Newsmax Host Goes Off on Tucker Carlson’s Russia-Ukraine Comments: He’s Trying to ‘Discredit an Effort to Stop a Dictator From Taking Over a Democracy’
(Mediaite)
Dick Morris, a Newsmax host and former adviser to Bill Clinton, unapologetically tore into Fox News host Tucker Carlson‘s rhetoric about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Saturday.
“The problem with Tucker Carlson is that he has a hell of a podium there, the number one rated cable news show in the country,” Morris said. “And from the beginning he has been making excuses for Vladimir Putin, defending him, attacking [Volodymyr] Zelensky personally.”
The segment began with Newsmax’s Grant Stinchfield ridiculing Carlson’s claim that the war in Ukraine does not benefit Ukrainians, but does benefit all of Washington.
Stinchfield noted a few exceptions including lobbyists and the defense industry, but said that overall, “pushing the idea that all of Washington are warmongers are dangerous,” and “Carlson is out front with some of those calls.”
Morris called the idea that Washington would want war — particularly a possibility of nuclear war — “insane.”
Morris, who himself previously worked for Fox News until his contract wasn’t renewed in 2017, went on to say that Carlson said early on he preferred Russia to Ukraine “and now that’s very unpopular because of what Putin’s doing and showing what Russia really is.”
“So he’s in the position of the guy who staked out a position on the deck of a submarine and now it’s going underwater and he’s looking for way out and the way out is he’s saying oh everybody in Washington wanted this to happen but no they didn’t,” Morris added.
Stinchfield reiterated that he does not think the belief that the U.S. should directly intervene in the conflict is “widespread,” but noted that some reporters have asked questions about whether the U.S. should be more involved in fighting efforts.
“I think that there are extremists on both sides: those who say we should nuke them and those who say we should stay out because it’s not our fight,” Morris replied. “The problem with Tucker Carlson is that he has a hell of a podium there, the number one rated cable news show in the country.
