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Tucker Carlson And Ted Cruz Get Into Shouting Match Over Iran In Bonkers Interview Clip
The teaser was captioned simply:
"Ted Cruz on Iran. Full interview tomorrow."
You can watch the clip here via YouTube or below via X:
The clip begins as Carlson asks Cruz:
"How many people live in Iran, by the way?"
Cruz responds:
"I don't know the population."
Carlson then asked:
"At all?"
Cruz reiterated:
"No, I don't know the population."
Seemingly surprised, Carlson responded:
"You don't know the population of the country you seek to topple?"
After again saying no, Cruz then asked Carlson:
"How many people live in Iran?"
Carlson informed the senator who is openly backing United States' aggression against the sovereign Middle Eastern country:
"92 million."
While some people dismissed Carlson's line of questioning, others refused to give Cruz a free pass on his complete ignorance of the people who would be affected by any U.S. attacks on Iran after deciding to back the Trump administration's tactics in the region.
Then after Cruz acknowledged the information, Carlson asked:
"How could you not know that?"
Cruz replied:
"I don't sit around memorizing population tables."
@Sebachambe/X
Carlson informed Cruz:
"Well it’s kind of relevant because you’re calling for the overthrow of the government. If you don't know anything about the country..."
Cruz, visibly upset interjected:
"I didn’t say I don't know anything about the country."
So Carlson pivoted to ask:
"Okay, what’s the ethnic mix of Iran?"
Cruz replied:
"They are Persians and predominantly Shi'a [Islamic]."
According to World Atlas, Iran is a multi-ethnic, multi-religion nation. Persians at roughly 51% are the largest ethnic group, followed by Azeris at 24%, Kurds at 7%, and the Gilakis, Mazandaranis, Arabs, Baloch, Lurs, and Turkmen each comprising smaller percentages.
Shi'a Islam is the second largest sect of Islam at ~10% which is way behind Sunnī at ~87%, but Shi'a is the majority sect in Iran. According to Iran Safar, Islam is the official state religion, but Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity are also officially recognized as minority religions. Baha'i, Mandaeism, and Yarsanism are also practiced in the county, but are not officially recognized by the government.
After Carlson asked what percentage of the population was Persian or practiced Shi'a Islam, things devolved into the men shouting at each other.
Carlson told Cruz:
"You don’t know anything about Iran!"
"You’re a senator who is calling for the overthrow of the government and you don’t know anything about the country!"
Cruz countered:
"[You claim] they’re not trying to murder Donald Trump!"
A Trump assassination plot is the unsubstantiated conspiracy theory the Trump administration is using to justify joining Israel in escalating hostilities in the region.
It harkened back to the Bush administration's justification for invading Iraq. It, like "weapons of mass destruction," ultimately failed to pass the "credible threat" versus "rumors and wishful thinking" test.
Cruz also yelled about the Trump administration's assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in January of 2020.
@_e_tto/X
Carlson stated Cruz didn't really believe Trump was in danger, responding:
"I’m saying you don’t believe they’re trying to murder Trump because you’re not calling for military strikes against them in retaliation."
Cruz then claimed:
"We are carrying out military strikes—today!"
But Cruz immediately tried to walk back his words, saying the United States was only supporting Israel, not directly attacking Iran.
Carlson, at the end of the clip, stated:
"This is high stakes."
"You’re a senator—if you’re saying the United States government is at war with Iran right now, people are listening."
The clip was undoubtedly chosen to entice people to watch Carlson's content—something Cruz whinged about on X, trying to get Trump's supporters on his side.
@tedcruz/X
But as much as Cruz tries to ingratiate himself with Trump and his MAGA minions, the man dubbed the most hated person in Congress—by his fellow Republicans—just isn't that popular.
Multiple people fact-checked/trolled Cruz using X's generative AI chatbot Grok.
@whatevervisions/X
@GroksHandler/X
Cruz is even less popular than Carlson.
@texan77581/X
Some people, on the other hand...
The Tucker Carlson Show released the full episode on Wednesday.
Anti-Elon Banner at Stanford
The plane’s arrival coincided with the speech of the university's president, Jonathan Levin, who acknowledged that the Stanford Class of 2025 will be remembered as “the class that brought back fun.” Levin snarkily referred to Stanford’s discouragement of social activities, parties, and clubs over the years.
In attendance was Jon Hartley, an economics researcher and policy fellow at the university’s Hoover Institution, who posted about the disruption on X. Funny enough, Musk’s most famous venture, X (formerly known as Twitter), relocated from its iconic California headquarters to Bastrop, Texas, in 2023.
The red-lettered anti-Musk sign and airplane can be seen below:
No one has yet taken responsibility for the aerial announcement to graduates.
The university's close proximity to Silicon Valley fosters an environment conducive to entrepreneurship, technology, and business majors. Stanford graduates often find opportunities at numerous startups, including those founded or partly owned by Elon Musk, such as Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, The Boring Company, and Neuralink, which is located in Fremont, California.
Anti-Musk sentiments were not the only disruption at the ceremony, as approximately 150 pro-Palestine students walked out in protest, calling out the University’s stance on the war in Gaza and their submissive response when dealing with the Trump administration.
Referring to Harvard’s decision not to accept Trump’s demands, students and faculty demanded a strong condemnation of the administration's attempt to influence hiring practices based on race and audits on department teachings to ensure they are “viewpoint diverse.”
Holding their own signs that read “The People’s University,” the protesting students publicized the walkout on Instagram, asking graduates to:
“Join the Class of 2025 in rejecting Stanford’s insatiable greed, as they cower to the federal administration, maintain complicity in genocide, and prioritize profit over students.”
In June 2024, 12 Pro-Palestine protestors broke into and vandalized a Stanford University administration building before barricading the doors. According to a Stanford spokesperson, the students were eventually arrested the same day and received two-quarter suspensions with “probation, delayed degree conferrals, and community service hours.”
And this last April, prosecutors added to the punishments by announcing felony charges, which has been a common response in California for demonstrations and encampments on campuses protesting Israel’s war in Gaza.
An organizer of the walkout named Emma told the Stanford Daily:
“We walked out in protest of the University’s complicity, in support of Palestine and in recognition of all the Palestinians who should have been graduating this year but haven’t, because they’ve been murdered.”
The protesting students held their own commencement ceremony called “The People’s Commencement” at the university's Arboretum Grove. Needless to say, this year’s Stanford graduation was quite eventful, almost overshadowing 14-time Olympic medalist and Stanford psychology alumnus Katie Ledecky’s commencement speech.
Ledecky, who missed her own graduation training for the Tokyo Olympic trials, told the Stanford Daily:
“This is my first time really experiencing a graduation… I’m excited to just crash their events and get a feel for that sort of celebration.”
Her speech can be seen below:
- YouTubeStanford/YouTube
The Commencement ceremony’s planned and unplanned events were the talk of the internet, with commenters reacting to the anti-Musk sign:
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Elon Musk’s xAI company was recently threatened with a lawsuit by the NAACP over air pollution from its data center in Memphis, Tennessee. The Southern Environmental Law Center sent a warning letter to the AI company signaling its intent to sue over the violation of the Clean Air Act in the company’s usage of methane gas turbines without the required permits or pollution controls.
So, it's probably for best that Stanford graduates avoid all of Musk-related companies, products, and services in the near future.