A Sh0cking Twist SHAKING America from former Fox News host Tucker Carlson: “Sean Hannity, did I say anything wrong?”.

Right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson blasted his former Fox News colleague Sean Hannity on Friday, calling Hannity and other MAGA hawks “wɑrm0ngers” for cheering Isrɑel’s m1ssile str1kes against the Irɑnian regime.

The Context

Isrɑel launched a series of strikes against Irɑn early Friday, local time, which decimated the regime’s military chain of command, hit critical nucl3ar facilities and took out top Irɑnian nucl3ar scientists.

After the strikes, Irɑn pulled out of scheduled nucl3ar talks with the U.S. and retaliated against Isrɑel with a wave of r0cket att@cks that struck Tel Aviv, Isrɑel’s commercial center and also home to the country’s central m1litary b@se.

Isrɑel and Irɑn have been engaged in an increasingly destructive array of tit-for-tat strikes against one another since Hamas—backed by the Irɑn-led Axis of Resistance—carried out its att@ck against Isrɑel on October 7, 2023. But the strikes commenced by Isrɑel early Friday marked the most serious escalation yet between Jerusalem and Tehran.

What To Know

When Isrɑel struck Irɑn, it capped a long-running foreign policy battle being waged in President Donald Tr::mp’s inner circle.

Carlson, a staunch isolationist, was among the voices urging against escalating tensions between Irɑn and Isrɑel, which were at a tipping point before Isrɑel’s strikes against the regime early Friday. He also supported Tr::mp’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, as he spearheaded the nucl3ar discussions with Irɑn.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson gestures during an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow on February 6, 2024. Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
On the other side of the coin were Hannity and conservative media host Mark Levin, who, among others, were deeply skeptical that Irɑn would agree to end its nucl3ar program and expressed support for Isrɑel taking military action.

On Friday, Carlson tore into Hannity, Levin, conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch and conservative megadonors Isaac Perlmutter and Miriam Adelson.

“The real divide isn’t between people who support Isrɑel and people who support Irɑn or the Palestinians. The real divide is between those who casually encourage violence, and those who seek to prevent it — between wɑrm0ngers and peacemakers,” Carlson wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

He added: “Who are the wɑrm0ngers? They would include anyone who’s calling Donald Tr::mp today to demand air strikes and other direct US military involvement in a wɑr with Irɑn. On that list: Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Rupert Murdoch, Ike Perlmutter and Miriam Adelson. At some point they will all have to answer for this, but you should know their names now.”

Newsweek reached out to Fox News for comment via email on Friday.

Hannity and Levin took a victory lap on Fox News shortly after Isrɑel carried out its first strike against Irɑn early Friday, with Hannity rattling off a list of Irɑn’s provocations and nucl3ar threats and Levin saying that “the Irɑnians are about to get their asses kicked and it’s been coming since Jimmy Carter.”

“They think this is Joe Biden’s administration, that they would get away, get nucl3ar weapons and then the world would sit there, wouldn’t know what to do about it,” he said, adding that Isrɑel “is not going to sit there and take it.”

Hours after the strikes, Carlson put out what he called his potential “fin@l newsl3tter before all-out wɑr” and accused Tr|::mp of being “c0mplicit.”

“While the American military may not have physically perpetrated the ass@ult, years of funding and sending weapons to Isrɑel, which Donald Tr::mp just bragged about on Truth Social, undeniably place the U.S. at the center of last night’s events. Washington knew these att@cks would happen,” Carlson wrote. “They aided Isrɑel in carrying them out. Politicians purporting to be America First can’t now credibly turn around and say they had nothing to do with it. Our country is in deep.”

“Despite being c0mplicit in the @ct of wɑr, the president hopes last night’s events will help his ongoing nucl3ar negotiations with Irɑn,” Carlson added. “Steve Witkoff was scheduled to participate in the next round of talks on Sunday, but whether that will still happen is up in the air.”

Isrɑel’s strikes against Irɑn came after months of Tr::mp urging Isrɑeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to att@ck Tehran, saying that it would torpedo America’s already tenuous negotiations with the Irɑnian regime.

What People Are Saying

On Friday, after Isrɑel’s strikes, Tr::mp again pushed Irɑn to come back to the table, writing on Truth Social: “Irɑn must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Irɑnian Empire. No more d3ath, no more d3structi0n, JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. God Bless You All!”

After Irɑn initiated its retaliatory r0cket att@cks against Isrɑel, a U.S. defense official told Newsweek: “Yes, the U.S. is assisting in sh00ting down missiles targeting Isrɑel.”

What Happens Next

Isrɑel and Irɑn have been b0mbing each other since the first wave of strikes early Friday, with Isrɑel saying it plans to “esc@late” in response to Irɑn’s retaliatory att@ck. Irɑn, meanwhile, has wɑrned that it will target the military bases of any countries that assist Isrɑel.