LOS ANGELES.–Ripping 54-year-old former Fox New host Tucker Carlson for his Feb. 9, interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, 82-year-old Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) showed why he’s long overdue for retirement. McConnell has imbibed all the White House Cool-Aid on the Ukraine War, believing 81-year-old President Joe Biden’s rubbish that 71-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin wants take over Europe. McConnell slammed Carlson for spending two hours interviewing Putin without challenging or confronting the Russian leader on predictable White House arguments, like why he launched his Feb. 24, 2022 Ukraine invasion. “I think the demonization of Ukraine began by Tucker Carlson, who, in my opinion, ended up where he should have been all along, which was interviewing Vladimir Putin,” sounding incoherent. Carlson is the only U.S. journalist to get an interview with Putin.
Carlson is genuinely concerned about the survival of Western Civilization with Biden provoking Putin into WW III or possibly nuclear war. Older bureaucrats like McConnell could no more interview Putin than Mickey Mouse, knowing he would get chewed-up-and spit out by Putin, the same as Biden in his diminished, age-related state. McConnell condemns Carlson for “demonizing Ukraine,” when Carlson simply points out that generations of U.S.-Russian diplomacy have ended with Biden’s proxy war in Ukraine against the Kremlin. Whatever problems Ukraine has with the Kremlin, it was no basis for destroying generations of U.S. diplomatic relations with Russia. Carlson hasn’t demonized Ukraine, he questioned the advisability to tossing out generations of U.S.-Russian diplomacy, détente and arms control, all of which made the world more safe.
Challenging Putin was the exact wrong approach, only breeding more defensiveness and resentment at a time when rapport-building and fence-mending is needed to avoid escalating the Ukraine War into a conflict engulfing the European Union [EU]. No one in the EU or NATO, for that matter, wants a war with the Kremlin. Yet Biden has joined 46-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s war with the Kremlin. Kremlin officials see the Ukraine War as one between the U.S. and Moscow, not Moscow and Kiev. Carlson’s strategy was brilliant, insightful and clever, letting Putin do the talking, not responding to gratuitous attacks, going over old ground. Mainstream journalists are green with envy that Carlson landed the interview with Putin, all because he’s viewed as an independent thinker, not a Cool-Aid drinker thinking that war solves the world problems.
McConnell and his war hawk colleagues howled with delight April 18 when 52-year-old House Speaker Mike Johnso (R-La.) finally acquiesced to the Neocons about funding the Ukraine War, handing Zelensky nother $60 billion with which to keep the war going indefinitely. Easy for McConnell and the Democrat-controlled U.S. press to criticize Carlson who got more out of his interview with Putin than anyone expected. Putin told Carlson he’s open to ending the Ukraine conflict with serious ceasefire and peace talks, not the one-sided proposal by Zelensky. Putin said he was open to more prisoner swaps and other areas of cooperation as long as the U.S. ended its attempt to undermine the Russian Federation. Putin admitted tongue-in-cheek he was actually disappointed that Carlson didn’t come off more aggressively, something he was prepared to handle.
Putin admitted he “didn’t get complete satisfaction” because Carlson didn’t pepper him with more predictable Western arguments. “To be honest, I thought that he [Tucker] would behave aggressively and ask so-called sharp questions. I was not just prepared for this, I wanted it, because it would give me the opportunity to respond in the same way,” Putin said after his interview with Carlson. Instead of praising his effort to open up dialogue during a tense time, war hawks and the press accused Tucker of being a “Putin puppet,” much the same way former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said of 77-year-old former President Donald Trump. Putin is well-aware of the fact that Trump says, if elected president, he would end the conflict in 24 hours, something disputed by Zelensky. Zelensky won’t end the war anytime soon now that he has his $60 billion.
McConnell and other war hawks, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, got their way, giving Ukraine another $60 billion to pay for Zelensky’s bankrupt Ukraine government and keep the war going. Accusing Carlson of pandering to Putin prompted a swift response from the now independent journalist. “And by the way, I should just say at the outset, I’ve been accused of being pro-Putin and I’m not,” Carlson told Glenn Beck’s Blaze TV program. “And if I was, that’s OK too. I’m an adult man, an American citizen, I can like or dislike anyone I want. I can have any opinion I want,” Tucker told Beck. Unlike Biden and Congressional war hawks, Carlson is concerned about the damage the Ukraine War does to U.S. foreign policy and national security. Carlson sees Congress and the press oblivious to the risks of WW III or nuclear war by keeping the Ukraine War going.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
