Tucker Carlson may be fueling a 9/11 conspiracy theory now, but he once left an event he was hosting in disapproval over attendees’ acceptance of the same theory.
On a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, Carlson poked fun at himself for previously dismissing a number of conspiracy theories.
“I didn’t have any opinions like that. I was like ‘Fluoride? come on.’ You know, 9/11? ‘Shut up!’ UFOs, ‘You’re crazy!'” he began, before saying that he was “ashamed” of his lack of interest in them.
Later in the episode, Carlson and host Joe Rogan focused on 9/11, with Carlson stating that there was “no reason to “classifying any document around 9/11.”
“You know, the craziest thing about tower seven is that If you just say it looks like a controlled demolition, people get upset with you,” mused Rogan.
“Why?” asked Carlson.
“Well, I don’t know,” replied Rogan. “I’m not saying that it is a controlled demolition, but I’m saying if you watch it, it looks like a controlled demolition.”
“But that happens all the time. Buildings catch fire and they just implode in on themselves, I think. Happens every week, right?” countered Carlson sarcastically.
He continued:
So I say, why do they respond that way? And of course, I responded that way. So when I think, looking back, the reason that I did was because if you call that into question, you had to ask a lot of other really obvious questions you didn’t want to deal with. And you might arrive at the conclusion that a lot of your most basic assumptions are false and that you’ve been had, and it’s just too destabilizing, maybe.
Carlson went on to assert that a “a lot of building engineers disagree” that the building could have collapsed as a result of the attacks on the other World Trade Center towers. “They don’t think that could have happened in the way you just described,” he insisted.
Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson want to know what happened to Building 7: pic.twitter.com/hQMC06ee1X
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 20, 2024
As Carlson himself acknowledged, however, he used to have no time for such theories. In fact, The Fifth Column podcast’s Michael Moynihan pointed out that a 2008 piece for The Weekly Standard authored by Matt Labash chronicled Carlson’s reaction to widespread 9/11 trutherism at Ron Paul event hosted by Carlson:
Tucker hadn’t heard the speech, so I [Labash] break the news to him that [Jesse] Ventura got off his leash. Being a devout believer in the conventional, single-bullet version of the 9/11 attacks (that the terrorists acted alone), Tucker is both alarmed and offended, but doesn’t have much time to reflect. He is accosted by some grubby indie-media types who start trying to engage him: “Have you ever heard of the Controlled Demolition Hypothesis. . . . Who I believe did it are the ones who control our money systems. . . . Have you followed the [National Institute of Standards and Technology] report on the collapse of building seven?”
After a brief sparring match with the nutcakes, Tucker looks ashen. “This is crazy. I’ve got to get out of here. Let’s go get dinner.” We slip out the back door of the arena to hail a cab and get some steaks. But Tucker’s still supposed to be emceeing the event, and Paul has yet to speak.
“Are you going to tell him you’re leaving?” I ask.
“Nahhh,” Tucker says. “I really like Ron Paul. I don’t want to hurt his feelings.”
On Rogan’s show, Carlson ultimately described himself as an “agnostic” on the question of what happened to building seven.
