Julia Ioffe: Tucker Is ‘Doing the Kremlin’s Job of Misinforming, Disinforming the American Population’

[Clip starts]
Carlson: “We’re here to interview the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.”
[Clip ends]
PHILLIP: “Tucker Carlson is lying from the streets of Russia, no less.”
[Clip starts]
Carlson: “Not a single western journalist has bothered to interview the president of the other country involved in this conflict, Vladimir Putin.”
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PHILLIP: “That’s a lie. Serious news outlets, including CNN have requested Putin to interview, over and over again.”
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Carlson: “Most Americans have no idea why Putin invaded Ukraine or where those goals are now. You never heard his voice.”
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PHILLIP: “Another lie. Serious news outlets including CNN have covered and of course reported on Putin’s words since this war began, including one of his baseless justifications for the invasion of Ukraine, which he initially claimed was to stop the Nazis.” [clip starts]
Carlson: “First, because it’s our job. We’re in journalism.”
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PHILLIP: “Tucker Carlson is not a journalist, not even close. And his former employer in a court case actually agreed, quote, ‘The general tenor of the show should then inform a viewer that Carlson is not stating actual facts about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in exaggeration and non-literal commentary.’”
[Clip starts]
Carlson: “Two years into a war that’s re-shaping the entire world, most Americans are not informed. They have no real idea what’s happening in this region here in Russia or 600 miles away in Ukraine.”
[Clip ends]
PHILLIP: “For two years, real journalists have risked their lives to report from the ground each and every day in Russia and in Ukraine, including two U.S. journalists who are right now baselessly being detained by Vladimir Putin. And joining me now is founding partner and Washington correspondent for ‘Puck,’ Julia Ioffe. Julia, thanks for staying up for us. What is in it for Putin to do this interview with Tucker Carlson, both from an American audience perspective and also, of course, his audience back home in Russia?”
IOFFE: “Abby, thank you so much for calling out so many of Tucker Carlson’s lies. There are so many of them in that four and a half minute video that it’s hard to get at all of them, but I’m glad you dismantled some of the most important ones. But I think what’s really shocking is the way he kind of just walks right into Moscow and presents himself on a silver platter to the Kremlin, doing the Kremlin’s job of misinforming, disinforming the American population. Putin, from the very beginning of this war, has angled to basically create a bridge to American right-wingers and conservatives like Tucker Carlson, saying that he’s fighting gender-neutral bathrooms in Ukraine, saying that he’s fighting queer gender roles in Ukraine, basically signaling to them that there’s an ideological affinity and that I’m your guy. And in fact, if you recall shortly before Putin invaded Ukraine in February of 2022, Tucker Carlson went on his show on Fox News and said, hey, why are we allying ourselves with Ukraine when we should be the allies of Putin? We have the same ideas as him and he should be our friend.”
PHILLIP: “Who do you think is winning this propaganda war right now, given everything that you laid out and also just, by the way, the fact that right now, USAID for Ukraine is stalled in Washington because of Republican opposition?”
IOFFE: “Well, I think so far, or right now, Putin is winning, mostly because people in the West are tired. They have war fatigue. There’s another war, horrible war happening in Gaza right now. And a few Republicans on the right are doing, or actually a lot of them are doing Donald Trump’s bidding because he does not like Ukraine. He likes Vladimir Putin and he has told them to hold off funding for Ukraine, that there should be no more money for Ukraine. So, all of that disinformation, all of that buttering up of the American right-wing and of Donald Trump and people close to him has really paid off handsomely for Vladimir Putin because Ukrainian troops are, right now as we speak, running out of ammunition, running out of men in the middle of a horrible, deadly winter.”
PHILLIP: “Yeah, and Tucker Carlson doing the propaganda work of basically Russian state media for them, here, as well. Julia Ioffe, thank you very much for joining us tonight.”