On February 8, less than a week before Navalny’s death, Carlson made global headlines when he aired a two-hour interview with President Putin. Despite critics pointing out that Karlsson spent most of the time in silence, Putin dominated the interview with rambling explanations of Russia’s history. branded it a media coup.
And on Monday, Carlson was questioned by Egyptian journalist Emad El-Din Adeeb at the World Government Summit in Dubai about Navalny, freedom of speech in Russia and restrictions on opposition groups ahead of the upcoming elections. He was asked if he did not object to President Putin.
Carlson responded, “We’re not talking about the things that every other American media outlet is covering,” adding: “I have spent my life talking to people who run states in different countries and have come to the following conclusion: Kill people, including my own leaders. All leaders kill people, but some leaders Some leaders kill more people than other leaders. Leadership requires killing, sorry, that’s why I don’t want to be a leader.”
Those comments appeared to come back to haunt Navalny on Friday, when his death was announced.
Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), accused Carlson of doing “a lot of Russian propaganda in Moscow.” Afterwards, President Putin publicly said, “Leaders kill people,” and Putin killed Navalny, the most famous and powerful dissident. Americans must never forget this,” she said. tweeted.
President Biden’s granddaughter Naomi Biden tweeted A recent video of Carlson promoting life in Russia while visiting a grocery store. “Has anything ever deteriorated so quickly?” she wrote Friday morning. “If Russia is so great, Tucker Carlson should move there and run for president.”
Former Wyoming Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney called Karlsson, “Putin’s handy idiot”, and she shared stories about Navalny’s death.
Senator Thom Tillis (RN.C.) Formerly known as Tucker One of Russia’s “useful idiots” wrote after Navalny’s death: Americans apologize to President Putin And praises Russian tyranny. ”
Carlson did not respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post on Friday afternoon. But in a statement to the Daily Mail on Friday, he said: “What happened to Mr Navalny is horrific.” Everything is barbaric and terrible. No sane person would defend that. ”
He added that his remarks at the summit had “nothing to do with Mr. Navalny.” I’m not talking about him, it’s clear from the context, and he’s not making excuses for killing people. As I said earlier, I am absolutely against murder. ”
The Kremlin, which regularly blocks interview requests from major Western media outlets, said last week that Karlsson’s request had been approved because “his position is different.”
The move is being interpreted as a sign of Putin’s interest in appealing to former President Donald Trump’s Republican supporters, even as other Republicans seek to criticize his apologists. party.
Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, President Putin was also one of the critics of Karlsson’s interview, denying that he was in control of the interview this week, and calling Karlsson, when he interrupted, “sharp”. He said he was disappointed that there were no “questions”.
“Frankly, I was not completely satisfied with this interview,” Putin said.
Robin Dixon, Natalia Abakumova and Francesca Ebel contributed to this report.