Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson had the highest rated shows on cable news during their primetime coverage of Iran’s missile attack on U.S. military facilities in Iraq on Tuesday night.
“Hannity” brought in an audience of 5.7 million viewers while “Tucker Carlson Tonight” brought in 5.6 million, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Carlson criticized leaders for “pushing conflict with Iran” and speculated on the authenticity of intelligence organizations that he considered “politically tainted and suspect.” (RELATED: POLL: Nearly Half Of Voters Approve Of Airstrike That Killed Soleimani)
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“These are the people who invented excuses to spy on the Trump campaign purely because they didn’t like Donald Trump’s foreign policy views, and they’re the ones who pretended he was a Russian agent in order to keep him from governing,” Carlson said on his show Tuesday night. “Our friends in the intel community did that. And by the way, these are the same people who lied about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction way back in 2002, and by doing that they got us into an utterly pointless war that dramatically weakened our country.”
Carlson added, “The people pushing conflict with Iran are the same people who did that.”
Hannity, in a conversation with Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, suggested sending aid to Iranian citizens who wanted regime change, but said he did not want American troops in Iran.
“They have three major refineries in Iran, senator. Three. I would imagine if those refineries blew up one day, they got themselves a hell of a domestic problem, because that’s going to result in major poverty for the people of Iran. And if they want regime change, that’s up to them. Maybe we could help them with arms and help them, you know — in some ways, but we are not sending our sons and daughters there,” Hannity said.
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The average audience for “Hannity” in 2019 was 3.3 million for and 3.1 million for “Tucker Carlson Tonight”, as reported by TheHill.