Tucker Carlson spoke to the crowd at a Turning Point USA event last night in Phoenix, where he addressed his role in the ideological conflict gripping the conservative movement since the murder of Charlie Kirk. He responded to direct criticism from Ben Shapiro about his comments on the U.S. relationship with Israel, saying: “God is not on any country’s side. Certain countries can decide to be on God’s side.” He started by mocking conservatives engaging in demands to “deplatform and denounce” other conservatives — less than a year after winning an election by arguing for the opposite. “This kind of was the whole point of Charlie Kirk’s public life,” he said. “And I think that he died for it.” He said Charlie Kirk invited him to speak at this event because he didn’t believe in turning every disagreement into an accusation: “In fact, this speech, my speech here-which he asked me to do earlier this year, this summer, and he was immediately put under just immense pressure from people who give money to Turning Point who wanted him to take me off the roster.” “By the way, ‘shut up, racist’ is the number one reason people voted for Donald Trump, because they’re just sick of it,” he said. “‘Shut up, Nazi’ is no different from ‘shut up, racist.’ It’s a little more annoying, actually.” “The style of debate where you prevent the other side from talking or being heard because you immediately go to motive… I kind of thought we’d reached the end of that.” He argued that anti-semitism is wrong because hating people based on their group identity is wrong in principle: “If it’s not a universal principle, it’s not a principle. It’s just a preference. It’s just identity politics.” “Come to our side, which is the side of humanity, and oppose all hate against all people. Say out loud: Hate against whites is every bit as bad as hate against Jews.” He also said this personal battle is being waged in preparation for the 2028 GOP presidential primaries: “There are people who are mad at J.D. Vance, and they’re stirring up a lot of this in order to make sure he doesn’t get the nomination. This is true.” “They’re mad at J.D. Vance because he is the one person right now who really kind of buys the core idea of the Trump coalition,” he said. “Now, what is that idea, ladies and gentlemen? Anyone know? America First.” “I notice some people are pretty anxious to retire that phrase. Remember when they told us that’s a bigoted phrase?” “Oh, that’s creepy. Sounds kind of fascist. You’re going to invade Poland now?” “We have self-government. This is a democratic republic. It exists for our benefit,” he said. “If you’re not operating the federal government on behalf of U.S. citizens, you’re illegitimate. You actually have no right to rule. Period.” “So once you realize that that’s the statement at the center of the debate, it all becomes pretty clear. Really clear, actually. It’s not an ideological debate. There’s nothing ideological about that,” he said. “If you’re doing the whole ‘shut up, racist’ thing, then I have a right to question your motives. Why do you have to imply that some college kid is like some kind of Hitlerite or something because he’s asking about an event?” “By the way, it is okay to ask questions. And I thought that was like the whole reason we were against the left,” he said. “By the way, your politics do not trump my love for other people.” “If they can’t tell you why it’s America First, you just won the argument because they don’t have one. ‘Shut up, Nazi’ is no different from ‘shut up, racist.’ It’s a little more annoying, actually,” he said. “I think I’m going back to cigarettes and giving up Twitter.” “God doesn’t have a partisan affiliation. He doesn’t have a nationality. And if someone is telling you otherwise, that is just not true.” “I would also call your attention to the very obvious prohibitions in the New Testament against killing the innocent,” he said. “I don’t care if it’s in Minneapolis or Gaza City… To see Christian pastors make excuses for that-” “That is the only question that matters: do we have the right to murder people? And the resounding answer that Christianity provides us is no,” he said. “I don’t get into the whole debate. You know-‘dispensationalist’ or whatever, ‘replacement theology.’ I don’t enter these debates.” “Any honest person would say that’s the essence of the Christian faith-killing tens of thousands of children and then making excuses for it on behalf of a foreign government is not in there. It’s antithetical to that. Sorry. It doesn’t make me a hater. It makes me the opponent of hate.”
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