlier this week, Trump called out Carlson over his views on the Middle East conflict, writing on Truth Social, “Somebody please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that, ‘IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!’”

Later in his podcast, Cruz said that isolationism and interventionism are “both wrong” approaches to foreign policy.

“I’m a non-interventionist hawk. I am very reluctant to engage in military conflict, just like Trump is,” Cruz added. “But I also believe in peace through strength. The best way you avoid war is being strong enough that your enemies don’t want to stand up to you.”