Israel briefly detains conservative US podcaster Tucker Carlson after Huckabee interview: Report

By Yasin Gungor

ISTANBUL (AA) - Conservative US podcaster Tucker Carlson and his staff were briefly detained by Israeli security officials Wednesday shortly after he conducted an interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, the Daily Mail reported.

Carlson had traveled to Tel Aviv for a sit-down with Huckabee, who had challenged him to an in-person conversation following an online dispute over Israel's treatment of Christians.

Shortly after the interview, Israeli airport security confiscated the group's passports and took Carlson's executive producer into a separate room for questioning, the Daily Mail reported.

"Men who identified themselves as airport security...demanded to know what we spoke to Ambassador Huckabee about," Carlson told the outlet. "It was bizarre. We're now out of the country."

A US Embassy spokesperson in Israel pushed back on the account, saying Carlson had not been detained and had instead gone through routine passport control, the same process applied to "countless visitors to Israel, including Ambassador Huckabee and other diplomats."

The Daily Mail said it reached out to both the White House and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office for comment but received no immediate response.