Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro condemned Tucker Carlson for platforming white nationalist Nick Fuentes and trafficking in antisemitic conspiracy theories, calling him a charlatan. StopAntisemitism named Carlson “Antisemite of the Year” for 2025 by an overwhelming vote margin for his repeated interviews with bigots and Hitler apologists.
The conservative movement’s internal tensions exploded onto the main stage at Turning Point USA’s first annual conference since the September assassination of co-founder Charlie Kirk. For two consecutive days, what had been simmering disputes among MAGA influencers became public warfare, with podcaster Ben Shapiro launching a direct attack on Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, Candace Owens, and Megyn Kelly.
Speaking on the AmericaFest convention’s opening night Thursday, Shapiro, co-founder of The Daily Wire, delivered a blistering condemnation of figures he described as “charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty.”
His central charge focused on conspiracy theories surrounding Kirk’s murder. Shapiro accused Owens of peddling theories—without objection from Kelly and other prominent conservatives—that foreign governments, including Israel, and employees of Turning Point USA could have been involved in the killing. Utah prosecutors have charged Tyler Robinson, 22, with murder and are seeking the death penalty. Robinson has yet to enter a plea.
“Those of us with a microphone have a moral obligation to call that out by name,” Shapiro declared.
Shapiro reserved his harshest criticism for Carlson’s decision to platform white nationalist Nick Fuentes, whom Shapiro called “a Hitler apologist, Nazi-loving, anti-American piece of refuse.”
“There is a reason that Charlie Kirk despised Nick Fuentes and, indeed, even chided Dinesh D’Souza for debating him,” Shapiro said. “He knew that Nick Fuentes is an evil troll and that building him up is an act of moral imbecility. And that is precisely what Tucker Carlson did.”
Shapiro asserted that hosts bear responsibility “for the guests they choose and the questions they ask those guests,” and demanded that Carlson “ought to take responsibility” for platforming Fuentes.
He also condemned Bannon for “maligning people that he disagrees with” by accusing them of “loyalty to a foreign country”—invoking the ancient dual loyalty smear used against Jews.
Approximately an hour after Shapiro’s speech, Carlson took the stage and appeared to mock Shapiro’s attempt to “deplatform and denounce” people who disagree with him.
“I just got here, and I feel like I missed the first part of the program. Hope I didn’t miss anything meaningful. But I just want to say I don’t think I did,” Carlson quipped. “No, I’m just kidding. I watched it. I laughed.”
While not mentioning Shapiro by name, Carlson took multiple jabs at the speech, calling it “hilarious” to hear “calls for, like, deplatforming and denouncing people at a Charlie Kirk event.”
“Charlie stood firm in his often-stated and deeply held belief that people should be able to debate, and if you have something valid to say, if you’re telling the truth, you ought to be able to explain it calmly and in detail to people who don’t agree with you, and that you shouldn’t immediately resort to, ‘Shut up racist,'” Carlson said.
Carlson defended himself against charges of antisemitism, stating, “Antisemitism is immoral. In my religion, it is immoral to hate people for how they were born. Period.”
He also denied the existence of infighting within the MAGA movement, claiming, “The Trump coalition, and the supposed civil war going on within that group, I don’t think it’s real. I think it’s fake. I think it’s totally fake.”
Carlson’s denials rang hollow as the prominent Jewish civil rights group StopAntisemitism named him “Antisemite of the Year” for 2025, citing his platforming of Jew-haters on his show.
“By an overwhelming vote margin, Tucker Carlson has been named StopAntisemitism’s 2025 Antisemite of the Year,” founder and executive director Liora Rez told The Post. “Carlson’s divisive, hateful, and dangerous rhetoric and his repeated glowing interviews with bigots and Hitler apologists have made him the most reviled Jew-hater over the last 12 months.”
The group pointed to Carlson’s October interview with Fuentes, during which the white nationalist praised Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who promoted policies that discriminated against Jews. During that same interview, Carlson himself attacked “Christian Zionists” for supporting Israel, saying they had been “seized by this brain virus”—specifically targeting former President George W. Bush, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
“I dislike them more than anybody,” Carlson told Fuentes.
StopAntisemitism had previously named Carlson its “Antisemite of the Week” in October, before the Fuentes controversy erupted.
“He uses his platform of millions to normalize antisemitism, from downplaying white supremacy to promoting the antisemitic ‘great replacement theory,’ turning dog whistles into a megaphone for hate,” the group stated.
The organization accused Carlson of targeting Shapiro and other pro-Israel Jewish conservatives for being “focused on a conflict in a foreign country as their own country becomes dangerously unstable”—invoking the dual loyalty smear that implies Jews are traitorous Americans whose true allegiance lies with Israel.
Carlson has also interviewed Palestinian pastor Munther Isaac, who refers to Israel as a “terrorist entity,” and Holocaust revisionist Darryl Cooper, who claimed the Nazis didn’t intend to kill Jews and blamed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill for World War II. Carlson praised Cooper as “the best and most honest popular historian in the United States.”
In August 2025, Carlson hosted Orthodox nun Mother Agapia Stephanopoulos in an interview titled “Here’s What It’s Really Like to Live as a Christian in the Holy Land.” The interview featured a litany of false and misleading claims that demonized Israel while whitewashing Palestinian terrorism.
Mother Agapia falsely claimed that Palestinians are “the Canaanite descendants” without acknowledging that archaeological evidence demonstrates Jews are equally descended from ancient Canaanites. She misidentified the Western Wall as “a portion of the temple that still exists” when it was actually a retaining wall for the Temple Mount, not part of the temple structure itself. She accused Israel of being responsible for the 2003 American invasion of Iraq—a claim contradicted by historical records showing Israeli leaders urged the Bush administration to focus on Iran, not Iraq.
The nun also made the inflammatory and baseless claim that Israel intends to “blow up” the Al-Aqsa Mosque or the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount. This dangerous accusation ignores the historical reality that after Israel gained control of Jerusalem’s Old City in 1967, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan returned administrative control of the Temple Mount to the Islamic Waqf—the exact opposite of destruction. Israel is the only Middle Eastern country with a growing Christian population, yet Mother Agapia claimed Israel’s Christian community is shrinking. Israel’s Christian population grew by 1.3% in 2023, while Christian numbers have collapsed in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas due to persecution and legal discrimination.
Perhaps most egregiously, Mother Agapia described Hamas as “a resistance movement” and appeared to deny the October 7 massacre. She also repeated discredited stories about Israeli conduct in Bethlehem during the 2002 Church of the Nativity siege, ignoring firsthand testimony from monks and priests who described Palestinian militants as the real perpetrators of violence and desecration.
Her theological claims were equally troubling to Christians. She suggested that Christian Zionism represents a heresy condemned in 381 CE, a claim that distorts church history and dismisses the Biblical understanding that millions of Christians hold regarding God’s covenant with the Jewish people. Her assertion that the beliefs of Christian Zionists about the rapture and the millennium constitute ancient heresy misrepresents both historical theology and contemporary evangelical doctrine.
Carlson’s hostility is not limited to Israel and the Jews. His animosity toward Christians who support Israel has become a defining feature of his program. During his interview with Fuentes, he singled out President Trump’s appointee, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, along with former President George W. Bush, Senator Ted Cruz, John Bolton, and Karl Rove as examples of people “seized by this brain virus” of Christian Zionism.
“I dislike them more than anybody because it’s Christian heresy and I’m offended by that as a Christian,” Carlson declared. He went further, stating: “If you wake up in the morning and decide that your Christian faith means you have to support whatever the Israeli government does, that’s not Christianity—that’s something else.”
This statement reveals Carlson’s misunderstanding—or deliberate misrepresentation—of Christian Zionism. The Evangelical support for Israel does not stem from blind allegiance to any government but from a biblical understanding of God’s covenantal promises to the Jewish people and the role of Israel in biblical prophecy. When Carlson attacks Christian Zionists as heretics, he attacks the millions of American evangelicals who form the core of his own audience and who recognize that supporting the Jewish state is consistent with, not contrary to, their faith.
Huckabee responded with characteristic grace: “Wasn’t aware that Tucker despises me. I do get that a lot from people not familiar with the Bible or history. Somehow, I will survive the animosity.” Cruz was more direct: “It’s remarkable, and sad, watching Tucker turn into Nick Fuentes.”
Owens has her own record of trafficking in antisemitic conspiracy theories. Beyond her suggestions about Kirk’s assassination, she has promoted classic antisemitic tropes about Jewish power and control. Her descent into open Jew-hatred has been marked by spreading conspiracy theories that echo the oldest libels in the antisemitic playbook, making her one of the most dangerous voices in conservative media due to her large platform and influence.
“When influential figures normalize antisemitic narratives, it contributes to a climate where threats, harassment, and violence against Jews become more and more common,” Rez said. “Antisemitism is surging in the U.S. and abroad, and it is increasingly driven by people with powerful platforms…not just by fringe extremists.”
She added, “Words don’t kill, but they dig the graves by inflaming hatred and inspiring unstable actors. Words have consequences, and in today’s environment, they can and do pave the way to real-world violence and deadly attacks on Jews.”
The public confrontation at AmericaFest revealed that the conservative movement faces a choice: Will it tolerate those who mainstream antisemitism under the guise of free speech, or will it hold its most prominent voices accountable for the hatred they amplify? The battle lines have been drawn, and the fight for the soul of the movement is now playing out in full view.
