
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has lashed out at Tucker Carlson in a series of explicit social media posts after the conservative pundit revealed he is buying a house in Qatar.
Carlson made the revelation while interviewing Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani on stage at the Doha Forum Sunday.
âI have been criticized as being a tool of Qatar, and I just want to say â which you already know â which is I have never taken anything from your country and donât plan to,â Carlson told the PM.
âI am, however, tomorrow buying a place in Qatar. I like the city, I think itâs beautiful, but also to make a statement that Iâm an American and a free man and Iâll be wherever I want to be. I have not taken any money from Qatar, but I have now given money to Qatar.â
Cruz, whom Carlson humiliated in an interview this summer when they sparred over U.S. military strikes on Iranâs nuclear facilities, responded by posting a bizarre AI meme of the right-wing commentator sitting with his legs spread and lifted in the air with the caption: âLive footage of Tucker Carlson interviewing the Prime Minister of Qatar.â
He posted a follow-up making a sexually explicit comment about Carlsonâs willingness to please.
Later, the senator reacted to a tongue-in-cheek post from Neil Patel, CEO of Carlsonâs media company, who had posted a picture of himself with the pundit in Doha with the ironic caption: âGreetings from the bloodthirsty, terror-supporting slave state of Qatar.â
âFact check: true,â Cruz replied.
Carlsonâs statement also attracted swift backlash from Laura Loomer, another longstanding enemy and President Donald Trumpâs self-appointed âloyalty enforcer,â.
She wrote on X: âQatar is the financier of the Muslim Brotherhood and they continue to allow HAMAS officials to live in Doha, where Tucker now wants to buy a place to live.
âThe Prime Minister then admitted Qatar spends âa lot of money on lobbyingâ by paying people to come to Qatar so they can âprotectâ the U.S.-Qatari relationship.â
Carlson subsequently repeated his defense of the decision to Doha News, saying: âI like it here a lot. By the way, Iâm an American, I can go wherever I want and speak to anyone I want to because Iâm a free man.
âThatâs the promise of my country. And some are seeking to change that and to put our population into mental bondage. And Iâm not participating in that.â
Carlson previously clashed with Loomer and Cruz in June after the right-wing commentator, typically an isolationist on foreign policy issues, broke ranks with Trump. He shared his disapproval of the strikes on Iran, arguing that America should not allow itself to be drawn into another regional conflict out of loyalty to Israel.
That prompted the more hawkish members of Trumpâs MAGA coalition to accuse him of taking money from Qatar when he interviewed Al Thani previously in March, mocking him with the nickname âQatarlson.â
âThey know Iâm not working for Qatar,â Carlson subsequently told Trumpâs former chief strategist Steve Bannon on his War Room podcast.
âIâve never taken a dime from any foreign country or anybody. Theyâre the ones who have these weird, complex motives, and so they project onto everyone else the same.â
