Tucker Carlson is no fool. He comes from a wealthy family, has graduated from university, has traveled internationally, and is a very successful media commentator. So why does he allow Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to treat him like a pawn, giving him a platform to deceive Americans?
Mr. Carlson recently interviewed President Putin in Moscow and rarely objected when Putin lied. Carlson should have taken the time to study the harm that Anglo-American journalist Walter Duranty and his leftist supporters have inflicted on America and the world over the last century.
Some saw Duranty as one of Joseph Stalin’s most useful fools. But the Pulitzer Prize-winning Moscow correspondent for the New York Times in the 1930s was not a naive fool like many of his Western colleagues at the time. He may have liked communism, but he was primarily a cynic and enjoyed a life of luxury in Moscow through support of the Soviet secret police, public attention, and high status among Western liberal newspaper readers. In exchange, he lied for Stalin.
Tucker Carlson, for reasons known only to himself, allowed himself to be used by Putin in a similar way. Putin is a former KGB spy who learned propaganda techniques from the men who served under Stalin.
Why would Carlson and other conservatives now make the same mistake that their far-left fellow travelers made by siding with a ruthless communist dictator who killed millions of people? Actions have consequences. For example, without the efforts of Duranty and others, Stalin could have deceived President Franklin Roosevelt at the wartime Tehran and Yalta conferences and enslaved millions more people in Eastern Europe for decades. Could you do it?
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Mr. Carlson’s interview with Mr. Putin in South Carolina was an inadvertent but perhaps intentional attempt by Mr. Trump to allow or even encourage Russia to invade European countries if it did not meet NATO’s defense spending goals. It was strangely close to saying something like that. He may have been talking about old warnings against Germany, which has perhaps been foolishly dependent on Russian energy supplies. Still, media reports portrayed his remarks as an indication of his current position and indifference to President Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
America’s most loyal political and military allies, including Poland and the Baltic states, which far exceed NATO’s defense spending targets, were understandably horrified by President Trump’s comments. These countries understand that if Putin is not stopped in Ukraine, they will continue to oppose him with hybrid tactics. He will also continue to harass America through proxies like Iran and Hamas, and will try to extract concessions with a nuclear bluff.
President Trump would be wise to reassure Europe’s frontline states of America’s unwavering commitment to NATO’s collective defense, at least if he wants to increase support among Eastern European voters in key states like Michigan and Pennsylvania. Dew. After World War II, many immigrant voters left the Democratic Party when President Roosevelt’s betrayal of Eastern Europe became known. Signs of approval of President Putin and Russia’s imperialist ambitions could similarly turn ethnic voters away not only from President Trump but also from Republican congressional candidates.
Territorial gains in Ukraine would greatly strengthen President Putin. That would allow his resources to be shared with America’s enemies. It would increase the threat not only to the United States, but also to Israel, Taiwan, and other democracies.
No conservative, Republican, liberal, or Democrat wants this to happen, but some right-wing commentators and politicians seem to be ignoring these geopolitical realities.
Mr. Karlsson did not dispute Mr. Putin’s lies. It’s unclear whether he didn’t know how to do it or didn’t want to make Putin look bad to Trump supporters. He acted exactly like the left-wing traveling journalists who during World War II sought to make the American public forget its former alliance with Stalin and Hitler. his role in the start of World War II with the invasion of Finland, Poland, and the Baltic States; and the deadly deportation of millions of civilians to slave labor camps in Siberia.
They covered up Stalin’s other genocidal crimes, including the Katyn massacre of some 22,000 Polish military officers and intellectual leaders captured by the Soviet Union in 1939.
Carlson did not object when Putin spread one of Stalin’s biggest lies. At one point during the interview, the Russian dictator hinted that Poland was somehow responsible for the outbreak of World War II. Karlsson interrupted Putin and said that when Hitler and Stalin formed an alliance in 1939, they jointly attacked and divided Poland, the first country to militarily resist invasion by Nazi Germany. I should have pointed out that we started a world war.
Polish forces fought alongside the United States, Britain, and other allies against German forces on many fronts. This reflects Stalin’s influence among Western journalists, just as Putin and his propagandists have comically accused Ukraine’s Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelensky, of being pro-Nazi. This did not prevent its agents from denouncing Polish soldiers as “fascists”.
Regardless of other differences over issues such as illegal immigration, it is in the interests of both conservatives and liberals to stand together against President Putin and support Ukraine. America’s national security and strategic interests should not tolerate partisan conflict.
American conservatives need to keep in mind that President Putin is not part of the conservative camp. He served a communist regime that murdered priests and tried to destroy religion. Russia, which has one of the lowest church attendance rates in the world, is not exactly a model of conservative values. If Republicans want to win elections, siding with Putin and refusing aid to Ukraine will be exactly the wrong move in 2024.
Ted Rypien is a journalist and media freedom advocate who served as head of the Voice of America’s Poland bureau during Poland’s successful democratic struggle, and later as VOA’s deputy director and vice president. He was president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Reprinted from THE HILL with permission from the author. You can read the original text here.