Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host turned independent broadcaster, sharply rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, accusing him of attempting to “hijack Charlie’s memory” in the aftermath of the conservative activist’s assassination.
Carlson said Netanyahu sought to twist the tragedy into support for his own political agenda, despite Kirk’s own misgivings about the Israeli leader.
“I was shocked and sickened by the reaction of—the ghoulish and really repulsive reaction of the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, to Charlie’s death,” Carlson said on The Tucker Carlson Show. He alleged that Netanyahu “basically made it all about him and all about his country, immediately trying to take the energy, the sadness, the grief that people felt over Charlie’s murder and redirect it towards support for whatever project he’s involved in.”
Carlson stressed that Netanyahu’s public statement distorted Kirk’s true views. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything lower than his attempt to hijack Charlie’s memory and use it for his own political ends, particularly because what he said was completely untrue,” Carlson declared.
Contrary to narratives painting Kirk as a Netanyahu supporter, Carlson claimed Kirk “did not like Bibi Netanyahu” and “was appalled by what was happening in Gaza.” He described Kirk as a friend who “loved the state of Israel, he loved going there,” but who “felt that Bibi Netanyahu was a very destructive force.”
“He was above all resentful that he believed Netanyahu was using the United States to prosecute his wars for the benefit of his country and that it was shameful and embarrassing and bad for the United States, and he resented it,” Carlson continued. While emphasizing that Kirk “didn’t hate Netanyahu,” Carlson said he had shared his concerns “many times” with him and with others. “There’s no question that Bibi’s defenders on the internet will call me a liar or a kook, but that’s a fact, and enough text messages exist that I think it can probably be verified in pretty short order,” he said.
Carlson also alleged that Kirk had been pressured by pro-Netanyahu voices in the days leading up to his death.
He claimed donors and Netanyahu allies mounted “a very intense attack” on Kirk after he invited Carlson to appear at a Turning Point USA conference. “Donors tormented Charlie Kirk until the day he died,” Carlson said. Just two days before the assassination, Carlson added, Kirk “lost a $2 million donation because he had publicly pledged to bring me to the next Turning Point conference in December.”
“I hated seeing how much he was suffering, the hassle he was getting from people,” Carlson recalled. He closed his remarks with a pointed rebuke: “There are many liars out there—Bibi Netanyahu number one among them, shamefully—who are trying to distort the truth. A truth that I know and can prove.”
Former Republican congressman Matt Gaetz echoed Carlson’s account, responding, “I have personal knowledge as to many of the claims Tucker is making here. They are 100 percent true.”
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