Tucker Carlson has been accused by Jewish groups and Israeli media outlets of promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories about the the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
The conservative commentator and former Fox News host evoked the death of Jesus during his address at the memorial for Kirk on Sunday, appearing to draw comparisons between the two.
“So it’s about 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem, and Jesus shows up and he starts talking about the people in power, and he starts doing the worst thing that you can do, which is telling the truth about people, and they hate it, and they just go bonkers,” Carlson told the huge crowd gathered at the State Farm Stadium in Glendal, Arizona, to celebrate the life of Kirk.
“They hate it, and they become obsessed with making him stop: ‘This guy’s got to stop talking. We’ve got to shut this guy up,’” he continued.
“And I can just sort of picture the scene in a lamp-lit room with a bunch of guys sitting around eating hummus, thinking about — ‘What do we do about this guy telling the truth about us? We must make him stop talking.’ And there’s always one guy with the bright idea, and I can just hear him say, ‘I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we just kill him? That’ll shut him up, that’ll fix the problem,’” Carlson said, before bursting into laughter.
“It doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t work that way,” he added.
His comments sparked outcry from a number of Jewish groups and Israeli figures, who accused Carlson of evoking medieval “blood libel” conspiracies about Jewish people being responsible for the death of Christ.
Others said his mention of hummus, which was not eaten 2,000 years ago, was a clear attempt to evoke modern Israel.
“Complete with a laugh like a cartoon villain, Tucker Carlson uses Charlie Kirk’s funeral to spread an antisemitic blood libel,” former Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy wrote on X.
“Tucker Carlson pushed an antisemitic trope, painting the Pharisees as ‘sitting around eating hummus’ plotting Christ’s crucifixion — then comparing it to people supposedly silencing Charlie Kirk by killing him, as if Jews killed Kirk the way they killed Christ,” Infowars host Adam King wrote on X.
“Once again, Tucker Carlson finds a way to insinuate that Charlie Kirk’s murder had something to do with Jews. No matter what happens, someone, somewhere will find a way to blame it on Jews,” Compact Magazine editor Matthew Schmitz posted.
“Tucker Carlson used the memorial for Charlie Kirk — a passionate friend of Israel & the Jewish people — to spread antisemitic blood libels,” Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the pro-Israel group the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, wrote on X.
“There was a time when Tucker was known for debating. Now he’s known for dog whistles, blaming everything on Jews, heaping praise on fake-historian Hitler apologists, apologizing to the Bin Laden terrorist family, denying Hamas is a terrorist group, siding with Islamist terrorists, and pretending Russians enjoy a higher standard of living than Americans,” Max Abrahms, a Republican political scientist, wrote on X.
Meanwhile, Carlson’s words were amplified by Palestinian media outlet the Quds News Network.
“Tucker Carlson suggests Israeli involvement in Charlie Kirk’s death during TPUSA’s memorial for its late founder,” the network wrote in a post sharing a clip of the video.
Far-right influencers in the US, including Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes, have also been among the voices amplifying the theory that Israel was responsible for Kirk’s assassination on Sept. 10.
Representatives for Carlson did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and a number of other senior Republicans spoke on the same stage as Carlson during Sunday’s event.
Some prominent Jewish speakers at the memorial included Stephen Miller and Laura Loomer.
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