Overview
- Carlson said airport staff took passports and questioned his executive producer after an interview with Ambassador Mike Huckabee, then departed Israel after only a few hours without leaving the airport complex.
- The Israel Airports Authority said he was neither detained nor interrogated and described brief, routine questions conducted in a private VIP room for privacy.
- A U.S. Embassy spokesperson said he received the same passport control questions as other visitors, noted he chose a very short visit, and said the embassy’s role was limited to coordinating his private plane’s landing.
- Security footage published by media outlets shows Carlson filling out paperwork and posing for a photo with an airport employee near a checkpoint, evidence used to challenge his description of events.
- Unnamed-source reports said Israeli officials initially considered barring his entry before allowing the visit to avoid a diplomatic incident, as Huckabee and former prime minister Naftali Bennett publicly criticized Carlson’s account.