JD Vance will join Tucker Carlson in Hershey as the former Fox anchor faces backlash for hosting Holocaust revisionist on X show

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance will be joining political commentator and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson at the Giant Center in Hershey on Sept. 21 as part of Carlson’s first “Live Tour.”

Vance, who said he will be in Pennsylvania “a lot” before Election Day, will appear as a special guest at Carlson’s show. Carlson has come under recent scrutiny for having Darryl Cooper, a Holocaust revisionist, on his show on X on Monday.

“Senator Vance doesn’t believe in guilt-by-association cancel culture but he obviously does not share the views of the guest interviewed by Tucker Carlson,” William Martin, a Vance spokesperson, said in a statement to The Inquirer, citing former President Donald Trump’s and Vance’s support for Israel and the Jewish community.

The scheduled appearance comes as the GOP, without evidence, tries to paint Vice President Kamala Harris as antisemitic, and just weeks after former President Donald Trump said Harris didn’t select Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate because he is Jewish.

During a two-hour conversation with Carlson, Cooper said U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill was the “chief villain” of World War II. Churchill rallied and led a coalition that would go on to defeat Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany in the war.

Cooper added that Hitler “did not want to fight” and was “chiefly responsible” for launching a war in 1941 where the Germans were “unprepared to deal with the millions and millions of prisoners of war, of local political prisoners, and so forth that they were going to have to handle.”

Carlson, who said he was a “follower” of Cooper’s work, did not push back on these comments, and he prompted Cooper to defend his stance on Churchill.

Cooper’s appearance on Carlson’s show attracted a lot of backlash online. Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.), a staunch Trump critic, called Cooper’s remarks “pro-Nazi propaganda,” adding: “No serious or honorable person would support or endorse this type of garbage.”

This is not the first time that Carlson has platformed dangerous rhetoric, including his own promotion of narratives that align with the “Great Replacement Theory,” which is an unfounded, racist theory that there is a plot to “diminish the influence of white people.”

Vance has been the main character in many of his own controversies, including when he referred to the government as being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies” during an interview with Carlson in 2021. Vance has also exchanged text messages with Charles Johnson, a far-right media personality and Holocaust denier, the Washington Post reported.

“Chuck Johnson spam texted JD Vance,” Martin told Politico in early August. “JD usually ignored him, but occasionally responded to push back against things he said.”

Carlson’s “Live Tour” features “some of the most fascinating and recognizable guests, responding to everything that is happening in real time,” according to the event page. Tickets are being sold on Ticketmaster for up to $125.

Though not an official Trump campaign event, Vance’s appearance with Carlson will mark his fifth scheduled stop in Pennsylvania since he became the vice presidential nominee.

“You all of Pennsylvania are gonna get sick of me over the next two months, because I practically live here in the state of Pennsylvania, because this is such an important state for us,” Vance said at a campaign stop in Erie on Aug. 28.