Tucker Carlson sent a not-so-subtle “so what?” message to viewers last night about Donald Trump Jr.’s attempt to collude with a Russian operative during the 2016 campaign. Unfortunately for Carlson, his argument did not go over well with guest Ralph Peters.
In his introduction Carlson snarked, “Well, sabotaging U.S. elections and eating children aren’t Russia’s only foreign policy goals.” But then, more seriously, he added, “They’re also firmly committed to fighting ISIS, which they’re doing, and now it appears possible that Russian forces may have killed the head of ISIS. …Whether or not it’s true, it’s interesting. It could be a big victory in the war on terror. So why aren’t more in the U.S. more excited about it? And should we be willing to work with Russia against Islamic extremism?”
As Carlson spoke, a large graphic in the lower right corner promoted the Hannity show’s upcoming interview with Trump Jr. Fox might as well have posted a banner saying, “Collusion, Schmollusion! Russia is awesome against dangerous Muslims!
However, while Carlson was there to talk up Russia, Fox News producers deliberately chose a Russia-hater as a guest for the segment. Retired Army Lt. Col. Peters announced on the air last year he preferred “despicable” Hillary Clinton over “Moscow’s man in the White House" Donald Trump. Peters was then a Fox News “strategic analyst” but he was not introduced as such last night.
Peters was not buying any of Carlson’s argument and that’s putting it mildly.
PETERS: The Russians have not been seriously fighting ISIS. The Russians in Syria have been bombing hospitals, clinics, refugee colonies, schools and oh, by the way, they’ve been bombing the people we’ve been supporting. … They’ve been letting us take care of ISIS. And we’ve done a good job.
“They’ve lost a lot of people to Sunni terrorism. Why wouldn’t we cheer them on?” Carlson argued.
Hello! Maybe it’s because they’re interfering in our elections?
Peters did not bring that up. But he did say, “We can’t have an anti-terror alliance with terrorists,” referring to the Russians. “And they hate the United States of America.”
“We have nothing in common with the Russians,” Peters later said. “I don’t understand why any American would want an alliance with Russia.” He argued that the U.S. “should be strengthening our alliances with democracies.” In a direct shot at Trump, Peters sneered, “Instead of trashing NATO, we should be building it up much more strongly. Why attack Australia? Why attack Canada? For God’s sakes, it’s about western civilization!”
Carlson said he’s “not vouching for Putin’s character” and that he “seems like a shady guy.” But, Carlson added, “Hard to see why he’s a threat to us,” and “How many wars can we fight at once? … Why not just accept that people who are bad people share our interest and side with them?”
Peters shot back, “You sound like Charles Lindbergh in 1938, saying, ‘Hitler hasn’t attacked us.’”
From there, things got rather heated. “You cannot compare me to someone who’d make apologies for Hitler!” Carlson objected. He called it “grotesque” to compare Putin to Hitler.
The argument went on for several more minutes. Carlson tried to discredit Peters by sniping, “I would hate to go back and read your columns assuring America that taking out Saddam Hussein will make the region calmer, more peaceful and America safer when in fact it has done exactly the opposite.”
Not one of them mentioned Russia’s attack on our democracy.
Watch these two ignore a large part of the Russian bear in the room below, from the July 11, 2017 Tucker Carlson Tonight.
Is Tuckie for real with what he spouts or is he just playing a part for the paycheck like Rushbo???
It’s no wonder Trumpland has a total disconnect from reality. Despite more internal fracturing over Trump’s corruption following the bombshell of Don Jr. gleefully inviting the Russian government to help him steal an election (e.g., Kruathammer turning on The Donald), Fox News is largely trying to deflate the issue with a combination of minimizing coverage, deflection using the White House Hillary- Ukraine false equivalency narrative, softball interviews of administration defenders (e.g., Conway and her widely mocked word association props), and assurances there’s no proof of a crime so it’s a msm nothing burger.
Meanwhile the msm this morning is reporting real investigative journalism that Kushner who ran the Trump campaign propaganda operations is under investigation for feeding data to Russians so they could micro target their fake news bot network. How likely is this news to see the light of day on GOPTV™?
