U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz yells into a microphone during the CPAC Texas 2022 conference. Credit: Shutterstock / lev radin

Right-wing talking head Tucker Carlson lambasted U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz this week for appearing not to have a grasp on basic facts about Iran despite vocally supporting a war with the Islamic republic.

A teaser for an upcoming installment of The Tucker Carlson Show features highlights from a confrontational interview the host held with Cruz, Texas’ junior Republican senator. During the clip, Carlson asks Cruz, a sitting member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, how many people live in Iran.

“I don’t know the population,” Cruz says.

“You don’t know the population of the country you seek to topple?” a stunned-looking Carlson asks.

“I don’t sit around memorizing population tables,” Cruz responds.

“Well, it’s kind of relevant because you’re calling for the overthrow of the government.”

In the preview, Carlson also asks Cruz about Iran’s ethnic makeup.

Cruz — who sits the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism —hesitates before finally responding, “They are Persians … and predominantly Shia.”

The clip also shows Cruz appear to drop a bombshell, proclaiming the U.S. is “carrying out military strikes [against Iran] today.”

Carlson displays a baffled look, probably because the U.S. government has officially denied any official involvement in the escalating Israel-Iran conflict, except for supplying weapons to Israel.

“Well, this … you’re breaking news here because the U.S. government last night denied … that we are acting on Israel’s behalf in any capacity at all,” Carlson fires back.

“We’re not bombing them; Israel is bombing them,” Cruz replies in what appears to be a walkback of his previous comment.

“You said we were,” Carlson said. “This is high stakes. You’re a senator. You’re saying the U.S. government is at war with Iran right now? People are listening.”

Cruz’s verbal stumbles on Iran come amid growing tensions within the White House and the MAGA movement over whether the U.S. should side with Israel and be dragged into another war. Doing so would be a blatant foreign policy U-turn for President Donald Trump, who campaigned on a platform of keeping the U.S. out of foreign conflicts and ending the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Washington’s neocon old-guard, including Cruz, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, and Mike Huckabee, a former Republican governor of Arkansas and current ambassador to Israel, are cheerleading regime change in the Islamic Republic. Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.

Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

Related Stories

This article appears in Jun 12-25, 2025.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...