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

5. Smiting the Amalekites: 'I don't know what he meant'

Carlson expressed concern that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu allegedly likened the Palestinians to the Amalekites, who were nomadic descendants of Esau whom God commanded King Saul through the prophet Samuel to "utterly destroy," according to 1 Samuel 15.

Because Saul disobeyed and allowed both Amalekite King Agag and the best of their livestock to live, God removed the kingdom from him after Samuel "hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal." The Hebrew verb "to utterly destroy" was also used to describe God's command to eradicate the Canaanites and other similar tribes whose practices, including child sacrifice, were "detestable" to God, according to Deuteronomy 20:17.

Mick Huckabee plays dumb when Tucker brings up Netanyahu's labeling of all Palestinians are Amalek, which is a call for genocide

"God tells Samuel to give the instructions to Saul to kill the Amalekites. And he says...Kill the men, kill the women, kill the children" pic.twitter.com/sTtiW30cPm

— Seethroughitall (@seethroughit2) February 20, 2026

Though Carlson claimed Netanyahu was applying the Amalekite label to Palestinians generally, the prime minister's address to Israel on Oct. 28, 2023, cited Deuteronomy 25:17 in clear reference to Hamas, which he condemned as an evil terrorist organization that "carries out war crimes by using civilians as human shields, by using hospitals as terrorist command centers and to supply fuel to its war machine."

Netanyahu also cited the verse in a letter to the Israeli Defense Forces on Nov. 3, 2023, in which he wrote, "The current fight against the murderers of Hamas is another chapter in the generations-long story of our national resilience. 'Remember what Amalek did to you.'"

While he noted he was not accusing Israel of genocide, Carlson questioned why Netanyahu, whose government has faced accusations of killing Palestinian children, would reference a story from the Old Testament in which the Israelites were deputized by God to enact His vengeance against an entire group of people, extending even to children and livestock.

"I don't know what he meant," Huckabee said of Netanyahu's reference. "I don't know if it was an illustrative metaphor. I think what he was saying was that we're not going to let anything keep us from getting our hostages back; their sons and their daughters who are being brutalized, raped, tortured, starved, beaten."

Carlson said he was "asking why, of all the references in the Bible — and there are many to justice and there are many to reconciliation — that is a reference to genocide, as you know; killing every man, woman, child and infant, I'm quoting, and their animals; wiping them from the Earth, and when they don't do that, they're punished."

"When you say that at the outset of a war, and then you wind up with massive civilian casualties ... then I have to ask you, what is that? And is that kind of thinking consistent with Western values and with Christianity? Do we, as Christians, believe it's OK to kill people's children?"

Huckabee dismissed the accusation that Israel intentionally targeted innocent civilians and children or intended to commit genocide in its war against Hamas, noting they could have easily done so within hours, but that he "never saw any evidence that Israel tried to wipe out every single person."

The Amalekites first prompted divine outrage and judgment when they attacked the most "faint and weary" among the rear flank of the Israelites as they were fleeing Egypt. Their unprovoked ambush led to a famous battle when Aaron and Hur had to assist Moses in holding God's staff above his head as Joshua led the Israelites against them, according to Exodus 17:8-16.

Given that the Amalekites were a specific tribe that no longer exists and whose descendants are impossible to determine, even rabbinical sources such as Maimonides taught that God's command to physically annihilate them no longer applies literally, but rather remains as a symbolic principle in the battle against evil.

According to 18th-century Reformed biblical commentator Matthew Henry, the gruesome story of the Amalekites continues to serve as a general warning of the impending destruction that awaits all who persecute God's people. He also discerned a personal application for Christians, who are called to utterly destroy the lingering sins in their lives.