Tucker Carlson says he is distancing himself from the Republican Party and won’t support it in the midterm elections, citing conflicts over “values,” including comments about Speaker Mike Johnson and leaders in the Senate. The declaration arrives less than two
Tucker Carlson didn’t soften his break with the Republican Party. On a June 18 episode of his “Can’t Be Censored” podcast, he announced he was done supporting Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections, and he framed the decision as a moral split.
“I don’t share their values on any level,” Carlson said on the episode. “Their personal values. the way they live. greedy. bizarro sex lives. loyal to a foreign country above the United States. it’s like everything I dislike. Beginning with the speaker of the House. Speaker Mike Johnson. and extending to the president and the leaders in the Senate. I have nothing in common with these people at all. I do not share their values. I find their priorities appalling and so I’m just not going to participate in that party.”.
Carlson’s remark was a sharp turn from the way he spoke about Donald Trump at the 2024 Republican National Convention. where he described “divine intervention” as saving Trump from an assassin’s bullet. At that event. he also characterized Trump with personal praise. calling him “a wonderful person. ” and saying. “Whatever you say about him. and I think he’s a wonderful person. I know him well. By the way, the funniest person I’ve ever met in my life, actually. You can’t be funny without perspective or without empathy.”.
In the months since, Carlson’s relationship to the party he once amplified has come under question again after he declared, in effect, that the political project no longer matches his stated beliefs.
A fellow prominent conservative figure, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, posted support for Carlson’s announcement on X. Greene wrote: “Tucker is not the only one who is done supporting the Republican Party. There is A LOT of us that are absolutely fed up and will not support a party that betrays its voters and country. That does not mean we are turning into Democrats either. But we are DONE with the America LAST Republican Party.”.
Carlson’s “I’m out” posture also landed in a setting where some conservatives have long portrayed themselves as independent of the most controversial parts of Trump-era politics—even as their votes have remained aligned with Trump. The material accompanying the shift points to the contradiction between the rhetoric of refusing to join “the foolish” and “vile ways” of President Trump. and the reality that. as it describes. many of those same voices still vote “Trump” in presidential elections.
The declaration sets up an uncomfortable question about what happens next. If Carlson and Greene say they’re finished with Republicans, the immediate political test becomes the midterm elections that Carlson explicitly referenced in his June 18 comments.
The other side of that tension is how quickly political positions can be re-labeled once campaign incentives sharpen. The text describes a pattern in which figures claim they have broken with the party. then justify any return later through warnings about Democrats—warnings that. it says. will be used to sell voters on staying on the Republican side.
Whether Carlson’s words signal a lasting rupture or a temporary detour. they mark a moment in which a once-close conservative media figure has publicly drawn a line—naming Speaker Mike Johnson. the president. and Senate leaders as people Carlson says he has “nothing in common” with. For now, the midterms are the next place his declaration will be measured against action.
And for the broader political ecosystem. the departure claim arrives with a familiar skepticism attached to it: the idea that shifting loyalties can also function as an attention-grabbing business move. The discussion frames Carlson. Greene. and similar figures as benefiting from the attention economy—cash checks tied to a performance of superiority—while still ultimately voting Republican.
The text ends with a blunt claim about what it says is at the core of the Republican Party’s incentives and the expectation that public defections will fade into election-year voting patterns.
Tucker Carlson Republican Party midterm elections Mike Johnson Marjorie Taylor Greene Can’t Be Censored podcast Donald Trump 2024 Republican National Convention