Tucker: This has unleashed something dark in the US
Fox News host gives his take Zelenskyy's latest idea and provides insight on the biolabs in Ukraine on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'
Here's something we just saw. (We) wish we brought it to you earlier. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, of course, gave an interview recently that didn't get enough attention in this country. Zelenskyy, needless to say, is currently engaged in a desperate fight for his country, his government, his life, and he has been since the Russian military invaded Ukraine nearly three weeks ago.
So, you can assume there's not a lot Zelenskyy thinks about at this point, apart from getting the Russians off of Ukrainian soil. So last week, Zelenskyy floated the idea of accepting so-called Ukrainian neutrality, agreeing not to join NATO. In exchange for that, he will get a Russian withdrawal from Ukraine.
Now, there's nothing inherently controversial about Zelenskyy's idea. Ukraine was not on the cusp of joining NATO anyway. NATO officials have long said they don't want Ukraine to join. It's not clear whose interest would be served by Ukraine joining NATO. So, if accepting the status quo—going with the way things already were, and we're always going to be, if doing that convinces Putin to stop killing Ukrainians and spares Ukraine from total and complete destruction, maybe it's not a crazy idea. Maybe Zelenskyy is on to something. He certainly thought about it a lot.
UKRAINE INVASION: RUSSIAN ROCKET SLAMS INTO KYIV BUS, VIDEO SHOWS
In this image from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office and posted on Facebook early Saturday, March 12, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
Maybe we ought to congratulate Zelenskyy for acting wisely on behalf of the country he leads. This could be a win for him and for the entire world. Probably not a lot of American media outlets will describe it that way, however. Indeed, by mentioning NATO, a topic that is completely off limits in American media, Zelenskyy may have gone too far. Daily, in every possible venue, we are told that NATO is paradoxically both of central importance to the United States and at the same time, irrelevant to what happens in Eastern Europe.
So, years of talk about expanding NATO into Ukraine—we've watched those happen in public—that had nothing whatsoever to do with Russia invading Ukraine. Nothing at all. That's what they tell us. Putin invaded Ukraine because he's bad, end of conversation. And anyone who says otherwise, anyone who suggests there might be a way out of this disaster, short of total war, anyone who says that is immediately denounced as a tool of Russian propaganda. So, what does that mean?
It means that by acknowledging that NATO expansion is what Putin seems to care about most, Zelenskyy is, by definition, at least in this country, repeating Russian talking points. That would make the president of Ukraine a Putin collaborator. Sound insane? Well, then you can still think clearly, but that's the state of play. How do we know this? Let's just say we've lived it.
We've made the point repeatedly that forcing Ukraine into NATO will in no way serve the interests of the United States, and in fact could hurt us here in ways from which we will never recover. And, by the way, talking about it doesn't seem to have helped Ukraine either. For saying that, and that's all we've said, here's the reaction we've received, and this is just a small selection. We could go on about it, but here it is:
JONATHAN KARL, ABC: What seems to be almost the Putin-wing of the Republican Party, which, which, to be fair, is not highly, not prevalent much on Capitol Hill, but we've seen Tucker Carlson, you know...basically repeat Russian propaganda night after night. What the hell is going on?
GEORGE WILL: Well, first of all, before they fell in love with Putin, they fell in love with Orban in Hungary. "Make America Great Again" meant "let's make America more like Hungary."
RUSSIA-UKRAINE: BIPARTISAN LAWMAKERS URGE BIDEN TO WORK WITH POLAND TO PROVIDE MIG-29S TO UKRAINE
Sen. Mitt Romney (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
MAX BOOT, MSNBC: and the most popular Republican broadcaster in America, Tucker Carlson, are both unabashed fans of Putin and there are very few Republicans out there like Mitt Romney or Liz Cheney, who have the courage to call them out. This is a disgrace.
MITT ROMNEY, CNN: How anybody in this country, which loves freedom, can side with Vladimir Putin, which is an oppressor, a dictator, he kills people, he imprisons his political opponents, he has been an adversary of America at every chance he's had. It's unthinkable to me. It's...almost treasonous.
Oh, almost treasonous. Siding with Putin? Who is siding with Putin? I haven't seen anybody do that. I've seen a few people try to side with the United States and that, says Mitt Romney, a man who got four deferments to keep himself out of the Vietnam War, that is almost treasonous.
What's so interesting—and we don't want to pick on Mitt Romney here, it's too easy—but it does seem like if you take a step back, the very same people who spent the last say two years telling us that this country, our country, is inherently sinful, and racist, and disgusting, and born in iniquity, those same people, the ones who lecture you about how there's something inherently wrong with you, if you live here, we're born here, those same people have been the very quickest, the very first to whip around and accuse anyone who wants to save the United States from yet another pointless war, a war that they would never fight in and nor would their children, accuse those people of being unpatriotic.
Well, you don't love America enough, says the man who thinks America is racist. How does that work exactly? We're not sure, but in case you've forgotten, here's the very same Mitt Romney marching with the very same people who told us that this is a White supremacist hellhole and, by the way, we've got to do away with the nuclear family. That's never done anybody any good. Here he is:
MITT ROMNEY: We need to end violence and brutality and to make sure that people understand that Black Lives Matter.
Mitt Romney was elected governor of Massachusetts in 2002 and unsuccessfully ran for president in 2012. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
So, OK, it's just Mitt Romney, never a genius, obviously deep in the grip of some late life crisis, licking his wounds from being beaten by Obama in 2012. OK, but it's not just Mitt Romney. Imagine how you would feel if you were a business owner in Kenosha or Minneapolis or Atlanta or Louisville, if you were someone who, I don't know, used to go to St. John's Church in Washington, D.C., or someone who works in the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, before BLM torched all of it. You're long accustomed to knowing that your leaders don't really care about you, but when they reveal that they actively hate you, that's hard to take.
So, of course, Mitt Romney is debasing himself, degrading himself, in order to be liked in Washington. Yeah, we've seen that, of course, but it's deeper than that. Needless to say, the people Mitt Romney wants to like him, his new masters, were not satisfied with him marching with BLM or denouncing his critics as almost treasonous. They want more.
They won't be satisfied until every Republican in the U.S. Senate is wholly indistinguishable from Chris Hayes, and they're getting pretty close. On Sunday, yesterday, Mitt Romney edged a little closer. Here's what he wrote to Tulsi Gabbard. Now, Tulsi Gabbard is a former member of Congress who currently serves as lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve and, unlike Mitt Romney, has been deployed.
"Tulsi Gabbard is parroting false Russian propaganda. Her treasonous lies may well cost lives." Treasonous lies have cost lives, potentially. So, you're betraying your country and committing murder. So, what exactly did Tulsi Gabbard do? Did she call for a violent overthrow of the United States government? Does she come out and pledge allegiance to Putin? Did she get a Cyrillic tattoo on her neck? No, she didn't.
What she said is, we have a problem, here's how we know. She cited publicly available information and said we should probably deal with that problem. But, in any case, here you have Mitt Romney, who was a consultant, for God's sakes, accusing someone who's been in the Army for nearly two decades of treason. People didn't used to talk that way. Treason is a death penalty offense. It's absurd on its face, but if you watch the video that got Mitt Romney to call a fellow American treasonous and suggest she was committing murder, it really makes your head spin. Here's what Tulsi Gabbard actually said that made Mitt Romney accuse her of betraying her own country:
TULSI GABBARD: Here are the undeniable facts. There are 25 to 30 U.S.-funded biolabs in Ukraine. According to the U.S. government, these biolabs are conducting research on dangerous pathogens. Ukraine is in an active war zone with widespread bombing, artillery and shelling, and these facilities, even in the best of circumstances, could easily be compromised and release these deadly pathogens.
HOUSE GOP INVESTIGATING US RELEASE OF RUSSIAN CYBER CRIMINAL
Tulsi Gabbard, former Representative from Hawaii, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, U.S., on Friday, Feb. 25, 2022. (Tristan Wheelock/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Yeah, she hates our country because she's worried that a pathogen might escape from a biolab and hurt people. There's no recent precedent for that, so she's clearly listening to Alex Jones too much, and she's treasonous. Actually, everything that Tulsi Gabbard said, as you know, is true. It's not a Republican issue. It's not a Democrat issue. It's a factual issue and even in war, truth is a defense. In fact, it's the only defense. Is it true? And in a free country, you can speak the truth. That right can never be taken away or else it's not a free country.
By the way, since we're speaking of facts, the director of the U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, a man who would know a man called Robert Pope, has confirmed that scientists are keeping Soviet-era pathogens for research purposes in Ukraine. They told us they were destroying them. They should have destroyed them, but they haven't. What could go wrong in an active war zone? And they knew that those pathogens existed and were being experimented upon, researched. And they didn't secure them before the Russians invaded, though they knew the Russian invasion was coming because they told us. And then, Toria Nuland, the Under Secretary of State who oversees this disaster, testified under oath that, yes, Russian forces might seize those biolabs in Ukraine, and we should all be very worried about that possibility.
Over the weekend, CBS News reported that Pentagon officials have confirmed that these biolabs in Ukraine are, in fact, conducting research on anthrax and other "deadly pathogens."
DAVID MARTIN: A Pentagon official I talked to this morning said there is no movement of chemical weapons into Ukraine. At least they're not seeing the signs of it. The concern is that the Russians will seize one of these biomedical research facilities that Ukraine has where they do research on deadly pathogens like botulism and anthrax, seize one of those facilities, weaponize the pathogen and then blame it on Ukraine and the U.S. because the U.S. has been providing support for some of the research being done in those facilities.
OK, so we're a little confused about what all the hyperventilating is about, and you just heard CBS say, you've heard many say that Russia may seize these biological agents in Ukraine and use them against the Ukrainians and who knows who else. You would pause and think, "Well, wait a second. If these are Soviet era weapons, then presumably the Soviets—now called the Russian government—probably have their own. So why would they want to seize stuff they already have? It doesn't actually make a lot of sense, but whatever."
NUCLEAR WAR ‘WITHIN THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY,’ UN SECRETARY GENERAL WARNS
You'll notice that the reporter admits that these pathogens are in Ukraine. They're doing research on botulism and anthrax. So, any reasonable person would be concerned by that because there's a war going on and, by the way, why were they funding this in Ukraine in the first place? But that's really a secondary question. Maybe we can get to the bottom of that when the war's over, but Tulsi Gabbard addressed and only addressed the danger that innocent people could die because these weapons, apparently these pathogens, these agents, exist in Ukraine.
She didn't blame it on Russia. She didn't blame anybody. She just said this is a thing. Unsecured bioweapons in a war zone are a bad idea. That's not reasonable now? That's treason? Reason isn't part of the way people are thinking now. Everybody in leadership has completely lost the ability to think beyond the next tweet. Who is thinking about tomorrow or next month or 20 years from now? Not one person and anyone who tries is an agent of Putin.
MSNBC ANCHOR: Now to a story of Russian disinformation that has been quickly embraced and amplified by some in America's right-wing media. When State Department Under Secretary Victoria Nuland confirmed this week that there was bio research going on in Ukraine, critics say that Tucker Carlson of Fox News took those remarks out of context.
MICHAEL SCHUMAN, THE ATLANTIC: Now you see the Chinese government kind of openly repeating Russian propaganda, for example, about the use of supposed American biolabs...in Ukraine.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: This Russian misinformation about biolabs in Ukraine. People on the Trump right, who are actually parroting Russian propaganda every day and every night.
"These supposed biolabs." Well, the U.S. government says they have biolabs and told us under oath that they're worried that the contents of these biolabs, which they failed to secure, might get into the wrong hands, but it's right-wing Putin night propaganda.
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland testifies before a Senate Foreign Relation Committee hearing on Ukraine on March 08, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
We're taking Nuland's remarks out of context. OK, what's the right context? We asked. No one told us. Robert Pope's remarks—were they taken out of context to? This is insane. There's a problem. Before we even assign blame to the problem, it might be worth thinking through how to fix the problem, but no. Anyone who mentions it should shut up and not just shut up, be shut up by force if necessary, with jail time. Now, we're going to do something we almost never do. We're going to play you a clip from "The View," which is now calling for a Department of Justice investigation into this show and Tulsi Gabbard.
ALYSSA FARAH: What Tucker Carlson parrots every night on Fox News, what Tulsi Gabbard is spreading, is actually helping Putin get away with criminal acts against innocent Ukrainian civilians.
ANA NAVARRO: And I think DOJ, in the same way that it is setting up a task force to investigate oligarchs, should look into people who are Russian propagandists and shilling for Putin. That's being, if you are a foreign asset to a dictator, it should be investigated. In fact, I remember when Tulsi Gabbard and I even hate that we're discussing it because I think to myself, "Who is this woman?" How do you not call out something that is repeating false Russian propaganda and that has been brought down?
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: They used to arrest people for doing stuff like this.
Really? They used to arrest people for saying stuff like this. Hmm. When did they arrest people for saying stuff like this? And who was they, exactly? Well, the former Caryn Elaine Johnson didn't tell us. She kept it vague because that way it's a lot more threatening and maybe you will shut up. And again, we hesitate to highlight that show. It's an IQ killer, but we're making an exception tonight because The View is not alone. A lot of people sound like this and it's one of these processes where it sounds insane, I mean, for sure I can't believe they said that and then over time, what sounded crazy the first time you heard it sounds a little more normal and then three weeks into the war, it sounds like probably pretty necessary.
Keith Olbermann is always at the cutting edge of things like this. He was watching The View today. He doesn't have a lot else to do and he responded to that segment by writing this on Twitter. "They (us) are Russian assets and there is a war. There's a case for detaining them militarily. Trials are a sign of good faith and patience on the part of democracy."
So, we're at war with Russia. We must send you to the gulag because freedom. Because a democracy, the one thing democracies have patience for is dissenting views from its own citizens, particularly citizens who sincerely hope and pray for the best for their own country. Those people must be imprisoned militarily. That's what he's saying. And no one's disagreeing. All of permanent Washington, every orifice of the national media, all fully aligned to push a single message. When was the last time that happened? Ought to make you nervous.
Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, who's leaving thankfully, said the other at the current moment is the most united this country has been since 9/11. Well, he's right in one way. It's certainly united the United States Congress. As of this afternoon, nine out of the last 10 tweets that Rob Portman sent have been about Ukraine. Oh, not a single tweet about the fact you're getting poorer by the day. Try to fill up your car. On Amazon, last night, a single jar of organic peanut butter cost $15. That's just one product. A retailer renowned for offering the cheapest possible, $15 for a peanut butter. Spread that across the entire grocery store and that's what you're looking at.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Is that going to help with the fentanyl killings that are going on right now? 100,000 people died last year. No, Rob Portman doesn't care. What he cares about is Ukraine and he shares that concern with Lindsey Graham and Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and of course, Liz Cheney. So, they are unified, but what's so interesting, if this is such a unifying moment, then why was their first instinct to denounce fellow Americans as traitors and call for them to be imprisoned? Really unifying?
They don't care about Ukraine, a lot of these people, any more than they cared about George Floyd. They used tragedy, George Floyd's death, the tragic invasion of Ukraine, for domestic political purposes. This has unleashed something really dark in the United States. In order to make wise decisions, you have to be rational, thoughtful, forward-thinking and calm and they're the opposite of all of those things.
This article is adapted from Tucker Carlson's opening commentary on the March 14, 2022 edition of "Tucker Carlson Tonight."
Get the recap of top opinion commentary and original content throughout the week.