Now that it’s no longer expedient for Fox’s premier America-hater, Tucker Carlson, to openly support Vladimir Putin, the wily Carlson has found another way to tear the U.S. apart and keep himself a hero on Russian TV.
The formerly pro-Putin Tucker said nothing about his sudden change of heart two weeks ago that had him sprinkling little digs at Putin throughout last night’s commentary. It’s almost as if they were just there for window dressing. Carlson’s Previous Putin Predilection is so well known that Saturday Night Live based a cold open around it.
Now, #TraitorTucker Carlson had a new sleight-of-hand strategy for Siding With Russia But Pretending He Wasn’t: Hating America more.
#TraitorTucker Carlson claims ‘it’s obvious’ U.S. wanted to incite war between Russia and Ukraine
In a #TraitorTucker twofer, Carlson used much of his commentary to also go after some of his favorite targets. First up, Rep. Eric Swalwell. After referring to Swalwell as “stupid,” Carlson referenced some remarks Swalwell once made at the end of one of their interviews:
CARLSON: Swalwell explained that because Putin had installed Donald Trump secretly in the White House, the United States should now quote: "Do everything we can to expand NATO's role." In other words, we should let Ukraine join NATO. That's odd. Why would he say that? Why would a policy so seemingly obscure -- NATO? Ukraine? What?
Why would that be a priority for some forgettable Congressman from the East Bay? Well, simple, because getting Ukraine to join NATO was the key to inciting war with Russia. We didn't get it at the time. Now, it's obvious.
Vladimir Putin just invaded Ukraine because he didn't want Ukraine to join NATO. Putin certainly had other motives as well. People always do have multiple motives.
But that's the main reason Russia invaded. The Russians don't want American missiles on their border. They don't want a hostile government next door. Now, that's true, whether you're allowed to say it in public right now or not. It has been true for a long time.
A lot has been written about this over many years by serious people. No one who knows anything and is honest, will tell you Putin invaded Ukraine simply because he is evil. Putin may be evil, he certainly seems to be. But he also has strategic motives in doing that whether or not you agree with those motives. That's irrelevant. Those are the facts.
#TraitorTucker Carlson blames Kamala Harris for Russia’s invasion, with a distortion
CARLSON: So with those facts in mind, the Biden administration's behavior in the days before the Ukraine invasion tells you a lot about what motivated them. With Russian troops massed by the thousands on the Ukrainian border, Joe Biden sent Kamala Harris, the least capable diplomat in Washington, to explain America's policy to European heads of state.
At a public press event at the Munich Security Conference, Kamala Harris encouraged Ukraine to become a member of NATO, quote: "I appreciate and admire President Zelenskyy's desire to join NATO." Message: Up yours, Vladimir Putin. Go ahead and invade Ukraine, and of course Vladimir Putin did that just days later.
So the invasion was no surprise to the Biden administration. They knew that would happen. That was the point of the exercise.
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Why in the world would the United States intentionally seek war with Russia? How could we possibly benefit from that war?
We still don't know the answer to that question, but it is obvious that permanent Washington has been fixated on a war with Russia for a very long time.
FACT CHECK: Aaron Blake has a good explainer on the load of BS in this accusation and elsewhere in this commentary. Two of the issues he highlighted:
One is that Putin has made it pretty clear that this isn’t just — or even necessarily primarily — about NATO. Supporters of this view often point to Putin’s Feb. 21 speech laying out his justifications, which included NATO. But in that speech, Putin labeled Ukraine an illegitimate country on land that he views as rightfully Russian territory. He echoed that in 2008 talks with President George W. Bush. Putin’s aggression in Georgia in 2008 and Crimea in 2014 coincided with moves to bring Georgia and Ukraine into the Western fold, but there’s much more that undergirds his case for war.
The other is that supporting Ukraine’s right to pursue membership in NATO has consistently been U.S. policy. Carlson isolated Harris’s visit to the Munich Security Conference, but this has been a position across multiple administrations of both parties. However well advised that policy was, it was the long-standing policy. And to shelve it in the face of Russian aggression would be, in the truest sense, capitulation.
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(Carlson, for what it’s worth, oversimplified Harris’s statement as having “encouraged Ukraine to become a member of NATO.” As with past administrations, she described U.S. policy as supporting Ukraine’s desire to join NATO — a key nuance, diplomatically.)
Well, when you’re Tucker Carlson, Lachlan Murdoch's pet hate monger and white supremacist, you don’t need no stinking facts. You can even lie about your show being the “sworn enemy of lying.” In fact, Carlson had more lies in store.
#TraitorTucker Carlson pretends Donald Trump was impeached because he wanted to prevent war in Ukraine
CARLSON: A couple of years ago, you may remember, we'd forgotten, they impeached a sitting president. Why? For threatening to withhold military aid to President Zelensky of Ukraine. Failing to back a proxy war in Ukraine was the one thing Donald Trump was not allowed to do as president. Again, they impeached him for it.
And no one said much about it even in his own party, because of course, they support a war with Russia, too, maybe even more than the Democrats did.
FACT CHECK: Trump was impeached because he tried to hold aid hostage in order to extort Zelensky into providing dirt on Biden. If Carlson doesn’t know that, he has no business playing a news host on TV. But we know he does know and that’s even worse.
#TraitorTucker Carlson wants you to think he’s so principled, he goes after both sides in Washington
CARLSON: As far back as 2016, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, hysterical little Lindsey Graham was jumping around acting out his war fantasies in front of foreign soldiers in Ukraine.
[Carlson played a clip of Graham saying “Your fight is our fight” to Ukrainian soldiers]
CARLSON: "Your fight is our fight." That's a very strange thing for an American lawmaker to say to a foreign military. Why would the Ukrainian government's fight in 2016 possibly be our fight? On what grounds is it our fight? What does that even mean? We don't know. And yet now it is demonstrably true.
Ukraine's fight is our fight. Ukraine's war is our war. It's here, but most Americans did not see that coming. Yet, permanent Washington certainly did. Permanent Washington understood that the second Vladimir Putin's forces rolled across the border into Ukraine, we would inevitably be on a course toward war with Russia. They knew.
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Wouldn't a prompt Russian withdrawal from Ukraine be the wisest course for everyone, including and especially the Ukrainians, on whose behalf we claim to speak but whose country would be leveled by a protracted war? You would think so, but that's not what anyone in Washington wanted. They wanted a war and now they have one.
#TraitorTucker Carlson Claims ‘People In Charge’ Want Higher Gasoline Prices
CARLSON: Gasoline is now higher than it's ever been in the history of gasoline. In Los Angeles, it is selling for $7.29 a gallon. So, if you make under 100 grand a year, and most people in this country do, that qualifies as a crisis for you.
But for the people in charge, it's not high enough, they'd like to make it worse. Their latest idea that a lot of people seem to be buying is that we have a moral obligation somehow to stop buying Russian oil. It's tainted.
Okay. What would happen if we did that? Well, needless to say, oil prices would jump likely to over $150.00 a barrel, even higher prices for you. But then if that boycott spread and moral boycotts tend to and Europe joined it, buckle your seatbelt.
#TraitorTucker Carlson worked in his racial hatred and his hypocritical attack on COVID safety measures
CARLSON: We live in a country of moral panics. The first one began in May of 2020, with the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. That changed America completely. The second moral panic was COVID. You've lived through that.
So for nearly two years, the shouting has not ended. Hysteria is now the official language of public discourse in the United States. That's not good for anyone except those benefiting from it. Who is benefiting? Anyone who lies for a living. The liars have perfect cover.
Project much, Tuckums?
You can watch Carlson almost certainly remain a hero in Russia below, from the March 7, 2022 Tucker Carlson Tonight.
Updated 6/3/22 to remove reference to Carlson's refusal to state his vaccine status. He has since said he is unvaccinated.