Tucker Carlson, host of Fox News, has once again expressed his support for Russia amid tensions with the West over Ukraine. Carlson questioned the need for the U.S. to get involved in the conflict.
On Tucker Carlson Tonight, the bombastic host launched a tirade that asked why it was necessary for Washington to support Kyiv as hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers massed on its eastern border. Carlson asked his viewers to question who benefits? We don't ask that question enough. Carlson said that the United States certainly doesn't benefit, that's obvious to anyone who thinks about it for a second. It is so glaringly obvious that the people pushing this war denounce you as a traitor if you point out. Later in the segment he questioned why it was considered patriotic to support Ukraine but not Russia in any potential conflict. He accused the Biden administration of conspiring with a shady cabal of defense contractors, Ukrainian lobbyists and neocons, a group usually associated with the Republican Party with hawkish foreign policy views, of pushing for a conflict.
Why is it so disloyal to side with Russia but loyal to side with Ukraine? The host continued, both foreign countries that don't care about the United States.
The White House fears that the Russian military build-up is a precursor to an invasion of Ukraine and has warned that Russia can execute one at any point in the near future. Russia insists that it has no plans to attack, but President Vladimir Putin has warned that if Ukraine wants to join NATO, his country may have to resort to unspecified military-technical measures.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been on a whirlwind tour of European capitals in the past few weeks to keep allies on board for any combined sanctions for a Russian invasion, reassure Ukraine of U.S. support and continue negotiations with Russia, in order to defuse the situation.
Carlson has made a number of pro-Russian statements on his show. Carlson said he was rooting for Russia over Ukraine in an episode of Trump's first impeachment trial. Carlson later said that he was in jest to troll the left in response to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
This fact has not gone unnoticed, especially given his penchant for heaping praise on Putin and Russia. His most recent comments were apparently picked up by Russian state television as part of its criticisms of the U.S. and President Joe Biden.
Carlson told his audience last July that he was targeted by the National Security Agency NSA for surveillance. Sources told Axios that Carlson was looking for an interview with Putin for his show, and the NSA dismissed his accusations in a rare public rebuke. They say that if Carlson's communications were intercepted, it was likely incidental to communications he was engaged in with Russian intermediaries.
On Tuesday, Representative Tom Malinowski, D-N-J., said he was getting calls from constituents who were concerned about why the U.S. was not supporting Russia after watching Carlson's show.
My office is now getting calls from folks who say they watch Tucker Carlson and are upset that we are not siding with Russia in its threats to invade Ukraine, and who want me to support Russia's reasonable positions, Malinowski, a former diplomat, posted Monday on Twitter.