Robert Draper

And all of the podcasters on the ride began to talk about this dust-up between those two.

And so finally, Carlson himself decided and was convinced, frankly, by people who were friends of his who talked to him and said, you know, you're underestimating this guy, Fuentes.

He actually has a really sizable following.

And Carlson decided then to have him on his show.

And it was this very sort of genial two hours.

Now, why did Tucker Carlson do this?

Sure.

Well, and I think that the answer to that, Natalie, is that he was finding common cause in Fuentes because Carlson himself over the past year had become increasingly anti-Israel or as he would put it, anti-Israeli government.

that the Israeli government has been the tail that has wagged the dog of American affairs for far too long.

while insisting that he abhors anti-Semitism.

But by and large, he was very accommodating towards Fuentes' view, which was and is unambiguously anti-Semitic.

There had never really been anyone of Tucker Carlson's stature who had spoken to Fuentes before on the air.

And to give him that kind of softball treatment.

struck so many on the right as really alarming and inappropriate.

Tucker Carlson's a nobody.

He got famous on Fox.

That's it.

Mark Levin, the right-wing broadcaster, denounced Carlson.

Nick Fuentes is gum on the bottom of our shoe.

The Congressman Randy Fine said as well that Carlson's remarks and his amiable treatment of Fuentes had no place in the conservative movement.