Trumpy CNN pundit Scott Jennings thinks ex-MAGA podcaster Tucker Carlson is “kind of a moron.”
Carlson is among the most prominent MAGA voices to turn against Trump, prompting the president to fire off a string of insults at his former ally, calling him a “broken man” and a “low IQ person.”
The former Fox News host, 56, laid out his stall on The Tucker Carlson Show with his brother and former Trump speechwriter, Buckley, saying he was “tormented” and begging for forgiveness for having led people to vote for the 79-year-old.
“I mean, is his preference that Kamala Harris had become the president of the United States?” Jennings asked on The Arena With Kasie Hunt on Tuesday. “That will come as a surprise to, I’m sure, a lot of people who used to view Tucker Carlson as a conservative and someone who, you know, had certain kinds of values.
“And what’s he sorry for? That we got into an engagement here that might ultimately lead to taking away nuclear weapons—”
Hunt interjected. “We got into engagements? Scott, that is quite a way to put it. We started a war.”
The 48-year-old got back on track. “I mean, is he now claiming he had no idea that Donald Trump held the position that he would never permit Iran to have nuclear weapons? If that’s what he’s saying today, he’s kind of a moron.
“I mean, I don’t know how else to put it, or he’s, he’s willfully misleading people. The president was clear. He’ll never let them have nuclear weapons. We just saw in 60 Minutes on Sunday night, a broad agreement among the experts. They have 970 pounds of enriched uranium, enough to make 10 or 11 nuclear bombs. This is not acceptable to the president.
“He had that position back in 2024. He had that position back in the first term. He has that position today. To say now that you’re sorry that you elected a president that wanted to take away nuclear weapons from this terrorist regime, I don’t get it.”
Rowing back years of Trump support, Carlson said on his show Monday, “You know, we’ll be tormented by it for a long time. I will be. And I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people. It was not intentional, that’s all I’ll say.”
He told his brother: “You and I and everyone else who supported him—you wrote speeches for him, I campaigned for him—I mean, we’re implicated in this for sure.”
He added, “In very small ways, but in real ways, you and me and millions of people like us are the reason this is happening right now.”
The Daily Beast has contacted a representative of Carlson’s for comment.
