Tucker Literally Saying Putin Not The Enemy, YOU ARE
He's escalating.
We'd like to begin this post by apologizing. In a piece yesterday, we said that Fox News character Pete Hegseth had said something that was not stupid and was totally normal about Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Well last night Hegseth said Vladimir Putin is doing this because "we’re running around talking about genders and reparations and all of this." We will never again make the mistake of taking something Pete Hegseth said out of context and calling it "not stupid."
Anyway. Some places on Fox news are desperately trying to rewrite history and make it so Donald Trump was the one who was tough on Russia — as if he didn't contradict them on that yesterday . Others are just doing straight-up Russian propaganda. Which brings us to Tucker Carlson, obviously.
RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA!
'Fox & Friends' Idiot Pretty Sure The Russia And The Ukraine Just Like Benghazi Because ...
Russian media is reportedly running a lot of Tucker clips these days, and it's not hard to see why. (They're loving LOTS of Fox News! They loved this clip of Mike Pompeo on Fox News!) His adoring coverage of Russia and its war on Ukraine is like the North Korean state media and Pravda doing it bareback.
But last night took it to a whole new level, we think. Tucker was really mad, or his TV character was, that Americans hate Vladimir Putin. He is furious that Americans don't love this sworn enemy of America the way he and Donald Trump love this sworn enemy of America.
TUCKER: Since the day that Donald Trump became president, Democrats in Washington have told you you have a patriotic duty to hate Vladimir Putin. It's not a suggestion, it's a mandate. Anything less than hatred for Putin is treason.
Many Americans have obeyed this directive. They now dutifully hate Vladimir Putin. Maybe you're one of them. Hating Putin has become the central purpose of America's foreign policy, it's the main thing that we talk about. Entire cable channels are now devoted to it. Very soon, that hatred of Vladimir Putin could bring the United States into a conflict in Eastern Europe.
Before that happens, it might be worth asking yourselves since it is getting really serious, what is this really about? Why do I hate Putin so much?
Because he's an authoritarian with Little Man Syndrome who runs a failed petrostate with a government that kills and/or disappears journalists, political dissidents, LGBTQ+ people and any others guilty of wrongthink, and that fucks with fair democratic elections in countries both next to it and also thousands of miles away in order to undermine the very idea of democracy. Because it was almost certainly his attack on the 2016 American election that made the difference in installing that un-American shitheel Trump, who literally incited a terrorist attack against America to prevent the certification of his re-election loss.
REMEMBER! Tucker Just Wants To Protect Russia And World From Brutal Dictator Of ... Ukraine?
It's Manafort. It's Always Been Manafort. And The Senate Intel Committee Seems To Agree!
You know, just to scratch the surface.
Oh wait, Tucker wanted to answer the questions, he didn't want us to answer the questions.
TUCKER: Has Putin ever called me a racist?
In Tucker's world and the world of his white nationalist viewers, we guess the greatest crime you can commit is to call them racist. Putin didn't do that.
TUCKER: Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to Russia? Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked my business and kept me indoors for two years?
Sounds to us like Tucker is saying somebody "manufactured" the pandemic.
TUCKER: Is he teaching my children to embrace racial discrimination?
We don't know if Putin is covertly funding any American white supremacists or their media, so it's hard to answer that question.
TUCKER: Is he making fentanyl? Is he trying to snuff out Christianity? Does he eat dogs?
These are fair questions ...
You know, the typical concerns of the 80-year-old white racist stuck to the couch cushions watching Tucker.
TUCKER: and the answer to all of them is "no." Vladimir Putin didn't do any of that. So, why does permanent Washington hate him so much?
Asked and answered.
Just after that, Tucker called the Russian invasion of Ukraine a "border dispute" and then told more verifiable lies about Joe Biden's family connections with Ukraine and lies that Ukraine isn't a democracy. His brain is running on a loop with that shit lately.
What's clear here, though, as GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger points out, is that in all Tucker's pointed questions, he's pushing his gross viewers to embrace Putin and also turn against their fellow Americans . Even though pretty much everything the average Tucker viewer believes about the world and reality is a racist fever dream hallucination, the people committing most of these imaginary crimes against them are their own countrymen. It's got the cancel culture white grievance whining and it's got the critical race theory white grievance whining and the COVID-denying white grievance whining.
He's just mashing at all their buttons and telling them one man can save them from the real America they hate so much, if they'll just pray this prayer and give their heart to that Russian man.
In 35 seconds here, @TuckerCarlson basically said: “Putin isn’t your enemy. Your fellow American is.” This is beyond dangerous, to say the leasthttps://twitter.com/acyn/status/1496290844797992960 …
— Adam Kinzinger (@Adam Kinzinger) 1645584096
It's really fucking sick.
And by the way, he's tilling in fertile territory, as new polling shows Republicans now view Putin slightly more favorably than they view some Democratic leaders, including President Joe Biden. But average Republicans aren't in love with Putin yet.
Guess Tucker feels it's his remit to change that.
[ Media Matters ]
Follow Evan Hurst on Twitter right here!
Wonkette is funded ENTIRELY by a few thousand people like you. If you're not already, would you pls consider being the few thousandth and one?
Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons .
"Well last night Hegseth said Vladimir Putin is doing this because "we’re running around talking about genders and reparations and all of this."
People used to have a sense of right and wrong. Being altruistic, kind, understanding, open-minded? Good. Not always easy, not always the only way to go, but something that we all should aspire to. It seemed natural. If we can spare all that, and be all that, why not? Being aggressive, ignorant, bigoted, selfish, on the other hand? Maybe not outright evil, but if you want to be evil it was a good start.. That was the societal consensus I grew up in.
In the last ten years or so, all that changed. Being kind, understanding, open-minded? A sign of weakness. Being aggressive, ignorant, bigoted, selfish? A sign of strength. Not for everybody, but for enough people to cause a societal rift.
I don't think Hegseth is wrong when he says what he says. What he doesn't understand, I think, is that Putin is not exploiting the supposed weakness of the desire for a fair and kind and open world, he's exploiting the weakness of a divided America. He's exploiting that America is not leading by example anymore. That any legitimacy she ever had of calling herself a "shining city on the hill" is gone. And that is not due to Biden, or Obama, or AOC, that's due to the likes of Hegseth, Carlson, Trump. They are the ones driving the division, they are the ones driving the notion that good is actually evil, that bad is actually good.
And Putin, for his part, picked the perfect time for his invasion. A bitterly divided America in which no matter how her president reacts it will be exploited by his opposition. A strong response? Warmonger. A weak response? Weakling. Something in-between? They will find something.
The world goes to shits because too many people are shit. I wish there was another way to see it but I don't.
The coveted "Republican whose grave I am least likely to shit upon" award goes to Rep. Kinzinger.