Political commentator Tucker Carlson claimed during a recent interview with Piers Morgan that evangelist Franklin Graham accused him of being an antisemite in a private letter to President Donald Trump and then refused to take his call after Trump showed him the letter.
During his hour-long conversation with Morgan that aired last Friday, Carlson reiterated his apology regarding comments he made last fall that he dislikes Christian Zionists “more than anybody” while accusing them of being subject to “heresy” and a “brain virus.” He later clarified that he was speaking out of unrestrained anger toward Christian Zionists with political power who allow their eschatology to inform their foreign policy.
“I’m sorry that I said that, because I don’t hate Christian Zionists,” he told Morgan. “I’m deeply frustrated with some Evangelical leaders who are not preaching Christianity, but some sick, weird, culty version of it that puts Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Jesus. And that’s not Christianity. It’s totally wrong. And some of them are quite ruthless, I have learned personally.”
Tucker Carlson had every right to speak out against Franklin Graham. Matthew 18 teaches you go to your brother first, not to a president in a sneaky private letter. When backroom politics replaces basic Christian conduct, charity work doesn’t cover the hypocrisy, Franklin. pic.twitter.com/gap5mckrvJ
— Stephen (@Stephen1427529) March 14, 2026
Carlson went on to single out Graham, an outspoken supporter of the president who serves on the White House Religious Liberty Commission, as an example, claiming Trump recently showed him Graham’s letter accusing him of antisemitism.
“I went in to see Trump, and Trump says, ‘I just got a letter from Franklin Graham calling you an antisemite,'” said Carlson, who said he was shocked and called Graham immediately to ask why he would accuse him of such a thing without calling him first.
Carlson alleged Graham effectively refused his call.
“If you think I’m an antisemite, wouldn’t you want to persuade me not to be? Because that’s a pretty ugly thing to be. And as a Christian, as a fellow Christian, you want to talk. He wouldn’t take my call,” Carlson said.
Carlson said that during a lengthy exchange with Graham’s assistant, he was told that Graham, who first obtained his pilot’s license in 1971, was unable to speak to him because he was taking flying lessons.
“I went back and forth texting with his assistant, like, all day. ‘Well, when can I speak to him?’ ‘Maybe next week. He’s learning to be a private pilot.’ I’m, like, ‘He’s 74. He doesn’t have time to at least account for a letter that he sent to Trump calling me an antisemite and telling Trump never to talk to me again?'” Carlson said, prompting laughter from Morgan.
Carlson described Graham’s alleged behavior as “so un-Christian and so low, so sneaky, so dishonest, that it offends me as a Christian to see it conducted in the name of Jesus.”
“I just think that that’s really wrong. I don’t think I have a monopoly on the truth. I don’t think I’m a very good Christian. I’m not. But I don’t think that’s Christianity. I just don’t,” he added.
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Christian Post. Carlson declined CP’s request for further comment, but noted, “Everything I said was true.”
In a private recorded conversation the late Rev. Billy Graham had with then-President Richard Nixon in 1972, Franklin Graham’s father told Nixon that the Bible “makes a distinction” between Jews who are “the remnant of God’s people,” in an apparent reference to Romans 11, and those who are among the “synagogue of Satan,” which is a phrase Jesus Christ used from Heaven to the Apostle John, according to Revelation 2:9 and Revelation 3:9.
“Nearly all of your religious deceptions in the latter days — like the Bible speaks, ‘latter days’ could be a thousand years — are what they call the ‘synagogue of Satan,'” Graham told Nixon at the time. “In other words, they are energized by a supernatural power called the devil. This is what the Bible teaches.”
Graham and Nixon went on to agree that certain elements of Judaism had gotten “a stranglehold” on American society, which Graham said, “has got to be broken, or this country is going to go down the drain.”
When his conversation with Nixon leaked in 2002, the late evangelist issued a statement apologizing for his remarks, which he said he did not remember and didn’t reflect his views.
Carlson’s anecdote about Franklin Graham comes amid escalating backlash against him for his opposition to the war in Iran, his frustration toward the Israeli government’s alleged influence over U.S. foreign policy and his antipathy regarding Christian eschatology that emphasizes the role of modern Israel. He has drawn allegations of antisemitism and taking money from Islamic regimes, which he has denied.
Carlson’s comments were also in response a question from Morgan about recent criticism from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who claimed last week to CBN that Carlson hates him because he is a Christian and a Zionist.
Cruz, who tussled with Carlson last summer over whether the personal promise God made to Abram in Genesis 12:3 applies to modern Israel, also claimed the former Fox News host is the “single most dangerous demagogue” in the United States and wants Israel abolished, though Carlson has never expressed such an opinion.
On Saturday, Carlson claimed the Central Intelligence Agency has been spying on his private texts and that he was anticipating potential criminal charges from the U.S. Department of Justice on allegations that he violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Carlson, whose late father reportedly worked for the CIA, said the intelligence agency is “preparing some kind of criminal referral against me” for “talking to people in Iran before the war.” Anonymous White House officials pushed back against Carlson’s claim, reports Axios.
Carlson’s concern about his potential impending arrest led to a flurry of responses from other conservatives and Christians, some of whom accused Carlson of treason, which is a crime punishable by death.
Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., cited Genesis 12:3 to suggest Carlson is under a divine curse, which prompted outrage from figures such as former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who accused Fine of “twisting and weaponizing the Bible to intimidate American Christians.”
Trump distanced himself from Carlson earlier this month amid his outspoken opposition to the war in Iran, claiming “Tucker has lost his way” and is “not MAGA,” according to ABC News.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to [email protected]
