AmericaFest 2025: Tucker Carlson on America First Movement (Transcript)

Here is the full transcript of Tucker Carlson’s speech on “America First Movement & New ‘Deplatforming’ Agenda”, @AmericaFest 2025, in Phoenix, Arizona, Dec 19, 2025.

Brief Notes: Tucker Carlson takes the AmericaFest stage to defend the America First movement against what he calls a new “deplatforming and denunciation” craze emerging not from the left, but from parts of the right itself. Responding to Ben Shapiro and others who have attacked him and Candace Owens over Charlie Kirk–related conspiracies and alleged antisemitism, Tucker argues that weaponizing labels like “Nazi” and “racist” is just a recycled form of identity politics meant to shut down debate.

He lays out a simple test for every politician and commentator—can you clearly explain how your decisions put American citizens first?—and says anyone who cannot meet that standard has “no right to rule.” The speech closes with a call to build a broad coalition of ordinary Americans who reject race war narratives and demand concrete accountability from leaders instead of moral posturing and censorship.

Listen to the audio version here:

Introduction

TUCKER CARLSON: Thank you very much. Oh yeah. Thank you. Oh! Thank you. Walking out is always such a trip with these things. I just got here and I feel like I missed the first part of the program. I hope I didn’t miss anything meaningful. But I just want to say, I don’t think I did, no I’m just kidding. I watched it. I laughed. I laughed, that kind of bitter sardonic laugh that emerges from you when like, upside down world arrives. When your dog starts doing your taxes and you’re like, wait, it’s not supposed to work this way.

The Irony of Deplatforming at a Free Speech Event

To hear calls for like, deplatforming and denouncing people at a Charlie Kirk event, I’m like, what? This is hilarious. Yeah, this is hilarious. Actually one of the clips, I was listening to myself, thinking as I often do when I hear myself speak, which is never, because I never watch myself, but at these events they always play like the role of you, and I’m like, “that guy is pompous, whoo!” Sorry about that. We don’t see ourselves clearly.

But the prediction that, you know, at some point when Republicans took power again, which I did everything I could, you know, to help, and really felt that was important, I still think I was right, but I really thought that the impulse to deplatform people, or even to use the word platform as a verb, which it’s not, it’s a noun, don’t steal my nouns, deplatform and denounce, “why haven’t you denounced somebody else,” the whole like, Red Guard cultural revolution thing that we so hated and feared on the left, that we did everything we could to usher in a new time where you could have an actual debate.

Charlie Kirk’s Stand for Free Debate

I mean, this kind of was the whole point of Charlie Kirk’s public life, and I think that he died for it. I really believe that. And I know a lot about it because the last several months of Charlie’s life were devoted in part to arguing about this event, in fact, this speech, in fact, my speech here, which he asked me to do earlier this year, this summer, and was immediately put under just immense pressure from people who give money to Turning Point, I would assume good people, but who wanted him to take me off the roster.

And this has all become public, and the whole thing is so sad that I never talk about it, except to say Charlie stood firm in his often stated and deeply held belief that people should be able to debate, and that 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.”

Rejecting the Politics of Character Assassination

You shouldn’t immediately go to motive. By the way, “shut up racist” is the number one reason I voted for Donald Trump. And because I’m just sick of it. I mean, first of all, if I was a racist, if I was a bigot, I would just say so. Okay, it’s America, you’re allowed to be whatever kind of person you want. I’m not. I’m sincerely opposed, have always been, and will always be.

But the style of debate where you prevent the other side from talking or being heard because you immediately go to motive, “well, I wonder why you’re asking that question. I wonder why. Why are you asking that question? I detect in the question a certain evil in your soul.” And everyone listening should know that listening to you implicates them, and that they someday may be asked to denounce you, and that friendship is not a reason to defend someone. Love is no defense.

I kind of thought we’d reached the end of that, and as far as I’m concerned, we have. And I’m not going to play by those rules. I’m not going to engage in that. If someone doesn’t like what I think, fine with me, as long as I get to express it. That’s my view.

But since we’re on the topic, I think I should take the opportunity to explain why Charlie was under all this pressure, and I think Erica, who I just saw backstage, and whom I love, and who I can tell you is totally committed to continuing the core principle of Charlie’s public life, which is the right of every person to express what he believes, that is rooted in Christian faith.

We believe people should be able to say what they think because they have souls. They’re human beings created by God. They are not slaves. They are not animals. They are not objects. You cannot tell another human being to shut up, even shut up racists, because you don’t own him.

He is an independent, autonomous person created by God as an individual.

Okay, so that’s where that belief comes from. That’s where free speech comes from, and there’s no accident, this is the only country in the world that protects it because our founding documents were informed, as you just heard so nicely expressed by Michael Knowles, my friend, by people who self-consciously incorporated Christian precepts into their structure of government.

Addressing the Controversy

So Charlie was committed to that, but the people around him were like, “You can’t because it’s not that Carlson’s wrong.” My only point was I don’t want a land war with Iran. I got over my skis and said I didn’t want another regime change war with Iran. Rather than explain why we should have a regime change war with Iran, which I’d be happy to listen to, “He’s an anti-Semite. He’s an anti-Semite!”

To which I said, well obviously that’s not true, and Charlie said, “I know,” and then it just didn’t stop. So I continued to say, “I’m not an anti-Semite,” “We don’t care what you say, you’re lying, you are.”

On Anti-Semitism and Christian Ethics

So let me just affirm one final time, not only am I not an anti-Semite, and would say so if I was, I’m not an anti-Semite for a very specific reason. Not because it’s unpopular, or my donors don’t like it, I don’t have any donors. I’m not an anti-Semite because anti-Semitism is immoral. In my religion, it is immoral to hate people for how they were born. Period.

But that is not a limited principle. That is a universal principle. It applies to every human being on planet Earth. You may not, you are prohibited by my religion, which is Christianity, from hating people for how they were born. Because God created them with his spark in his image. Because they have souls.

You can disagree with them. You can hate their ideas. You may even find yourself, and I do, I’ll confess it, hating them for a moment. But you can’t hate everyone who’s like them. You can’t punish people for crimes they didn’t commit. That’s the basis of our justice system. That’s the basis of Christian ethics. That’s why we have what are called human rights.

They apply to every human, not just your group, not just my group, but every group, every human, because we don’t consider people in terms of the groups to which they belong. We consider them as individuals the way that God created them.

The Universal Principle of Human Dignity

So anti-Semitism is not just naughty, it’s immoral. And it is precisely as immoral as hating any other group. And that would include other groups in the United States that are hated and have been under attack for decades. And that would include white men, who did nothing to become white men. They were born that way.

And just because you have a beef with a white man, let’s just say Donald Trump, doesn’t mean you get to punish all the rest of the white men in the country. And yet, our leaders, not just of our Congress, the executive branch under Biden, but of every major U.S. corporation, of every college in the country, probably except Hillsdale and two others, every single one, for more than ten years, has engaged in a systematic effort to hurt white men because they are white men.

That is racism that is precisely as bad as anti-Semitism, but it is much more widespread and has been, so far, much more damaging. And my point is, if you said nothing about that, or if you encouraged it by, say, cheering on BLM, which was an anti-white hate group, and said so, then you have no moral standing to lecture me about bias. Period. Because all bias is the same. You are not allowed to hate people based on their bloodline. We do not believe in blood guilt. We reject blood guilt. That’s why our justice system is just. That’s why our religion is just. Every person has the possibility of transformation.

Paul is wandering around, Saul of Tarsus is wandering around, murdering Christians. Then he decides, well, I’ll walk to Syria, and he’s met on the road by Jesus, who changes him, and in one day, he becomes the most energetic church planter and apostle of Christianity. In one day. He went from enemy to leader in one day. And that possibility exists for every human being. Every human being. That’s what our Christian faith tells us. That’s also what our eyes tell us.

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No Permanent Enemies

There are no permanent enemies. There cannot be. And I would extend this to even people who attack me from this stage. They say, if we agree on something, I’m happy to be friends with you. You may have been mean to me one day, well, I was mean to you too, that’s alright. There is always the possibility that we can recognize we have more in common than divides us and come back together. There are no permanent enemies. There is no such thing as blood guilt, and collective punishment in this country, in the Middle East, anywhere on the planet, is totally immoral. And if you want to know what makes America exceptional, it’s that idea. And it’s our job to defend it.

Universal Principles, Not Identity Politics

So I guess I would just say to the many organizations now, and particularly this applies to the Anti-Defamation League, which has cheered on anti-white hatred for decades, has attacked anyone who said anything about it, which has been one of the most aggressive cheerleaders for hate against white men in the United States, now trying to lecture the rest of us about hate, I would say it’s enough to point out the irony of that. 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.

It’s a universal principle, or it’s not a principle, it’s just a preference. If it’s not a universal principle, it’s not a principle, it’s just a preference. It’s just identity politics. And we’ve had enough of that, and that’s the one thing that will destroy this country, certainly. The only thing that will save it is the understanding that the principles upon which America was founded apply to every single human being, always. So I just want to say that.

By way of saying that I’m not just situationally opposed to antisemitism, I’m actually opposed to antisemitism, and I hope that the ADL will join me. I’ll send them money, by the way, if they come out against hate aimed at anyone and everyone. Hope they will.

The Conservative Movement and the Trump Coalition

But let me just say something more broadly about where the conservative movement, whatever that is, the people who voted for Trump, 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. I don’t think, and I’ve had cause to think a lot about this because I’ve been unwittingly involved in the proxy war.

There are two things going on here, and I’m not guessing. One is jockeying for position post-Trump. So Trump created this amazing coalition, bringing in people who had never voted Republican before but were very enthusiastic about him. And that coalition took over the most powerful government in the history of the world. So there’s a lot at stake here. And so the question becomes, who gets to run it after? Who gets the machinery when the president exits the scene?

And there are a lot of people in Washington, maybe even in this room, who aren’t quite sure what they want, but they know they don’t want J.D. Vance. And so the attack, and you heard it from the stage tonight, there’s someone here who’s a very bad man, and he’s friends with J.D. Vance. Could be me. I am sad about being used in a proxy war over politics in which I’m not involved in any level. I’m not an advisor to anybody. But I just think I should say that out loud, okay?

Why They’re Mad at J.D. Vance

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. So that, this is true. So this raises the obvious question which is why are they mad at J.D. Vance? Such a nice guy, which he is. They’re mad at J.D. Vance because he is the one person, and things could change of course, but right now, who really kind of buys the core idea of the Trump coalition.

Now what is that idea? Ladies and gentlemen, anyone know? Anyone know? America first. It’s America first. It’s really simple. Which I noticed, some people are pretty anxious to retire that phrase. Remember when they told us, “That’s a bigoted phrase.” Really? It is. And then they just decided to ignore it in favor of MAGA, Make America Great Again, which I’m obviously for. But how do you make America great again? By putting America first.

What Does America First Mean?

Now what does that mean? I’ll be more precise. It’s not a complicated concept. It’s a really simple concept. The U.S. government, the largest organization in human history with the most well-funded military in history, ought to, in all the decisions it makes, put the interests of American citizens first. That’s it.

Oh! That’s creepy. Sounds kind of fascist. “You’re going to invade Poland now?” No, just the opposite. In fact, the original America Firsters were kind of against wars, and the current ones are too. Actually, it just means what it sounds like. The government ought to serve the people who pay for it, who elected them, in whose name the business of government is conducted. That’s all it means.

Now there are two things to know about this idea. The first is, almost everyone’s for that. Like, what percentage, if you polled that idea in the supposedly fractious Trump coalition that’s in the middle of a civil war, what percentage of people would disagree with that? Well, a few. You know, people whose names you know. “Well, that sounds like America only.” No, it’s not. Just America First. Simple.

But probably 95% of Trump voters would be for that. And I bet you probably 70% of people who didn’t vote for Trump would be for that. And if you calmed down and explained it to them, probably 90%. Why? Because it’s self-evident, like most true things.

And moreover, and think this through for a second, there is no other legitimate rationale for running our government. We have self-government. This is a democratic republic. It exists for our benefit. The documents were written that way. The point of the American Revolution was to make that point. And so if you’re not operating the federal government on behalf of US citizens, you’re illegitimate. You actually have no right to rule. Period.

And if you disagree, tell me what the other legitimate justification is. Oh, because my friends or people I agree with or in my interest group or… I mean, no. The government must, must, this is non-negotiable, operate on behalf of American citizens.

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. I’ve got all kinds of kooky ideological views. I love Knowles’ list of all the views. I probably had most of them in my long and varied life. I have fewer now. I just kind of want to see a good-faith effort to improve the country. That’s it. And I’m ever aware that I’m not exactly sure the right way a lot of times. Are tariffs the best way to help the country? I don’t know. I hope so. Not an expert.

## The First Requirement of Leadership

All I really care about is that the people in charge care. That they love the people they lead. That is the first and most important requirement of leadership. The father who loves his children may make mistakes, probably will, inevitably will. I did. But if he loves his kids, he’ll do a pretty good job and they’ll be fine. An officer who loves his men, you know, you can’t control the battle, but they’ll do better than the officer who doesn’t. The president who truly loves his people will, over time, tend to make wiser decisions on their behalf. But the leaders who don’t care at all, they’ll destroy your country. And that is absolutely what we’ve had.

That’s, by the way, not noted as an effort to black pill you, or an effort to discourage you, or convince you you have no agency or control. You have a lot of control. You just change the government. Good.

## Holding Leaders Accountable

But if you want to know what the debate is going forward, and what your job is going forward, it’s holding your leaders to that very simple standard. Not on tariffs, or any of these specific policy questions, necessarily, but on their motive. Can you look me in the face and explain to me why the thing that you are doing, the money you’re appropriating, can you tell me why that helps our country and our people? Tell me how.

And if you’re doing the whole “shut up racist” thing, then I have a right to question your motives, actually. Why can’t you answer the question? Why can’t you answer that question? 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? Like, what? By the way, it is okay to ask questions. And I thought that was like the whole reason we were against the left. They’re not going to force you to get up there and make ritual denunciations because this isn’t my religion, it’s politics. By the way, your politics do not trump my love for other people.

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Standing by Principles Over Public Opinion

I remember my brother once said, I have one brother who’s my best friend, and he once said something lunatic, as brothers do. And I remember all these reporters, one from the Washington Post, which used to be a newspaper in Washington, calling me and being like, will you denounce your brother? I said, son, if my brother went on a drug-related murder spree, I would not denounce him. What? Are you for drug-related murder sprees? No, I’m for my brother. And nothing will ever make me not for my brother. And I’d probably tell him, no more drug-related murder sprees for you. I’m not for that. I’m not for a lot of things, actually. But I will never, ever, denounce people I love to satisfy the mob. Right? I mean, it’s crazy.

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So as you think through, like, what should this movement be? And what side should you take on the conservative civil war? You already know the answer. You’re on the side of America first. And 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! It’s no different from shut up, racist! It’s a little more annoying, actually.

Spiritual Warfare and Christian Standards

And I would just say this, too, because the passion is real, the anger is real. I feel it sometimes. I try not to get involved, but somehow I keep involving myself. And I try not to read the internet, because I don’t feel like it’s good for my soul. But, you know, more addictive than cigarettes. I quit cigarettes. Not Twitter. I think I’m going back to cigarettes and giving up Twitter. Whatever. I don’t want to burden you. Not kidding, actually.

But anyway, the point is, you need to remember, if you’re a Christian, and I think there are a lot of them in this room, that Jesus makes demands on you and holds standards for you that are very different from those, as my friend, close friend, Russell Brand so beautifully explained, they’re very different from those of the world, which really is controlled by Satan. It’s hard even to say that, because it’s so dark, but it’s also so true.

So don’t be surprised when Jesus sends out the disciples. One of my favorite passages in the whole New Testament, Jesus in Matthew 10 sends the disciples out. He’s just picked them like ten minutes before. He’s like, all right, I want you guys road trip. No money. No clothes. No staff. And by the way, you’re going to get flogged. You’re going to get beaten with whips and arrested. I’m sure they’re all thinking, like, what? I, you know, I thought we were the winners here. And when that happens, like, don’t worry about what you’re going to say. The Holy Spirit will speak for you. And I’m like, I just can’t get over the blasé way in which he just tells them, the world is going to try and kill you. Which, by the way, it did. I think all of them end up getting killed. And that’s just the baseline. We’re promised that. It’s a fact.

Avoiding the Trap of Hatred

You get up and give a speech about Jesus. You talk about Jesus. You try to live out his commands. You’re going to get attacked. Okay, we know that. Don’t whine. Here’s the pitfall. Here’s the trap. Is becoming hateful yourself. And I sincerely believe that this is a spiritual battle. And I’m not saying everyone who disagrees with me is on the side of evil. I don’t think that. I think I’m often wrong.

I know that I am. But I do think that fundamentally, this is light versus darkness. I do. And darkness is characterized by rage and division and chaos and confusion. And light as God is characterized by the opposite of those things. And I’ve noticed this. There are attempts to make people hateful. One of the reasons people scream insults in your face is to provoke a reaction from you and make you hate them. They want you to hate them. They want you to become what they call you. Why? Because evil feeds on hate. That’s why. So don’t participate in that.

And the way that I try to keep myself from becoming what they say I am is by remembering that I am on the most basic level no better than my persecutors. I am no better than my persecutors. And that’s why I’m commanded to pray for them. Because we have all fallen short of Jesus. Period. And I’m reminded of that every day in the structure of the Lord’s Prayer. Where we first are told by Jesus to ask for forgiveness for our sins before we start diagnosing the plank in our neighbor’s or in the speck in our neighbor’s eye. The whole thing begins with I’m a pompous douchebag, I’ll admit it. That’s essential. It’s essential.

Righteous But Not Self-Righteous

We are called to be righteous but not self-righteous. And we’re also called, and I have to say this before opening it up to your hostile questions, we should also be very on guard against people who try to leverage the Word of God, the words of Jesus, for political ends. That is one, that is a dangerous thing to do. I don’t want to do that. And I attempt every time, this is all sort of new to me, I’m so obviously not a great Christian that it’s not like a lot of people are going to be like, oh I want to be like him.

But there are people, particularly Christian ministers, I have noticed, who are preaching a political message and pretending that it’s the gospel. So let me just say, and I think my theology is right, I’m hardly a theologian, God is not on any country’s side. Certain countries can decide to be on God’s side, and that is true for people too. Okay? 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. It is not true.

The Prohibition Against Killing the Innocent

And I would also call your attention to the very obvious prohibitions in the New Testament against killing the innocent. We are not, as Christians, allowed to kill the innocent. Period. We are not. And you see elaborate arguments on behalf of doing so or ignoring it, oh that always happens in war. Well you’re right, one of the reasons I’m not that into wars, but when it does happen, unavoidably, we have to say that’s wrong. We have to say that. We have to acknowledge that was wrong. And I’m sorry for the extent to which I participated in it. Forgive me. Because killing people who committed no crime is immoral. It will always be immoral. And people who do it will be punished for it. And nations that endorse it will be punished for it. That’s a fact.

And you are seeing now, you are seeing now a very intense effort to convince you otherwise. Oh it’s fine, they deserved it. Really, do their children deserve it? If a man commits a crime, do we kill his kids? I don’t care if it’s in Minneapolis or Gaza City, no we don’t. And if we do accidentally we say, I am so sorry that we murdered someone who did nothing wrong because it is murder. And to see Christian pastors make excuses for that is one of the most, and that’s not a partisan question. That is not a political question. 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. I don’t get into the whole debate, you know, I didn’t even know the terms.

Dispensationalist, you know, or whatever. I’m an Episcopalian, okay, I don’t enter these debates. Or was. My theology is super simple. I like the Beatitudes. Read them yesterday. I actually think, was it Michael reading some of them here? I think any person, any honest person who says the essence of the Christian faith, and 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. So now that I’ve alienated most of the crowd, with my staunch position against violence, and power worship and money worship, which are also prohibited, and we should also keep that in mind, and in all of us is the desire to suck up to power and accumulate money we don’t need. We’re not allowed to. Sorry.

Q&A Session

Anyway, now that I’ve made everyone mad, are there any questions that I can answer? Yes. Shout it, baby, I’ll hear it. We’ve got questions over there. One sec, I just called this lady up front.

So the question was, what do you do if you’re a conservative Republican, and I assume other Republicans don’t want you because you’re an avowed Christian? Well, first you sit back and you think, how rotten has this whole thing become? If you can’t say you’re a Christian in a conservative group, if you can’t say “I’m uncomfortable with dudes marrying each other,” or whatever, abortion, or the things that are prohibited by our religion, if you can’t say that in a conservative group, it’s not a conservative group. It’s something else.

AUDIENCE QUESTION: My name is Madison, and I’m 12 years old. When I’m older, I want to be a politician. I’m a Christian, and I was just wondering, what are the steps I should take to…

TUCKER CARLSON: I’m so sorry, I can’t hear a word you’re saying. I hear two of you, at least.

AUDIENCE QUESTION: My name is Madison, and I’m 12 years old. I want to be a politician, and I was wondering, what are the steps I should take to pursue that career?

TUCKER CARLSON: Thank you so much. I heard that you’re 12 years old, and so thank you for asking that question. I think you said, I want to be a politician, what steps should I take? Yeah. Perfect.

Well, prayer would be the first one. Does God really want that for you? You seem so nice. Sorry, just kidding.

You know, I do think that we are entering into, obviously, a volatile period, like there’s a lot going on. I can’t even keep track of it, and that’s my job. But I also feel like people who are telling the truth or trying, you know, it’s kind of the best you can do is try. I said something yesterday in public that was totally wrong. Completely wrong. And I hate doing that, but it was sincere. I thought it was right. I said, you know, whatever, I’m sorry.

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I feel like people who try to tell the truth are rewarded for it, because there have been too many lies. So my bottom line advice is I could give you other dumb advice, but my only real advice is just tell the truth always, and if you lose, that’s okay.

AUDIENCE QUESTION: Hi, Mr. Carlson. I am Bo, and my name is Annabelle, and we were wondering what you and your wife…

TUCKER CARLSON: You were wondering what I do where?

AUDIENCE QUESTION: What you and your wife do to strengthen your faith.

TUCKER CARLSON: Oh, what I do to strengthen my faith?

I’m always embarrassed to talk about my faith, because it’s so not impressive, but honestly, the main thing I do is I read the Bible every day, which I really enjoy, and I read a version of it called the NLT, and I’m not fluent in Aramaic or Greek or Hebrew, so I can’t tell you that it’s the best, but it has the clearest English, and as a writer and editor, I just love clear English, and I just think it’s amazing, and it’s just opened up all this stuff that I thought was opaque, and I wake up every morning really early, and I drink coffee with my dogs, and I read it by myself, and then my wife comes down, and we talk about it. That’s kind of it, but I love it.

Yeah, and we do.

On AIPAC and Foreign Lobbying

AUDIENCE QUESTION: Is the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, commonly known as AIPAC, is them being in America and not registered with FARA, like all other lobbying groups in America? Is that America first? Is it America first for senators, Congress, and even our president to take money from AIPAC? Is it America first to take money from a foreign lobby so you’ll send taxpayer dollars to that country?

TUCKER CARLSON: You know, even the question kind of answers itself. Obviously it isn’t, and that’s not an attack on Israel, it’s certainly not anti-Semitism, despite the efforts of many to claim that it is. It’s just an obvious statement, and the fact that people are attacked for asking the question, this is something that I talked to Charlie a lot about in his final months, because he was being attacked as an anti-Semite for asking that question. We’ve memory holed that, but I was there, so I saw it.

That’s not the right way. Don’t attack people’s motives. And I have a lot to attack people’s motives. I’m trying to remind myself, don’t do that. Respond to what they’re saying. Right? And so, no, of course it’s not. And it’s totally fine to ask about why a foreign government tried to sink one of our ships in 1967. That doesn’t make you an anti-Semite, sorry. Those are Americans who died. And by the way, yeah, whatever.

Anyway, but the point is, no, of course not. And that’s why they won’t have the conversation. And my point is, you know, I’m 56, my kids are grown. I’m just not afraid of you at all. I don’t hate you or anyone else. I love this country. I’m going to be here until I die. I have an absolute God-given right to ask these questions. And I’m going to keep doing that. Period. And you can shoot me or put me in jail, but the questions won’t go away.

So, no, of course it’s not. And that’s why they respond with rage and shame. Because you caught them doing something they can’t defend. Duh.

On Healing the Political Divide

AUDIENCE QUESTION: Hey, Tucker, how you doing? Thanks for taking questions. My name is Michael Lasher, and I’ve come here from Munich, Germany, to introduce you and others to my book, The Same Boat, A Guide to Heal the Divide. And it addresses the Cold Civil War that’s got us so split, and the goal of it is actually to shift the symmetry of the bell curve distribution of the political spectrum from what we had at the end of the 2024 election, 52% Trump, 48% Kamala Harris, when everybody in this room thinks it should have been at least 75-25. So, we have a Cold Civil War going on, and I want to ask you what you think we should be doing to try to solve it.

TUCKER CARLSON: I’ll tell you. I created this communications tool to help bridge the divide, to argue our case for those with whom we can no longer have rational political discussion. It’s a variation of what I said before, but I couldn’t mean it more fervently. I want to get the Republican Party around the single most popular and true message ever articulated by an American politician, which is, put your own country first. That’s why Trump got elected in 2016 as Vice President now.

America first. And don’t think of everything in narrow partisan terms. That’s a trap. Most people agree with that. Most Americans have more in common with each other than they disagree on. And almost everybody agrees on that. And almost everybody is willing to tolerate a good faith argument about how to get there. Except a few. And they’re the ones running around calling everyone an anti-Semite. But everyone else is like, yeah, of course, that should be the debate. And they’ll vote for you. They want that because they know they haven’t had that. That’s the fact.

And what you’re watching now, attacking people on the, attacking millions of Americans because they’re Muslims. It’s disgusting. And I’m a Christian. I’m not a Muslim. I’m never going to, I know there’s a lot of effort to claim I’m a secret jihadi. I’m not. You should not attack people on those grounds. And you’re seeing it from Republicans. What the hell are you doing? What you’re doing is trying to divide the country. And I’ve lived through 50 years of this crap. All these fake race wars that they’re always promoting. Oh, go hate each other while we loot the treasury. That’s exactly what’s going on. And most people are totally sick of that.

So yes, there is a possibility for a huge coalition of decent people once they free their minds from the traps set for them by others and realize, wait a second, we all want to make this country better. And the 15% or 30% who don’t, okay. You know, good luck in Maryland or wherever you wind up. But the rest of us would like to fix it.

Question About Protecting Children

AUDIENCE QUESTION: Tucker. My name is Harrison Tinsley. I’m a single dad in California. Didn’t get to meet him until he was 15 months old, just because I’m conservative. One half custody is mom tried the transom. Long story short, I have full custody now and it’s a dream come true. Thank you. But it’s a miracle and praise God because I know so many dads that all have zero custody because of this. So Marjorie Taylor Greene’s bill protect children innocence act just passed the house. Can we pass it in the Senate and finally end this gender insanity mutilating hurting kids? And will you pull your face back for the microphone so I can hear you and will you interview me?

TUCKER CARLSON: Am I going to interview detransition to people? Is that the question?

AUDIENCE QUESTION: No, no. Me as a dad. And can we finally stop the mutilation of children with Marjorie Taylor Greene’s bill?

On Child Mutilation and Congressional Failure

TUCKER CARLSON: Okay. I’m just going to say when I was a child, we did a lot of bird hunting and my father would always say when my brother and me would say, pop, you know, everyone wears earplugs and he would just say, pull the filter off your Marlboro and stick it in your opposite ear. And that’s actually at 56 made it really hard for me to hear microphone questions. So you asked, and I’ll just answer this and stop.

You asked about Marjorie Taylor Greene’s bill to ban the mutilation of children, which for some reason seems to have a lot of trouble getting through the house of representatives, which is controlled by Republicans. And if there’s ever a clear example of whose side they’re on, I can’t think of it because at least on some of the foreign policy stuff, they can tell you, “No, no, no, we have to be at war with Russia because Putin’s bad. He’s just bad. He’s bad.” Okay. Got it. “We have to kill all the kids in Gaza because otherwise the Gazans will come here and kill us.” Okay.

What’s the potential excuse for allowing the sexual mutilation of children at that point? I’m like, you know, I don’t want to question people’s motives, but I’m starting to wonder, and I do think it just gets back to, you have to demand more from your members of Congress, from your leaders more broadly.

You’re not allowed to sell us out again because if you keep doing that, people get radical and hateful, and then they get desperate because they realize their vote doesn’t matter. And that’s when things start to go sideways in a way that nobody wants.

So yeah, if you can’t even ban the castration of children, I hope there is a list, and I’ve been traveling today, but I hope on the internet there’s a list of everyone who voted against that effort, and I hope that they are punished for it. I mean, they will be ultimately, but I hope they’re punished in this life.

Anyway, thank you very much. I have just three dog commands, and then as I direct the dogs, find the bird. Find the bird. And then dead bird, obviously. I don’t use as much as I’d like to.

See you on the other side.