Pundit-without-portfolio Tucker Carlson was one of the featured speakers at Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic in Minneapolis today. I caught up with Carlson for a brief conversation about the Paul phenomenon and what had brought him to the gathering.

MnIndy: Obvious first question, who are you voting for?

TC: Oh I don’t know. I don’t have any clue. I’m not much of a voter anyway.

MnIndy: Are you here in support of the candidate, Ron Paul?

TC: Not the candidate, but the man. His ideas. Not all of his ideas, I disagree with him on a couple of significant things but on most things I agree with his ideas and I think—I’ve covered a ton of politicians and he’s probably the only one I’ve ever met who didn’t have any interest in winning, or in controlling other people, building power.

MnIndy: Probably his most controversial statement during the campaign was during the Republican primary debates, when he said 9/11 was the chickens coming home to roost.

TC: Right.

MnIndy: That seemed to get the Republicans very upset. What was your take on that?

TC: Well I’ve talked to him about this. I think it is completely unfair to blame the United States for 9/11. And so if he was doing that I reject it completely and aggressively. But if he was making a point, as he said he was, that our interventionist foreign policy has consequences, that’s obviously true. Do you see what I mean? I mean blaming the United States for 911 is outrageous. I have certainly interviewed a lot of people, especially in other countries, who think, “You got what you deserved.” And I think that’s a repulsive idea. But that’s not where he was coming from.