A feud is bubbling up between former Fox News colleagues, and it looks like it could erupt into a full blown conflict in the realm of journalism as popular media personalities begin to lobby President Donald Trump concerning his plans to negotiate some kind of peace deal with Iran.
One of the reasons this is suddenly a hot-button issue is because former President Barack Obama attempted to do the same thing when he brokered the much aligned Iran nuclear deal, which ended up handing the “death to America” chanting nation billions of dollars.
During an exclusive interview, former Fox News host and now independent journalist sensation Tucker Carlson reacted to news about current Fox personality Mark Levin’s meeting with President Trump and Steve Witkoff. Witkoff serves as the president’s top Middle East envoy.
The topic of conversation at this meeting was to urge the administration not to seek peace with the unstable Islamic Republic of Iran. On more than one occasion, Levin, a constitutional scholar, has rebuked the administration for attempts at peace.
“It’s amazing how much old people love wars,” Carlson zinged. This was a mild shot across the bow at Levin and his somewhat hawkish stance on peace with Iran.
Here are additional details from Trending Politics News:
Levin is not the only titan at Fox News to complain about the president’s attempt to negotiate with the ayatollahs. Fox founder Rupert Murdoch has reportedly discouraged the deal, too, with his New York Post paper running multiple columns expressing doubt about Iran’s sincerity in negotiating a peaceful future for its nuclear program.
Carlson, who formerly worked with Levin at Fox, is a famously anti-war Trump supporter who opposes any future possibility of putting troops in the Middle East. His career came of age during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, both quagmires that have turned Americans’ opinions sharply against international involvement. He previously cautioned Trump about listening too closely to Levin after learning his former colleague had visited the White House.
“Mark Levin was at the White House today, lobbying for war with Iran,” Carlson said in a post on X. “To be clear, Levin has no plans to fight in this or any other war. He’s demanding that American troops do it.”
Carlson then made the case that Levin’s “hyperventilating” over the nuclear program in Iran is just a distraction from the idea of sending U.S. troops back to the Middle East.
“A war with Iran would amount to a profound betrayal of his supporters. It would end his presidency. That may explain why so many of Trump’s enemies are advocating for it,” he continued.
Politico chimed in on the meeting with an article of their own, which led to a response from Levin in which he called the publication a “propaganda” arm for the mainstream media.
“He and I are very close friends,” Levin explained concerning his relationship with Trump, before adding, “The president knows exactly where I stand on Iran, and he told me he knows exactly where I stand on Iran because he watches my shows on Fox.”
The constitutional scholar and popular conservative television personality then said that Politico is “a group of people who were pushing propaganda,” adding, “What I am not doing and what I would not do to Donald Trump is lead a lobbying campaign of hawks.”
In a fiery missive, he accused an isolationist “cabal” of actors like Carlson — whom he nicknamed Chatsworth Osborne Jr., a TV star with a penchant for bow ties — of leaking news of his meeting with Trump.
“Levin won’t take your crap,” he went on to say, making a reference to Carlson. “He doesn’t like bullies, I’m more than happy to engage with you.”
Levin then pointed the finger at Carlson, blaming him for “constantly lobbying the White House” against war with Iran.
“I know who the leakers are,” the radio host said, adding “it’s the isolationists who are doing it, it’s them, they’re doing it, they’re trying to undermine the president and what they’re actually doing, America, is they’re making his job 1,000 times more difficult.”
In a conversation with the Daily Mail, Carlson stated that his friend is horribly misguided on this issue and about how he feels about his former friend.
“I worked with Mark. I’ve always gotten along with Mark, always been nice to me. But yeah, he just accused Trump, the Trump administration of anti-Semitism for calling someone a neocon,” Carlson told the outlet, adding, “[H]e accused Steve Witkoff of anti-Semitism. And I just want to say, I think Steve Witkoff is, if there’s anyone who is, you know, has the hand of God on him, it seems to me. I sort of overstate it, but I feel that way.”
Levin struck back by calling Carlson a “schmuck” who “doesn’t call me” before chatting about their feud publicly.
“Why do they keep saying neocon? Because many of the neoconservatives were old-time, left-wing, Democrat Jews,” he remarked on Tuesday. “Any of the people that use that phrase either don’t know what they’re talking about, but in the magazines and on the internet, they know it. So they’re not going to say the Jews are dragging us into a war, they’ll say Israel is, Netanyahu is. They’re not gonna say the Jews this and the Jews-, so they use neocon.”
“Do whatever you want, it’s perfectly fine by me. But don’t screw with me, you little bastard, by twisting my words,’ Levin fired back at Carlson. ‘And you should have picked up the phone because I would have cleared things up for you,” he concluded.
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