Ben Shapiro said his beef with fellow conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson only escalated after the former Fox News host went easy on white nationalist Nick Fuentes during their “Tucker Carlson Show” sit-down last month.
Prior to the Fuentes interview, Shapiro told Megyn Kelly Friday that he had reached a level playing field with Carlson, even proposing they do a show together to combat “the DSA threat.” But those plans to collaborate disintegrated after the Fuentes interview and Carlson’s committed defense of it.
“I know what it looks like when Tucker Carlson decides to be an aggressive interviewer, or when he decides to ask difficult questions of people,” Shapiro said during a live audience taping of “The Megyn Kelly Show” podcast. “Tucker is eminently capable of doing that. He did it to Ted Cruz quite thoroughly, but he decided, for any number of reasons, and I try not to attribute motivations to people, that he was going to treat Fuentes with kid gloves … and to essentially normalize Fuentes’ act as a sort of gateway drug.”
Watch the conversation below.
Carlson’s two-hour interview with Fuentes last week sent shockwaves through conservative media circles, with many condemning Carlson for platforming the far-right 27-year-old who boasts antisemitic views. It’s one of the reasons why Shapiro said he pulled back on joining Carlson for a podcast taping, even though they’d found some common ground after Charlie Kirk’s murder.
“He said, ‘You know, we’ve had a bunch of disagreements … What if we could put those aside and align toward the DSA in particular,’ is what he mentioned. And I said, ‘You know, Tucker, you’re totally right. Let’s do that. That would be great.’”
After exchanging a few “nice” texts, the two discussed doing a “show together.” After Carlson responded that he’d think about how he can be the most “effective” because the “country is clearly on the brink,” Shapiro said he never got another response from Carlson after that.
“I reached out repeatedly after that, nothing happened, and again, I thought it was a good idea at the time,” Shapiro explained. “I think I felt differently after I saw what he did with Nick Fuentes, and after he proceeded, in my opinion, to spend the subsequent weeks doing literally nothing to fight the left. Again, I say this with sadness, because Tucker used to be, I think, a deeply important part of the conservative push to win.”
Watch the full “Megyn Kelly Show” segment in the video above.
