Tucker Carlson, the far-right personality who has repeatedly drawn criticism for promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories, recounted the plot to murder Jesus during his speech at the memorial service for Charlie Kirk.
Both supporters and critics said they believed Carlson was implying that Jews or Israelis had been behind Kirk’s assassination earlier this month — amplifying a prominent conspiracy theory that Israel killed Kirk because his longstanding support was eroding.
The theory advanced by far-right influencers gained so much traction last week that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly denied the allegations twice, first while being questioned on NewsMax, a far-right TV network, and again in a video address that he posted online.
Carlson has flirted openly with the theory but did not mention Netanyahu, Israel or the Jews explicitly during his speech at Kirk’s memorial, which included a who’s who of contemporary conservatism and married the stylings of a political rally and a religious revival.
Instead, Carlson likened Kirk to Jesus — and his assassin to those who killed the man worshipped by billions of Christians. Recounting what he said was “my favorite story ever,” Carlson said:
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. 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.’
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.”
It doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t work that way.
For many listening, including right-wing Jews who admired Kirk, the link between the story and the contemporary allegation against Israel was clear.
Some Jewish voices said Carlson, who laughed as he told the story, was invoking antisemitic ideas that have long fueled Christian violence against Jews. Several also noted that hummus was not traditionally eaten in ancient Jerusalem, for them making Carlson’s reference a clear dogwhistle about contemporary Israel.
“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,” tweeted Adam King, who goes by “Awesome Jew” on the show he hosts on Infowars.
“I’m not a person who sees dog whistles quickly or readily, but I sure as s— saw it in Tucker’s speech,” tweeted the conservative commentator Bethany Mandel. She noted that President Donald Trump had included Tel Aviv among the places where Kirk had been mourned, adding, “There is a fight for the soul of the conservative movement.”
“Tucker Carlson Hints at Baseless, Antisemitic Conspiracy Theory of Jews Killing Charlie Kirk at Funeral Service,” read a headline on Belaaz, a right-wing Jewish news site. The site said it had “reached out to two influential Jewish leaders with personal ties to President Trump, and both declined to comment.” It did not name the leaders.
It was not only Jews drawing the connection: The Quds News Network, a Palestinian network, meanwhile, tweeted a video of the speech with the description, “Tucker Carlson suggests Israeli involvement in Charlie Kirk’s death during TPUSA’s memorial for its late founder.”
The most prominent voices amplifying the theory that Israel was behind Kirk’s murder, which authorities have attributed to a 22-year-old Utah man who they say has confessed, have been Carlson; Candace Owens, who has long amplified antisemitic and anti-Israel ideas; and Nick Fuentes, a streamer who made a point of goading Kirk to be more antisemitic and anti-Israel.
Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a pro-Israel group, tweeted that he was distressed by Carlson’s speech.
“Tucker Carlson used the memorial for Charlie Kirk — a passionate friend of Israel & the Jewish people — to spread antisemitic blood libels,” Dubowitz wrote. “I knew his father, Richard Carlson, Vice-Chair at FDD who strongly supported Jews & Israel. I just can’t fathom what happened to Tucker.”
Max Abrahms, a political scientist focusing on terrorism who is a Republican, tweeted that he was most unnerved by Carlson’s prominence within the party. Carlson took the same stage as Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and multiple prominent Republican lawmakers.
“There was a time when Tucker was known for debating” Abrahms wrote. “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.”
He added, “What concerns me isn’t Tucker. What concerns me is this un-American toxicity is so welcomed in the Republican Party.”
A Kansas Reform rabbi, Sam Stern, responded, “As long as he is welcomed, will we be?” Abrahms responded: “Your question answers itself.”
Prominent Jewish attendees at the memorial organized by Kirk’s Turning Points USA in Glendale, Arizona, included Stephen Miller, the architect of several of Trump’s policies including around immigration who spoke on stage, and Laura Loomer, who has reportedly played an influential role in personnel decisions despite holding no formal position.
Many of the speakers used the memorial to call for greater religiosity and evangelize for Christian ideas. “As much as I love the Lord, and as much as it was an important part of my life, I have talked more about Jesus Christ in the past two weeks than I have my entire time in public life,” Vance said in his speech.
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