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Impolitic with John Heilemann

Jason Zengerle: War & Peace & MAGA’s Future in the Time of Tucker

Impolitic with John Heilemann

Audacy | Puck

News, Politics

4.84.5K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2026

⏱️ 83 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

John welcomes Jason Zengerle, author of the new book “Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind,” to discuss Carlson's opposition to Donald Trump's war in Iran. Zengerle explains Tucker's evolution from conventional (if contrarian) Republican to a leader of the nationalist, nativist, America First faction of the MAGA movement; how his embrace of racist and anti-Semitic tropes have only increased his influence in forging the post-Trump future of the G.O.P.; and why the prospect of him running for president in 2028 seems more plausible every day. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:49.0

aloh namaste and welcome to in politics with with John Hyomen, a puck and Odyssey Joint.

0:57.7

And in case you haven't noticed, or you have noticed, but have been living in denial

1:03.0

because the reality is just too grim, disheartening, disturbing, alarming, or all of the above,

1:09.6

Tucker Carlson is having a moment in our national life.

1:13.5

And like it or not, the repercussions of that reality are likely to be large as we barrel

1:19.5

headlong, God willing, into a future in which Donald Trump is no longer at the center

1:24.5

of both the Republican Party and the wider political universe.

1:28.8

Truth is, it's not so much that Tucker is having a moment as that he's having another moment,

1:33.4

a bigger moment. I mean, the guy has been a major player in the right-wing media sphere since he

1:37.7

arrived in Washington and started writing for the weekly standard more than 30 years ago.

1:42.2

A bow-tie-wearing, floppy-haired child of enormous privilege turned reflexively contrary

1:47.4

an opinion journalist who quickly found fame as a cable TV pundit.

1:51.9

First as the co-host of CNN's Crossfire while still in his early 30s, then in his often

1:56.9

forgotten three-year stint as the host of Tucker on MSNBC, and then most famously on Fox News,

2:03.3

where in the course of the 14 years from 2009 to 2023, his embrace of Donald Trump and his

2:09.3

undeniable TV talent propelled him to become the top-rated host in all of cable news.

2:15.2

But in the wake of the Dominion voting system's successful lawsuit against Fox over its

2:19.5

mendacity during the Stop the Steel period after the 2020 election, Tucker found himself

...

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