Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson confirmed Tuesday he traveled to Moscow, Russia, to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Carlson said he is interviewing Putin because it is a journalist’s job to inform people in the U.S. about the war in Ukraine.
“Two years into a world that’s reshaping the entire world, most Americans are not informed,” Carlson said. “They have no real idea what’s happening in this region, here in Russia or 600 miles away in Ukraine. But they should know, they’re paying for much of it in ways that they might not yet fully perceive.”
Carlson said he intends to show the American public how the war in Ukraine has “reshaped the global military and trade alliances” that have “upended the world economy.” He argued that citizens of English-speaking countries are not being informed of the truth, and thus are either mis- or uninformed about the historic changes currently developing.
“Their media outlets are corrupt,” Carlson explained. “They lie to their readers and their viewers, and they do that mostly by omission.”
The Daily Caller co-founder added how American media outlets have spent a substantial amount of time speaking to Ukrainian people and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and how it is wrong that most Americans do not know why Putin invaded Ukraine or even what his voice sounds like.
“But the interviews he’s already done in the United States are not traditional interviews. They are fawning pep sessions, specifically designed to amplify Zelensky’s demand that the U.S. enter more deeply into a war in Eastern Europe and pay for it,” he said. “That is not journalism. It is government propaganda, propaganda of the ugliest kind, the kind that kills people.”
“Americans have a right to know all they can about a war they’re implicated in, and we have the right to tell them about it because we are Americans, too,” he continued. “Freedom of speech is our birthright. We were born with the right to say what we believe. That right cannot be taken away no matter who is in the White House. But they’re trying anyway.”
Carlson said President Joe Biden’s administration “illegally spied” on his team’s text messages to prevent an interview with Putin they were in the process of planning. The Daily Caller co-founder said he is “pretty certain” the administration repeated this action last month.
Carlson said during a June 2021 segment of his previous show, “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” that he confirmed the National Security Agency (NSA) spied on him by reading confidential text messages and emails in an attempt to take his show off the air. A whistleblower allegedly told him about the alleged spying.
He further said the NSA leaked his emails to journalists, with one journalist allegedly calling him and reading back to him the contents of his emails.
Why I'm interviewing Vladimir Putin. pic.twitter.com/hqvXUZqvHX
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) February 6, 2024
The full interview will be available for viewing on TuckerCarlson.com, and “X” CEO Elon Musk reportedly promised not to “suppress” the interview once it is posted on his platform. However, Carlson claimed the U.S. government will attempt to suppress the interview.
“We are not here because we love Vladimir Putin. We are here because we love the United States,” he said. “And we want it to remain prosperous and free.”
Several liberal commentators lashed out over speculation of the upcoming interview between Carlson and Putin. Bill Kristol, the director of Defending Democracy Together, called for a “total and complete shutdown” of Carlson reentering the U.S., and Bill Browder, the CEO of Hermitage Capital, said Carlson is “either remarkably stupid or consciously evil,” according to The Spectator.
CNN anchor Erin Burnett raged about Carlson’s planned interview with Putin during a Monday segment, accusing Carlson of being a “Putin supporting celebrity.”
George Monastiriakos wrote in his op-ed for The Kyiv Independent that traveling to Moscow is like traveling to Nazi Germany to speak with Adolf Hiter.
“Tucker Carlson came out of the cold & admitted that he is in Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin – a wanted war criminal – and to give Putin’s “side of the story” about the invasion & genocide of Ukraine,” The Kyiv Independent correspondent-at-large Jason Jay Smart said.
Many others came to Carlson’s defense, saying he has every right to interview Putin and to debunk the narrative that Putin wants to invade Poland and other parts of Europe.
Carlson has traveled across the world to interview world leaders since his departure from Fox News in April. He interviewed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in August, visited Argentina to point out the “hyperinflation” and “reckless monetary policy,” and sat down with the now-President of Argentina Javier Milei in September.
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