Yesterday, on an episode of The Ben Shapiro Show, he spent a full 40 minutes dismantling Fuentes and Tucker Carlson's recent interview with him, which is being hailed (or memed) as Shapiro "absolutely wiping out" the far-right provocateur. Shapiro called it a deliberate "scorching takedown," framing Fuentes as the ringleader of a "splinter faction" fragmenting the political right into moral oblivion.
The episode racked up over 2 million views on YouTube within 24 hours, sparking a torrent of X posts accusing Shapiro of dodging a real debate.
It's the latest flashpoint in a years-long feud that's escalated amid MAGA infighting over Israel, antisemitism, and Trump's orbit.
The Spark: Tucker Carlson's "Fluffing" of Fuentes
The drama ignited last week when Carlson interviewed Fuentes on his podcast, a sit-down that's now hit 17.3 million views on X and 5 million on YouTube. Fuentes, the 27-year-old white nationalist known for Holocaust denial, praising Stalin with an "evil little smile," and quips like "a lot of women want to be raped" or that Jim Crow laws were "better for us," wasn't exactly grilled. Carlson let inflammatory rants slide without pushback, even calling Fuentes a "fan" of his work. No follow-ups on the Hitler admiration or misogyny, just nods and segues.
Shapiro exploded on Monday, labeling Carlson an "intellectual coward" and "virulent super-spreader of vile ideas" for "rhetorically fluffing" Fuentes instead of exposing his "incoherent stew of malignity."
Shapiro rattled off a greatest-hits reel of Fuentes' bigotry: Holocaust minimization, anti-woman screeds, white supremacist dog whistles, and his "groyper" army's troll campaigns against mainstream conservatives.
