‘Tarantulas Fighting In A Glass Bowl’: Carlson, Cruz Shred Each Other As MAGA Splits
Potential for US military involvement in Middle East cleaves Trump supporters
This week has given way to some truly unexpected spectacles as Donald Trump’s loyal MAGA base splits in two over the possibility that Trump could order the US military to intervene in support of Israel in its ongoing conflict with Iran.
On the on hand, there are the more hawkish elements of Trump’s right-wing base which wants to go all-in, in supporting Israel’s operations militarily, including direct strikes on Iran.
On the other are Trump’s more-populist allies who are fighting to keep the United States out of any foreign wars.
These battles between factions on the right have been playing out on Fox News, MAGA podcasts and other right-wing media.
But no tussle between figures on the right has created more unforeseen venom and spectacle than the face-off between Republican Sen Ted Cruz, of Texas, and longtime right-wing commentator and propagandist Tucker Carlson.
Cruz appeared on Carlson’s program, and immediately the two Trump stalwarts took the gloves off in a ferocious fashion.
Cruz represented the Israel hawks, while Carlson — long sympathetic to Russian leader Vladimir Putin — is among those among the MAGA faithful who are skeptical of US military intervention.
Carlson’s questions revealed that Cruz was ignorant of basic details about Iran — the nation Cruz is advocating force against — including Iran’s overall population.
The conversation between the two men devolved from there, with the two disagreeing over nearly everything, including the longstanding lobbyist group that advocates for Israel in the United States, known as AIPAC.
Carlson correctly noted that the organization is “lobbying on behalf of the interests of another country,” that of Israel.
It got quite nasty between the two.
“And by the way, you’re the one that just called me, I think, ‘a sleazy feline.’ So, let’s be clear,” Cruz said.
To which Carlson responded: “It’s sleazy to imply that I’m an anti-Semite, which you just did.”
The slugfest did not go unnoticed.
“Watching Trump’s closest allies and supporters take to the air and fight with one another is akin to watching tarantulas fighting in a glass bowl, but it is important,” said Nicolle Wallace, the former Republican who today is one of the most popular hosts on MSNBC. “And as we said, the stakes couldn’t be higher and it is a significant political detriment to Trump and his coalition to have them fracture like this.
“There’s never been more daylight between the two most powerful factions of his political movement than there is right now, this hour,” she added, during her Wednesday program.
Ned Price, a diplomat and advisor who served during the Obama and Biden administrations, found himself surprisingly in agreement with Carlson.
“You know, when I watch that interview between Tucker Carlson and Senator Cruz, I’m reminded of that saying, what is it, it’s something like, ‘You know, even a broken clock is right twice a day.’ And for me, in this case, Tucker Carlson is sort of like the broken clock,” Price said. “In a way, I wish both of them could lose, but look, on this, I think Tucker Carlson is making some points in which I find myself in very narrow alignment with someone like Tucker Carlson, something I didn’t think I would say.
“But, you know, there is this civil war between what we might want to call mainstream MAGA and hard-line MAGA, and hard-line MAGA being those who, you know, thought Donald Trump would be as he says he would be, the president who would keep America out of foreign wars and wouldn’t do stupid stuff on the international stage,” Price added. “But here’s my question for the hard-line MAGA that are really tearing themselves apart over this particular divide: Why on earth would you think that this president has any firm principles whatsoever?”
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