Tucker Carlson will interview Russian President Vladimir Putin he says out of a sense of journalistic duty and a love for the United States.
“It’s our job. We’re in journalism. Our duty is to inform people,” Carlson said in a video posted to X. “Two years into a war that’s reshaping the entire world, most Americans are not informed. They have no real idea what’s happening in this region.”
Carlson said that since the outbreak of the conflict, Americans, whom he argued are footing the bill for the war in Ukraine, have been fed a one-sided narrative from legacy media defining Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky as victims and Putin as the aggressor. However, he said no one in the West can say with certainty why Putin launched an invasion that left hundreds of thousands dead, reshaped global military and trade alliances, and upended the post-World War II economic order.
“Most of the world understands this perfectly well. … Ask anyone in Asia or the Middle East what the future looks like,” he said. “Yet the population of the English-speaking countries seem mostly unaware.”
“Their media outlets are corrupt,” he added. “They lie to their readers and viewers, and they do that mostly by omission.”
“Pep sessions” to rally Americans and Westerners behind Zelensky and Ukraine have dominated coverage of the war, while there have been no attempts from Western journalists to interview Putin, Carlson said.
“Americans have the right to know all they can about a war they’re implicated in, and we have the right to tell them about it because we are Americans, too,” he said.
Carlson’s soon-to-be-released discussion with Putin does not appear to be the first time he has attempted to meet with the Russian leader.
“Almost three years ago, the Biden administration illegally spied on our text messages and then leaked the contents to their servants in the news media,” Carlson said. “They did this in order to stop a Putin interview that we were planning.”
“Last month, we’re pretty certain they did exactly the same thing once again,” he added.
This time, however, Carlson and his team have journeyed to Moscow because it’s what the public deserves, he said.
“We are not here because we love Vladimir Putin. We are here because we love the United States, and we want it to remain prosperous and free,” Carlson said. “We paid for this trip ourselves. We took no money from any government or group, nor are we charging people to see the interview.”
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Carlson was clear in telling his audience that he is urging them to watch the interview, not to agree “wholeheartedly with Putin.”
“You should know as much as you can,” he said. “Then like a free citizen and not a slave, you can decide for yourself.”