Tucker Carlson’s bizarre theory of the war in Ukraine
By Daniel W. Drezner, Professor of International Politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University
It takes a lot of effort to be this wrong. You have to want it.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson has had a mixed 2022. On the one hand, he hosts the highest rated show in cable news and is the subject of long New York Times profiles. On the other hand, his influence within the GOP has waned a bit. He had to walk back some of his adoration of Vladimir Putin after Russia invaded Ukraine. And the focus of the three–part Times series is how Carlson is really, really good at promoting bigotry.
None of this is news to anyone familiar with Carlson’s shtick for the past decade. Nor is it surprising that, like most national conservatives, Carlson has flailed for the past 10 weeks whenever he talks about the war Ukraine.
What I did not realize, until watching the clip below, was how lazy Carlson has gotten at trying to advance his worldview:
The hard-working staff here at Spoiler Alerts has grown wary of looking at small clips without context. In this case, however, the abbreviated clip actually makes it look more sane. Carlson opened his Tuesday-night show talking about the 2016 election, which led to the clip above.
Carlson argues that the Biden administration is “taking us to war with Russia” because of its fixation with the 2016 election. According to him, supporting Ukraine is not about saving democracy because Ukraine is not really a democracy. It is not about defending sovereign borders. Nor is it about helping the Ukrainian people, because if that were the case the Biden administration would be pushing negotiations. The goal, rather, is regime change in Russia.
Carlson’s evidence for all of these claims consists almost entirely of Carlson’s strategic sarcasm reserve. He provides no evidence for any of his empirical claims or theories.
Meanwhile, in the real world, the picture looks rather different. You would think from watching that clip that the United States started the war in Ukraine and has boots on the ground. Carlson elides that Russia launched an unprovoked invasion despite the Biden administration’s concerted efforts to prevent it. He also fails to acknowledge that while the United States is actively supporting Ukraine, neither the United States nor NATO forces are fighting the war.
The rest of Carlson’s rant is equally uninformative. Whether one looks at quantitative or qualitative data, Ukraine is clearly more democratic than Russia. As for pushing a settlement, Ukrainian President VolodymyrZelensky has engaged in good-faith efforts at negotiation and has been branded a Nazi for his troubles. Given what Russia is doing in occupied Ukrainian territory, it is no mystery why Ukrainians would prefer resistance to appeasement.
When I say that Carlson is lazy, I mean that even if I do not agree with it I could advance a better Tucker Carlson-esque critique than Tucker. Here goes: As the war in Ukraine has dragged on, Biden administration officials seem to be ratcheting up its demands. First it was about getting Russian troops out of Ukraine. Over the past six weeks, however, we have seen President Biden say, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has said, “We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.” There appears to be no end to the economic sanctions that are raising food and fuel prices across the world. Even if we acknowledge Putin is a bad actor, when and how does this end?
Of course that critique lacks Carlson’s partisan bile and is grounded in the real world. That is a planet Tucker Carlson left long ago. With a devoted following, Carlson has become a thought leader who ignores any and all criticism. No wonder his arguments are so lazy.
This piece is republished from The Washington Post.