US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee responded to conservative commentator Tucker Carlson in a series of posts on X/Twitter, after an interview at Ben-Gurion airport on Wednesday resulted in several unverified claims and assertions made by Carlson to discredit Israel.
"If Tucker was really a 'journalist,' he could have found out what I easily did later," Huckabee stated on Friday evening in response to one claim by Carlson that Israel had sheltered accused sex offender Tom Alexandrovich.
Carlson used Alexandrovich as an example of what he claimed were “dozens and dozens” of accused sex offenders in the United States who had fled to Israel. Huckabee, however, accused Carlson of intentionally misleading the public on the issue.
According to Huckabee's post, Alexandrovich, an Israeli citizen, had not violated any court orders by returning to Israel after his arrest in Nevada in August 2025 - he had been released on bail, and appeared before the court as scheduled via Zoom, pleading not guilty.
"Tucker's question wasn't because he was concerned about a child being solicited for sex," Huckabee accused, "He was playing 'gotcha.'"
Carlson also claimed that President Isaac Herzog had visited Epstein Island and challenged the ambassador to check for himself. Huckabee refuted Carlson's claims, adding that, "Tucker may need to talk to his lawyers. Libel & defamation of a good & honorable man is reckless."
In a video posted on X/Twitter in the early hours of Sunday morning, Carlson backtracked his claims about Herzog, stating that he had received a letter from the president's office claiming unequivocally that Herzog had never had any interaction with Epstein. Carlson issued a formal apology for stating otherwise and admitted to having acted without concrete information on the accusation.
Huckabee also reacted to a conversation the two had over the meaning of Zionism, describing the discussion as "very twisty and frankly confusing."
Carlson, Huckabee said, insisted on inserting topics which "have nothing to do with theology and certainly not with Israel, Zionism, or anything else." In his response on X/Twitter, Huckabee provided Carlson with what he believed to be a straightforward definition of Zionism: "Zionism is the belief that Israel has a right to exist in safety and security."
"Why can't you just say that?" Huckabee asked Carlson, claiming that he'd asked the commentator the question several times during the interview without receiving a clear answer. "You refused to say whether or not Israel has a right to exist. I hope you will state your answer to that simple question soon."
Huckabee accuses Carlson of spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories
Huckabee accused Carlson of muddying the waters of their conversation with the so-called "Khazar theory" of modern Jewish origin, a debunked idea that claims that most Ashkenazi Jews today trace their lineage to the population of Khazaria.
"This odious conspiracy theory is peddled by the likes of Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes and by people who love David Duke," Huckabee stated, "as well as Islamist accounts that make up false smears about Israel non-stop and are run out of countries like Pakistan and Turkey."
Huckabee also commented on Carlson's history of interviewing Nazis, saying, "I was expecting a thoughtful conversation and that he would ask questions and give me the opportunity to actually respond - just like he did with the little Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes or the guy who thought Hitler was the good guy and Churchill the bad guy."