Ben Shapiro attacks JD Vance's closeness with Tucker Carlson: “That is going to come along with a political and yes, a moral cost”
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From the September 7, 2026, edition of The Daily Wire's The Ben Shapiro Show
BEN SHAPIRO (HOST): Lots of people have lots of crazy friends. Do you think Tucker Carlson is a vital voice inside of conservatism? And if you do, why, considering that this is the same man who says that Israelis and Zionists and neocons run the American government, that the president is literally a slave to the Zionists, that he ought to be impeached, and that in fact the president, JD Vance's boss and running mate, might in fact be the antichrist?
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SHAPIRO: I mean, is this an important voice in conservatism? Right? That's the question. And JD Vance knows that's the question, so that's why he's avoiding the question by talking about friendship. No one cares, dude. I don't care whether you grab coffee. I don't care if you go shopping together. I don't care if you smoke cigars in the back room. Doesn't matter to me. Is he an important voice that you think ought to be a crucial part of your coalition going forward in terms of defining the policy? You know, the guy who says openly that America ought to swivel toward toward multipolarity and cede global power to Russia and China and then, you know, heads off to Russia to blow Vladimir Putin and tour Russian grocery stores.
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SHAPIRO: This is some vital conservatism we're watching right now, vital conservatism. Or is it really vital to the conservative movement to have people who say that they would not support the Republican party because it's not loyal to the United States? You're the current Republican vice president of the United States running for the nomination of the Republican party. That's the question.
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SHAPIRO: So, is Tucker Carlson still a vital voice? That's the question for the VP. And if so, how so? And if why, then why? Why? Those are the questions that JD Vance is going to face from now until the 2028 election. And here's the thing, maybe he is doing this truly out of friendship. Maybe Tucker is just such an awesome hang that he wishes to put his own political career on the line for a person who has no problem harming him. Again, put aside the primaries where, again, the vice president is right now the prohibitive favorite. But if you think that the media isn't going to notice that JD Vance has super glued himself to Tucker Carlson, you're nuts. And that is going to come along with a political and yes, a moral cost.