Tucker Carlson Apologizes to Israeli President Herzog for False Epstein Island Claim | WATCH
In a humiliating backpedal, far-right provocateur Tucker Carlson apologizes for baselessly smearing Israeli President Herzog with Epstein island lies, exposing his reckless antisemitic conspiracy-mongering amid fake AI deepfakes and disinformation chaos.
Far-right U.S. commentator Tucker Carlson has issued a public apology to Israeli President Isaac Herzog after falsely accusing him of visiting Jeffrey Epstein's infamous island during an interview with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.
The Middle East reported:
Emily Jacobs: Tucker Carlson says in new video that he only claimed during his interview with Amb. Mike Huckabee that Israeli President Isaac Herzog was "invited" to Jeffrey Epstein's island and that he asked Huckabee if he was aware of a 2014 email included in the DOJ Epstein files dump that mentioned inviting someone with the last name Herzog and Ehud Barak to the island. He also alleges there "had been news items about this" and that "there was a protest against Herzog on the basis of this email when he went to Australia."
He has cut this interview segment from the full episode on his YouTube channel, which he doesn't mention in the video, but none of this is accurate...
During the Huckabee interview, Carlson explicitly said multiple times that Herzog was listed in the Epstein files as having visited the late pedophile's infamous island. All of this has since been taken down from his YouTube, so I pulled the quotes below from my original recording. Carlson did not, as he alleges in his latest video, merely suggest that Herzog was "invited" to the island.
Carlson to Huckabee: "The current president of Israel, current president, who, I know you know President Herzog very well, apparently, was at Pedo Island. That's what it says in the disclosures."
Huckabee said he "was not aware that there's any connection with President Herzog," to which Carlson replied: "I'm not alleging anything, but I mean it's, yes, in the Epstein files and I don't know that I've heard the current president of Israel respond to it, but he is listed as a visitor to Pedo Island, so that's kind of a big deal."
Carlson then asked Huckabee a few minutes later if he was "surprised to hear that the current president of Israel, whom you know, is listed as a visitor to Pedo Island?"
In a video posted to X on February 21, 2026, Carlson admitted he had "no evidence" for the claim, which stemmed from a misinterpreted 2014 Epstein email mentioning an unspecified "Herzog."
He stated he received a letter from Herzog's office denying any contact with Epstein, adding, "I apologize for implying that I knew something I didn't know."
The accusation, made in a nearly three-hour interview that sparked backlash for promoting antisemitic tropes, has fueled conspiracy theories amid the recent Epstein file releases.
Herzog's office categorically rejected the claims, noting no connection ever existed.
President Herzog’s spokesman said:
“We sent a letter to Tucker Carlson detailing the president’s response to the claims Tucker made in the interview with Huckabee. Included in the response was that any statement suggesting a connection between the president and Jeffrey Epstein and his crimes is defamatory and libelous.”
Meanwhile, fake AI-generated images of Herzog and Epstein have circulated online.