How Tucker Carlson went from star host to 'Putin's PR man' behind 'censored puff pastry' interview with bloody despot
TUCKER Carlson's impressive interview with Vladimir Putin will be released tonight – but who is the man who breaks bread with the tyrant?
In a twisted story, the so-called 'king of cable TV' is now accused of becoming the Kremlin's PR man. the upcoming interview is rejected as little more than a censored puff piece.
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CarlsonThe 54-year-old prime minister, long adored by Russia's state media, will treat the world to what he claims is an “unedited” two-hour interview with the Russian president at 11pm GMT.
It airs tonight on his X/Twitter – a platform that the Russians hardly have access to, because it was banned shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
It is the first time Putin was interviewed by a Western journalist before the war.
Moscow said so granted the interview because Carlson was never pro-Russian or pro-Ukrainian, which marked him as different from the rest of the “one-sided” Western media.
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The interview will be announced on Tuesday in a video titled; “Why I'm interviewing Vladimir Putin,” Carlson said he was just doing his “job” as a journalist.
He sold it as a means for the American public to see the “truth” of the war in Ukraine, after two years of what he had labeled “lies” fueled by the Western media.
'You've never heard his voice. That's wrong,” he announced in the video that was recorded Moscow.
But the prominent expert is facing a media storm accusing him of acting as a propaganda tool for the dictator he has often defended.
Dr. James Rodgers, the BBC's former Moscow correspondent, told The Sun that he fears Carlson will simply end up as a “mouthpiece” for the Kremlin.
Despite Carlson's claims that he is finding out the “truth” of what is happening in the war in Ukraine, Rodgers expects it will be a heavily censored rendition from “Putin's side – and that's not the truth at all.”
Carlson, he said, should worry that “history will judge him.”
A similar story is being told on several Russian cable channels, which are calling the Carlson interview a major PR “coup” for Putin.
How did Carlson get here?
The American TV host went on to have a hugely successful career, rising through the ranks of CNN and NBC to eventually launch his own evening show. Fox news in 2016.
“Tucker Carlson tonight is the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, complacency and groupthink,” the show's synopsis read. “We ask the questions you would ask – and demand answers.”
After his departure from the network last year, there was a lot of speculation about his future.
There were rumors of Tucker being the flagship of other rival networks, setting up his own TV channel and even attempts by Russian state television to woo him.
But his sudden bond with Elon Musk's The newly acquired Twitter, now X, surprised many.
He's now 10 months into running his own show on the platform, but it's a far cry from the audience he once had at Fox.
His first video was a bizarre ten-minute monologue in which he praised Putin while declaring UFOs and alien life “really real.”
And so Carlson slowly began to fall down a rabbit hole, where he peddled conspiracy theories and regularly criticized the US for helping arm Ukraine.
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Who is Tucker Carlson?
Controversial TV pundit Tucker Carlson will interview Vladimir Putin tonight. But who is the man who faces the tyrant?
Carlson, 54, is married to a journalist Susan Andries for three decades, with whom he shares four children: Hopie, Buckley, Dorothy and Lillie.
The conservative broadcaster and close Trump ally rose through the ranks of TV networks to a top anchor position on Fox News.
From his primetime position he had great influence on American politics and was once even tipped as a presidential candidate.
After leaving Fox, he reportedly received numerous offers from far and wide, including from Russian state television, before settling on X/Twitter.
Ten months later, he runs his own, less successful, less watched and less discussed video show on the platform.
His first video on the subject was an extended monologue in which he praised Putin while simultaneously declaring UFOs and alien life “really real.”
In July, Carlson released a two-and-a-half-hour interview with disgraced influencer Andrew Tate, who was charged with rape and human trafficking in Romania in June.
In August, he also led Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán, a man frequently accused by Western policymakers of pandering to Putin.
The same month, Carlson conducted a soft-ball interview with Donald Trump and used the time to advance a wild conspiracy theory about an alleged plot to assassinate the former US president.
Since then, Carlson appeared to have sunk deeper in his criticism of Ukraine's struggle to defeat Russia – criticizing the US sending military aid to Ukraine and seemingly defending Putin.
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The interview
During his high-profile and apparently lavish trip to Moscow, Carlson reportedly visited the famed Bolshoi Ballet and a series of fine restaurants – with his every move well publicized in Russia.
Sources within the Kremlin are calling it a major propaganda coup for Putin, the newspaper reports The Moscow Times.
One source told the independent newspaper that “everyone in the presidential administration has rolled up their sleeves and is working together.”
An unnamed administration official added: “If the interview comes out, our propaganda will destroy Carlson's words criticizing the Democrats, which means he will confirm the position of our hawks in every detail.”
“The boss [Putin] will win the election without Tucker's help,” the official said.
“But access to an American audience through Carlson during the heated battle between Biden and Trump is yet another opportunity to exert that proverbial influence on the American elections, given Carlson's enormous audience.”
Another source added: “It's one of those messages that says, 'You didn't expect that? We can do that too. Suck it, Joe! ''.
There are also unconfirmed rumors that the Kremlin had a lot of control over the editing of the interview and even blocked some questions.
Telegram channel General SVR, which claims to have ties within the Kremlin, said the interview turned out to be “terrible.”
Putin – or what the channel said was his body double – “was nervous, said a lot of unnecessary things and looked pale and weak.”
“It was decided to re-film the interview, without improvisation on either side and as close as possible to the approved text,” the report said.
“Now the Russian leadership is trying to woo Tucker Carlson in every possible way and is trying to create for itself, as far as possible, a positive image of 'noble villains'.”
President Putin has long been admired by certain currents within the US far-right, including by Trump, who has a history of praising the Kremlin leader, including calling him a “genius” and “more credible” than the American intelligence service.
Beaten by the White House, criticized by journalistsst
With news of the interview's existence, the White House denounced Carlson for giving Putin a platform.
“I don't think we need another interview with Vladimir Putin to understand his brutality,” said John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council.
His false claims that no Western journalists had attempted to interview Putin sparked online outrage, especially amid Russia's sweeping crackdown on media freedom.
The claim was even rejected by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who told reporters on Tuesday: “We receive many requests for interviews with the president.”
The BBC's Russia editor Steve Rosenberg wrote on X/Twitter: “Interesting to hear TuckerCarlson claim that 'no Western journalist has bothered to interview Putin' since the invasion of Ukraine. We have submitted several requests to the Kremlin over the past 18 years. months. Always a 'no' for us.”
Russian journalist Yevgenia Albats called the interview “incredible.”
She wrote: “I am like hundreds of Russian journalists who have had to go into exile to continue reporting on the Kremlin's war against Ukraine.
“The alternative was going to jail. And now this SoB is teaching us about good journalism, shooting from the $1,000 Ritz suite in Moscow.
At least a thousand independent Russian journalists have fled the country to escape Putin's sweeping censorship laws, which criminalize any critical reporting on the war.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been wrongly imprisoned for almost eleven months on trumped-up espionage charges, while other foreign reporters have been deported.
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