Tucker Carlson, a popular Fox News host who often questions Washington’s rationale for confronting Russia, has doubled down on his ‘why should I care’ position regarding Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden’s effort to punish his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and his government for their latest moves against the Eastern European country will come at a cost for American taxpayers, who need to think whether they want to pay it, he said on his show on Tuesday.
There are no actual reasons for Americans to hate Putin, even if the left-wing media tells them that “anything less than hating Putin is treason,” Carlson said, unleashing a rhetorical self-reflection quiz.
“Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to Russia?” The answer to each in the barrage of questions he asked was “no.”
Biden announced that the US would impose new sanctions on Russia for its recognition on Monday of two breakaway Ukrainian regions as independent nations. “Defending freedom will have costs” at home, the president warned.
Carlson alleged that Biden’s determination to confront Russia over Ukraine is motivated by personal and family corruption, rather than values-based or geostrategic considerations. The country is not a democracy, despite what those in Washington assert, since its president put the leader of the biggest opposition party under house arrest and shut down opposition media.
“In American terms, you would call Ukraine a tyranny,” Carlson said. “But Joe Biden likes Ukraine, so ‘Putin bad, war good’.”
The cost of Russia sanctions, the host pointed out, will be paid by Americans, who will see gas prices go up, as Biden acknowledged himself. And all they may get out of it in return is feeling good for scoring a moral victory over “dastardly old Vladimir Putin.”
Carlson has the most popular cable TV show in the US and his opinions influence how Americans vote. According to a story published by the news outlet Axios last month, the Fox host’s voiced skepticism about confronting Russia has given second thoughts to Republican candidates running tight primary races. Their consultants fear “they’ll alienate the base if they push to commit American resources to Ukraine or deploy US troops to eastern Europe.”
Earlier this week, pro-Democratic Party channel MSNBC ran a segment that lamented Carlson’s impact on US foreign policy through his ability to whip up isolationist sentiments in the voter base – “the way he can change the tide for otherwise-fascistic leaders,” as host Alex Wagner put it, referring to Putin and to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
MSNBC, which is currently experiencing a drop in viewer numbers after its star host, Rachel Maddow, went on an extended break, prefers to invite interviewees such as Republican arch-hawk John Bolton to comment on Ukraine.
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