According to Western Journal, the former Fox News host used his members-only newsletter to side with Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and to attack El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers. Carlson, who has increasingly recast his public persona around relentless criticism of Israel and American foreign policy in the Muslim world, stopped just short of a formal endorsement, but his sympathies were unmistakable. On a day when most Americans were reflecting on the lives lost in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, Carlson was busy amplifying a narrative that treats American self-defense as morally equivalent to jihadist terror.
The controversy centers on remarks El-Sayed made in 2021, which resurfaced as the nation marked a quarter-century since the attacks. “El-Sayed did not celebrate airplane hijackings or cheerlead Al-Qaeda; he simply said that the U.S. conducting terrorism of its own in response to 9/11 was not exactly an appropriate reaction. He is obviously right,” Carlson wrote, according to Mediaite’s account of the newsletter. In those two sentences, Carlson not only minimized the moral chasm between Islamist mass murder and the U.S. response, he also framed El-Sayed’s critique as self-evident truth rather than a radical left-wing talking point.
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE’S AMBASSADORSHIP HAS ENDED BUT THE QUESTIONS HAVE NOT
September 13, 2026
El-Sayed’s comments came during a Sept. 7, 2021, episode of his “America Dissected” podcast, where he recast the legacy of 9/11 in terms that many Americans would find deeply unsettling. According to the New York Post, El-Sayed told listeners that “9/11 scarred our country in profound ways, but what we did after 9/11 scarred millions of other people.” He went further, insisting that, “When we talk about 9/11, we often fail to center them,” meaning the people of the Middle East, not the American victims of the attacks.
THE SUPREME COURT WILL DECIDE IF A NIGERIAN TERROR GROUP’S COOK GETS ASYLUM
For a man seeking to represent Michigan in the U.S. Senate, that framing is not a minor rhetorical flourish; it is a window into his priorities and worldview. The nearly 3,000 Americans who died on 9/11, and the families who still live with that loss, are effectively pushed to the margins so that the “center” can be occupied by those in regions where terrorists planned, financed and celebrated the attacks. That is the posture Carlson chose to defend, and to declare “obviously right,” on the anniversary of the worst terrorist strike in American history.
TALARICO HOPES A NEW PAXTON STORY WILL BURY HIS 13-DAY DISAPPEARANCE
Rogers, a former congressman and House Intelligence Committee chairman, responded with the kind of moral clarity conservatives expect from their leaders. He said “it is disqualifying for a US Senate Candidate to believe that Americans should ‘center’ their grief from 9/11.” He did not stop there, adding that “Abdul El-Sayed’s attitude towards the worst tragedy in American history is disgusting and makes him completely unfit to serve in public office.”
EL-SAYED'S CAMPAIGN IS NOW RESPONDING TO HIS SISTER’S POSTS —BRACE FOR IT!
Those are strong words, but they reflect a basic expectation: that American officials should put American lives and American grief first. For El-Sayed, however, this kind of rhetoric is hardly an aberration. He has previously campaigned with far-left commentator Hasan Piker, notorious for his “America Deserved 9/11” outburst, only distancing himself from the controversial Twitch streamer after winning the primary and needing to appear more palatable to a general electorate.
ELIZABETH WARREN IS BACK TO REVIVE ‘ELECTION INTERFERENCE’ CLAIMS WEEKS BEFORE VOTE
That association alone should have raised red flags for any voter who believes the United States has a right to defend itself and to mourn its dead without apology. Yet, as is often the case in progressive politics, past radicalism is treated as a youthful indiscretion rather than a disqualifying pattern. Those who were not troubled by El-Sayed’s record before are unlikely to be swayed now, even as his own words about “centering” Middle Eastern pain on 9/11 resurface.
SIX FLAGS SHUTS DOWN CALIFORNIA GOLIATH AFTER MAN IS THROWN FROM TWIN COASTER IN GEORGIA
For conservatives, even those who might diverge from Republican orthodoxy on foreign policy, El-Sayed’s comments are not merely questionable; they are repellent. They invert the moral order, casting America as the primary villain in a story that began with Islamist fanatics flying planes into buildings filled with civilians. Tucker Carlson, long regarded as a leading conservative voice, appears determined to invert that order as well, his positions shifting “like the tides” as he now spends his time attacking Republicans and arming the left with rhetorical ammunition.
SHUT DOWN SANCTUARY POLICIES ACT ADVANCES AFTER DEADLY CASES—AND PUTS BLUE STATES ON NOTICE
Carlson’s newsletter did not stop at defending El-Sayed’s framing of 9/11; it launched into a sweeping indictment of America’s post-9/11 wars. “Your typical Fox News viewer is likely oblivious to this, but America’s response to 9/11 blew the original attack out of the water. George Bush’s subsequent war in Iraq, which made no sense considering Iraq did not do 9/11, got hundreds of thousands of innocents killed, had tens of thousands of American military casualties, and catalyzed the creation of ISIS,” he wrote. He then added, “That means the U.S. slaughtered enough civilians to account for dozens and dozens of 9/11s. And that is a conservative estimate.”
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE CONFIRMS EXIT AS U.S. AMBASSADOR TO GREECE AFTER WHITE HOUSE RESIGNATION REQUEST
There is no denying that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were costly, complex and, in many respects, flawed. Yet Carlson’s arithmetic morality, reducing years of conflict against terror networks and hostile regimes to a crude body-count comparison, ignores both context and agency. The United States went into countries ruled by factions and harboring organizations that openly aspired to carry out “dozens and dozens of 9/11s” on American soil, and it degraded their capacity to do so; that is not a trivial achievement.
BILL MAHER SAYS HE FEELS FREER TALKING TO TRUMP THAN OBAMA OR CLINTON—AND BLAMES DEMOCRATS FOR IT
Moreover, the claim that these conflicts “catalyzed the creation of ISIS” conveniently erases the role of President Barack Obama’s withdrawal from Iraq and his broader retreat from Middle Eastern security commitments. The Islamic State did not emerge in a vacuum; it grew in the power vacuum left when the Obama administration chose to abandon hard-won gains and signal American disengagement. Insurgent and jihadist groups were responsible for much of the bloodshed in those years, yet Carlson’s narrative flattens the moral landscape until the Pentagon and al-Qaeda appear as mirror images.
THE MONOLOGUE GILLIS DELIVERED ON SNL HAS WOKE CELEBRITIES FURIOUS
The subtext of Carlson’s rhetoric is unmistakable: Americans who still view 9/11 as a singular evil, and who supported robust action against those who enabled it, are naïve “Fox News viewers” who do not understand the supposed enormity of their own country’s sins. That condescension is not merely directed at political elites; it is aimed squarely at ordinary conservatives who trusted that their government was acting to prevent future attacks. “But what do I know, stupid Fox News viewer, me?” the original commentary asked, capturing the sneering tone that now characterizes much of Carlson’s foreign-policy commentary.
FORMER DETROIT DEMOCRATS TURN ON ABDUL EL-SAYED IN MIKE ROGERS AD—AND THEIR WARNING IS BRUTAL
Carlson did not reserve his ire for abstract policy debates; he trained it directly on Rogers. “Hold on a second. Disgusting? Understanding that the Bush administration was wrong to kill hundreds of thousands of people and waste trillions of dollars in Iraq, even though, again, Iraq did not do 9/11, is disgusting?” he wrote, mocking Rogers’ condemnation of El-Sayed. He then escalated, declaring, “We are really not sure who Mike Rogers is, but if anyone in Michigan’s Senate race is ‘unfit to serve in public office,’ it is him.”
'THE VIEW' HOSTS DEFEND TALARICO AND LABEL REPUBLICAN TALK 'CONSPIRACY THEORIES' (VIDEO)
That phrase — “we are really not sure who Mike Rogers is” — is not accidental. In recent years, Carlson has repeatedly used similar language to cast doubt on the loyalties of public figures, often hinting that they are compromised or secretly aligned with interests he despises, particularly those tied to Israel. The commentary noted that, “For those of you who haven’t been paying attention to Carlson recently, saying that you don’t ‘know who someone is’ happens to be Tucker-land speak for we don’t know that they’re secretly in cahoots with Israel, but c’mon: They’re secretly in cahoots with Israel.”
THE MAN ICE SHOT IN NEW YORK HAS A RECORD — A FORMER NEIGHBOR CALLED HIM A 'MACHETE-WIELDING MENACE'
Carlson’s attack on Rogers culminated in a sweeping moral equivalence that placed American military actions and jihadist atrocities on the same plane. “Slaughtering thousands of innocent people is atrocious no matter who is responsible. If Rogers is deranged enough to think that Jihadis are evil for murdering enough Americans to fill a Division III hockey arena, but that the Pentagon deserves two thumbs up for killing enough to pack Ohio State’s football stadium multiple times, then he cannot possibly have the judgment necessary to adequately serve the needs of American voters,” Carlson wrote. In that construction, the Pentagon — an institution charged with defending the United States — becomes morally indistinguishable from terrorists who target civilians by design.
For a man still widely described as a conservative, this is a remarkable place to land. On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Carlson aligned himself with a Democrat who wants Americans to “center” the pain of Middle Easterners when remembering that day, while branding a Republican who defends American grief as the one “unfit” for office. He did so while suggesting that America is “really not sure who Mike Rogers is,” a familiar dog whistle to his audience that Rogers may be aligned with the wrong foreign allies.
DAWN RAID ON ILHAN OMAR’S HOME PUT HAKEEM JEFFRIES IN A CORNER
The broader question is what this says about the state of conservatism in 2026. If a figure like Carlson — once a staple of right-of-center media — now spends his time echoing left-wing critiques of American power, minimizing jihadist evil and treating Israel as the hidden hand behind every policy dispute, then the label “conservative” is being stretched beyond recognition. “Your ‘conservative’ Tucker Carlson,” the commentary observed, is now a man who sides with those who relativize 9/11 and derides those who insist on moral clarity.
BRACE FOR A GEORGIA SHOWDOWN AS JON OSSOFF TAPS HOLLYWOOD POWER BROKERS FOR CASH
For those who still assumed Carlson belonged firmly in the conservative camp, his defense of El-Sayed offers a stark reality check. A movement grounded in traditional values, national sovereignty and a clear-eyed view of America’s enemies cannot afford to blur the line between those who attacked us and those who fought them. If evidence was needed that Carlson has drifted out of that fold, his decision to use the 25th anniversary of 9/11 to champion Abdul El-Sayed and vilify Mike Rogers provides it in abundance.
