Top 6 moments from Mike Huckabee's tense interview with Tucker Carlson: 'Frankly confusing'

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Monday, February 23, 2026

3. Carlson blames Iraq War on Israel: 'I'm mad at the Bush administration'

Carlson has expressed regret and embarrassment for supporting the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the carnage of which changed his worldview when he personally witnessed it as he was being shot at while covering the war that year. He has claimed the lessons he learned from that war as a basis for opposing U.S. intervention in Iran.

Carlson maintained to Huckabee that Israel was responsible for dragging the U.S. into its prolonged conflict with Iraq, which toppled Saddam Hussein but ended up destabilizing the region and leading to intense Christian persecution as militant Islamists filled the power vacuum.

According to Open Doors US, the number of Christians in Iraq has dwindled from nearly 1 million to about 187,000 over the past decade of political upheaval and war, during which ISIS made particular targets of Christians.

Mike Huckabee refuses to acknowledge the truth about the Iraq war and acts shocked when presented with the facts:

Huckabee: “How many Americans put their boots on the ground for Israel?”

Tucker: “Everybody who served in Iraq.”

Huckabee: “Did not.”

Tucker: “Where did we get… pic.twitter.com/LKpPXvBGJ5

— Tucker Carlson Network (@TCNetwork) February 20, 2026

Huckabee pushed back against Carlson's assertion that the U.S. government went to war with Iraq because of false Israeli intelligence that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

An eight-month investigation by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Subcommittee for Intelligence and Secret Services determined in 2004 that Israeli intelligence failed in multiple ways by overestimating Iraq's ability to strike at Israel directly.

"I'm mad at the Bush administration and all the people who went along with this to the detriment of my country," said Carlson, whose business partner, Neil Patel, served as a top policy advisor to former Vice President Dick Cheney and accompanied Carlson during his recent trip to Israel.