Tucker Carlson Says He Is Interviewing Vladimir Putin

Alex Weprin
·2 min read
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Russian President Vladimir Putin will sit down for his first interview with an American outlet in three years … with Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host.

Carlson announced the interview on X on Tuesday, accusing other media outlets of being corrupt in their coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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“Since the day the war in Ukraine began, American media outlets have spoken to scores of people from Ukraine, and they have done scores of interviews with Ukrainian President Zelensky,” Carlson said in a video posted to his X account. “We ourselves have put in a request for an interview with Zelensky. We hope he accepts, but the interviews he’s already done in the United States are not traditional interviews, they are fawning pep sessions.

“Not a single Western journalist is bothered interviewed the president of the other country involved in this conflict, Vladimir Putin,” Carlson continued. “Most Americans have no idea why Putin invaded Ukraine or what his goals are now, you’ve never heard his voice. That’s wrong. Americans have a right to know all they can about a war they’re implicated in and we have the right to tell them about it.”

Putin was last interviewed by an American TV journalist in 2021, when NBC’s Keir Simmons spoke to him in Moscow.

Carlson, of course, was ousted from Fox News a year ago in a shocking move. He subsequently launched a streaming show on X (formerly Twitter), and more recently announced a subscription streaming service called TCN.

However, Carlson says that the Putin interview will be available for free, and will be unedited.

“We paid for this trip ourselves. We took no money from any government or group,” Carlson said in the video. “Nor are we charging people to see the interview, it is not behind a paywall. Anyone can watch the entire thing shot live to tape an unedited on our website … Elon Musk, to his great credit, has promised not to suppress or block this interview once we post it on his platform X and we’re grateful for that.

“Western governments, by contrast, will certainly do their best to censor this video on other less principled platforms because that’s what they do,” Carlson continued. “They are afraid of information they can’t control. But you have no reason to be afraid of it. We are not encouraging you to agree with what Putin may say in this interview. But we are urging you to watch it. You should know as much as you can, and then like a free citizen and not a slave, you can decide for yourself.”

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