Days immediately after Fox Information host Tucker Carlson claimed he was “joking” immediately after stating he was rooting for Russia in opposition to Ukraine, the conservative primetime star commenced his Monday evening demonstrate by declaring Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t hate America as considerably as some American journalists, these kinds of as NBC News’ Chuck Todd.
Carlson would then abide by up his Putin-welcoming remarks by essentially doubling-down on the identical feedback he walked again very last 7 days, declaring he was opposed to Russian sanctions when stating the U.S. “should possibly just take the aspect of Russia if we have to opt for concerning Russia and Ukraine.”
Taking goal at Todd for accusing Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) of making the identical arguments as Putin by declaring Ukraine “actively worked” for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Carlson insisted that “Russia didn’t hack our democracy” and that Russian election interference was not “really a story.”
“The entire detail was a talking point—a ludicrous talking point—invented by the Hillary Clinton campaign on or all over November 9, 2016, to explain their surprising defeat in the very last presidential election,” the Fox Information host additional.
Claiming Todd went “full Joe McCarthy” in his Kennedy job interview, Carlson went on to phone Todd and others at MSNBC “kind of dumb” mainly because they “are nevertheless pretending that Russia collusion is the most essential story there is.”
This prompted the Fox Information star, who has been a loud and repeated critic of the Russia investigation, to then request why “Vladimir Putin is so terrible.”
“What will make Vladimir Putin worse than, I don’t know, a entire lengthy listing of American allies?” Carlson puzzled aloud prior to presenting the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as illustrations of men and women worse than Putin.
“They couldn’t response that,” he additional. “For Chuck Todd and the rest of the dummies, Vladimir Putin isn’t really a genuine particular person with actual ideas and priorities and a nation and beliefs.”
Calling Putin a “living metaphor” and “boogeyman” for MSNBC, he then sided with the Russian autocrat in excess of members of the no cost push.
“The irony, of system, is that Putin, for all his faults, does not hate America as considerably as numerous of these men and women do,” Carlson exclaimed. “They actually dislike our nation. And they phone other men and women traitors?”
Times later on, in an job interview with pro-Trump Congressman Jim Jordan, the Fox star then manufactured a remark that went even further more than his past claim that he was “rooting” for Russia in excess of an American ally.
“I need to say for the report that I’m entirely opposed to these sanctions and I don’t assume we need to be at war with Russia,” Carlson said. “We need to possibly just take the aspect of Russia if we have to opt for concerning Russia and Ukraine. Which is my view.”
