“You and I and everyone else who supported him, you wrote speeches for him, I campaigned for him, we’re implicated in this for sure,” Tucker said to his brother Buckley. “It’s not enough to say, well, I’ve changed my mind, or like, oh, this is bad, I’m out. It’s like in very small ways, but in real ways, you and me and millions of people like us are the reason this is happening right now.”
“So I do think it’s like a moment to wrestle with our own consciences,” he continued. “You know, we’ll be tormented by it for a long time, I will be. And I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people, it was not intentional, that’s all I’ll say. “
Tucker has been an outspoken critic of Trump’s illegal Iran War and of the fact that the president is now clearly embracing an “Israel First” agenda and shedding his “America First” campaign promises. Trump has in turned attack Tucker on Truth Social.
It must be noted that while Tucker’s mea culpa on the issue of Trump should be welcomed, we cannot start trusting him more broadly. His reactionary, hateful worldview is what led us to this presidency. He continues to regularly push disingenuous talking points, racist beliefs, and outright lies. He is not and will never be our ally — but his turn against Trump offers invaluable insight into the Republican Party’s base.
“But anyway, but the question does present itself immediately, like, what is this?” asked Tucker. “Was this always the plan? You don’t want to be a conspiracy nut, but like, clearly there were signs of low character, we knew that. But it didn’t, there are tons of people of low character who like outperform their character. It doesn’t have to be…”
“Sort of the norm, actually, these days,” said Buckley.
“Right! I’ve outperformed my character a lot,” said Tucker. “I don’t have especially high character, right? But, you know, you try to, whatever, you try your best. But what was this? Was this always the plan?”
“You know, looking back after the last year and a half, it seems like it kind of was,” said Buckley. “And it’s easy, well, you could get really deep about it and say, what was Butler? Like, how was it that he, and Ryan Routh? I mean, he was subject to two legitimate assassination attempts. Have we ever gotten to the bottom? I know you’ve talked a lot about this, but have we ever gotten to the bottom of that?”
“I have talked a lot about it. I don’t know the answer, but I know that those investigations have been stymied,” said Tucker. “Fact.”
“Yeah, stymied from the very top, from people who actually would have the power to get to the bottom of it,” said Buckley.
“And the motive,” said Tucker.
“Very much,” said Buckley. “So, the enormous amount of money he got from Miriam Adelson now seems, it seems suspect to a lot of people at the time. But, you know, there’s a lot of money in politics to run for president, requires an enormous, I mean, [Kamala Harris] went through two billion dollars in four months.”
“So, sure, there’s an argument to be made that you get money from those who will give it to you,” Buckley continued. “It’s just the nature of that game. But it’s still reprehensible and it’s still a big question mark: Why would someone who has obvious and demonstrated allegiance to a foreign power give Donald Trump $250 million while he’s running for president?”
“I mean, how is that defensible? It’s really not,” said Buckley. “If Russia had given a PAC for Trump, you know, if the mayor of Moscow had somehow, you know, assembled an enormous amount of money and put it in a 501c3 for Trump’s benefit, would that have been acceptable? Of course it wouldn’t have been. So, what does someone, it’s so basic, comes back to the money. Like, what did they get in return for that amount of investment? And it’s clear.”
“I get it. No, I mean, of course, I agree with every word that you’re saying,” said Tucker. “I just think given his behavior and his demonstrated disloyalty and viciousness to previous supporters, why wouldn’t he display the same lack of loyalty to Miriam Adelson? I mean, that’s kind of the question. The only people he’s been loyal to are the neocons and his donors.”
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