The Tucker Carlson Nick Fuentes Ben Shapiro Situation Is More Important Than Most Democrats Realize
PDS Published 11/03/2025
-
We’ve gotta talk about what’s being called the right-wing civil war.
Right, it’s actually been going on for at least a week now, but it’s just started to really heat up, and it begins with this one interview.
Right, the disgraced Fox host Tucker Carlson brought on the leader of the white nationalist groyper movement, Nick Fuentes.
Now Carlson himself has been called a white nationalist by critics for a long list of past comments, especially his promotion of the so-called great replacement conspiracy theory, which suggests that there’s a scheme to gradually “replace” white people with non-white immigrants.
But even for him, Fuentes was a uniquely far-right guest, particularly when it comes to his anti-Semitism.
And although Carlson did lightly push back a couple of times …
[Clip, 56:34 - 56:46] Caption: “What I do think is bad, just objectively bad, and destructive is the ‘all Jews are guilty’ or ‘all anybody is guilty of anything,’ because that’s just like not true.”
… But for the overwhelming length of this nearly two and a half hour interview, he was friendly and sympathetic.
[Clip, 00:20 - 00:22;Clip, 15:45 - 15:47;Clip, 33:07 - 33:11;Clip, 24:18 - 24:23;Clip, 42:52 - 42:58, 43:07 - 43:14;Clip, 46:33 - 46:35;Clip, 55:07 - 55:15;Clip, 01:00:03 - 01:00:11] Caption: [Tucker Carlson:] “You know, I agree with you on some of the things you’re pivoting against for sure.” … [Nick Fuentes:] “I’m an American nationalist.” [Tucker Carlson:] “Me too. … Worrying about who lives in your country is far right?” [Nick Fuentes:] “Apparently. … There’s a lot of these neocon Jewish types behind the Iraq war. … It was these Zionist Jews like Dave Rubin, Ben Shapiro, Dennis Prager.” … [Tucker Carlson:] “Fox is not a Jewish business though.” [Nick Fuentes:] “Well, Rupert Murdoch is an ally of Netanyahu.” … [Tucker Carlson:] “I’m not that interested in the Jews, but I’m very interested in the foreign policy question.” … [Nick Fuentes:] “We do on some level need to be pro-white, not to the exclusion of everybody else but recognizing that white people have a special heritage here. … You say ‘identity politics’ like it’s a bad thing. I think identity is reality.” [Tucker Carlson:] “Identity is reality.”
So that understandably went viral, picking up tens of millions of views across multiple platforms, and people started reacting.
With Ted Cruz, who had a very hostile interview with Carlson not too long ago, saying:
“Anti-Semitism is a longstanding evil that goes back millennia. I think it is incumbent of all people of good morals to stand up to it. And to stand up to it whether it is the opposing party or your own party.” [Quote]
And then former Senate leader Mitch McConnell saying, “Last I checked, ‘conservatives should feel no obligation’ to carry water for antisemites and apologists for America-hating autocrats. But maybe I just don’t know what time it is…” [Quote same link]
But then someone with a lot of sway in the conservative movement came to Carlson’s defense: Kevin Roberts.
Right, he’s the president of the Heritage Foundation, one of the most prestigious right-wing think tanks in the country and the creator of Project 2025.
[Clip, 00:04 - 00:08, 00:40 - 00:52, 01:16 - 01:35]
With him adding that he disagrees with and even abhors things that Nick Fuentes has said, but that cancelling him is not the answer.
But others strongly disagreed, with for example Matt Brooks, the head of the Republican Jewish Coalition, telling Jewish Insider that he was “appalled, offended and disgusted” that Roberts and Heritage “would stand with Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes as somehow being acceptable spokespeople within the conservative movement.” [Quote]
And now, you also have Ben Shapiro jumping into the ring, throwing punches at both Roberts and Carlson.
[Clip, 01:40 - 01:44, 01:48 - 01:58] Caption: “It is not cancellation to draw moral lines between viewpoints. … It is not cancellation to refuse to signal boost Hitler supporters like Nick Fuentes. It is not cancellation to criticize Tucker Carlson for rhetorically fluffing Nick Fuentes and other anti-American crackpots.”In fact, Shapiro dedicated his entire show today just to the Carlson/Fuentes controversy, and he did not mince his words.
Then warning that they’re now being normalized within the mainstream Republican Party, and adding: [Continue B roll]
Now for context, Shapiro’s involvement in this is personal; right, he’s fought with Tucker and Fuentes before, but they also brought his name up a lot during the interview.
With Fuentes saying that he was actually a fan of Shapiro by the time he went to college in 2016, having befriended many writers from The Daily Wire and getting cultivated as an up-and-coming right-wing debater.
But then, according to his account (which I would take with a grain of salt, by the way), they first butt heads over Israel.
[Clip, 17:09 - 17:17, 17:34 - 17:43, 18:15 - 18:32, 19:37 - 19:53] Caption: [Nick Fuentes:] “I tweeted at Ben Shapiro. I said, ‘you know, I’ve never seen anything on The Daily Wire that’s actually critical of Israel. … He quote tweets me and says, ‘to accuse a Jew of dual loyalty is the surest sign of anti-Semitism. … So then I put out another tweet, similar. I said something like, ‘if you’re China first, you should live in China. If you’re Mexico first, you should live in Mexico. If you’re Israel first, maybe you should go live in Israel.’ And again he quote tweets me and says ‘you’re an anti-Semite.’” [Tucker Carlson:] “So you’re an 18-year-old college freshman, you’re clearly talented and you’re engaged and you’re interested, and you ask not crazy questions like ‘what is this?’ And rather than explain it they just call you a racist, call you an anti-Semite.”
So he claims that after a few months of ‘just asking questions’ about Israel, he was finally excised from the movement.
And he claimed that The Daily Wire was pivotal in blacklisting him.
This even though …
But on his show today, Shapiro went on the offensive, playing a series of clips meant to prove that Fuentes’ beliefs extended far beyond just innocently questioning U.S. support for Israel.
With him apparently saying that women want to be raped, instructing his followers to kill, rape and die in his name, opposing civil rights for women, arguing that Jim Crow was no big deal and actually better for black people, stating that racism is justified, calling Hitler “really fucking cool,” and denying the Holocaust.
Then, Shapiro turned his guns on Carlson, playing a series of clips where Tucker apparently defends Vladimir Putin, defends Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro, gives a softball interview to the Iranian president, downplays Hamas, and ties Jeffrey Epstein to the Israeli government.
With Shapiro pointing out that Carlson also recently interviewed Candice Owens, who herself hosted Nick Fuentes before that, and arguing that this is a pattern.
[Clip, 25:22 - 25:34, 30:22 - 30:27] Caption: “You bring your dirty, ugly ideologies to Tucker Carlson’s rhetorical carwash, he mixes it with some of the vestigial respect Americans have for him from his Fox News days, and voila! Hideous ideas suddenly become mainstream. … There is no question that Tucker has become the most virulent superspreader of vile ideas in America.”
But Shapiro wasn’t the only high-profile commentator targeted by Carlson and Fuentes.
With them also talking about Mark Levin, and claiming that he was actually the one who first radicalized Fuentes in 2016.
[Clip, 05:59 - 06:11] Caption: “He goes live and he says, ‘America is becoming a majority non-white country. Does anybody think that’s a good idea?’ And I was thinking to myself, yeah, that actually doesn’t sound so good.”
So now, speaking before the Republican Jewish Coalition, Levin shot back at them.
[Clip, 00:00 - 00:14, 00:21 - 00:54]
And there are others who were caught in the crossfire; right, not just Ted Cruz, but also George Bush, Mike Huckabee, John Bolton and others were lumped together by Fuentes and Carlson as so-called “Christian Zionists.”
With Tucker in particular accusing them of “heresy” and saying they’ve been infected by the “brain virus” that is neoconservatism.
So as this vortex sucks more and more people into the “debate,” if you wanna call it that, we could see this divide deepen and deepen.
And to be clear, this didn’t all just originate with last week’s interview.
Right, these fissures have been widening for months if not years, and they’ve just blown open recently since the second Trump term has emboldened many fringe voices and public opinion turns against the war in Gaza.
I mean, you may remember the leaked chat logs that showed numerous young Republicans from New York sending wildly racist messages and Hitler praise recently, or how Trump had to withdraw his nominee to head the whistleblower office, Paul Ingrassia [Pronounce 00:05], said in a leaked text that he has a “Nazi streak.” [Image]
But while those people had to buckle before the mainstream backlash, figures like Carlson and Candice Owens have a big enough cushion from their audiences that they don’t really have to.
And they’re not even that far from the White House; right, Tucker spoke at the GOP’s national convention last year, and at Charlie Kirk’s memorial this year.
And Fuentes, of course, had dinner with Kanye West and Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2022.
-
The MAGA world went into a frenzy this weekend after a bunch of teachers from Tucson wore bloody t-shirts with the words “problem solved” for Halloween.
It was obvious to MAGA that this was a clear reference to the assassination of Charlie Kirk and they were PISSED.
It all kicked off when Andrew Kolvet, a spokesperson for Turning Point USA, wrote:
“Concerned parents just sent us this image of what’s believed to be teachers… mocking Charlie’s murder. They deserve to be famous, and fired.” []
Other conservative leaders, like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis piled on and tweeted:
“It’s been really disturbing to see teachers across the country glorifying a murder just because they disagreed with the victim.” []
Except there was one MAJOR problem with this narrative: it wasn’t a reference to Kirk at all.
Vail School District Superintendent John Carruth quickly put out a statement denying that and saying instead:
“We want to clarify that these shirts were part of a math-themed Halloween costume meant to represent solving tough math problems. The shirts were never intended to target any person, event, or political issue.”
He went on to say that any other descriptions of this were “false claims” and “unequivocally untrue.”
Carruth did try to be a bit diplomatic though and said he understood how the image could come off badly and that “we are truly sorry for the hurt or upset it has caused.”
There was other evidence this wasn’t a reference also, such as the fact the teachers wore the exact same thing last year, as many on social media pointed out.
Since this all went viral, the district and the individual teachers have apparently been getting harassed, leading to demands that Kolvet apologize for getting it so wrong.
While he’s yet to say anything as of recording, other TPUSA people have, with Blake Neff -- a producer for the Charlie Kirk Show -- writing that he realizes his proximity to the assassination makes it far more likely to see references to it even if there wasn’t one.
But considering the evidence the shirts were worn last year, he didn’t feel it was right to keep his criticism up. []
That being said, some MAGA people are outraged, albeit moving the goalpost slightly, and writing things like:
“The school district claims these teachers wore the same exact shirts last year. I’m skeptical but ok let’s pretend that’s true…
How is it ok for TEACHERS to wear these shirts just three months after the public assassination attempt of Donald Trump?
It’s not. It’s abhorrent.” []
If anything this entire situation is a lesson to check things before you just jump the gun.
Especially on a day like Halloween, where half the outfits are covered in blood.
It’s like the entire point of the holiday?
-
Fun new health concern just dropped: a new study has now linked regular melatonin use with increased risk of heart failure.
But if you’re one of the millions of people who use melatonin all the time, experts say you shouldn’t panic — at least not yet.
Right, specifically, the study analyzed five years of data from over 130,000 adults with an average age of 55 who have been diagnosed with insomnia.
And within that subset, the researchers found around 65,000 people who had been prescribed melatonin and reported taking it for at least a year.
And if you’re thinking “prescribed melatonin? What? I can walk into any drug store and buy as much as I want over the counter” — yes, that is true in America and many other countries.
But plenty of others require a prescription — like, for example, the U.K.
Now, notably, patient locations were not available to the researchers, but they did account for a number of other factors that could influence heart failure risk, like various health conditions.
And to conduct the study, the researchers compared the health records of the 65,000 people who had been prescribed melatonin with other patients who had insomnia but no record of taking the supplement.
And they found that people with a recorded long-term melatonin use had about a 90% higher chance of heart failure over 5 years compared with the non-users.
Though the actual number of people who had heart failure is still relatively low — we’re talking 4.6% for recorded melatonin users and 2.7% for non-users.
But, beyond that, the researchers also found that people who took melatonin were nearly 3.5 times as likely to be hospitalized for heart failure and nearly twice as likely to die from any cause than those in the non-melatonin group.
Okay, so you might look at that and get freaked out, especially because melatonin use has become so prevalent in recent years, with many viewing it as a safe, more “natural” sleep aid.
Right, one 2022 survey found that more than 1 in 4 adults reported taking the supplement to help them sleep.
And that was BEFORE Trump’s second term, and now so many of us are kept up at night with paralyzing dread…
But before you panic, there are a few important things we need to break down here.
First of all, this study hasn’t gone through the rigorous peer-review process, so it’s still considered to be preliminary.
And beyond that, the study also had some VERY significant limitations that could pretty dramatically impact its findings.
Right, the biggest issue by far was that the group of people listed as melatonin users were categorized that way ONLY because they were PRESCRIBED the medication and had it noted in their health records.
But the data doesn’t account for people who could be taking it over the counter WITHOUT a prescription.
So it's very likely that many of the insomniacs who were identified as “non-users” actually DID take melatonin for an extended period, but it just wasn’t in their records because they live in America or one of the many other countries where you can get it OTC.
And, what’s more, experts also note that the health records analyzed here lacked important details about the severity of insomnia among patients and whether those prescribed melatonin reported changes with their sleep patterns.
Right, quality sleep is incredibly important for heart health, with research showing that people who get poor sleep tend to have higher heart rates and blood pressure and experience more cardiovascular events.
So if the patients taking prescription melatonin still weren’t getting good sleep, it could skew the results, with an associate professor of cardiovascular medicine at Yale School of Medicine explaining:
“If they had such bad insomnia that they needed prescription-dose melatonin, were they actually getting the benefit of the melatonin for sleep? And if the answer is no, then you cannot have a correlation that melatonin causes heart failure.”
And adding that it’s more likely that insomnia could be contributing to declining heart health and heart failure.
And even the researchers behind the study acknowledge that it had major limitations, with the lead author saying:
“This doesn’t prove that melatonin directly causes heart failure. It simply shows that people with chronic insomnia who took melatonin long term were more likely to experience these outcomes.”
But he also argued that the fact that they found a link at all is still notable and needs to be studied further, adding:
“Melatonin is generally viewed as a very safe supplement, as something people, and even physicians, don’t usually worry much about, so we honestly didn’t expect to see a clear signal linking long-term use with higher rates of heart failure, hospitalizations and death.”
Right, and that is something that many other experts agree on, arguing that these findings raise questions about whether melatonin is more harmful than we think and highlights the need to study the medicine further.
But for now, some medical professionals say there is no need for people and health care providers not to make any drastic changes because there’s not enough info to say everyone should stop taking melatonin.
Especially because some past research actually suggests that melatonin might have health benefits for people with heart failure.
With some noting that it’s an antioxidant and could help protect against coronary artery disease, which can cause heart failure.
But, that said, experts still advise that melatonin should be used carefully and under supervision — especially for people who have cardiovascular risk factors.
Download the FREE UpsideApp at Upside to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.
-
Peace President Donald Trump has now threatened to go “guns-a-blazing” into Nigeria.
And the reason, he says, is that thousands of Christians are being killed by “Radical Islamists” and the government is doing nothing to stop it.
But of course, the truth? It’s not that simple.
Right, Nigeria is an extremely diverse multiethnic country.
In terms of religion, its population of more than 230 million people is split almost equally between Christians and Muslims – with Christians mostly in the South and Muslims mostly in the North.
And as far as killing? The worst of it has been concentrated in the northeast – largely thanks to the extremist group Boko Haram and its years-long campaign to build an Islamist state.
But notably, while Christians are targeted, most victims of Boko Haram and other armed groups are Muslim – since that’s the dominant population in the part of the country where most attacks occur.
That said, in other parts of the country, there have been also clashes between mostly Christian farming communities and largely Muslim herders.
And so religion is definitely a factor but the conflict is also driven by land and resources.
And overall, the data seems to back that up – with the U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data program finding that nearly 12,000 attacks against civilians resulted in over 20,000 deaths in Nigeria from 2020 until now…
385 attacks resulting in 317 deaths were “targeted events against Christians … where Christian identity of the victim was a reported factor.”
And 196 attacks resulting in 417 deaths were against Muslims. []
And so you have one researcher at the Institute of Security Studies explaining:
“The crisis is far more complex than a simple religious framing suggests. The geography of violence largely determines who becomes the victim.”
But of course, despite that, there are those who have latched on to the less complex narrative – including, before Trump, Senator Ted Cruz.
Right, a few weeks ago, you had him introducing legislation to designate Nigeria as a violator of religious freedom – alleging, quote:
“Officials…are ignoring and even facilitating the mass murder of Christians by Islamist jihadists.”
And then fast forward to this week, you had Trump writing on social media that “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria”;
claiming “Radical Islamists” are responsible for the “mass slaughter” of thousands of Christians;
and announcing that he would be designating Nigeria a “COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN” – adding:
“The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!”
And with that, you had him going on to not only threaten the end of all aid and assistance to Nigeria…but also warn:
The US “ may very well go into that now disgraced country, “guns-a-blazing,” to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities” – adding:
“I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action.”
With Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth then responding on X “Yes sir” and repeating the allegations against Nigeria.
The Nigerian President, of course, has denied them – writing on X:
“The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality, nor does it take into consideration the consistent and sincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of religion and beliefs for all Nigerians.”
But with that, while Trump’s claims are misleading at best, many experts say he’s at least right that the government could be doing more.
Right, Trump mentioned making Nigeria “country of particular concern” – and that’s a real designation established under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to describe countries that systemically violate religious freedoms.
And you’ve actually had the independent U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommending this year that Nigeria be put back on that list after the Biden administration removed it.
Though, notably, the commission emphasized violence against both Christians and Muslims – writing:
“Religious freedom conditions in Nigeria are poor as the government tolerates or is slow to respond to attacks by nonstate actors who kill, kidnap or threaten Christians and Muslims in the northern and Middle Belt regions” []
But with all that, what’s also notable about all this, while Trump is pushing this misleading narrative about Nigeria?
He’s remained silent as an armed group backed by a US ally has been committing what is likely some of the most horrific violence of the 21st century.
And there I’m talking about what’s happening in Sudan.
-
The blood is visible from space.
That’s the result of likely tens of thousands people being killed in the past week in the Sudanese city of El Fasher.
Right, as we talked about, the paramilitary force known as the RSF took control of the city on October 26th after an 18-month siege.
And while many have tried to escape, relatively few have succeeded – with a Doctors Without Borders coordinator in the town where those who have made it out have been arriving, explaining:
“Our question is very simple: Where are they? Where are the rest?” – and adding:
”Our fear is that these people have been detained for extortion or got killed.” []
And to that point, those who have escaped? They’ve reportedly been showing up with bullet wounds and signs of torture – with one survivor saying about her journey out of the city:
“There were bodies of men and women everywhere — some people were run over by vehicles.”
“While we were on the road, they took girls from our group — choosing them and dragging them away.” []
You’ve also had the World Health Organization verifying an attack on El Fasher’s last-functioning hospital – saying more than 450 people had been killed.
And ultimately, we seem to be watching history repeat itself in a way that is unfortunately unsurprising.
Right, the RSF? It grew out of the government-backed militias accused of genocide in Darfur in the early 2000s –
When an estimated 300,000 civilians belonging mostly to non-Arab ethnic groups were killed, women were systematically raped, and millions of people were displaced.
And now you have Nathaniel Raymond, the head of Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab, saying that that RSF is now “finishing the liquidation of Darfur” – adding:
“This is the final battle of the Darfur genocide.”
Although, notably, in terms of the intensity of the violence, you also had him evoking the 1994 Rwandan genocide – in which more than 800,000 civilians were killed in just over 100 days.
With him saying that high-resolution satellite images his team had seen “activity that suggests mass killing on a level that can only be compared to Rwanda” – and adding:
“We have never seen a velocity of violence at this scale.”
“We’re in the tens of thousands in terms of all the body-consistent objects on the ground.”
“They are moving like a wood chipper, and they are killing everything that moves.”
And with that, we can’t ignore the role foreign powers – either through direct support of indifference – have played in making this violence possible.
And there, as far as the RSF? Well, its biggest backer has been the United Arab Emirates – which has been supplying money and arms to the group.
With Cameron Hudson, a former chief of staff to successive U.S. presidential special envoys for Sudan, saying:
“The war would be over if not for the U.A.E.”
“The only thing that is keeping them in this war is the overwhelming amount of military support that they’re receiving from the U.A.E.”
And notably, with that, the UAE? It gets a lot of support from the USA – and we’ve seen very little pushback on that from members of Congress.
Right, you have had a bipartisan group of Senators issuing a statement condemning the violence and calling for the RSF to be designated a foreign terrorist organization – and even noting:
“Foreign backers of the RSF and SAF–including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Russia, Iran, China and governments in the immediate region–have fueled and profited from the conflict and legitimized the monsters destroying Sudan.”
But for all that, their statement doesn’t call for any specific action against those countries.
You have had Senator Chris Van Hollen and some others pushing for legislation prohibiting arms sales to the UAE until it stops arming the RSF, but that doesn’t seem to have a chance.
And even if it did, what maybe could have been prevented by taking action sooner? It can’t be undone.
