Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said Saturday he would soon air an interview with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian amid the country’s conflict with the United States and Israel.
“We know we’ll be criticized for doing this interview. Why did we do it anyway? Well, we did it because we were just at war with Iran 10 days ago, and maybe again,” Carlson said in a preview clip of his show, The Tucker Carlson Show.
“And so, our view, which has remained consistent over time, is that American citizens have the constitutional right and the God-given right to all the information they can gather about matters that affect them,” he added.
The full discussion between Carlson and Pezeshkian is expected to air in a “day or two” once his media company completes final edits.
Carlson said he did not ask questions on which he could not receive an “honest answer,” including whether or not the U.S. strikes impacted Iran’s nuclear weapons progress.
“There’s no chance he’s going to answer that question honestly. I didn’t bother to ask it. The answer, in fact, from an American perspective, even from the CIA’s perspective, is unknowable. So we dispense with those,” he said.
Instead, he asked Pezeshkian “What is your goal? Do you seek war with the United States? Do you seek war with Israel?’” Carlson said.
Carlson has railed against the Trump administration and GOP Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) for supporting U.S. airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities in recent weeks. He slammed the lawmakers and former colleagues at Fox News as “warmongers” who casually encourage violence.
However, President Trump has brushed off criticism from his former ally and encouraged Carlson to “go get a television network” to broadcast his statements so that people listen.
Israel first struck Iran on June 13 and has killed multiple military leaders and top engineers in an effort to thwart the nation’s nuclear developments.
Carlson said Saturday he’s also requested to interview Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu three times in recent months to provide a more full perspective on the state of affairs in the Middle East.
“The purpose of the interview was to add to the corpus of knowledge from which Americans can derive their own opinion. Learn everything you can, and then you decide that’s the promise of America,” Carlson said, referring to his interview with the Iranian president.
“And we hope that this interview does a small part to making that promise real this interview will be up as soon as we have done editing it as noted and that should be in a day or two.”
