Infighting Over Israel Consumes a Republican Conference on Antisemitism

Republican lawmakers publicly distanced themselves from a number of prominent conservative social media commentators on Tuesday, claiming that their criticism of Israel had veered into antisemitism.

Speaking at a conference on antisemitism hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition at D.C.’s Museum of the Bible, several Republicans named popular right-wing personalities Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes as examples of antisemites masquerading as Republicans.

The party has been fracturing behind the scenes for months after some of the MAGA movement’s more prominent online backers began to publicly criticize Israel and the country’s cozy relationship with the leaders of both American political parties. Many right-wing influencers and commentators have also spoken out about the Trump administration’s handling of files related to disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton gave a particularly fiery speech at the Tuesday conference, saying that many of the online personalities who boosted Trump’s 2024 campaign were opportunists and not Republicans. For proof, he pointed to their support for populist economic policies.

“These ‘influencers’ are perceived to be on the ‘right,’” Cotton said, using an air quote gesture. “Maybe they once were … but I do not agree that I share a political movement or political party with anyone who traffics in antisemitism.”

“These so-called ‘influencers,’ like antisemites usually do, often have a deep antipathy to free market capitalism,” Cotton added, referring to their openness to “Liz Warren’s economic policies or Rashida Tlaib’s foreign policy.”

Tuesday’s event was not the first conservative gathering to devolve into acrimony in recent months.

At December’s Turning Point USA conference, several headlining speeches turned into targeted attacks at other headliners. The Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro called podcaster Candace Owens, Carlson, former Fox News host Megyn Kelly and Trump’s former White House strategist Steve Bannon as “frauds and grifters,” and said Bannon was a “flack for Epstein.”

In recent weeks, many conservative internet personalities have united in their opinion that Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran was fueled by support for Israel rather than an interest in helping everyday Americans.

“Do not join or remain in the United States Military. Trump has betrayed America and expects you to die for Israel,” Owens posted to X on Friday. “There is no honor in being led by dishonorable men to your death.”

“I don’t think those service members died for the United States,” Megyn Kelly said on her podcast, referring to the seven American military members who have died in the conflict. “I think they died for Iran or for Israel.”

Carlson, who had previously been considered a close ally to the White House, declared the Iran war “absolutely disgusting and evil.”

Tucker Carlson, who had previously been considered a close ally to the White House, spoke out against the Iran war last week. The president did not approve of his comments, saying in an interview: “Tucker has lost his way.” (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

That apparent alliance ended last week when Trump responded to Carlson in a Thursday interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, saying, “Tucker has lost his way.”

“I knew that a long time ago, and he’s not MAGA. MAGA is saving our country. MAGA is making our country great again. MAGA is America first, and Tucker is none of those things,” Trump told Karl. “And Tucker is really not smart enough to understand that.”

Carlson has also drawn criticism from Republican lawmakers for platforming the far-right influencer Nick Fuentes, in an interview where Fuentes frequently used antisemitic tropes and praised Adolf Hitler.

Trump defended Carlson following the interview, but as reports of Trump’s intentions to launch a war against Iran began to spread, both Carlson and Fuentes made their opposition to the conflict clear.

“I cannot and will not vote for the GOP unless they put America and Americans First. If you keep voting after they dragged us into a regional war with Iran, then you will vote for absolutely anything,” Fuentes said in one X post.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, also speaking at Tuesday’s antisemitism conference, condemned Carlson’s interview with Fuentes and raised concern about witnessing “more antisemitism in the last 18 months on the right than at any point in my lifetime.”

“I actually think it’s a tell when among the Republican politicians if they’ll denounce Fuentes but are scared to say Tucker’s name,” Cruz continued. “I believe Tucker Carlson is the single most dangerous demagogue in this country.”

Cruz went on to criticize Carlson for not pushing back against Fuentes’ support for Hitler and Stalinism, and for calling Winston Churchill “the villain of World War II.”

“Nick Fuentes is a goose-stepping Nazi … and I’m not one who throws around the term Nazi loosely,” Cruz said. “Fuentes tells him [Carlson] that every year he celebrates Stalin’s birthday … but Tucker just coos when he says that.”

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who also chairs Trump’s Presidential Religious Liberty Commission, also talked about a far-right faction of Trump supporters that have devolved into antisemetic rhetoric.

“We are not going to let the Republican Party become an antisemetic party led by people like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens,” Patrick said at Tuesday’s event.

Patrick also acknowledged the “dustup” that occurred at the White House Religious Liberty Commission’s last hearing, in which conservative activist Carrie Prejean Boller was removed from the body for raising questions about the commission’s definition of antisemitism.

“We had one member of our committee that, when it was over, instead of asking questions turned [it] into a political discussion over Gaza and Israel,” Patrick said. “The committee had gotten out of control, she hijacked the committee and she said, ‘No, I don’t think Candace Owens ever said anything antisemetic.’”

“So the day after, I removed her from the committee,” he added.

Owens, who has garnered millions of followers across her social media platforms, was removed from her role at The Daily Wire in 2023 for her repeated use of antisemetic rhetoric — including minimizing the Holocaust and promoting anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.

“The Nazis experimented on innocent people,” Owens said on a July 2024 episode of her podcast. “Some of the stories, by the way, sound completely absurd … literally, even if you’re the most evil person in the world, that’s a tremendous waste of time and supplies.”

“That just sounds like bizarre propaganda,” she added.

Speaking at Tuesday’s event, Yehuda Kaploun, Trump’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, said it should be alarming that while the Trump administration is actively combating antisemitism it remains “at its highest levels ever since 1933.”

The Jewish activist Shabbos Kestenbaum, who sued Harvard for not protecting Jewish students during pro-Palestianian protests, said on Tuesday that a “fringe faction” of conservative influencers are blaming “real” problems like high gas and housing costs on a shadow Jewish supremacy designed to hold back Americans.

“I would say it’s most profoundly a right-wing problem,” Kestenbaum said. “If the conservative movement no longer defines, or defends, what it means to be a conservative … we will lose elections in the future … and furthermore if we acquiesce and placate and surrender to the fringes on the right who are certainly not MAGA [and] who have been peddling bizarre conspiracy theories.”