On Thursday evening, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson released his highly anticipated interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin. After the interview, Carlson released a followup video explaining his conclusions from the two-hour event.
In the follow-up video, Carlson explained that it would likely take a year for him to fully dissect and understand the implications of his interview with Putin and what the Russian president was attempting to get across. Carlson then explained that Putin "wasn't good at explaining himself" because he didn't lay out his case coherently.
"A couple things rose to the surface. One, he is very wounded by the rejection of the West. The United States doesn't like Russia. I think like a lot of Russians he expected the end of the Cold War would be sort of Russia's invitation into Europe because it is a European country that is half in Asia but there's a lot that's European about it," Carlson explained. "But the West rejected Russia, and maybe, I'm not even taking sides in this, there were good reasons...the West was determined not to be aligned with Russia, that's very obvious. That's the whole point of NATO, to contain Russia."
Tucker explained that Putin was angry about not being accepted by the West but that he didn't have a coherent theory about why he was upset about that fact. The conservative commentator then rejected the idea that Russia is an expansionist power given its already large land mass and relatively small population of 150 million people. "They don't have enough people in their view, so the idea that they want to take over Poland, why would they want to do that? They just want secure borders. Maybe they're too paranoid about it; that's certainly possible. But the idea that they are going to roll into Vienna, you'd have to be an idiot to believe that."
The former Fox News host said that Putin is not a modern-day Hitler looking to expand into Europe and that the analysts in Washington are wrong in their assessments. "The second thing that I would say, which I thought was kind of really striking, is that he was willing to admit that he wants a peace deal in Ukraine," Carlson explained. "Maybe he's lying in ways I didn't perceive, but he kept saying it. I don't know why he would say it if he didn't mean it." Tucker went on to explain that there is substantial evidence that former United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson sabotaged peace deal talks on behalf of the United States.
He also explained that part of the terms from the West to end the war included Russia ceding Crimea back to Ukraine, a demand that Carlson found untenable. He explained that Crimea is home to the Russian fleet, it has a Russian population, it's where Russian wine originates from, and that the residents there chose to be part of Russia via a referendum. "So you can like that or not like it, but the fact is Putin would go to war, nuclear war, if it came down to Crimea," Carlson said. "So if you really think that a condition of peace is that Putin is going to give up Crimea, then you're a lunatic."
Carlson then reprimanded US policymakers' intentions to weaken the central government in Russia, given the varied ethnic makeup of the population and the thousands of nuclear weapons that the Russian government possesses. "'We're going to depose Putin!'" Carlson mocked. "Well, then what happens? What happened in Libya when we deposed and allowed Gaddhafi to be murdered? What happened in Iraq when we brought Saddam to justice? Those countries fell apart, and they have never been rebuilt again. In Afghanistan, we took out the central government, and they came back; it's still run by the Taliban. So, our track record of knocking out leaders, which is very easy to do, is spotty at best. Things don't always get better. So if we do that to Russia, the largest landmass in the world with the largest nuclear arsenal, you are on drugs if you think that's a good idea."
WATCH:
In the follow-up video, Carlson explained that it would likely take a year for him to fully dissect and understand the implications of his interview with Putin and what the Russian president was attempting to get across. Carlson then explained that Putin "wasn't good at explaining himself" because he didn't lay out his case coherently.
"A couple things rose to the surface. One, he is very wounded by the rejection of the West. The United States doesn't like Russia. I think like a lot of Russians he expected the end of the Cold War would be sort of Russia's invitation into Europe because it is a European country that is half in Asia but there's a lot that's European about it," Carlson explained. "But the West rejected Russia, and maybe, I'm not even taking sides in this, there were good reasons...the West was determined not to be aligned with Russia, that's very obvious. That's the whole point of NATO, to contain Russia."
Tucker explained that Putin was angry about not being accepted by the West but that he didn't have a coherent theory about why he was upset about that fact. The conservative commentator then rejected the idea that Russia is an expansionist power given its already large land mass and relatively small population of 150 million people. "They don't have enough people in their view, so the idea that they want to take over Poland, why would they want to do that? They just want secure borders. Maybe they're too paranoid about it; that's certainly possible. But the idea that they are going to roll into Vienna, you'd have to be an idiot to believe that."
The former Fox News host said that Putin is not a modern-day Hitler looking to expand into Europe and that the analysts in Washington are wrong in their assessments. "The second thing that I would say, which I thought was kind of really striking, is that he was willing to admit that he wants a peace deal in Ukraine," Carlson explained. "Maybe he's lying in ways I didn't perceive, but he kept saying it. I don't know why he would say it if he didn't mean it." Tucker went on to explain that there is substantial evidence that former United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson sabotaged peace deal talks on behalf of the United States.
He also explained that part of the terms from the West to end the war included Russia ceding Crimea back to Ukraine, a demand that Carlson found untenable. He explained that Crimea is home to the Russian fleet, it has a Russian population, it's where Russian wine originates from, and that the residents there chose to be part of Russia via a referendum. "So you can like that or not like it, but the fact is Putin would go to war, nuclear war, if it came down to Crimea," Carlson said. "So if you really think that a condition of peace is that Putin is going to give up Crimea, then you're a lunatic."
Carlson then reprimanded US policymakers' intentions to weaken the central government in Russia, given the varied ethnic makeup of the population and the thousands of nuclear weapons that the Russian government possesses. "'We're going to depose Putin!'" Carlson mocked. "Well, then what happens? What happened in Libya when we deposed and allowed Gaddhafi to be murdered? What happened in Iraq when we brought Saddam to justice? Those countries fell apart, and they have never been rebuilt again. In Afghanistan, we took out the central government, and they came back; it's still run by the Taliban. So, our track record of knocking out leaders, which is very easy to do, is spotty at best. Things don't always get better. So if we do that to Russia, the largest landmass in the world with the largest nuclear arsenal, you are on drugs if you think that's a good idea."
WATCH:
You can follow Sterling on X/Twitter here.Hmmmm pic.twitter.com/OtZvzX0czR
— RyanFJBLGB🇺🇸🦅 (@RyanPatrick1991) February 9, 2024
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