Ted Cruz & Tucker Carlson Battle Over Iran While Trump Enters His Decorating Era | Matt Berninger

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
You're listening to Comedy Central. From the most trusted journalists at Comedy Central, it's America's only source for news. This is The Daily Show with your host, Jordan Klepper.

**Jordan Klepper** (0:33)
Welcome to The Daily Show, I'm Jordan Klepper. We got so much to talk about tonight. Donald Trump takes a mental health day. We go balls deep on sports stories about balls, and Tucker Carlson and Ted Cruz have a douche off. So, let's get into headlines.
For two days now, the world has been waiting for Donald Trump to decide whether to accept Israel's e-vite to go to war with Iran. We know he's viewed it, but he still hasn't RSVP'd. I hate it when that happens. Now, in the meantime, the question has started a separate war inside his MAGA base. And today, it exploded into a heated debate between the two most likable and charming voices on the right. On the one side is Ted Cruz, who wants war with Iran. And on the other is Tucker Carlson, who thinks Ted Cruz doesn't know shit about Iran.

**Tucker Carlson** (1:30)
How many people living around, by the way?

**SPEAKER_5** (1:32)
I don't know the population.

**Tucker Carlson** (1:33)
At all? No, I don't know the population. You don't know the population of the country you seek to topple?

**Jordan Klepper** (1:41)
How many people living around?

**Tucker Carlson** (1:42)
Ninety-two million.

**Jordan Klepper** (1:43)
Oh, damn, Ted Cruz, are you a pair of $800 Ferragamo boat shoes? Because Tucker Carlson owned you, buddy. Ted Cruz was like, I know the population. Just give me a second to count, okay? Let's see. There's the Ayatollah. That's one. The Iron Sheik, two. It's a Latin one. I don't know.
If you enjoyed seeing Ted Cruz get metaphorically punched in the face, would you like to see it again?

**Tucker Carlson** (2:14)
Why is it relevant whether it's 90 million or 80 million or 100 million? Because if you don't know anything about the country... I didn't say I don't know anything about the country. What's the ethnic mix up around?

**Jordan Klepper** (2:26)
Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Not ethnic mixes. You don't want to go toe to toe with Tucker Carlson on ethnic mixes. That's his best subject. Look at poor Ted Cruz. He's like, uh, uh, uh, uh, I'd like to phone a friend, please. Oh, shit, I don't have any. I had a waiter last night at Outback and he called me champ. Can I phone him? You know, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm starting to feel bad for Ted Cruz. So come on, Ted, you got this.

**Tucker Carlson** (2:58)
They are Persians and predominantly Shia. Okay, this is cute. You don't know anything about Iran.

**SPEAKER_6** (3:04)
So, actually, the country...

**Jordan Klepper** (3:05)
I am not the Tucker Carlson expert on Iran.

**Tucker Carlson** (3:08)
You're a senator who's calling for the overthrow of the government and you don't know anything about the country.

**SPEAKER_7** (3:12)
No, you don't know anything about the country.

**Matt Berninger** (3:15)
This is awesome. You don't know anything.

**Jordan Klepper** (3:18)
No, you don't know anything. I don't care about who wins the fight. I just like watching the fight. It's like Alien vs. Predator, but somehow more gross.
You can see how heated this is getting. Clearly, MAGA is much more divided about whether to overthrow Iran than they were about whether to overthrow America. Every little comment in this interview turned into a semantic battle. We're carrying out military strikes today.

**Tucker Carlson** (3:47)
You said Israel was. Right, with our help. I said we. Israel is leading them, but we're supporting them. Well, you're breaking news here because the US government last night denied, the National Security Council spokesman Alex Pfeiffer denied, on behalf of Trump, that we were acting on Israel's behalf in any offensive capacity at all. We're not bombing them. Israel's bombing them. You just said we were. We are supporting Israel.

**SPEAKER_1** (4:10)
We?

**Jordan Klepper** (4:11)
I?

**SPEAKER_1** (4:12)
You?

**Jordan Klepper** (4:14)
For the party that promised no confusion around pronouns, this is really confusing. The point is, Mago World is tearing itself apart, and everyone is waiting for Trump to make a decision. And remember, Trump abruptly left the G7 Summit so he could rush back to the White House, meet with his national security team in the Situation Room, and decide if he's bringing America into this war. So we were all waiting for the big announcement, and then it came.

**Donald Trump** (4:48)
Trump said in a Truth Social post, It is my great honor to announce that I will be putting up two beautiful flagpoles on both sides of the White House, North and South Lawns.