💥 When Tucker Met Fuentes – by Peter Rothpletz

On this day, in 1956, the Suez crisis turned into a full-fledged Middle East war as Israel, with UK and French support, invaded the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula, only to have to withdraw nine days later. But, wait… Gaza? 1956? I thought nothing happened there before October 7, 2023??

Good morning! Peter here with some news! Last week, I shared how my pal Cam Kasky and I linked up to watch the NYC mayoral debate. Well, late yesterday, new FEC filings indicated that a “Cameron Kasky” is launching a bid for the open seat in New York’s 12th congressional district. In a statement to Zeteo, Kasky, who is Jewish and came to prominence as a gun control activist after surviving the Parkland high school massacre in 2018, wrote simply: “It’s starting to sound like a lot of very good people want to kick AIPAC the hell outta NYC.”

In today’s ‘First Draft,’ far-right influencers unite against the late Charlie Kirk’s TPUSA, Orange God King Donald Trump admits he’s a lame duck, Texas inexplicably sues the makers of Tylenol, and a major newspaper seems to have fabricated quotes for a hit piece against Zohran Mamdani and then… quietly deleted the whole thing?

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When then-former President Donald Trump was caught canoodling with notorious white nationalist, antisemite, and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes at his Mar-a-Lago resort over a posh pre-Thanksgiving dinner in 2022, the private reaction of many of his allies and advisers was a deafening cacophony of four-letter words.

The metaphorical shit hit the fan with such force that Trump was somehow, miraculously goaded into expressing his ever-so-rare and ever-so-signature brand of not-quite contrition.

Trump took to Truth Social to confirm the soiree took place. He made clear, however, that the only guest he had planned to entertain that evening was rapper Kanye West, who now goes by “Ye.”

“He unexpectedly showed up with three of his friends, whom I knew nothing about. We had dinner on Tuesday evening with many members present on the back patio. The dinner was quick and uneventful. They then left for the airport,” Trump asserted.

B.S. non-apology aside, that response was telling. It was indicative of the fact that fraternizing with out-and-out neo-Nazis was still just barely verboten in Republican politics.

Clearly, a Trump re-election and three years were all it took to change that.

Yesterday, Nick Fuentes appeared on one of the most popular conservative podcasts in America, former Fox host Tucker Carlson’s – the man who, notably, referred to Fuentes just back in July as “a weird little gay kid living in his basement.”

The pair sat across from each other for over two hours, chatting breezily about “toxic feminism,” “how porn is destroying men,” and “these Zionist Jews.”

Carlson didn’t so much as whisper a question about Fuentes’s Holocaust denial, his calls for a theocratic dictatorship, or his habit of referring to Jews as a “parasitic force.” No questions about Fuentes saying “women need to shut the fuck up” and “Blacks need to be imprisoned for the most part.” The former Fox host smiled, nodded, and chuckled along like he was interviewing a toddler who went viral for opening a lemonade stand – not a man who once proclaimed “I love Hitler.”

All of this is shocking but not altogether that surprising. While, yes, Carlson was once a dyed-in-the-wool country club Republican and the stepson to a Swanson frozen food heiress, he’s been careening towards the far right for nearly a decade. The man is smart enough to know where his bread is buttered; in this case, it’s sitting next to the guy who broke bread with Trump at Thanksgiving in 2022 and now continues to gain more and more traction with young white men in the conservative movement.

Later today, Vice President JD Vance and Erika Kirk, the widow of the late Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, will share a stage at a TPUSA event in Mississippi. One wonders if either will mention Tucker’s new bestie.

Carlson did, after all, deliver a eulogy at Kirk’s funeral. After comparing Kirk to Jesus, the former Fox host shared how he could “picture the scene in a lamp-lit room with a bunch of guys sitting around eating hummus thinking about, ‘What do we do about this guy telling the truth about us. We must make him stop talking!’”

Was Carlson implying Jews killed Kirk? That Muslims killed Kirk? That homosexual coastal elite foodies killed Kirk? Who’s to say!

But I digress…

Yesterday, we learned via leaked texts from conservative activist Dinesh D’Souza that Charlie Kirk viewed Nick Fuentes as “vermin” who should not be talked to, debated, or complimented.

Will either JD Vance or Erika Kirk address the Carlson-Fuentes love-in?

I doubt it, folks.

First, the vice president, the grand poobah of the soon-to-be-post-Trump new right, has spent the last few weeks defending 30-something-year-old “kids” who engage in Nazi rhetoric.

Second, let’s be honest… the shit some TPUSA personalities say? It’s really not that far off from Fuentes’s Nazi-esque takes.

So, no, chances are no one will condemn Carlson or Fuentes. They won’t even say their names. They’ll whistle past the graveyard as an avowed white nationalist and Holocaust denier is beckoned into the conservative media establishment. The right’s Overton Window will continue to shift in a neo-Nazi direction as they scream at the rest of us: ‘Don’t you dare call us Nazis!’

After all, today’s Republicans and conservatives are laser-focused not on Fuentes, Carlson, or Young Republican group chats but on the true antisemitic threat facing America: ZoHrAn MaMdAnI!

• Lame Duck Alert: Late yesterday, aboard Air Force One, Donald Trump was asked if he was “trolling” regarding his many musings about an unconstitutional third term. Trump told reporters, “It’s a very interesting thing. I have the best numbers for any president in many years, I would say that, if you read it, it’s pretty clear. I’m not allowed to run. It’s too bad.” Democracy’s saved??

• More boat strikes: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the US military conducted three strikes on four alleged drug boats in the eastern Pacific on Monday, but provided zero evidence for his claims. The attack killed 14 people and left one survivor, who was rescued by Mexican authorities.

• Bill de Blasi-faux: The Times of London published a piece claiming that former NYC mayor Bill de Blasio said Zohran Mamdani’s policies don’t add up. But the twist is that de Blasio says he never even spoke to the reporter behind the article. The Murdoch-owned Times quickly took the piece down after they were called out by the ex-mayor on social media.

• Suing over SNAP: Democratic leaders from 25 states sued the Department of Agriculture over the suspension of SNAP funding during the government shutdown. Roughly one in eight people are at risk of going hungry as benefits are set to expire on Nov. 1.

• Tariff tiff: The Senate voted to block Trump’s 50% tariff on Brazil in a vote of 52 to 48, with 5 GOP senators voting with the Democrats, including Mitch McConnell.

• MAHA madness: Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday for hiding the alleged risks of Tylenol on child brain development, the latest dangerous move in MAHA’s disinformation campaign.

• Editorial board or Bezos mouthpiece? Per NPR, recent official editorials from the Washington Post have synced with the billionaire owner’s financial interests, including a bizarre defensive take on Trump’s East Wing teardown, without acknowledging those interests or conflicts.

How many Americans rely on SNAP benefits?

Keep your eyes out for the answer below!

• Israel launched multiple airstrikes on Gaza last night, killing at least 104 people, including 46 children, and injuring over 253 others. This came after Netanyahu claimed Hamas violated the ceasefire agreement for handing over the remains of a hostage whose partial remains had already been returned earlier in the war. Israel also claimed Hamas had fired on its forces – an allegation Hamas denied.

• Meanwhile, Hamas announced that it would delay the return of a hostage’s body due to Israel’s violation of the ceasefire agreement. Israel’s overnight strikes were just the latest violations by Israel, which has now killed over 200 Palestinians since the ceasefire began earlier this month.

• At the United Nations, after the UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese presented her latest report on the Gaza genocide, Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon called her… wait for it… a “witch.”

• 🇸🇩 The Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group in Sudan accused of genocide, appears to have used British weapons, according to documents seen by the UN. The report sheds light on Britain’s arms exports to the United Arab Emirates, which has been accused of supplying weapons to the RSF.

• 🌀🇯🇲🇨🇺 Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Cuba early this morning as a Category 3 storm after it slammed into Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane with 185 mph winds – the strongest storm to hit Jamaica in recorded history. Jamaican officials said it was too soon to give a damage assessment. The storm, as it hit Jamaica, tied with the strongest Atlantic hurricanes to make landfall on record, according to wind speed and pressure.

• 🇻🇪 New information has been uncovered detailing how a US federal agent, over 16 months, attempted to convince Nicholas Maduro’s pilot to help the US seize the Venezuelan leader.

• 🇾🇪 Amnesty International called for the US strike on a prison run by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in April that killed more than 60 detained African migrants to be investigated as a possible war crime.

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“Kids dressed in Halloween costumes walking to a parade do not pose an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer or others. They just don’t.”

US District Judge Sara Ellis put her foot down against Trump’s Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino after receiving complaints his agents’ use of excessive force.

Join Mehdi today at 1 PM ET / 5 pm GMT for a LIVE Q&A with renowned Israeli-British anti-Zionist historian Ilan Pappé. The two will discuss why Pappé believes Zionism could be on the verge of collapse; the current state of the ceasefire in Gaza; and what a democratic, decolonized future for Israelis and Palestinians might look like.

Click here to register for a Zeteo Town Hall you won’t want to miss!

The Paul Ingrassia saga just got weirder.

After the far-right White House aide withdrew his nomination for the office of special counsel last week, in response to his leaked racist and antisemitic texts, Ingrassia is now making headlines for a different reason: a ridiculous $150 million lawsuit against Politico and reporter Daniel Lippman over a separate article of theirs that included a retracted sexual harassment allegation made against him. And according to that lawsuit, he reveals that the woman behind the allegation once booked a hotel room for them and called him both “pauly cakes” and “Big Boss Daddy.”

We really hope you’re reading this after breakfast.

H/T to our pal Sam Stein over at The Bulwark, who first brought these disturbing details to our attention.

Donald Trump’s approval rating has fallen to 40% in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, “tying the lowest level of his term.” The share of people who say they disapprove of the president’s performance has risen five points since May, to 57%. This is a super unpopular president, folks.

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Zeteo’s Melanie Riehl, Akshay Gokul, and Minnah Arshad contributed to this newsletter.

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