U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee delivered a blistering assessment of Tucker Carlson, saying the commentator’s dramatic shift has left him struggling to recognize a man he has known for decades.
Speaking with Miranda Devine on “Pod Force One,” Huckabee challenged Carlson’s treatment of Israel, disputed his account of an airport detention and ultimately raised a far darker possibility while revisiting Carlson’s testimony of a demonic attack.
“So, this is a person I don’t recognize,” Huckabee said. “And he says things that are bizarre.”
Huckabee said their relationship dates to the early 1990s and includes six and a half years working alongside each other at Fox News. Following their contentious interview at Ben Gurion Airport, he rejected Carlson’s suggestion that he was under a supernatural spell.
“I’m the same person. I have the same views that I’ve had for most all of my adult life,” Huckabee said.
His assessment of Carlson was considerably different.
“I do think that there’s something that is mentally off,” he said. “And I don’t say that facetiously, and I don’t say it flippantly.”
Huckabee pointed to Carlson’s questions about Jewish ancestry and the Jewish people’s connection to their historic homeland.
“In our conversation, he went off on some rabbit chases that I’m thinking, what on earth is he talking about?” Huckabee said.
He specifically criticized questions about DNA testing and what he described as Carlson “acting like that Jews don’t have any real connection to their historic homeland in Israel.”
“The archaeology says, ‘Tucker, you’re wrong,’” Huckabee said.
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The ambassador also rejected Carlson’s account of being detained at the airport. Huckabee said staff took Carlson’s passport for processing while he waited in an executive lounge, where security footage showed him taking selfies and socializing with employees.
“He wasn’t detained,” Huckabee said.
“So if that’s detainment, he’s the most calm and carefree prisoner I think I’ve ever seen.”
The dispute reflects a broader concern Huckabee expressed about young Americans, including conservatives, turning against Israel. He attributed some of that hostility to antisemitism and much of it to social pressure and a shallow understanding of history.
“It’s a lack of information and a level of ignorance that is very disturbing,” he said.
Huckabee argued that social media exposes young people to foreign propaganda, while protesters repeat slogans whose implications they do not understand. Calls to eliminate Israel, he said, cannot honestly be presented as support for a two-state solution.
He also defended the U.S.-Israel alliance as a relationship rooted in more than military cooperation and shared intelligence.
“We share a foundational value system,” Huckabee said, tracing America’s founding principles to their Judeo-Christian roots.
But his sharpest suggestion concerned an encounter Carlson himself has publicly described: an unseen attacker, a struggle to breathe and bloody marks discovered in the night.
Charisma reported in October and November of 2024 that Carlson said he was attacked while sleeping beside his wife and four dogs. After waking unable to breathe, he went outside. Later, he discovered scratches along his ribs and shoulder.
Carlson described “something unseen that left claw marks on my sides.” He said his wife and dogs remained asleep and that blood on his sheets the next morning confirmed the injuries had not been a dream. The experience, he said, ignited an intense desire to read the Bible.
Huckabee brought that testimony into his assessment of Carlson’s transformation.
“If anyone is under some type of spell, I would say it’s Tucker Carlson,” he said.
He questioned why Carlson’s wife and dogs had not reacted during the reported attack. Then he offered a spiritual explanation of his own, explicitly framed as speculation.
“But I’m thinking that demon must have got into him.”
James Lasher, a seasoned writer and editor at Charisma Media, combines faith and storytelling with a journalism background from Otterbein University and ministry experience in Guatemala and at the LA Dream Center. A Marine Corps and Air Force veteran, he is the author of The Revelation of Jesus: A Common Man’s Commentary and a contributor to Charisma magazine. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
