Tucker Carlson’s interview of Putin PHOTO COURTESY OF YOUTUBE.COM

Former FOX News primetime host Tucker Carlson recently released a two-hour interview that he conducted with Russian President Vladimir Putin that positions him as the charlatan and pseudo journalist that he purports to be. Carlson has always been a varsity cheerleader for Russia and Putin, using his FOX News platform as a tool that helped to propagate pro-Russian propaganda and soft peddle a kaleidoscope outlook of Putin’s leadership that appeared extremely favorable and, in many instance, complimentary.

Carlson was famously fired from his #1 show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” after the FOX Network settled a $787 million lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems last spring. Documentation in Dominion’s lawsuit included text messages and emails from Carlson that directly alluded to his disdain for former president Donald J. Trump in private, while publicly, and on the air, pledging support and fidelity to Trump and Republican talking points. Carlson thrives on the proliferation of conspiracy theories and white supremacist ideology like the “great replacement theory” that falsely suggests there is a worldwide plot to infiltrate western society with people of color thereby slowly reducing the European / white population. Some scholars suggest that anti-abortion legislation and bans are a direct response to the “great replacement theory” by increasing the birth rates of white Americans to keep the power structure white. Carlson has never distanced himself from the “great replacement theory” so it should really come as no surprise that he would prefer the company of white supremacist and dictator Putin.

When Carlson’s interview with Putin was first announced, major news media outlets professed outrage that the former FOX News primetime host would even consider the Russian president as an interview subject. However, it wasn’t as surprising as some have noted because Carlson has always shown himself to be a Communist sympathizer.

In fact, Tucker Carlson praised Moscow as being “so much nicer than any city in my country [America]” as he briefly toured the city before his interview with Putin. Then when he spoke at the World Government Summit held in Dubai, Carlson stated that alongside Moscow, the United Arab Emirates’ Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and China’s Singapore and Tokyo, that “these cities, no matter how we’re told they’re run and on what principles they’re run, are wonderful places to live.” But for whom are these places “wonderful” to reside in? Are religious freedoms respected and recognized in Russia and China? Or are the citizens of those countries living in perpetual fear of being imprisoned for worshipping and practicing their religion in the manner that befits their form of religiosity?

How many men, women and children have been snatched out of their homes, places of employment, or off the streets never to be seen again for years…or ever? Are women regarded and extended the full and equal rights that their male counterparts enjoy? Can those in the LGBTQIA+ community publicly be who they are without fear of the repercussions of shaming, loss of employment and housing, possible imprisonment, or even worse…death? Will real journalists who love and practice true journalism be able to do their jobs freely without bias or affiliation to government-sanctioned media, without their freedom and lives being at stake?

The countries that Carlson heaps praise upon are against what we have regarded as true democracy and the “truths” that America “holds self-evident.” Carlson made the false claim that he is the only “journalist” who has requested to interview Putin. Journalists from all over the world came forward to dispute his statements, including the Kremlin. That is what Tucker Carlson does best: peddle misinformation and lies. What Carlson wants is the same thing that the man he reportedly strongly disdains, Donald Trump, wants: An America that is flipped on its head and like a time machine, somehow transformed back to the culture of the Antebellum South and the complicit North that also profited and benefited from that “peculiar institution” of American slavery. That is the stuff that Trump’s “Make America Great Again” is made of.

Carlson would like nothing more than a country that mirrors Russia in all things white supremacy and that is why Putin is his hero in many respects. The reason Carlson is more dangerous today than he was before his firing last spring is that he is now unrestricted and unfettered, fully accountable to only himself and his edification. He does not care about women, people of color, immigrants, or Black America. Carlson cares about his bottom line and if his bottom line means that he dismantles America’s democracy, then he is all for it. Like Trump who told a crowd over the weekend that if a European NATO ally fell behind in defense spending benchmarks and he was president, then he would turn a blind eye and “encourage” Russia “to do whatever they want.” Who believes Trump when he made the claim that had he been president, Russia would not have invaded Ukraine? The same man who threatened to withhold congressional-approved funds from Ukraine if President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not cooperate in finding evidence of foul play in the actions of Hunter Biden? The incredulity of MAGA supporters’ mindset and that of the 11 million-plus subscribers that Carlson had on X who have followed him to his new streaming subscription platform “The Tucker Carlson Network,” is baffling yet provides insight into how conservativism and Republican ideologies have somehow morphed into an American hybrid of socialism.