Iran's lies go viral: Tucker Carlson's interview proves why fact-checking matters
Tucker Carlson's interview with Iran's president is spreading dangerous misinformation to millions. When podcasts replace journalism, facts become blurry.
The amount of sheer lies Pezeshkian spews from his mouth is laughable – until I read the comments. The top comment on YouTube, with over 19 thousand likes, reads, "Wait, you can do this? Actually interview someone instead of just being told what Israel tells us?" Another user wrote, "Finally, someone decided to hear Irans side of the story. Thank you, Mr Carlson. This means a lot." Another commentator wrote, "So refreshing from mainstream. Nobody watches MSM anymore. We get our information from Podcasts now."
When podcasts replace journalism, facts become blurry. Simple Google searches can refute the claims Pezeshkian makes, but it seems no one bothers to check.
For starters, in response to Carlson's question, "Would you be willing to give up the nuclear program in exchange for peace?" the Iranian president said: "It was Netanyahu who, since 1984, has created this false mentality that Iran seeks a nuclear bomb, and it has put it in the minds of every US President since then. But the truth is that we have never been after developing a nuclear bomb, not in the past, not presently, or in the future, because this is wrong. This was always corroborated thanks to our cooperation with IAEA, because they were always there to verify this and to substantiate that we have never wanted a nuclear bomb. But unfortunately, this cooperation was disturbed by the unlawful attacks against our nuclear facilities."
It took me two seconds to locate the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general's report, titled "Verification and monitoring in the Islamic Republic of Iran in light of United Nations Security Council resolution 2231," which was declassified on June 11, 2025. The report provides an updated assessment of past and present outstanding issues regarding Iran's nuclear program and directly contradicts Pezeshkian's claims. The IAEA report clearly states that for approximately half of the JCPOA commitments (as seen in the table below), the agency has been unable to verify Iranian activity since February 2021 due to "monitoring no longer allowed by Iran."
The report concluded, "The Agency's JCPOA-related verification and monitoring has been seriously affected by the cessation of implementation by Iran of its nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA. The situation has been exacerbated by Iran's subsequent decision to have all of the Agency's JCPOA-related surveillance and monitoring equipment removed. The Agency has lost continuity of knowledge in relation to the production and current inventory of centrifuges, rotors and bellows, heavy water and UOC, which it will not be able to restore as a result of not having been able to perform JCPOA-related verification and monitoring activities for more than four years. The significantly increased production and accumulation of highly enriched uranium by Iran, the only non-nuclear-weapon State to produce such nuclear material, is of serious concern."
So tell me again, Mr. President, about your "cooperation with IAEA" and how Iran has "never been after developing a nuclear bomb." Yet, Carlson, made no effort to challenge these false statements. The failure to fact-check in real-time demonstrates a troubling departure from basic journalistic standards. Even the US presidential debate hosts were better than this.
Next, Carlson says, "They see video of Iranians saying death to America, describing our country as the great Satan. What is your opinion of that? Should we be afraid of Iran?" I was interested to see how Pezeshkian would squirm out of this one, and I have to give him credit for the creativity in his response. "I believe that this is a very wrong impression that anybody might have of Iran or the Iranians," he began. "I would like to remind you that Iran has never invaded another country in the last 200 years. When they say death to the United States, they don't mean death to the people of the United States or even to the officials of the United States. They mean death to crimes, death to killing and carnage, death to supporting killing others, death to insecurity and instability." I was genuinely so confused by his answer. Since when does America represent crime, killing, and carnage? You want us to believe that when millions of Iranians gather in the streets to burn the US flag, they are burning insecurity and instability? Try again. The mental gymnastics required to accept such an interpretation border on the absurd.
But he's not done yet; the Iranian president then asks the most disingenuous question imaginable, "Have you ever heard that an Iranian killing an American? Have you ever heard that? Or a terrorist that was Iranian, and he carried out a terrorist attack against the Americans?" Let's do a quick history lesson. In 1980, Operation Eagle Claw, meant to rescue the 66 American hostages held in Tehran, ended with eight US servicemen dead and zero hostages rescued. In 2007, 12 men affiliated with the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) disguised themselves as US soldiers in Iraq and killed five US soldiers. These are two of countless examples of Iran's aggression towards Americans. Aside from attacks carried out by Iranians, we can point to the hundreds of Americans killed by Iran-backed proxies like Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, and Hamas in Gaza.
Republican
presidential nominee former President Donald Trump campaigns with Tucker
Carlson during a Tucker Carlson Live Tour show at Desert Diamond Arena,
Oct. 31, 2024, in Glendale, Arizona.
Lastly, Carlson asks if Iran has ever tried to assassinate US President Donald Trump and references "two Iranian ayatollahs have issued fatwas against Donald Trump." The Iranian president says simply, "To the best of my knowledge, they have not issued decrees or fatwas against any individual or against Donald Trump." Might I remind you that just yesterday, Iranian media put an 18 million bounty on Trump's head. Iranian officials have been publicly vowing to kill Trump for years following his January 2020 order to assassinate General Qasem Soleimani, who led the IRGC's Quds Force. Politico reported last July that US intelligence had collected increasing evidence suggesting Iran was actively developing plots to kill Trump.
The viral success of this interview reveals a troubling willingness among large segments of the American public to accept Iranian government propaganda without question, particularly given Iran's documented history of information campaigns targeting American public opinion. It's alarming how naive Carlson's viewers can be, taking Pezeshkian's words at face value and failing to understand that this is all a publicity stunt to warp the minds of the unknowing public, who are looking to feed their American self-hatred and antisemitism. No one seems to be questioning why the Iranian president agreed to do this interview in the first place.
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