‘Do You Feel Any Shame?’ Tucker Carlson Asked Brutal Question About Being ‘Useful Idiot’ for Putin

MODERATOR: “Thanks, Tucker. I saw a couple of our friends from the press gallery have a smile when you were getting into the free press, so I want to ask Paul Sakkal from the Sydney Morning Herald to ask a question.”
Carlson: “Great. Thank you.”
SAKKAL: “Thanks for your speech, Mr. Carlson.”
Carlson: “Of course. Thank you.”
SAKKAL: “The media can be extremely negative, so it’s nice to hear your uplifting comments about our country.”
Carlson: “It’s an amazing country.”
SAKKAL: “It is. I think we forget that in Australia oftentimes. I appreciate that. You’ve preempted my question on Putin — “
Carlson: “Putin! Putin!”
SAKKAL: “I think you did strategically, because you knew that’s what we’d ask.”
Carlson: “Putin! He’s so bad! (Laughs)”
SAKKAL: “And I also appreciate — “
Carlson: “Did he make you take the Covid shot?”
SAKKAL: “Take the what?”
Carlson: “The Covid shot.
(Applause)
No, he didn’t. Sorry. Sorry, sorry.”
SAKKAL: “The Covid shot saved probably tens of millions of lives — “
Carlson: “Oh, yeah, yeah. Definitely. Safe and effective. This is why everybody loves the media. (Laughs) It’s hilarious. It’s like a time capsule, it’s like — it’s like you’re like the last Japanese soldier on Okinawa, you think the war is still going. No, it didn’t save millions of lives. It’s hilarious. Sorry. I’m sorry, I’m being [inaudible].”
SAKKAL: “Can we get the full answer in without interruption?”
Carlson: “Okay. I beg your pardon.”
SAKKAL: “I’m interested in your position on Putin. Many people in this crowd would adore a conservative prime minister in this country, like John Howard, Tony Abbott. Mainstream right-wingers like Boris Johnson, Australian liberals, some of their MPs are in the crowd, vehemently anti-Putin, they believe he’s a reprehensible figure who doesn’t believe in in the values of conservatism such as the rule of law and democracy, which gives us the freedoms we have in our country.”
Carlson: “Uh-huh.”
SAKKAL: “I’m interested, do you feel any — do you feel any level of shame or regret that you are termed a useful idiot and then post your interview, Vladimir Putin himself said in his Russian media that he was surprised at how weak your questions were, and he also said that you were wrong when you said that no other journalists had asked to interview him. He said, ‘That’s not true, we only thought Tucker was the only person to report fairly.’”
Carlson: “Wait a minute, I thought that you were describing Putin as a psychopathic liar, and yet now you’re taking his word for things?”
SAKKAL: “Do you — “
(Applause)
Carlson: “Let me — let me just — let me — let me just quickly unpack your absurd soliloquy, if I can. First, I’m I’m stuck on the idea that Boris Johnson is a right-winger. Do you know Boris Johnson? I do. Boris Johnson is a criminal buffoon, who, like so many who claim to love Ukraine, is single-handedly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian men in this war that Ukraine cannot win. And I would just — I would refer you to Wikipedia. How many — how many more people does Russia have in Ukraine? Do you know? 100 million. 100 million. And in a land where that’s a relevant number, it is not possible for Ukraine to beat Russia. The best they can do is sue for peace. That’s been known, including by Zelenskyy, who wanted that since the early days of this conflict. And Boris Johnson, on orders from the Biden Administration, shut down — and this is not a disputed fact, this is a fact admitted by everybody now — shut down the peace negotiations almost two years ago, and Ukraine has been completely destroyed. And now Zelenskyy has passed a law allowing foreign corporations to own land there. So you tell me what Ukraine is going to look like in 30 years, when all of it is owned by BlackRock and multi national corporations and its population is not Ukrainian, okay? So the tragedy of what’s happened in Ukraine, orchestrated by the Western powers, including your government, and I hope you do — and driven by my government, I feel shame.”