Common Sense with Paul Jacob

“Tucker Carlson has claimed he is facing potential criminal charges,” explains a Newsweek report,  “stemming from his conversations with people in Iran after U.S. government agencies ‘read my texts.’

Posting on X, the former Fox News host said the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was preparing “a crime report” to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on the basis that he was “acting as an agent of a foreign power” by conversing with individuals from Iran. Carlson denied these alleged claims.

”Tucker Carlson Facing ‘Foreign Agent’ Charges, He Says—’They Read My Texts’,” Newsweek (March 15, 2026).

The administration faces increasing pressure to do something about Tucker, but also increasing criticism. When Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, an Israeli trade official, tweeted that “Tucker Carlson should be arrested and tried for treason,” she got blowback, not least from Glenn Greenwald:

Who the f**k are Israelis to dictate that American journalists should be arrested and prosecuted for “treason”?

As always, these Israelis are not alone. They have a horde of loyalists in the US echoing this.

By “treason,” they mean: speaking and reporting critically on Israel.

But Hassan-Nahoum got some X support from Meghan McCain:

Secretly communicating with an enemy of the United States during an active war conflict makes you a traitor in my book.

Full stop.

Clayton Morris, of the Redacted podcast, responded with historical context:

The last time the US declared war was June 1942. There’s no declaration of war. Full stop.

So, for full historical context, note that the last time a U.S. president imprisoned war critics outright was in World War I, when Woodrow Wilson’s war machine

closed down about 75 newspapers and magazines, prevented the distribution of specific issues of many more, and put journalists on trial in federal courts. This entire operation was managed from the landmark Washington building that would become, 100 years later, the Trump International Hotel.

Adam Hochschild, “America’s Top Censor — So Far,” Mother Jones (September-October 2022).

While Donald Trump has said the war in Iran is almost over, we will see how long it drags on. We may also see that, when push comes to shove, the administration will go so far as to imprison its critics, such as Tucker Carlson.

Tucker Carlson’s discussion of the alleged case against him:

“The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively shut with Iran attacking vessels and its Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, vowing to keep it blocked,” Roshneesh Kmaneck summarized yesterday, at Firstpost. “This has led to panic about the supply of oil and natural gas. Countries are now scrambling for alternative routes. But experts note that none of the options can replace the oil normally shipped through the critical Gulf chokepoint.”

Roughly 20 percent of global petroleum production is in jeopardy. While Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates can work around the obstruction using a pipeline, Iraq and Kuwait and other major users of the passage cannot:

Rep. Tim Burchett’s comment, quoted by Paul Jacob on this site yesterday, remains of course completely unaffected by the addition of other countries’ supplies passing through the region. “How much oil does America get from Iran? Zero.” Well, North America gets about 2.5 percent of all of the Hormuz-squeezed oil (not exactly zero, but close). Regardless, the economics of supplies and demands worldwide still contribute to the determination of gas prices in America.

And Burchett remains a bonehead. No update required on that.