Tucker Carlson Proclaims Interview With Putin. He’s Praised the Russian Chief for Years

The previous Fox Information host and longtime Kremlin favourite has lastly obtained his long-sought interview with Russia’s authoritarian chief

Tucker Carlson confirmed on Tuesday that he will likely be interviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin throughout his ongoing journey to Moscow. Carlson, a longtime defender of Putin’s authoritarian regime, can be the primary American journalist granted a one-on-one interview with the dictator since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. 

Within the video launched on X (previously Twitter), Carlson confirmed that the interview is scheduled to happen, however didn’t present a launch date. The previous Fox Information host acknowledged that “there are dangers to conducting an interview like this,” however that he considers it his “responsibility” to “inform individuals.” 

Carlson instructed that the central theme of the interview would be the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. “Most Individuals aren’t knowledgeable, they don’t have any actual concept what’s occurring on this area … their media retailers are corrupt. They mislead their readers and viewers, and so they try this principally by omission,” Carlson stated. “We’re not right here as a result of we love Vladimir Putin. We’re right here as a result of we love the US, and we wish it to stay affluent and free.”  

Throughout his tenure at Fox Information, Carlson repeatedly drew backlash for his staunch defense of Russia and the Kremlin’s insurance policies. The criticism escalated dramatically after Carlson declared on air that he was outright “[rooting] for Russia” in 2019, as tensions escalated between Ukraine and Putin’s regime. 

Days earlier than Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, Carlson advised Fox Information viewers that Individuals had no good reason to “hate” Putin, and tried to hyperlink President Joe Biden’s assist for Ukraine to unproven allegations that the president accepted tens of millions of {dollars} from the Ukrainian nationals. 

Because the conflict unfolded, Carlson ramped up his pro-Kremlin rhetoric and criticism of assist for the Ukrainian authorities, to the purpose that his broadcasts have been repeatedly lauded by Russian state tv. In March of 2022, Mom Jones obtained a Kremlin memo that inspired state-controlled media retailers to “use as a lot as doable fragments of broadcasts of the favored Fox Information host Tucker Carlson, who sharply criticizes the actions of the US [and] NATO, their damaging function in unleashing the battle in Ukraine, [and] the defiantly provocative habits from the management of the Western international locations and NATO in the direction of the Russian Federation and in the direction of President Putin, personally.”

Among the many most notable items of Russian disinformation promoted by Carlson have been false claims that the US was manufacturing biological weapons inside Ukrainian laboratories. Carlson went as far as to make a barely veiled attack in opposition to his then-Fox Information colleague Jennifer Griffin after she fact-checked the false claims on air. 

Carlson has lengthy sought a face-to-face with Putin. In July 2021, he accused the Nationwide Safety Company of spying on his communications with Russian intermediaries as he tried to safe an interview, and of plotting to have him ousted from Fox Information. In a uncommon transfer, the NSA issued an explicit denial of the accusation, writing that Carlson “has by no means been an intelligence goal of the Company and the NSA has by no means had any plans to attempt to take his program off the air.” 

Now that Carlson has attained his longtime aim, the previous host is utilizing the specter of censorship in an try to gin up viewership of the upcoming interview. Carlson acknowledged that he’d secured a promise from X proprietor Elon Musk “to not suppress or block this interview.” 

“Western governments, against this, will definitely do their greatest to censor this video and different much less principled platforms as a result of that’s what they do,” Carlson added.