Tucker Carlson: The media thinks we, and the president of Ukraine, are agents of Russia

If you've been following the news at all recently, you know that Vladimir Putin is just seconds away from invading our ancient ally, our closest friend on the world stage, that would be the sovereign nation of Ukraine. In response to this news, lovers of democracy everywhere are horrified. This is a slow-motion disaster. In effect, it's the first domino. 

First, the Russians come for Ukraine. Next, it's Bangor, Boise, Bakersfield. What Vladimir Putin plans next will make Red Dawn look like a documentary. So, of course, defenders of democracy everywhere are horrified by this, and they're ready to fight. Now, NATO, whose job it apparently is to contain Russia, has not yet committed to defending Ukraine for some reason. But patriotic Americans are not waiting for NATO. That's not their way. According to a piece in BuzzFeed, American citizens are joining the fight on their own. It's their Spanish Civil War. They're paying their way to Ukraine to defend the noble Ukrainian people against the dastardly Russian hordes on the frozen steppe. 

But strangely, and this is weird, we have no confirmation tonight that David Frum, Max Boot and Liz Cheney have left yet for Kyiv, and maybe they're still oiling their rifles and gathering their kit, or maybe they've decided to man the cable news barricades. Just because they're technically behind the lines doesn't make their service less perilous or important, and someday they're all going to get medals for the sacrifices they're now making in CNN Studios in New York City. And we plan to cover that ceremony live. 

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But in the meantime, Joe Biden seems most worried of all. Joe Biden is so panicked about what's about to happen to Ukraine, he makes Bill Kristol seem understated and restrained. And that's not really surprising, because Joe Biden is the president of the United States. He's got access to all the latest intel. It's delivered to him daily by the weapons of mass destruction division at CIA. Those guys are on it. 

This week, Biden got so concerned after reading what the CIA delivered him, he's so worried about what's about to happen to Ukraine, that Joe Biden called the president of Ukraine to warn him about his fate. And then someone in the intel community leaked the transcript of that call to CNN, not for the first time. 

JAKE TAPPER: We have breaking news for you and our world lead, a senior Ukrainian official tells CNN that today's phone call between President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky quote ‘did not go well.’ Our source tells CNN that the two disagreed about the immediacy of the threat of a Russian attack on Ukraine. The White House and Pentagon have been emphatic that they believe an attack could be imminent. We should note the White House just released its own readout of that call, and there was no mention of President Biden's warnings or the two president’s disagreements. 

Woah. First, we should note that CNN is perfectly capable of taking spin-filled propaganda calls from agents of the Ukrainian government, but you can't talk to Russia because that's treason. But here's the headline: It looks like there is daylight between the world's two closest leaders - brothers, really. And that suggests there might be a breach in the unbreakable bond forged over centuries between Ukraine and the United States. This is from CNN's Natasha Bertrand. She did this reporting: "Per a senior Ukrainian official … Biden told President Zelensky that a Russian invasion of Ukraine is now virtually certain and that Kyiv could be sacked. Prepare for impact. Biden reportedly said President Zelensky disagreed and, as I reported, asked him to tone down the rhetoric." 

What? Joe Biden is more worried about Russia than the president of Ukraine is? It looks that way. Because not long after that reporting, CNN said Natasha Bertrand deleted that tweet. Oh, and then an hour later, CNN's Jim Sciutto contradicted CNN's own previous reporting. He tweeted out this White House statement, which CNN qualifies as reporting, a statement from the White House. Here's what it said: "WH on Biden-Zelensky call: ‘Anonymous sources are ’leaking' falsehoods. President Biden said that there is a distinct possibility that the Russians could invade Ukraine in February. He has said this publicly and we have been warning about this for months…Reports of anything more or different than that are completely false. … Also this: "Also, no one said ‘sacked.’ The only person who should be ‘sacked’ is the anonymous source who is circulating an inaccurate portrayal of this conversation." 

Not an actual denial, therefore it's true. It's an amazing sequence, really, if you think about it. So Biden tells the Ukrainian president that his capital city is about to be sacked like Rome in the fifth century, blood and screams, fire, spears and swords, seizures and trebuchet, a horrible scene. And Ukrainians, in response to this, "calm down, dude, you're freaking me out. Toughen up, you sound like a terrified old woman."

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Now, the White House claims that conversation never happened, but clearly, it did happen because at a press conference today, President Zelensky said virtually the same thing to the media. 

ZELENSKY: We've talked to the president, we've talked about this, we think that it has to be there has to be a balanced approach. I'm not saying that they, he's influencing American media, the independent, but the media policy there has to be very well-balanced if they want to know what the situation is that they can come to Kyiv. Do we have tanks on the street? No. The image that mass media creates this, that we have troops on the road, so we have mobilization. People are leaving for places. That's not the case. We don't need this panic.

So David Frum and Joe Biden have gotten Americans so whipped into a frenzy over the future of Ukraine that they're flying to Ukraine to risk their lives in defense of that sacred nation's sovereignty. And there's the president of Ukraine saying "We're not that concerned." 

So what can we infer from this? Well, it's simple. If you're not terrified about the prospect of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, the question is whose side are you on here? Whose side are you on? And we know the answer to that question. You're on Vladimir Putin's side. So it looks like the president of Ukraine himself has been compromised by Russian misinformation. The Ukrainian president is what we on cable news refer to as an agent of Putin, and that means the Russians are so diabolically effective they've recruited the guy they're preparing war against. How clever is that? It would take a Slavic mind to pull that off? 

And by the way, yes, we are calling the president of Ukraine an agent of Putin, but we're not judging him. In fact, we can relate. We can empathize because, as you know, if you watch the media where agents are put in to. 

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN: Fox's chief propagandist Tucker Carlson, saying that the U.S. should be siding with Russia over Ukraine. What you may say? 

ANA CABRERA, CNN: Members of Congress are actually getting phone calls encouraging them to side with Russia because they're watching right-wing media and people like Tucker Carlson… 

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: It is striking how neatly Kremlin propaganda seems to dovetail with Carlson's talking points. 

FORMER GOP REP. DAVID JOLLY, MSNBC: When Tucker Carlson delivers this message, it’s dangerous. 

ARI MELBER, MSNBC: Now Tucker seems to have a larger pattern here with tyrants who lean to the right. 

NICOLLE WALLACE, MSNBC: But why is he so committed and why is Fox News on his behalf so committed to tearing down the American embrace and support and alignment with the world’s democracies? 

MAX BOOT, CNN: Tucker is utterly shameless. If he had any capacity to feel any shame, he should be embarrassed by what he just said, because he is basically repeating rank Russian propaganda.

Mr. Max Boot, Ladies and gentlemen in his final domestic television appearance before he heads to Ukraine to defend that nation himself, its territorial integrity, from the aggression of Vladimir Putin. Watch him while you can. 

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But let's be clear about what the terms are. In the United States - and this does not apply to Ukraine, where they have probably the more sane view of it, or maybe just more Russian influence - but in the United States, if you raise any questions about the wisdom of siding, in a war in Eastern Europe, with one country over another, you are by definition, an agent of the single greatest threat to democracy on this globe, Mr. Vladimir Putin himself. You're treasonous. 

Rep. Tom Malinowski of New Jersey is claiming that viewers of this show, Russian Robots to a man, reached out to his office and did something horrifying, something they probably should be legal, they said "maybe we shouldn't go to war over Ukraine."

BRIANNA KIELER: Can you just tell us about these phone calls that your office is getting? 

REP. MALINOWSKI: This yeah, sure, it really started yesterday, I was in my district office in New Jersey and phones were ringing and my district director came to me and said I just spent an hour on the phone with, like, four people telling me that they'd watch Tucker Carlson last night. And why are we going to be going to war for Ukraine? Russia's making reasonable proposals for peace, and we should just do what Russia wants. 

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Yeah. A lot of people said, Tom Malinowski, you know, is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, right? Even by the standards in New Jersey. However, he makes a really good point. There are people out there who look around and decide, maybe, I don't know, homelessness - close to a million people living on the street in the United States – 100,000 Americans dying of drug overdoses, inflation, the fact our schools haven't taught anything in over two years, maybe these are more important concerns in the territorial integrity of a country we can't find on a map. Maybe our own territorial integrity is more important than Ukraine's. And the question Rep. Malinowski raises is why would they ever think that? Where would they get the idea that their stupid, parochial domestic concerns are more important than Ukraine's eastern border? And the answer, of course, is Vladimir Putin. They've obviously fallen for the Russian propaganda. That would be us doing Vladimir Putin's bidding. Like the president of Ukraine, we're guilty. 

This article is adapted from Tucker Carlson's opening commentary on the January 28, 2022, edition of "Tucker Carlson Tonight."