Tucker Carlson both decided to continue defending Vladimir Putin and
his invasion into Ukraine while simultaneously whining about being
referred to as a pro Putin propagandist.
Interesting.
Now, how popular is his argument?
Well, even Newsmax decided to criticize him, which we'll get to later, and
don't miss that part of the story.
But first, some context.
In his latest round of shilling for the Russian government,
Tucker Carlson decided to imply that Ukraine is really to blame here
because it refused to back off of doing something that Russia demanded.
What you're about to watch is a lie.
But after you watch it, I will explain why it's a lie.
>> So last week, Zelenskyy floated the idea of accepting so
called Ukrainian neutrality agreeing not to join NATO.
In exchange for that, he would get a Russian withdrawal from Ukraine.
So if accepting the status quo going with the way things already were and
we're always going to be, if doing that convinces Putin to stop killing Ukrainians
and spares Ukraine from total and complete destruction, maybe it's not a crazy idea.
Maybe Zelenskyy is onto something.
He certainly thought about it a lot.
So years of talk about expanding NATO into Ukraine, we've watched those happen
in public, that had nothing whatsoever to do with Russia invading Ukraine.
Nothing at all. That's what they tell us.
Putin invaded Ukraine because he's bad, end of conversation.
>> Yeah, Putin invading Ukraine had nothing to do with NATO at all.
And that is a statement for both right wing zealots of Putin's and
also leftists who keep claiming that it has to do with NATO.
Now, you can be critical of NATO.
We've been critical of NATO.
However, Zelenskyy very clearly stated that he was going to drop
the bid to join NATO in an effort to avoid Russian aggression.
Let me give you the evidence here.
So German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukraine's President Zelenskyy
sought Monday, February 14th, to tamp down tensions with Russia by
suggesting that NATO membership for Ukraine was not on their agenda.
The question of Ukrainian membership in alliances is practically not
on the agenda, Scholz said at the press conference,
which followed a two-hour meeting with the leaders.
Zelenskyy said, NATO membership was a remote "dream'.
Though he stressed that Ukraine was still keen to join the military alliance,
Zelenskyy also acknowledged that the call was ultimately not up to Kyiv.
Okay, they let it go.
They're like, all right, Russia is threatening us,
let's just drop it cuz we don't want an invasion.
Putin did it anyway, okay?
Putin was gonna do it no matter what.
And if you guys have noticed,
Vladimir Putin continues throwing whatever he can at the wall to see what sticks.
We did it to liberate the Ukrainians, they're being overtaken by Nazis.
That's not working.
Okay, there's biological weapons being developed in Ukraine.
It's because they wanna join NATO.
Anything they can say, any excuse they can give to justify the war crimes
that are being committed against the Ukrainian people as we speak.
>> So guys, it's not that NATO going into Ukraine was a great idea.
We thought it wasn't a great idea and
we were clear about that before the war began.
And I don't need the alliance to go right up to Russia's border and
I can see how that would be antagonistic.
So we see that, but why didn't we change our opinion about who the aggressor was?
Because the facts changed.
She just read you the quote, Zelenskyy and
basically Europe in the form of Germany there, the most relevant country,
were saying to Putin, okay, you win, we won't push Ukraine going into NATO.
He invaded anyway.
Now, if you listen to Tucker Carlson clip though,
Tucker Carlson made it seem like Putin's never heard that offer.
And he's like, maybe we should try it, he says.
But wait, Zelenskyy did try it before the invasion and Putin invaded anyway.
That's when we realized, no, this doesn't have anything to do with NATO.
Putin was always gonna invade.
That's why he brought 193,000 troops to the border, that's why every
offer was rejected including the number one thing he said he wanted.
Well, that's when you know that they're full of crap.
And you've seen America do this in the past, too.
Saddam at the end offered to give us everything we wanted.
Weapon inspectors, etc.
And we're like, just kidding, we didn't really want the weapons inspectors,
even though that was the thing that we requested, we're gonna invade you instead.
Cuz we were always gonna invade.
And it turns out, Putin was always gonna invade.
But Tucker Carlson, the disingenuous person that he is, comes out and goes,
I don't know, maybe we should run it by Putin, as if it's a new idea.
Why?
Cuz he wants to say no, it was the US that was the aggressor.
>> Well, it's interesting that you say that, Jenk, because later in his segment,
Tucker Carlson, seemingly responding to his critics, who clearly state,
accurately state, that he's pushing Russian propaganda, he says, no,
that's not true, I'm not looking out for Putin, I'm looking out for America.
[LAUGH] >> [LAUGH]
>> Let's watch.
>> How anybody in this country, which loves freedom,
coincide with Vladimir Putin, which is an oppressor, a dictator.
He kills people, he imprisons his political opponents.
He has been an adversary of America at every chance he's had.
It's unthinkable to be, it's almost treasonous.
>> Almost treasonous.
Siding with Putin, who's siding with Putin?
I haven't seen anybody do that.
I've seen a few people try to side with the United States, and that says
Mitt Romney, a man who got four deferments to keep himself out of the Vietnam war.
That is almost treasonous.
>> How about talk about Donald Trump also dodging the draft for the Vietnam war?
He never mentions that, right?
>> Yeah. >> He'll only mention it, by the way,
Romney did it.
Sure, whatever, I don't care who criticize him.
But it's interesting how he uses that as a political tool and
a talking point when anyone is going after him and the propaganda that Tucker does.
But I don't know, Jenk, maybe we're wrong.
Maybe supporting Vladimir Putin and his invasion into Ukraine where he's killing
innocent civilians, bombing hospitals, maybe that helps America somehow.
Can you explain how?
How does that help America?
>> Yeah, so look, you're right on both counts.
So first of all, Dick Cheney got a whole bunch of deferments and
Carlson never talked about it before the Iraq war.
Mitt Romney had gotten those deferments back in the '60s and '70s,
nobody ever talked about it when he was running against Obama.
I never saw Fox News talking about it.
Almost every major Republican leader has gotten deferments from Vietnam.
They're all cowards.
They all start wars, but don't fight in those wars.
Fox News never talks about it unless there's a rare situation where
a Republican criticizes Tucker Carlson.
And all of a sudden, he found Mitt Romney's deferments.
Now on the major issue here, he says, well, nobody ever supported Putin.
Well, why did you just hide the fact that Putin rejected basically the peace
offer of Ukraine not being in NATO before he invaded?
It would seem like that is the most important fact and
that you would leave that out on purpose because you were defending Putin and
you're trying to make Putin seem like the innocent person here.
My God, I mean, poor guys worried about his borders and
I wish we'd offer him to not do Ukraine and NATO.
You think Tucker doesn't know that?
That's the thing about Tucker, he definitely knows.
There's a lot of Republicans who are idiots and
they don't know a goddamn thing.
>> Yeah. >> But Tucker ain't one of them.
He knows he's lying to you and
he's defended Russia now endless number of times.
He's even literally said on air, I'm on Russia's side.
>> He can't help himself.
I mean, he incessantly supports Russia, which I wonder
what it's like to be a member of the families who have lost
journalists associated with Fox News as they're reporting in Ukraine.
Two Fox affiliated journalists have died as a result of the war
in Ukraine as they're doing coverage.
>> I wonder if Tucker Carlson is gonna go on the air tonight and say that they had
it coming because they were part of the aggressors, the United States, and
poor Putin had to kill them, his Fox News colleagues, because we were pushing NATO
against his border even though Zelenskyy made that offer before the invasion.
Poor, poor Putin.
He had to murder your Fox News colleagues, right, Tucker?
Or are you now going to pretend, I am so upset about what Putin is saying and
what he's doing, when you have defended him now about a dozen times on air.
And guys, this isn't pro Russia or anti Russia.
The Russian people are innocent, they didn't do this.
The tyrant, Vladimir Putin did this.
>> Yup. >> And
it's not like Tucker Carlson all of a sudden loves the Russian people.
No, he likes Putin for being a tyrant.
>> Yes, and I wanna make sure that we name the individuals that we're talking about,
the individuals who died as they're doing reporting in Ukraine.
So Pierre Zakrzewski, who was a Fox News cameraperson.
He died in Ukraine recently, and so did Sasha Kuvshynova.
So Pierre was a war zone photographer who covered nearly every international story
for Fox News from Iraq to Afghanistan to Syria during his long tenure with us.
This is a statement from Fox News.
His talents were vast and there wasn't a role that he didn't jump in to help
with in the field, from photographer to engineer to editor to producer, and
he did it all under immense pressure with tremendous skill.
He was profoundly committed to telling the story and his bravery, professionalism,
and work ethic were renowned among journalists at every media outlet.
And I just wanna note for all of the positive things that Fox News might
say about him in the form of that statement,
the fact of the matter is they continue to employ a man who is very clearly and
transparently supportive of Putin's invasion into Ukraine.
The bloodshed that we were seeing in Ukraine as we speak is
something that Tucker Carlson has supported, has provided excuses for.
He's a Putin apologist.
Any night he covers this war, he always sides with Putin.
Imagine how the family members of this now dead Fox News
employee feel knowing that Tucker Carlson,
with his primetime show, gets to spew Russian propaganda.
>> In favor of the tyrant that killed their family member.
So by the way, the Russians lie about almost everything in this war,
the Russian government does.
And so we covered a story earlier in the show about how,
so the Ukrainians are shooting from the hospitals.
That's why we had to bombard the hospitals and then take all the doctors, nurses, and
patients hostage.
They made us do it.
And as I explained to you, anyone who starts wars of aggression,
that includes the US and Israel, always says, they made us do it, right?
And so it's the same old thing.
And so if they say it about the journalist here, if Putin says,
no, he made us kill him cuz they were shooting from that general area,
whose side is Tucker Carlson gonna be on?
I would be shocked if he said, no, Putin is lying,
I can't believe he killed our Fox News colleague.
No, he's gonna find a different way to kiss a different part of Putin's ass.
And finally, look, after we invaded Iraq,
the Iranians made an offer to negotiate and
to give away their uranium program all the way back then and
to do all the concessions that Bush and Cheney said they wanted, right?
When they got the offer they finally wanted, the Iranians
heavily implying that and saying we'd like to come to the table to talk about that,
Cheney said, we don't talk to evil.
He rejected the offer he was pretending he wanted for more and more war.
Same exact playbook by Putin.
Zelenskyy says, I'm here with the Germans,
we don't have to go into NATO, let's talk about this.
And Putin says, [FOREIGN], I'm going to invade anyway.
And Tucker says, bravo, go kill those people.
Don't worry, I got your ass here on Fox News.
We love tyrannical traditionalist governments.