Counterterrorism Official Seb Gorka Names Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes After Being Asked If the Trump Admin is Monitoring ‘Right-Wing Extremism’

President Donald Trump’s Senior Director for Counterterrorism, Sebastian Gorka, name-dropped former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and controversial commentator Nick Fuentes during an interview after being asked whether the Trump administration was monitoring “right-wing extremism.”

“Let’s come back to right-wing extremism. Do you regard it as a threat at all?” asked Breitbart editor-in-chief Alex Marlow during an interview with Gorka on Friday. “I mean, is there any? I guess that’s the question. I’m assuming there’s a little bit because it’s a big country, there’s a little bit of everything, but is there really anything?”

Gorka responded, “Right now, we are not seeing comparable trend lines to violence on the right as we see on the left,” before adding:

It’s up to people like you. I’m not a political analyst anymore, I’m a counterterrorism government employee, but we have to have an effective, accurate snapshot on who are part of the conservative movement today, because I would say to you I’m not sure that Nick Fuentes or Tucker Carlson are conservatives. If you are lauding a Sharia law, if you are saying that there are Muslim states that seem to be better qualitatively than America in terms of freedom and prosperity, I’m not sure that means you’re part of the conservative movement. So if you remove those individuals and you understand that they’re not conservatives, what’s left? Who are the people in the mainstream of the conservative movement, Alex, who are saying violence is okay? Hard to find people who aren’t fringe figures.

Gorka’s remarks were criticized by left-wing journalist Ken Klippenstein, who – despite being no fan of Carlson or Fuentes – ridiculed the Trump official’s assertion that Carlson was “lauding a Sharia law” and accused Gorka of targeting freedom of speech.

“I’m an absolutist when it comes to free speech, for the right and the left (and anyone inside or outside that spectrum). Gorka as a government official has no business sticking his nose into whether people define America in the same way he does,” reacted Klippenstein. “And let’s be real: none of this is actually about extremism. It’s about the fact that Carlson, like Fuentes, recently broke with Trump — bitterly — over the Iran War. That’s the real offense.”

Watch above via The Alex Marlow Show.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!