Russian TV Uses Tucker Carlson and Tulsi Gabbard to Sell Putin’s War

[aubiefifty 18,242]

Russian TV Uses Tucker Carlson and Tulsi Gabbard to Sell Putin’s War

Sam Biddle — Feb. 24

7-9 minutes

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In the hours since Russia launched its military assault on Ukraine, the news on Russian state television has been dominated by official statements and reports from war correspondents. But in the days leading up to the attack, as the state broadcaster worked to tarnish Ukraine and cast American criticism of President Vladimir Putin as hysterical, its producers borrowed heavily from another source: Fox News.

At least four times this week, Russian news reports have featured translated clips of Tucker Carlson or his guest Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic U.S. representative, attacking the Biden administration.

What’s more, one report broadcast on Russian television’s main channel Sunday did more than just quote Carlson: It developed and sharpened a political attack on a prominent Democratic senator that Carlson had just hinted at.

At 8 p.m. on Sunday, a primetime review of the week’s news presented by Dmitry Kiselev, a bombastic Putin favorite, featured remarks from the opening monologue of Carlson’s February 17 show, in which the American commentator trashed Ukraine’s government.

“These people are so ghoulish,” Carlson said of U.S. officials who provided military aid to Ukraine. “Of course they’re promoting war,” Carlson continued, as his comments were translated into Russian, “not to maintain the democracy that is Ukraine. Ukraine is not a democracy. It has never been a democracy in its history, and it’s not now. It’s a client state of the Biden administration.”

The Russian broadcast cut away from Carlson’s monologue at this point to show Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s appearance at the United Nations that day. But that exactly echoed the next part of the original Fox News broadcast, which also showed Blinken on screen as Carlson mocked his warning that Russia might stage a false flag attack and blame it on Ukraine as a pretext for war.

An hour later, the evening news program on Russia’s main state television channel used a longer excerpt from the same Carlson monologue and shaped its own report to amplify the Fox News host’s attack on a Democrat. In the original Fox News broadcast, Carlson had suggested that Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who worked to arm Ukraine with Javelin anti-tank missiles, was only doing so because of donations from American defense contractors like Raytheon.

Before quoting Carlson’s comments, the Russian report noted that Blumenthal had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from Raytheon and referred to Blumenthal’s false claim that he had served in Vietnam. The Russian broadcast then cut to a part of Carlson’s program in which he showed viewers video of Blumenthal telling MSNBC about the need to supply Javelin missiles to Ukraine. Carlson was then shown laughing at Blumenthal. “So that guy, who lied about his own war service, is pretty excited at the thought of Ukrainians fighting and dying in the streets,” Carlson scoffed.

After cutting away from Carlson, the Russian correspondent noted that President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump had also received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Raytheon.

On Wednesday night, just hours before Putin ordered the attack on Ukraine to begin, two excerpts from Carlson’s most recent program were featured in Russian state television’s 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. news broadcasts.

Carlson had started his show Tuesday night with a sarcastic monologue in which he told viewers: “Democrats in Washington have told you it’s your patriotic duty to hate Vladimir Putin. It’s not a suggestion. It’s a mandate. Anything less than hatred for Putin is treason. Many Americans have obeyed this directive. They now dutifully hate Vladimir Putin. Maybe you’re one of them. Hating Putin has become the central purpose of America’s foreign policy. It’s the main thing that we talk about. Entire cable channels are now devoted to it. Very soon, that hatred of Vladimir Putin could bring the United States into a conflict in Eastern Europe.”

Carlson’s comments were so welcome in Moscow that an excerpt from that rant with Russian subtitles was quickly produced by the Russian-language service of RT, the government-funded network formerly known as Russia Today.

During the 8 p.m. news bulletin on Russian state television Wednesday, as Russians tried to make sense of what was about to happen, a dubbed version of Carlson’s monologue was offered to them as an explanation.

An hour later, Russian television’s main evening news program featured another clip of Carlson’s show from the previous night, an excerpt from his discussion of possible economic sanctions on Russia with Gabbard, who is now a frequent Fox guest and was given a prime speaking slot at the Conservative Political Action Conference this weekend.

Like Carlson, Gabbard sought to blame the U.S. and NATO for supposedly provoking Putin’s attack on Ukraine and suggested that Americans would suffer from higher energy prices if Russia was sanctioned for invading Ukraine.

“These sanctions don’t work,” Gabbard told Carlson in an exchange screened for Russians. “What we do know is that they will increase suffering and hardship for the American people. And this is whole problem with the Biden administration: They are so focused on how do we punish Putin that they don’t care and are not focused on what is actually in the best interests of the American people.”

Russian officials have not been shy about pointing out that fuel prices are likely to spike in Europe and the United States if sanctions are imposed on its vast oil and gas industry. State television reports from Washington on the crisis have repeatedly included close shots of high gas prices and suggested that they could go higher.

On Thursday, after Russia launched its military assault on Ukraine, Gabbard posted the video of her Fox News comments about sanctions on Twitter and suggested, without evidence, that doing anything to press Putin to stop the invasion of Ukraine could lead to a nuclear war.

Gabbard returned to Carlson’s show Thursday night; during her appearance, she blamed Biden for not preventing the war, which she said he could have done by giving in to Putin’s demand to rule out the possibility of Ukraine ever joining NATO.

Update: February 27, 2022
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine intensified on Sunday, Feb. 27, the main evening news bulletin on Russia’s Channel One used three clips from Tulsi Gabbard’s recent appearances on Tucker Carlson’s show in which she blamed the United States for the Russian attack on Ukraine.

After first replaying her comments from earlier in the week that “sanctions don’t work,” the broadcast then presented a translated quote of Gabbard telling Carlson, on Feb. 11, that “President Biden could end this crisis, and prevent a war with Russia by doing something very simple: guaranteeing that Ukraine will not become a member of NATO, because if Ukraine became a member of NATO, that would put U.S. and NATO troops directly on the doorstep of Russia, which — as Putin has laid out — would undermine their national security.” The Russian report notably cut away from the original interview just before Gabbard added: “The reality is that it is highly, highly unlikely that Ukraine will eve become a member of NATO anyway.”

A Russian correspondent in Washington then described and quoted from what Gabbard told Carlson later in the same Feb. 11 interview, that, “the military industrial complex is the one that benefits from this. They clearly control the Biden administration. Warmongers on both sides in Washington who’ve been drumming up these tensions, if they get Russia to invade Ukraine, then, again, it locks in this new Cold War.”

[homersapien 12,238]

“These people are so ghoulish,” Carlson said of U.S. officials who provided military aid to Ukraine. “Of course they’re promoting war,” Carlson continued, as his comments were translated into Russian, “not to maintain the democracy that is Ukraine. Ukraine is not a democracy. It has never been a democracy in its history, and it’s not now. It’s a client state of the Biden administration.”

 

Tucker is either a deliberate traitor or criminally stupid. 

I say its the former.  No one is that stupid.

[jj3jordan 2,171]

On 3/9/2022 at 1:48 PM, homersapien said:

“These people are so ghoulish,” Carlson said of U.S. officials who provided military aid to Ukraine. “Of course they’re promoting war,” Carlson continued, as his comments were translated into Russian, “not to maintain the democracy that is Ukraine. Ukraine is not a democracy. It has never been a democracy in its history, and it’s not now. It’s a client state of the Biden administration.”

 

Tucker is either a deliberate traitor or criminally stupid. 

I say its the former.  No one is that stupid.

What did you expect homer? Biden was in charge of Ukraine policy when he was vp. And his crackhead son needs a job since the crackpipe art sales have tapped him out. Why you complain about tucker? It’s Biden you should be complaining about. 

Edited March 11, 2022 by jj3jordan

[CoffeeTiger 5,873]

2 hours ago, jj3jordan said:

What did you expect homer? Biden was in charge of Ukraine policy when he was vp. And his crackhead son needs a job since the crackpipe art sales have tapped him out. Why you complain about tucker? It’s Biden you should be complaining about. 

 

This thread is about Russian State tv using Conservative talking points and figure heads as part of their propaganda campaign. This has absolutely nothing to do with Hunter Biden. 

 

 

Edited March 11, 2022 by CoffeeTiger

[jj3jordan 2,171]

5 hours ago, CoffeeTiger said:

 

This thread is about Russian State tv using Conservative talking points and figure heads as part of their propaganda campaign. This has absolutely nothing to do with Hunter Biden. 

 

 

Who cares what russian state tv says about anything?  Why are you even watching it? You know they are full of hooey.

[AU9377 6,029]

On 3/11/2022 at 5:08 PM, jj3jordan said:

Who cares what russian state tv says about anything?  Why are you even watching it? You know they are full of hooey.

Why are right wing entertainers like Tucker Carlson suggesting that Russia's actions are in any way acceptable?

[AUDub 11,858]

 

[AUDub 11,858]

 

[AUDub 11,858]

Tulsi is an anti-american piece of s***. 

[icanthearyou 4,468]

12 hours ago, AUDub said:

Tulsi is an anti-american piece of s***. 

I would appreciate it if, you would share your insights and intellect with us.  If you have the time, I really would appreciate it.  Your thoughts are clear, reasoned, substantial.

 

Edited March 14, 2022 by icanthearyou

[TitanTiger 21,242]

Gives new and fuller meaning to the term "useful idiots."

[I_M4_AU 8,939]

13 hours ago, AUDub said:

Tulsi is an anti-american piece of s***. 

And a Democrat.

[CoffeeTiger 5,873]

1 minute ago, I_M4_AU said:

And a Democrat.

Yep. She's a Democrat, a progressive, and she's as dumb as a sack of rocks. Those things aren't mutually exclusive. 

Hopefully Hawaii is smart enough to never vote her into office again, and hopefully her poor performance in the 2020 election showed national Democrats that she's no longer to be taken seriously about anything in the future. 

[I_M4_AU 8,939]

2 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Yep. She's a Democrat, a progressive, and she's as dumb as a sack of rocks. Those things aren't mutually exclusive. 

Hopefully Hawaii is smart enough to never vote her into office again, and hopefully her poor performance in the 2020 election showed national Democrats that she's no longer to be taken seriously about anything in the future. 

I just wanted to point out Democrats have *useful idiots* too.  It seems to get overlooked somehow in this forum.

[icanthearyou 4,468]

3 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Yep. She's a Democrat, a progressive, and she's as dumb as a sack of rocks. Those things aren't mutually exclusive. 

Hopefully Hawaii is smart enough to never vote her into office again, and hopefully her poor performance in the 2020 election showed national Democrats that she's no longer to be taken seriously about anything in the future. 

Not sure I would call her a progressive.  I don't really believe she is a Democrat or Republican. 

Her love of the cameras, her own voice, tell me she is just another useless, self-serving grifter.  I will give her credit though.  Some politicians are limited to grifting only one side/ideology.  She is a new breed that plays both.

[AUDub 11,858]

12 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

And a Democrat.

There's also a reason the lion's share of her support comes from the right. She's a grifter and at this point she's lost all pretense of being a progressive and just digs her heels into whatever right wing culture war of the month she's trying to glom on to.

And she ******* LOVES dictators like Putin, Modi and al-Assad. 

Hillary was right. Russian asset. 

[TitanTiger 21,242]

8 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

I just wanted to point out Democrats have *useful idiots* too.  It seems to get overlooked somehow in this forum.

No one even mentioned the political party of either person.

[I_M4_AU 8,939]

8 minutes ago, AUDub said:

There's also a reason the lion's share of her support comes from the right. She's a grifter and at this point she's lost all pretense of being a progressive and just digs her heels into whatever right wing culture war of the month she's trying to glom on to.

And she ******* LOVES dictators like Putin, Modi and al-Assad. 

Hillary was right. Russian asset. 

Like Romney and Kinzinger are supported by the left if they say the *right* things to bolster the left’s ideology.  Same ole, same ole.

[AUDub 11,858]

3 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

Like Romney and Kinzinger are supported by the left if they say the *right* things to bolster the left’s ideology.  Same ole, same ole.

I'm capable of weighing what they're saying here on its own merit. Tulsi Gabbard is an opportunistic grifter, and gladly parrots the talking points of cryptofascists.

I've been saying that for years, by the way. 

 

[I_M4_AU 8,939]

9 minutes ago, AUDub said:

I'm capable of weighing what they're saying here on its own merit.

I have no doubt about this, but they are still used by the opposing party if the sound bite is good.

[icanthearyou 4,468]

The useful idiots are those who love their party more than their country.  They have ceased all critical thinking.  They believe in the perfection of an ideology.

They parrot points without reason.  They are emotional not thoughtful.  They are dogmatic and, easily angered.  They revere symbols yet, have few real principles.

They know history as merely dates and names, without context.

 

[icanthearyou 4,468]

19 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

Like Romney and Kinzinger are supported by the left if they say the *right* things to bolster the left’s ideology.  Same ole, same ole.

I have never seen either even hint for a moment that they would switch parties.  They are both willing to end their political futures.  For Romney, that doesn't mean much.  For Kinzinger, who is young, not a member of the capital class, that is very meaningful.

[homersapien 12,238]

43 minutes ago, TitanTiger said:

No one even mentioned the political party of either person.

It's very easy to see what directs his "cognitive" perception.  

Edited March 14, 2022 by homersapien

[homersapien 12,238]

35 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

Like Romney and Kinzinger are supported by the left if they say the *right* things to bolster the left’s ideology.  Same ole, same ole.

And how is this less - or anything other - than simple, rational logic? 

 

[I_M4_AU 8,939]

1 hour ago, icanthearyou said:

For Kinzinger, who is young, not a member of the capital class, that is very meaningful.

Kinzinger is not running for re-election. So……