Tucker Carlson was seen posing for a picture with an employee at Isarel’s Ben Gurion Airport on security footage — further calling into question his claim he was detained at the travel hub on Wednesday.
Carlson, a well-known critic of Israel and proponent of antisemitic conspiracy theories, dropped by Tel Aviv for a few hours Wednesday for an arranged interview with US Ambassador Mike Huckabee.
While the ousted Fox News host and podcaster was receiving flak online for seemingly refusing to leave the complex, Carlson bizarrely asserted that he had actually been detained.
He said he and his executive producer were “hauled…into a side room” where airport security ordered them to reveal “what we spoke to Ambassador Huckabee about” during an interview.
But surveillance video obtained by OliLondonTV painted a starkly different picture.
The clip showed Carlson, one of his colleagues, and an airport employee standing off to the side near a security checkpoint.
After appearing to complete a form of some kind laid out on the table, Carlson posed for a picture with the eager airport staffer. The pair took a few quick snaps before Carlson collected his coat and followed the man to the other side of the room, according to the video.
The footage fell more in line with the Israel Airports Authority’s timeline of events, in which it rejected Carlson’s fantastical narrative outright.
“Mr. Carlson and his party were politely asked a few routine questions, in accordance with standard procedures applied to many travelers,” the IAA wrote in a statement Wednesday.
The security team, recognizing Carlson’s renown, even conducted the conversation in “the VIP lounge solely to protect their privacy,” the IAA added.
Huckabee also said the so-called detainment was merely a routine customs screening.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett bashed Carlson for his blatant lies in a scathing post on X.
“Tucker Carlson is chickensh-t,” Bennett wrote.
“Next time he talks about Israel as if he’s some expert, just remember this guy is a phony!” he added.
David Friedman, the US ambassador to Israel during Trump’s first term, echoed Bennett’s fiery sentiment.
“Too bad Tucker stayed in the airport in the face of so many invitations to see so many wonderful places. A huge and obviously intentional missed opportunity,” Friedman wrote on X.
Many immediately questioned Carlson’s account, given his lengthy history of platforming antisemitic voices on his independent stream “The Tucker Carlson Show” — including widely condemned Nazi lovers like Nick Fuentes.
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