Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Giving up is unforgivable.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Everybody saw this coming.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

You would normally have to try pretty hard to self-incriminate this badly.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Late Night Open Thread: Tucker Carlson in Moscow

Late Night Open Thread: Tucker Carlson in Moscow

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Late Night Open Thread: Tucker Carlson in Moscow

(Nick Anderson via GoComics.com)

 
I hesitated to post about Carlson’s ‘big get’, because there was a chance it would end up dismissed as just another Wingnut Wurlitzer nothingburger. But even in the rush of recent news, seems like there were points to discuss:

From the Washington Post — “Putin, in rambling interview, barely lets Tucker Carlson get a word in” [gift link]:

Russian President Vladimir Putin spent the first 30 minutes of his two-hour interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson giving a revisionist historical tirade on the founding myths of Russia and Ukraine, the breakup of the Soviet Union and NATO expansionism.

From there, admonishing Carlson when he interrupted, Putin pontificated on matters ranging from the war in Ukraine and relations with the United States to the case of imprisoned American reporter Evan Gershkovich, and even to artificial intelligence.

By the end of the conversation, it was clear that Putin had no intention of ending his brutal war against Ukraine. But Carlson, who was sacked from Fox last year, seemed ready to surrender. Putin offered to keep talking. Carlson, evidently exhausted by the Russian leader’s long-winded conspiracy theories and grievances against the West, thanked him and called it quits — far short of the media coup that he had been touting.

Analysts said Putin’s choice to talk to Carlson was based partly on his perceived sympathy — the former Fox host has repeatedly dismissed criticism of Putin over the years — and the opportunity to appeal to the more MAGA reaches of the Republican Party during an election year. That could boost Donald Trump’s chances of reelection and persuade Republicans to continue to block U.S. military aid to Ukraine…

[Carlson] did not ask a single question about Russia’s attacks on civilian areas or critical infrastructure in Ukraine, which have killed thousands. There was no mention of the war crime allegations facing the Russian leader or the forced deportation of Ukrainian children. Absent, too, were questions on Russia’s sweeping political crackdowns on Putin’s critics or the long jail sentences meted out to ordinary Russians staging antiwar protests…

“The Kovalchuk clan sharply criticizes the idea of an interview with the American journalist Carlson. They say that the problem is the unpreparedness of the interview arrangement – it was Gromov’s and Peskov’s mistake. Putin should have talked about conservative values, the creation of a conservative alliance, and moving on – but he went into history and platitudes about Ukraine. Naryshkin, who allegedly planted ideas with documents of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi and nonsense with Poland, also played a negative role here. He set Putin up to the fullest. Medinsky would not allow such a thing.”

According to reports, Putin didn’t like Tucker Carlson – “a snob and a useful idiot who got a meaningful fee, but was lazy and lacked creativity.”

Kovalchuk family believes they could have done better with Tucker Carlson, but “everything was wasted.” There’s a wave of complaints in the Kremlin.

But the interview — or at least right-wing media reports on it — pleased at least *one* American politician celebrity:

Late Night Open Thread: Tucker Carlson in Moscow 1

(Clay Jones via GoComics.com)

Reader Interactions

42Comments

  1. 1.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    Lord Swanson Haw Haw hard at work promoting Comrade Putin and his murderous assault on Ukraine for the Republican party. Republicans in Congress voting to embolden Putin while their Dear Orange Leader tells the world that Putin can do whatever he wants to our allies in NATO unless they pay him protection money.

    Fucking Republicans are traitors to America and a threat to world peace. They must be stopped.

  4. 4.

    oldster

    I hope that some good will come of this.

    Putin revealed exactly who he is: a power-mad dictator who intends to conquer all of Europe, slice by slice, and will start on Poland and the Baltics as soon as he is done with Ukraine.

    This analysis is no longer hyperbole: it is exactly what he himself says.

    Any republican who defends this, or pretends that the US does not have a vital stake in defeating it, is either surrendering our allies and our national honor, or is sending American men and women off to die in Eastern Europe. This is going to turn Into WWIII very quickly, if Putin is not stopped and soundly defeated in Ukraine.

    We have now heard it, from the horse’s mouth.

  6. 6.

    Jay

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    Somebody needs to deliver consequences.

    I would be happy if Canada instituted a Visa for all American’s coming to Canada, with CSIS and RCMP background checks, in advance of any travel to Canada, to ensure they arn’t Vatnicks,  5th Columnists, MAGAt’s, arms and technology smugglers, ruZZian’s, etc.

    As long seen in Alberta, then Sask. then NB, “American Travellers” are doing the same to Canada that Putin did and is doing to the US. Viruses don’t care about borders.

  7. 7.

    chrisanthemama

    The look of befuddlement on Carlson’s face I’ve heard described as him walking in on his girlfriend giving his roommate a blowie.  Putin beclowned him in a similar manner.

  12. 12.

    West of the Rockies

    Putin is such an ugly, drab, dreary little hobgoblin.  I hope he dies a long, humiliating, painful death.

  17. 17.

    trnc

    @Old School: The toughest part was airlifting the cash to that one SF player with 10 seconds to go.

    ETA: Oh, and the run in the wrong direction was a nice way to throw off the skeptics.

  19. 19.

    wjca

    @Yutsano: Does this mean Tuckems has to register as a foreign agent now?

    If he got paid by Putin, and publishes the propaganda in the US, a case could certainly be made.  Of course, this might not be his first check….

  20. 20.

    Alison Rose

    I don’t want putin to hate Tucker because if he has him yeeted out a window or served an apéritif vénéneux, then I’d have to like…be glad about something putin did. I don’t want that.

  24. 24.

    wjca

    @Alison Rose:  I’d have to like…be glad about something putin did. I don’t want that.

    Sometimes, alas, there’s a price to be paid in pursuit of the greater good.

  25. 25.

    wjca

    This week, we’re being inundated with ads for a couple of folks running for Superior Court judge.  Apparently as some kind of ticket, since they are joint ads.  Not in my area (at least, not on my ballot).  But I can’t recall advertising for candidates for judges here before.  I’m aware they have happened for/against state Supreme Court justices.  But Superior Court judges?

  28. 28.

    Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)

    Who pays Tuckens for his alleged work? He’s a complete waste of space and an oxygen thief on the level of Ted Cruz.  The only things I want to see linked to his name would be  “convicted”, “disgraced”, or an obituary.

  29. 29.

    Hoppie

    Kind of odd the cartoon doesn’t show the hardon in Cucker’s pants…  guess it’s discretion.

  31. 31.

    ETtheLibrarian

    Beau odf the 5th Column had a video on this hot mess. Seem to think the most interesting part was how he (Pitin) laughed at all the Christian nonsense the MAGA idiots were spewing.

  32. 32.

    zhena gogolia

    In Moscos they’re comparing Tucker Carlson to a popular cartoon figure named Karlsson who was from an Astrid Lindgren book. From Wikipedia:

    Karlsson is a very short, plump and overconfident man who lives in a small house hidden behind a chimney on the roof of “a very ordinary apartment building on a very ordinary street” in Vasastan, Stockholm. When Karlsson pushes a button on his stomach, it starts a clever little engine with a propeller on his back, allowing him to fly.
    In his own opinion, Karlsson is the best at everything.

  34. 34.

    Warblewarble

    Putin accurately sees Carlson as a conduit to the traitors in  the maga party. Knows that Carlson can do damage to Ukraine that his army can’t do. What’s not to like?

  35. 35.

    Princess

    What’s amazing (except it’s not) is that Putin blamed Poland for Germany’s invasion and AFTER that Trump invited Russia to attack Europe.

  36. 36.

    Chris Johnson

    They’re all such evil, miserable, hateful little fucks.

    If there were any chance of it being proven true I’d bet money on the proposition that Putin’s ‘certain contacts are being maintained’ is nothing more than a jab at Carlson, a sadistic taunt.

    That’s Trump. ‘Certain contacts are being maintained’ means Trump. Trump is going to be the Republican nominee, Trump is the secret Russian agent, and it is a taunt reminding Tucker that Tucker does not get to be made ‘president’ in the Potemkin United States that Putin wants to take another shot at.

    Tucker wants this more than anything. He works for Putin, directly, pushes all the correct narratives, has been doing a great job until he pissed off Murdoch by being too obviously the heir apparent to Trump, and having blown it, he’s done. Putin won’t make him ‘President’ now. Putin is taunting him publically in the interview he set up to let him push talking points to the US market.

    Tucker knows that if Putin harps on the talking points he wants Putin to say, it’ll work. He’ll be able to further his aims. Tucker is desperately trying to feed Putin the correct set-ups to say stuff that will further Russian control of the right wing.

    Putin is too arrogant and full of himself, smacks down every attempt Tucker makes at a correct talking point, mocks and tortures Tucker constantly, and in so doing undermines his aims by falling back to primitive imperialist posturing, all but vowing to take back Alaska while he’s at it.

    They’re stupid, hateful fucks. Villains can’t cooperate, I guess. Tucker could have helped his master SO much if the guy had only cooperated. And now Russian state media apparently calls the whole thing a clusterfuck.

    Yeah, that didn’t end well. Villains can’t cooperate.

  37. 37.

    Chris Johnson

    @ETtheLibrarian: That’s actually a really good point. Tucker very badly wanted Putin to push that narrative. All Putin had to do was be noncommital and right-wingers would be prepared to believe that the Russian strongman persecuting gay transes was the arm of God.

    But that wasn’t going to suit Putin’s ego. It was more important to snub Carlson and make him look like a stupid, credulous American bozo. And so now the right wing has to cover up the fact that Putin gives no fucks for Christianity and scorns God. Carlson inadvertently pulled the mask off while trying to straighten it.

    Half the point is that Tucker Carlson, presumably trying to help Putin, tried to set that up for him. He wanted a sound bite for the folks at home in the culture war trenches. Nope.

  38. 38.

    Another Scott

    Timothy Snyder has thoughts.

    I saw something on nittier somewhere, which I cannot find again, saying that the interview was a mistake for VVP because people in Russia see that the arguments (like Poland caused their own invasion by Hitler) as being dangerous nonsense.

    I liked this one today:

    Hanse Mina
    @[email protected]

    The ex-president of #Mongolia trolling #Putin 😂

    “After Putin’s talk. I found Mongolian historic map. Don’t worry. We are a peaceful and free nation🌏”

    threadreaderapp.com/thread/1756818696700657935.html

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  40. 40.

    louc

    @oldster: ​
     
    I walked around embassy row in D.C. last weekend. The embassies I saw that draped the Ukranian flags from their windows were, in large part, instructive: Poland, Romania, Latvia.

    True story: I visited the Baltic states when they were still under USSR rule. Estonia especially was a powder keg. There was anti-Soviet graffiti everywhere. It’s no surprise that Estonia is very careful to keep up that 2% GDP provision, not that Trump would honor it if he were back in office.

  42. 42.

    Chris Johnson

    @JCNZ: I think there is no chance of that. I can’t see it. If these people were smarter and effective it could be true, even though they hate each other, but these are evil hateful self-absorbed fucks and Tucker is not going to be VP.

    Putin would have been nicer to him and gone along with his pitches, rather than torturing and mocking him.

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