Tucker Carlson used the third anniversary of the October 7 massacre to argue that the Americans murdered by Hamas that day should not count as a reason for the United States to stand with Israel.
In a podcast episode released Wednesday with commentator Dave Smith, Carlson said he had not been able to identify a single American killed in the attack who did not also hold Israeli citizenship. His point was that the deaths of dual nationals were used to draw America into defending Israel.
He offered no evidence for the claim. The U.S. counts 49 Americans killed on October 7, and American law makes no distinction between citizens who hold a second passport and those who don't.
Carlson went further on Edan Alexander, the freed hostage from Tenafly, New Jersey. He said Alexander was "not even technically American" and accused President Donald Trump of lying by calling him a citizen.
Alexander is an American citizen. He grew up in New Jersey, graduated from Tenafly High School and moved to Israel at 18 to volunteer as a lone soldier in the IDF's Golani Brigade. He was 19 when Hamas terrorists kidnapped him from his base near the Gaza border on October 7.
He spent 584 days in captivity. His family says he was kept in a cage, handcuffed, beaten, starved and tortured. He was freed in May 2025 in a deal negotiated by the Trump administration, and was the last living American hostage held in Gaza.
The standard is one Carlson does not apply elsewhere. In August, he interviewed the father of Sayfollah Musallet, a Palestinian American killed in the West Bank, and presented the case as the murder of an American that Washington was ignoring.
Carlson, who has been widely accused of antisemitism, denies the charge. In the same episode he promoted the theory that October 7 was an Israeli "false flag", Ynet reported.
