Check out the latest from Fox News’ oiliest embodiment of MAGA, Tucker Carlson, “explaining” why he’s been insisting that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin only has love in his heart for Ukraine, and wasn’t really serious about trying to wipe its people off the face of the Earth.
“We’ve been taken by surprise by the whole thing,” Carlson said about Putin’s vicious attack on Ukraine. “We are not the only ones who were, but we are willing to admit it.” Love that royal “we,” by the way. Why were “we” taken by surprise? It’s that woman’s fault, he says.
“We assumed that if things were dire, serious people would be involved in fixing them. We looked up and we saw Kamala Harris involved, and that reassured us. Harris had just come back from Europe where she had been conducting ‘diplomacy’ with our allies, and that appeared to be proof this could not really be a big deal.” So far, so not Tucker Carlson, almost reasonable. Almost respectful. Don’t be fooled. That was just his wind-up.
“If the situation in Ukraine had been legitimately serious—if the future of Europe and the world hung in the balance, as now so obviously it does—of course, the Biden Administration would not have sent Kamala Harris to fix it, because that’s not her job.” Why isn’t that her job, Tucker? Because of course a woman of color couldn’t be handling serious issues, not in Tucker’s world. Her job, he said, “is to trot down to the Blue Room to greet delegations of TikTok influencers.”
This comes after Tucker’s contortions earlier this week trying to insist that he hadn’t spent the entirety of the Trump administration carrying Putin’s water and the run-up to Putin’s war, providing clips to Russian state television.
Of course, he’s not alone in that—it’s Fox News’ schtick, providing talking points to Russian state television and undermining the Biden administration’s efforts to help Ukraine and try to contain Putin. Fox News, and especially Tucker, are and have been objectively pro-Putin, along with the Republican establishment that put Donald Trump in power and worked so hard to try to keep him there.
Fox has a problem now, though, one that maybe Tucker has cottoned onto. In the latest Daily Kos/Civiqs poll, Fox News viewers proved themselves decidedly anti-Putin. Among regular Fox News viewers, 72% see the war in Ukraine as a threat to U.S. national security, and 84% of regular viewers support the Biden administration’s economic sanctions. Seems like Fox News personalities have some catching up to do with their viewers. Like Laura Ingraham.
Now seems like a good time to hear from Jon Stewart, who famously confronted Tucker Carlson in 2004 on his own show, the now-defunct “Crossfire” on CNN, “You’re hurting America.” He’s back with thoughts on Carlson, related on the Sway podcast—from The New York Times’ Kara Swisher.
“When you deal with such a dishonest propagandist—and that is what he is—there’s nothing you can take out of context, because none of it is real,” Stewart said. “He’s admitted when he’s cornered, he lies. It’s all a game and a performance. I mean, honestly, I have no idea what the fuck that guy believes, truly.” That goes for the whole network and its chairman Rupert Murdoch, who Stewart says is “trying to destroy the fabric of this country.”
“I don’t know if it’s ideological or he just thinks, this is where the money is. But how somebody can in good conscience put a shithead like that on television every night to say those types of things, that’s where the responsibility lies in my mind,” Stewart said.
And now, for your edification, here’s Stewart telling Carlson who he was 18 years ago. The pinhead has only gotten worse since.
Related stories
Daily Kos/Civiqs poll: Majority sees Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a threat to national security
The Fox News-Russia partnership keeps on giving (for Russia)
Carlson tries to gaslight his way out of having pushed Putin’s anti-Ukraine propaganda for a month
