Popular podcast host Tucker Carlson published an interview Aug. 28 with former director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent. In it, the two discussed the growing danger of the use of nuclear weapons against Iran, and therefore general nuclear war, by a desperate Trump administration. Their remarks are one of the many admissions recently that such a discussion is actually happening in the U.S. administration, and that it is exceptionally dangerous. Carlson began the show: “A nuclear war ends inevitably in the destruction of all human life on the planet.”
Carlson opened with a stark warning that the danger of nuclear war is real, that the U.S. and Israel are at the forefront of that threat, but that Americans have closed their eyes to that reality because it’s too horrifying to contemplate. Despite this, “the evidence is mounting that some people are imagining it and therefore we are moving much closer to it,” Carlson said.
He went on: “[I]t is a fact that that is now under consideration... Reports in the last two weeks indicate that, during meetings within the Pentagon about how to respond to Iran in that current war, the possibility, the option has been floated of using what are called tactical nuclear weapons... discussions about their use have taken place in the Pentagon, and we’re here to confirm that that is absolutely true.” Carlson also noted that the U.S. and Israel are the only nuclear weapon states that maintain a nuclear first use policy.
Kent agreed with the assessment. After discussing how the U.S. has exhausted all options for regime change in Iran, including attempts to take out sensitive sites with conventional weapons, he noted that the administration has now arrived at the scenario where, if it still demands Iran’s “total surrender” and is not willing to launch a ground invasion, then “we kinda have to use a nuclear weapon.” Kent went on: “We would be fools to think this couldn’t happen here, especially as this administration scrambles for a way out.”
Later in the interview, Carlson also raised the question of Trump’s impeachment: “[T]he second any president actively considers first use of nuclear weapons, that person should be removed from office immediately. Because that’s got to be the red line—destroying all of humanity with a nuclear strike… So why isn’t there an attempt to remove him from office, like immediately? Anyone who would even tolerate that kind of talk from any of his subordinates or employees is by definition unfit. That’s the total destruction of the world.”
