American conservative commentator Tucker Carlson is one of the most consequential political figures in today’s United States. Millions tune into his monologues, interviews and shows across platforms and formats at a scale rarely seen in the western public sphere. He has termed the war against Iran “evil”, and said, following the American bombing of a school in Iran, that a country that thinks it is acceptable to kill innocent children in a war was not worth defending.

Mr. Carlson’s influence comes from the courage of innocence. He casts himself as the child who screams that the king is naked in the parade. He asks the most elementary questions about claims held as theology by the religious and secular warriors of the West, simply by exposing them to scrutiny. What actually is “Israel’s right to exist”, which is distinct from any other country — the U.K., U.S., Lebanon, or Iran?, he asked The Economist editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes, who tried to corner him on the charge of being an antisemite. Where exactly in the Bible does it say that supporting Israel is obligatory for Christians, he asked Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who had suggested precisely that. Can the modern state of Israel claim all of the land the Old Testament says god gave to his chosen people, he asked the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee.

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After some experiments with television on CNN and MSNBC, where he tried to play the mandatory conservative role, he landed in a primetime slot on Fox News in 2017, just as Mr. Trump was upending American politics. They agreed on most issues and reinforced each other’s positions. Mr. Trump considered Mr. Carlson as a Vice-Presidential candidate in 2024 before choosing J.D. Vance, who is also Mr. Carlson’s friend. Mr. Carlson tried to persuade Mr. Trump against launching a war on Iran. They have since fallen out.

Mr. Carlson was let go by Fox News in April 2023 — when his viewership was miles ahead of the competition. The separation turned out to be liberation. His prime-time show on Fox had drawn 3.5 million viewers nightly. The day after his exit, the slot had 20% fewer viewers; no show on American cable news has matched him since. Mr. Carlson launched his independent show on X in June 2023 — the debut episode was viewed approximately 120 million times. His interviews and programmes have continued to command massive audiences that no American commentator or public figure, save Mr. Trump himself, can dream of.

A worldview shaped by faith

Mr. Carlson says his worldview is shaped by his Christian faith — which is against violence, war, collective punishment, racism and discrimination. This interpretation of faith makes him a firm opponent of abortion, same-sex marriage and affirmative action — because he regards the latter as discrimination against white men. He argues that mass migration is remaking the demographic composition of western societies, and opposes it. He calls for large families. His hybrid views rile champions of liberal internationalism, global trade, Zionism and corporate capitalism. He has so disoriented the neat pretensions and classifications of the Western public discourse that he gets labelled a white nationalist and an Islamist sympathiser at the same time.

Other labels attached to him include racist, misogynist, regressive, antisemite and neo-Nazi. These stamps are applied by his opponents; in his own words, his positions and arguments are about moral clarity, disagreeable as they may well be to many people. Muslims in America must have the same rights as Christians, Mr. Carlson told a gathering of Christian conservatives last December. His humanist position sits uneasily with the textbook definition of any nationalism.

Mr. Carlson’s critique of capitalism and corporate greed on the one hand, and his assertion of cultural and religious heritage on the other, is a combination that draws public support in many parts of the world. This politics defies the familiar definitions of left, right or centre.

Mr. Carlson had an unsentimental view of Mr. Trump. “Happy countries don’t elect Donald Trump President. Desperate ones do. In retrospect, the lesson seemed obvious: ignore voters for long enough and you get Donald Trump,” he wrote in his 2018 book Ship of Fools. Mr. Carlson believes common people have been taken for a ride by the ruling class for a long time.

Would he himself run for the presidency? Mr. Carlson, whose name now appears among Republican probables for the 2028 election, was recently asked. He referred to his refusal to compromise on issues and his tendency to say things that others remain silent about as impediments to a political career, but did not rule out the possibility of taking an electoral turn. He went further, saying he would be happy to debate Ted Cruz — the Senator he questioned in an interview now viewed 39 million times — on a public platform at any time. Charges of antisemitism, Islamophobia and race supremacism against him rest primarily on Mr. Carlson’s willingness to host people of all opinions. Nick Fuentes, an avowed white nationalist, appeared on Mr. Carlson’s show. While finding common ground with Mr. Fuentes on the U.S. relationship with Israel, Mr. Carlson disagreed with any equation of the Israeli state with Jews, because, he said, it goes “against my Christian faith”.

Born in 1969, in San Francisco, Mr. Carlson was raised by his father Dick Carlson, a reporter who became director of Voice of America and president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. His mother, Lisa McNear, was an artist. His parents divorced when he was a child; he reportedly said he had not known his mother at all when she died. He had a wild side through school and college. After four years at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, he failed to graduate. He then tried to join the CIA; his application was denied. He turned to journalism. His biographer — whose view of him screams in the title Hated by All the Right People — writes that Mr. Carlson was an “abysmal student” who “charmed his way into a succession of small conservative media outlets and a few national magazines”.

Also read | As fire and fury hit MAGA tent, Vance walks the tightrope for 2028

The Israel factor

Mr. Carlson has framed a politics that many Americans across the spectrum find reasonable. In his own words: “Any economic system that weakens and destroys families is not worth having. A system like that is the enemy of a healthy society”; “Market capitalism is not a religion,” and Republicans, he had argued, were “controlled by the banks”.

What works him into real anger is the centrepiece of American foreign policy — unconditional support for Israel. “My real rage, what I am actually upset about, is directed toward my people, Protestant Christian, evangelical pastors who have made deals with the Israeli government, or have theology so deranged that they think their Christian faith requires them to support the murder of children, including Christian children.” Conservatives are taking note. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation — the influential conservative think tank in Washington, DC — said “Christians can critique the state of Israel without being antisemitic”, coming out in public support of Mr. Carlson. The debate has only just begun, and the spotlight is firmly on Mr. Carlson.

Published – March 22, 2026 01:15 am IST

Tucker Carlson, a prominent conservative American pundit and former Fox News anchor, has unleashed a bombshell accusation against the Joe Biden administration, alleging that they attempted to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin. This extraordinary claim was made during the latest episode of Carlson’s podcast, “The Tucker Carlson Show,” where he was engaged in a conversation with American writer and journalist Matt Taibbi.

Carlson’s assertion is nothing short of sensational, and he quoted former US Secretary of State Tony Blinken as an example of someone who was pushing for a real war and trying to kill Putin. “The Biden administration did, they tried to kill Putin,” Carlson said, adding “which is insane” and “that’s demented, that you would even think of something like that. So why were they? Because chaos is a screen that protects them”.

Tucker Carlson said that the Biden administration tried to kill Vladimir Putin

The goal is to start World War III and sow chaos. Carlson said this during an interview with journalist Matt Taibbi. pic.twitter.com/k7STerZxFg

— Маrina Wolf (@volkova_ma57183) January 28, 2025

It’s worth noting that Carlson’s claim is not backed by any concrete evidence, and his statement has sparked widespread controversy. He was ousted from Fox News in 2023 during when the network was facing legal issues over its airing of inaccurate claims of electoral fraud in the 2020 U.S. presidential race.

The Biden administration has not yet responded to these allegations, but Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has commented on the matter, stating that the Russian special services are taking all necessary measures to ensure Putin’s safety.

“The Russian special services are constantly taking all the necessary measures to ensure public safety, and, of course, the safety of those who are under state protection. This concerns first and foremost the head of the state”, Peskov said.

Carlson’s history of parroting Kremlin talking points and criticising US military aid for Ukraine has raised eyebrows, and his recent comments have only added fuel to the fire. He has even said “You can’t say it enough, Ukraine is not a democracy. … In American terms, you would call Ukraine a tyranny.” His sit-down interview in Moscow with Putin and his subsequent interview with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have been widely criticised.
 

New Delhi:

OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, have killed my son in order to hide something they want nobody to know, said Poornima Rao, mother of whistleblower and former OpenAI researcher Suchir Balaji. He had documents against them and what they are up to, she said in her latest tirade against the tech giant.

In an explosive interview to American commentator Tucker Carlson, Ms Rao made some stunning claims and serious charges over her son’s death and the opacity and secrecy in the world of Artificial Intelligence.

Suchir Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment in November, shortly after he had turned a whistleblower against AI-giant OpenAI. He had publicly raised ethical concerns about the ChatGPT maker’s practices before his death. After an initial investigation, authorities had concluded that his death was an act of suicide. However, his family has since called for an FBI investigation, highlighting several lapses and alleging that Balaji was murdered.

In the interview, Ms Rao recalled that the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner had declared that her son died by suicide. However, when they asked her if she feels he could have killed himself and if he was depressed recently, she told them “My son celebrated his birthday a day before he died. What more do we need to give on account that he was in a happy mood?” She added that he had even received his birthday gift from his father the same day he was later found dead.

Making a grave allegation against OpenAI, Ms Rao said on record that “My son had documents against OpenAI. They attacked him and killed him,” adding that “some documents were missing” after his death.

She further accused the ChatGPT maker of hushing up the investigation and any possible witnesses, saying “Everybody is suppressed, nobody is ready to come up and tell the truth. Even the attorneys have been made to say that it is a suicide.”

Elon Musk shared Suchir Balaji’s mother’s interview with Tucker Carlson on his X handle, calling it “Extremely concerning”.

Extremely concerning
pic.twitter.com/ze1mmlIMdD

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2025

Continuing her diatribe against OpenAI, Suchir Balaji’s mother accused the authorities of an unconvincing response and a botched up investigation, saying “It took them (authorities) more than 14 minutes to determine the cause of death and tell me that it was a suicide.”

She even slammed the police for holding on to information and not being transparent about it. “I knew that my son was dead was by looking at the white van,” she said, adding that the cops kept making excuses to delay the information. “In the evening, they returned the keys to me and told me that I could pick up the body tomorrow,” she said.

In an earlier post on social media platform X, the mother had said that Suchir Balaji’s “apartment was ransacked” and there was apparently a “sign of struggle in the bathroom”. She also claimed that there were bloodstains which were found. “Someone hit him in bathroom. There were blood spots,” she said, concluding that “It was cold blooded murder declared by authorities as suicide.”

Suchir Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years. He resigned in August, 2023 after expressing dissatisfaction with the company’s shift to a for-profit model. According to his mother, this shift was a key factor in his decision to leave and turn whistleblower. He had even given an interview to the New York Times raising concerns over the ChatGpt maker.

The San Francisco Police Department has reportedly reopened the case as an “active investigation,” but it has not shared further details. Meanwhile, Suchir Balaji’s parents have said, “We demand the FBI step in to uncover the truth.”
 

New Delhi:

OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, have killed my son in order to hide something they want nobody to know, said Poornima Rao, mother of whistleblower and former OpenAI researcher Suchir Balaji. He had documents against them and what they are up to, she said in her latest tirade against the tech giant.

In an explosive interview to American commentator Tucker Carlson, Ms Rao made some stunning claims and serious charges over her son’s death and the opacity and secrecy in the world of Artificial Intelligence.

Suchir Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment in November, shortly after he had turned a whistleblower against AI-giant OpenAI. He had publicly raised ethical concerns about the ChatGPT maker’s practices before his death. After an initial investigation, authorities had concluded that his death was an act of suicide. However, his family has since called for an FBI investigation, highlighting several lapses and alleging that Balaji was murdered.

In the interview, Ms Rao recalled that the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner had declared that her son died by suicide. However, when they asked her if she feels he could have killed himself and if he was depressed recently, she told them “My son celebrated his birthday a day before he died. What more do we need to give on account that he was in a happy mood?” She added that he had even received his birthday gift from his father the same day he was later found dead.

Making a grave allegation against OpenAI, Ms Rao said on record that “My son had documents against OpenAI. They attacked him and killed him,” adding that “some documents were missing” after his death.

She further accused the ChatGPT maker of hushing up the investigation and any possible witnesses, saying “Everybody is suppressed, nobody is ready to come up and tell the truth. Even the attorneys have been made to say that it is a suicide.”

Elon Musk shared Suchir Balaji’s mother’s interview with Tucker Carlson on his X handle, calling it “Extremely concerning”.

Extremely concerning
pic.twitter.com/ze1mmlIMdD

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2025

Continuing her diatribe against OpenAI, Suchir Balaji’s mother accused the authorities of an unconvincing response and a botched up investigation, saying “It took them (authorities) more than 14 minutes to determine the cause of death and tell me that it was a suicide.”

She even slammed the police for holding on to information and not being transparent about it. “I knew that my son was dead was by looking at the white van,” she said, adding that the cops kept making excuses to delay the information. “In the evening, they returned the keys to me and told me that I could pick up the body tomorrow,” she said.

In an earlier post on social media platform X, the mother had said that Suchir Balaji’s “apartment was ransacked” and there was apparently a “sign of struggle in the bathroom”. She also claimed that there were bloodstains which were found. “Someone hit him in bathroom. There were blood spots,” she said, concluding that “It was cold blooded murder declared by authorities as suicide.”

Suchir Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years. He resigned in August, 2023 after expressing dissatisfaction with the company’s shift to a for-profit model. According to his mother, this shift was a key factor in his decision to leave and turn whistleblower. He had even given an interview to the New York Times raising concerns over the ChatGpt maker.

The San Francisco Police Department has reportedly reopened the case as an “active investigation,” but it has not shared further details. Meanwhile, Suchir Balaji’s parents have said, “We demand the FBI step in to uncover the truth.”