A spat has erupted between Boris Johnson and Tucker Carlson over claims the former prime minister demanded $1 million for an interview with a controversial journalist.
Former FOX News host Mr Johnson claimed he was seeking a $1 million (about £793,000) fee to meet with him. But Johnson’s team said he accepted the offer because the funds would go to a Ukrainian charity.
Johnson ultimately declined the press conference after the meeting. Killing of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny That’s understood.
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Carlson made the claim in an expanded attack during an appearance on the right-wing news channel Blaze TV.
The US host said he was “angry” that Mr Johnson accused him of being a Kremlin stooge after his interview with the Russian president. Vladimir Putin.
He claimed that when he asked for a meeting with the former Tory MP, he was told that a member of Mr Johnson’s team would “cost $1 million” and “then he would explain his position on Ukraine”.
Carlson denied supporting Putin’s government, but added: “I’m not defending Putin, but Putin didn’t ask for $1 million…This whole thing is an extraordinary shakedown.” Ta.
he said: “If you’re making money from war, you can rely on God for that, because that’s really immoral.”
A spokesman for Mr Johnson said: “This account is false.”
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Karlsson, an influential right-wing American media figure known for launching scathing attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, offered $1 million for an interview on his channel, according to the former prime minister’s team. It is said that he did.
Mr Johnson initially accepted on the condition that the funds go only to Ukrainian veterans charities, but decided not to do so after Mr Navalny’s death, where the Kremlin was widely blamed.
This is the latest rift between the two since Mr Johnson used his Daily Mail column to brand Mr Carlson a “traitor to journalism” over his interview with the Russian president.
The 54-year-old became the first Western journalist to interview an authoritarian leader since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago.
Mr Johnson said the presenter had betrayed his “viewers and listeners around the world” by not taking Mr Putin on a mission to “torture, rape and bomb kindergartens” in Ukraine.
In the interview, Mr. Johnson claimed that he helped Moscow leaders break a deal aimed at ending the war, a claim denied by the former MP and dismissed by senior Ukrainian government officials.