Ben Shapiro declares Tucker Carlson the enemy of conservatism in fiery Heritage Foundation speech

Conservative pro-Israel commentator Ben Shapiro warns that far-right podcaster Tucker Carlson is working to dismantle the American conservative movement, says the right must choose between principles and conspiracy theory-driven populism.

By World Israel News Staff

Conservative commentator and Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro delivered a scorching critique of far-right podcaster Tucker Carlson Wednesday, declaring him an enemy of ideological conservatism and urging the American right to reject Carlson’s brand of conspiracy theory-driven populism in favor of the principles of classical liberalism.

Shapiro spoke at an event hosted by the Heritage Foundation, an established conservative think tank that came under fire in late October and early November after its president, Kevin Roberts, defended Carlson and cited the organization’s ties to the controversial podcaster, who was criticized for hosting white supremacist and Hitler apologist Nick Fuentes.

The 41-year-old American Jewish pundit named Carlson repeatedly during his 22-minute address and included thinly veiled criticism of the Heritage Foundation and Roberts.

“Which brings us to Tucker Carlson, who has become, by any honest assessment, an opponent of conservatism, an outsider masquerading as an insider and destroying the character of the conservative movement in the process,” Shapiro said.

“A conservatism that treats Tucker Carlson as a thought leader is no conservatism,” Shapiro continued. “If conservatives do not stand up and draw lines, conservatism and the dream of America itself will cease to exist.”

Shapiro censured Carlson over the former Fox News host’s turn against conservative principles, including free-market economics, as well as his promotion of conspiracy theories and increasing hostility toward the West – while embracing authoritarian regimes ranging from Putin’s Russia to the government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.

“Never mind that Venezuela, of course, is a communist hellhole that has driven millions of people into exile, flooding America’s borders, resulting in mass migration, as well as shipping drugs in the United States to kill Americans,” said Shapiro.

“Tucker Carlson has unending critiques of the free market. Mirroring Marxist thinkers of the past two centuries, Carlson argues that the free market is inherently dehumanizing. Appearing on my show in 2019, Carlson said, quote, ‘I’m not a socialist, but I’m totally fine with the comparison to Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders on this one specific point’.”

Later in his address, Shapiro excoriated Carlson’s embrace of the Qatari government and increasingly overt hostility towards Israel and Christian Zionism, which Carlson labeled a “heresy.”

“Carlson, of course, reserves his chief foreign policy ire, unsurprisingly, for Israel, with which he has a peculiar obsession.”

“Unwilling to attack President Trump’s foreign policy on Israel directly, he has instead suggested nefarious Israeli influence in American government, up to and including posing a question this week on X as to whether America’s current operations against Venezuela are being driven by the Israelis.”

“Carlson says that the people he dislikes more than anybody in the world are Christian Zionists, whom he says engage in heresy and also have a brain virus. All of this presumably based on his thorough understanding of the Bible, which he admits he first read from start to finish in 2023, two whole years ago. And as for America’s historic role in the world, particularly since World War II, Tucker has little but scorn.”

Alluding to Roberts’ own relationship with Carlson, Shapiro said that “Truth, not friendship” must guide conservative institutions like the Heritage Foundation.

“If Heritage Foundation wishes to retain its status as a leading thought institution in the conservative movement, it must act as ideological border control. It must continue to draw the contours of legitimate, real conservatism. This is what the institution exists to do.”