Tucker Presses Beck on His Claims That Cruz Was 'Anointed by God to Stop Trump'

Tucker Carlson kicked off his new 9:00 time slot on Fox News with a doozy of an interview with conservative rabble rouser Glenn Beck, and the host didn’t hold back when it came to questions about faith, the nature of God’s calling, and the fickle nature of fame, among other topics. Carlson started right out of the gate asking Beck a tough question:

CARLSON: Over the past year and a half, nobody has argued more forcefully or more fervently against Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy than multimedia veteran Glenn Beck. Beck went on the road in support of rival candidate Ted Cruz, whom he said was anointed by God to stop trump. At one point he predicted that four years of the Trump presidency would lead to civil war or worse … So where is Glenn Beck on all of this now?

BECK: Let me clarify a couple things here. I never said he was anointed by God to be president of the United States. I do believe that people are called, all of us are, you are called for your job, I am called for my job. That doesn’t mean that he is the only one that can do it, doesn’t mean any of that. It certainly doesn’t mean that God is going to make that happen. We have to all play our roles. So I appreciate what you said but it’s not exactly what it meant.

CARLSON: I think I remember it pretty well. You said you’d been praying for and with Ted Cruz and you had heard that you believed God had called him forward at this time. My question is really simple. I’m not attacking you, I’m just wondering. Because he didn’t win and Trump did win, did it shake your faith and what spiritual lessons did you take from that?

BECK: No, none. I think that all of us are called by God. You know this. All of us are called by God to do certain things and sometimes those things mean just take a stand. It doesn’t mean that what you think is going to work out works out. You are called for this time. I happen to believe that all of us were called at this time to take a stand in the republic and to do the right thing.

The truth of Beck’s opining on Ted Cruz’ calling falls somewhere in between Carlson’s and Beck’s recollections. In March of last year Beck stated:

I do believe that if we study, pray, and seek God’s inspiration, he will touch our hearts. We will see the truth about the two candidates: Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. And he will inspire us on the truth … I have seen this man’s life. I have watched this man. I have prayed about this man. I have prayed about it by myself, out loud, in quiet, with my family, with my staff, and I happen to believe that Ted Cruz actually was anointed for this time.

Carlson went on to recount Beck’s public disagreement with Cruz over the senator’s endorsement of Trump, asking Beck why he thought of Cruz as “disingenuous and smarmy” for endorsing his former rival several weeks after the convention.

Beck agreed that he found the senator’s tactic smarmy but played it off as a good-natured disagreement, apparently forgetting the September interview in which he harangued Cruz for considering the election a binary choice between Trump and Hillary Clinton. Beck concluded his recollection of the spat with Cruz by stating that he is “not going to endorse anybody ever again.”

Later on in the interview, Beck waxed philosophical on the nature of fame. When Carlson asked Beck if he would recommend the news business to his kids, the founder of The Blaze noted that the desire for fame is unhealthy and leads to a false sense of sanctimony:

I think fame is more corrosive than anything else. It is a horrible, horrible thing. If you don’t have perspective. If you want it. Because it will always fade and it will warp you, it’s the reason why Meryl Streep got on TV last night and has such confidence to say we are right in so many words. And we all know this and those little peasants out in the middle of the country, they are wrong. Because fame, when people are making money on you, when you are watching yourself everywhere, when people are coming up to and saying thank you, thank you, I love you, if you are not careful, you start to buy it and then you become Meryl Streep.

You can catch the full interview here: