Tucker Carlson mocks Australian journalist who asks if he's ashamed of being a useful idiot for Putin

Tucker Carlson, whose pro-Putin comments go back several years, did it again during a recent exchange in Australia with a journalist who asked him if he felt any shame about his positions and whether he had been called useful idiot for the Russian president.

Carlson is in the country on a whirlwind speaking tour, joined by some of Australia's most controversial identities; including Clive Palmer, a mining billionaire turned politician who is now on his third attempt at building a replica of the ill-fated Titanic liner.

In a video clip Carlson posted to X on Wednesday afternoon, The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper Political correspondent Paul Sakkal began his question about the Russian president, but got out only seven words before Carlson resumed his usual antics.

You preempted my question about President Putin, Sakkal said, prompting Carlson to immediately feign outrage by repeating the name.

“He’s really bad!” » Carlson exclaimed sarcastically, laughing. Was he the one who made you take the COVID vaccine?

When Sakkal informed the conspiracy theorist that vaccines had saved millions of lives, Carlson refused to believe him.

Oh yeah. Safe and effective. This is why everyone loves media! he mocked with a high-pitched laugh. It's like a time capsule. It's like you're the last Japanese soldier on Okinawa who thinks the wars are still going on. No, it didn't save millions of lives.

A frustrated Sakkal interjected: Can I get the full tank? [question] uninterrupted? Once Carlson finally allowed Sakkal to continue, he moved forward.

I'm interested in your position on Putin. The many people in this crowd who would love a conservative prime minister in this country like John Howard, Tony Abbott, mainstream right-wingers like Boris Johnson, Australian liberals and some of their MPs are vehemently anti-Putin, he said. It starts.

They believe he is a reprehensible character who does not believe in the values ​​of conservatism, such as the rule of law and democracy, which give us the freedoms we enjoy in our country. I'm interested: Do you feel any degree of shame or regret at being labeled a useful idiot? he asked, causing Carlson to laugh.

Sakkal then discussed the aftermath of Carlson's meeting with Putin in February.

Vladimir Putin himself said in his Russian media that he was surprised at the weakness of your questions and he also said that you were wrong when you said that no other journalist had asked to interview him, and he said that this was not true.

Carlson, calling Sakkal's question an absurd soliloquy, accused him of taking Putin at his word after previously dismissing the Russian president as a psychopathic liar.

Carlson then challenged Sakkal's characterization of Boris Johnson.

Firstly, I remain faithful to the idea that Boris Johnson is a right-wing man. Do you know Boris Johnson? I do. Boris Johnson is a criminal buffoon who, like so many others who claim to love Ukraine, is single-handedly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians in this war that Ukraine cannot win, he said. -he declares.

And I would just like to refer you to Wikipedia. How many more people does Russia have than Ukraine? Do you know? 100 million. And in a country where this figure is relevant, it is not possible for Ukraine to beat Russia. The best they can do is leave for peace. This is known, in particular by [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky, who wanted this since the first days of this conflict, he continued. And Boris Johnson, on the orders of the Biden administration, ended the peace negotiations almost two years ago, and this is not a disputed fact, it is a fact accepted by everyone, and the Ukraine has been completely destroyed.

This claim about Johnson is disputed, however, The Guardian draw attention to a study In Foreign Affairs which describes a sequence of events that is not as clear as Carlson described it.

Carlson continues: And now Zelensky has passed a law allowing foreign companies to own land there. So tell me what Ukraine will look like in 30 years, when it will be completely owned by Blackrock and multinational corporations, and its population will not be Ukrainian? All right?

Carlson concluded by saying he felt shame, not because of what he said, but because of the involvement of Western governments in attempts to prevent a Russian takeover of Ukraine .

The tragedy of what happened in Ukraine, orchestrated by Western powers, including your government, and led by my government, I am ashamed of it and I hope that you too, is truly one of the greatest crimes of my life. So the idea that if you're against this, you're for Putinwell, of course, is absurd, he insisted.

During a 2019 episode of Tucker Carlson tonight, the homonymous host declared that he supported Russia in its conflict against Ukraine. Carlson later claimed he was joking.