The right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson said falsely that President Isaac Herzog visited Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous island in an interview filmed in Israel and released on Friday.

Carlson, a leading critic of Israel on the right, came to Israel on Wednesday to interview US Ambassador Mike Huckabee.

During the interview, Carlson pressed Huckabee about Herzog’s visits to Epstein’s island, although there is no evidence that Herzog had any connection to Epstein or visited his property.

“The current president of Israel, who I know you know, apparently was at ‘pedo island.’ That’s what it says,” Carlson said. “Still-living, high-level Israeli officials are directly implicated in Epstein’s life, if not his crimes, so I think you’d be following this.”

Former prime minister Ehud Barak was friendly with Epstein, but there is no evidence of criminality by Barak.

Huckabee said he had not followed news about the Epstein files because it was not relevant to his job.

“I was not aware there was any connection with President Herzog. I would be surprised to hear that,” Huckabee said.

“I don’t know that I’ve heard the current president of Israel respond to it, but he is listed as a visitor to ‘pedo island,’ so that’s kind of a big deal,” Carlson said, criticizing Huckabee for not questioning Herzog about Epstein.

“This is the first I’ve heard of this, so why do you expect me to have knowledge like that?” Huckabee said.

Herzog is mentioned in the Epstein files, but only in news reports that landed in Epstein’s emails. There is no evidence of a personal connection between Herzog and Epstein.

After the files’ release late last month, a fake, AI-generated image circulated online showing Herzog and Epstein together, amid rampant disinformation about the Epstein files, including widespread conspiracy theories about Jews and Israel.

While the claims are baseless, those who viewed the interview would not had any indication of their falsity. More than 600,000 people viewed the interview on YouTube in the hours after its release, and the footage was also shared on other platforms.

Carlson is an influential and massively popular voice on the right who has a friendly relationship with US Vice President JD Vance.

Carlson also said that it was “very clear” Epstein was affiliated with Mossad, another unsubstantiated allegation.

A primary source in the Epstein files who alleged that Epstein worked for Mossad was a discredited fraudster and Holocaust denier.

After the interview aired, and Huckabee found out the allegations against Herzog were false, Huckabee wrote on X, “His allegations against Israeli officials could be the stuff of libel lawsuits. It was hard to follow Tucker’s line of questioning.”

I'm so glad that @LauraLoomer is setting fire to some of Tucker's bizarre allegations. His allegations against Israeli officials could be the stuff of libel lawsuits. It was hard to follow Tucker's line of questioning. https://t.co/nA3PwyWONL — Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) February 20, 2026

I'm so glad that @LauraLoomer is setting fire to some of Tucker's bizarre allegations. His allegations against Israeli officials could be the stuff of libel lawsuits. It was hard to follow Tucker's line of questioning. https://t.co/nA3PwyWONL

— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) February 20, 2026

Carlson’s visit also caused controversy due to his claims that his team was targeted for “interrogation” by Israeli security.

Carlson did not leave the airport during the visit, but alleged that two of his producers were subject to hostile questioning. Huckabee and the Israel Airports Authority firmly rejected the claim.

In the introduction to his interview with Huckabee, before the envoy was present, Carlson said Israeli officials held his team’s passports and that his two producers were “called into rooms and given the third degree.”

Carlson said security asked questions, including, “What did you say to the US ambassador?”

“They’re doing like an intel op and humiliation exercise on my producer. This isn’t security,” he said.

“The interrogator is holding his passport in his hand as he’s asking these questions,” he said. “Some thug is demanding details of that conversation.”

“It’s a police state, it’s a surveillance state. You go to Israel, and they put software on your phone. Everybody knows this. They’re constantly spying on you,” he said. There is no evidence that Israel installs spy software on visitors’ phones.

It is standard for Israeli airport staff to ask visitors questions while viewing their passports.

Carlson said footage leaked to the media with the goal of discrediting his claim of mistreatment was him agreeing to a driver’s request to take a photo with him.

He also claimed that Israel knowingly bombed the USS Liberty in 1967, a common conspiracy theory on the US far right, claimed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Carlson’s family “because he believes in blood guilt,” and called Israel “probably the most violent country on earth.”

During the introduction and Carlson’s interview with Huckabee, Carlson portrayed Israel as controlling the US and dragging the US into wars, echoing antisemitic tropes about hidden Jewish power and warmongering.

“Americans in the United States, can you be sure that your government will take your side over the Israeli government? No, of course not. They will always take the Israeli government’s side over yours and that’s the core problem,” he said.

“If you criticize Israel in your country, your government will censor you,” he said. Carlson and other prominent figures regularly criticize Israel without being censored.

Huckabee and Carlson remained relatively cordial, but found little common ground, and were often unable to agree on basic facts.

For example, as Carlson warned that Israel was endangering US troops, Huckabee attempted to point out that American troops have never fought for Israel. Carlson, however, repeatedly responded with the baseless claim that the Iraq War was fought at Israel’s behest, and that Israel was prodding the US into war with Iran.

“I don’t think that it’s at all accurate to even intimate that tiny, little Israel is pushing the US into something it does not want to do,” Huckabee said.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu has way more influence over American foreign policy than Americans do,” Carlson said.

Carlson also questioned Israel’s right to exist, engaging in a byzantine discussion about indigeneity that included questions about whether Jews are an ethnicity or a religion, ancient history like the building of Stonehenge and genetics in Scandinavia. Huckabee said several times he was unable to follow Carlson’s train of reasoning.

Some of Carlson’s arguments echoed points made on the far left, illustrating the horseshoe theory of politics, which says that the political spectrum is not a straight line, but that the fringes bend toward each other, often when it comes to Jews and Israel.

Carlson for example repeatedly accused Israel of murdering journalists, cast Jewish Israelis as foreign implants in Israel, accused Israel of genocide and attacked US financial aid to Israel — all common leftist talking points.

Some of his arguments echoed leftist talking points, but from a right-wing perspective. While anti-Zionist activists often accuse Israel of persecuting Muslims at the Al Aqsa Mosque, Carlson accused Israel of blocking Christian Palestinians from accessing the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

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