Tucker Carlson's lesson on the dangers of giving an autocrat airtime
Tucker Carlson left Moscow more than a week ago, following an interview with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, which put him back in the spotlight after his abrupt cancellation by Fox News last spring.
But the interview with the wartime autocrat, derided in various corners of the political media world for his soft touch, continues to have a long and tormented afterlife — and became a trending topic again on Friday after Putin's most outspoken domestic opponent, Aleksei A. Navalny, found dead in a Russian prison.
“This is what Putin's Russia is, @TuckerCarlson,” Liz Cheney, the former Republican congresswoman from Wyoming, wrote on X after news of Mr Navalny's death emerged on Friday. “And you are Putin's useful idiot.”
Naomi Biden, President Biden's granddaughter, also weighed in, pointing to a video Mr. Carlson recently posted in which he contrasted the supposed splendor of Russia under Mr. Putin with the “filth and crime” of the United States . “Has anything been so bad and outdated so quickly before?” Mrs. Biden wrote on X.
In a statement to The New York Times on Friday, Mr. Carlson said: “It is horrific what happened to Navalny. The whole thing is barbaric and terrible. No decent person would defend it.”
The comment represented a marked change in tone from earlier this week, when he appeared to express a blasé view of Russia's treatment of Mr Navalny, who was first jailed three years ago on charges of corruption and “extremism” that the United States called unfounded. .
When asked at a conference in Dubai on Monday why he had not questioned Mr. Putin about Russia's crackdown on freedom of expression, Mr. Navalny's imprisonment or the suspected political killings, Mr. Carlson said that these “are the things every other American media outlet talks about.” (Mr. Carlson was, in fact, the first Western media figure to interview Mr. Putin in more than two years.)
But Mr. Carlson then said: “Leadership requires killing people, sorry, that's why I wouldn't want to be a leader” – comments that drew even more criticism after Mr. Navalny's death.
Mr. Carlson said in a statement Friday that his comments about leadership “had zero to do with Navalny. “I wasn't talking about him, which is clear from the context. I am absolutely against murder.”
Although Mr. Carlson pressed Mr. Putin during the interview about the detention of Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich in Russia, he sat quietly for a long time as Mr. Putin delivered a history lecture that provided a one-sided and often false narrative about Ukraine. .
Mr. Carlson's fans and supporters on
But on Wednesday, a new expert joined the chorus of those who said Mr. Carlson had gone too easy on Mr. Putin — Mr. Putin himself.
Speaking to a state television host, Mr Putin said he was disappointed that Mr Carlson did not ask “so-called sharp questions” because he wanted the opportunity to “react sharply” in his own answers.
“He turned out to be patient and listened to my long dialogues, especially those about history, and did not give me a reason to do what I was ready to do,” Putin said. “So to be honest, I didn't get the full satisfaction from this interview.”
Justin Wells, one of Mr. Carlson's top producers, responded Friday that viewers should “judge for themselves.”
Putin's mockery of Carlson came as the former Fox host basked in the aftermath of his interview by offering a steady stream of praise for Russia and Mr. Putin, whose leadership he has praised as superior to Mr. Biden's.
On Wednesday, Mr. Carlson posted a short video recorded at a Russian supermarket in which he said its offerings and prices were an example of Russia's superiority over the United States, which he described as full of “filth, crime and inflation.” .
“If you go to a Russian supermarket, the heart of evil, and see what things cost and how people live, you will become radicalized against our leaders,” he said in the video. “That's how I feel anyway: radicalized.”
(Russia has more than twice that inflation the way the United States and its citizens spend money higher percentage of their household budget on groceries.)
The video drew a bipartisan rebuke: from Naomi Biden and, before her, from Sen Thom TillisNorth Carolina Republican.
As a polemicist who has long engaged in pro-Russian narratives and now relies on subscriptions from those attracted to just such content, Mr. Carlson operates in an atmosphere where the criticism he has received this week could be a catalyst for even more support.
“It's just being measured by a very different standard,” said Nicole R. Hemmer, an associate professor of history at Vanderbilt University who studies conservative media. “Tucker getting attacked is great for Tucker.”