Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, a top Putin official for decades, traveled to the United States for a United Nations Security Council meeting this week and on Tuesday, as he chaired that meeting, with the UN logo in the background, complained that Tucker Carlson had been fired from Fox News.
“Perhaps it would be useful to consider how things are with freedom of speech in the United States,” Lavrov said, through a translator (video below). “I’ve heard that Tucker Carlson has left Fox News. It’s curious news. What is this related to? One can only guess. But clearly, the wealth of views in the American information space has suffered as a result.”
Lavrov also told the UN that the “First Amendment to the United States’ Constitution apparently means nothing in practice,” a false statement given that Fox News is a private corporation not a government entity.
Next month will mark the six-year anniversary of when Lavrov, along with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak – an alleged top spy recruiter for Russia – were invited into the Oval Office by Donald Trump, during which he gave them code word classified top secret intelligence, putting Israeli spies at risk, and celebrated his firing the day before of FBI Director Jim Comey. No American journalists were allowed to be present, but a photographer from Russian state media was there to document what historian Michael Beschloss described as a “jovial secret meeting.”
Tuesday night CNN’s Erin Burnett (video below) asked, “Why is Lavrov obsessed with Tucker Carlson?”
Before we look at her answer, here’s one answer from Marc Polymeropoulos of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. He was a senior CIA officer for 26 years.
“Russia MFA [Ministry of Foreign Affairs] saw Tucker as their propaganda arm. It was just too easy. Now they’re sad,” he tweeted.
Burnett appeared to agree.
“It’s incredible that he would do this,” she told CNN viewers. “You may ask why is that because in Russia, Tucker Carlson is a star for repeatedly being pro-Russian, anti-American, and anti-Ukraine. Listen to this,” she said, queuing up video of the now-former top Fox News propagandist.
“Might be worth asking yourself since it is getting pretty serious. What is this really about? Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist, has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Does he eat dogs? These are fair questions, and the answer to all of them is no. Vladimir Putin didn’t do any of that,” Carlson told his viewers, launching into his pro-Putin schtick which included remarks, some of which, appear to have no basis in known fact:
“The Russians don’t want American missiles on their border. They don’t want a hostile government next door. Ideologues within the Biden administration did not want a negotiated peace in Ukraine. They wanted all along, and it’s very clear now, a regime change war against Russia.”
“Maybe they just wanted no war, right?” Burnett said, “just respect the border.”
“So here’s the thing: since the start of the war, Russian state media has been using things like that Tucker Carlson to prove and to bolster their points. The two frankly have been in lockstep on their spin,” Burnett explained, adding more reasons why Lavrov was so upset that Tucker Carlson – and thus Vladimir Putin – lost a huge platform.
Watch the CNN segment below, the clip of Lavrov’s remarks above, or both at this link.