Who knew that political pundit Tucker Carlson was a fanboy of the self-identified “ethno-nationalist,” Jew-hating, Hitler-praising, Stalin-admiring, TPUSA-bashing, female-disparaging Nick Fuentes?

Just months ago, Carlson called Fuentes an “angry gay kid” and a “child.” Yet when he interviewed Fuentes in his podcast released this week, Carlson struck a much different tone. He began with an apology to Fuentes for calling him gay.

And from there, the two-hour interview was one softball question after another. Carlson used to do journalism, but apparently, that only applies to those he doesn’t like.

Interestingly, this interview happened after Candace Owens interviewed Fuentes in early August. Carlson’s comments calling Fuentes “gay” and a “child” came following that interview, when Fuentes posted a video afterward claiming that the interview was a “FAILED Hit Job.”

Despite the apparent acrimony, Carlson reached out to interview Fuentes.

So, who is Fuentes? As noted above, he is a young man who has made a name for himself online by peddling racist white supremacist tropes. This got him kicked off Twitter, but his account was restored after Elon Musk purchased the social media platform. Since then, his following has grown.

He regularly expresses racism, Jew-hatred, and misogyny, and his followers — known as Groypers — likewise do so on social media.

“Blacks need to be imprisoned, for the most part,” Fuentes says.

“It’s not enough, being against trannies,” he argues, “You’ve got to be against women’s rights too, against women getting educated.”

To Jewish commentators like Mark Levin and Josh Hammer, he said, “You will NEVER be American. Why don’t you unlikable, despicable pieces of s**t get the f**k out of America and go to Israel?”

“Organized Jewry in America” is one of our biggest problems, insists Fuentes, and though not all Jews are the same, “Jewishness is the common denominator.”

He contends, “I think the Holocaust is exaggerated.”

On Christianity, Fuentes ridiculously asserts, “Protestantism is a Jewish psyop. It’s a subversion of Christianity. The Reformation was the original Jewish revolution against the Church.” (Today, by the way, is Reformation Day.)

He has praised Adolf Hitler, calling him “really f***ing cool” and saying, “I love Hitler,” but he has also commended Joseph Stalin for defeating Hitler and the Nazis. Of Stalin, he told Carlson, “I’m a fan” and “always an admirer.” Carlson said he’d “circle back to that” but never did.

Fuentes is clearly a provocateur who intentionally expresses extremist views. Whether he actually believes what he says or is merely motivated by the notoriety it brings him is difficult to ascertain.

It’s not surprising that Carlson didn’t question Fuentes about his Jew-hatred given Carlson’s own increasing criticism of Jews and obvious loathing of Israel. Maybe most troubling of all was Carlson’s own comments when Fuentes brought up his blame-the-Jews ideology. Carlson seemed to agree, while focusing his objection on Israel, saying that he “dislikes [Christian Zionists] more than anybody.” He says pro-Israel Christians have a “brain virus” and calls “Christian Zionism” a “Christian heresy.” How so? Well, the non-churchgoing Episcopalian never explained.

Yet Fuentes has also said some genuinely awful things about Carlson’s friend, Charlie Kirk, and his Turning Point USA organization, and Carlson didn’t take issue with that either. Before his death, Fuentes called Kirk a “little b***h” and a “coward” because Kirk had called out hatred of Jews. Fuentes further claimed to have “f***ed” TPUSA by filling its college chapters with his own acolytes. Even after Kirk’s death, Fuentes insulted his widow, Erika, claiming that she was “fake” and “looked happy” that he was dead.

One would have at least expected some pushback from Carlson in defense of both Kirk and TPUSA, with whom he has spoken at numerous events, and yet Carlson acted as if Fuentes had never made such vile comments.

If anything, it appeared that Carlson was, more often than not, agreeing with Fuentes, effectively seeking to normalize this man’s odious, socially toxic opinions. Carlson didn’t challenge any of Fuentes’s deranged ideas.

The trouble here is Carlson’s efforts to normalize, at best, an anti-Israel position. At worst, it’s an effort to normalize or conflate anti-Semitism — better called Jew-hatred — as legitimate social criticism. Sadly, it appears to be working, deceiving a growing number of young people into believing a wicked lie that Jews are the problem.

And rather than combating Nick Fuentes’s toxic and decidedly non-conservative ideas, Tucker Carlson mainstreamed them to his millions of listeners.