Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has claimed that unnamed figures in Washington impeded his efforts to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I tried to interview Vladimir Putin, and the U.S. government stopped me,” Carlson asserted in an interview with Swiss weekly magazine Die Weltwoche published on September 21. He added that he felt let down by the paucity of support among U.S. media outlets for circumstances surrounding him.
Carlson stated, “I don’t think there was anybody who said ‘wait a second. I may not like this guy but he has a right to interview anyone he wants, and we have a right to hear what Putin says.’”
The 54-year-old elaborated, “You’re not allowed to hear Putin’s voice. Because why? There was no vote on it. No one asked me.”
The prominent media figure did not provide more details on the circumstances under which he says there was government meddling in his attempts to interview Putin, but he seemed to hint it was the Joe Biden administration that was responsible for the interference. Besides, Carlson did not elaborate when the interview with the Russian leader was scheduled to take place.
“I’m an American citizen,” Carlson told Die Weltwoche. “I’m a much more loyal American than, say, Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, who didn’t even grow up in this country; she grew up in Canada. And they’re telling me what it is to be a loyal American?”
Notably, Russia TV news channel Rossiya 24 has aired a teaser trailer for a weekend show it claimed was to be hosted by Carlson. The promo was first broadcast earlier in September and again on September 22 along with the words “at the weekend.” The channel elaborated that the “high-profile American presenter is moving to another level. Here.”
Rossiya 24 did not give details on when the show will debut, or if it would feature original content or translated versions of Carlson’s X (formerly Twitter’s) broadcasts.
In response to Tucker’s claims, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters he had no comments about reported attempts by unidentified figures in Washington to stop Carlson from interviewing Putin.
“This will be good,” Miller stated upon hearing Tucker’s name. The reporter proceeded to ask whether the spokesman had anything to say about that.
“I have no idea what he’s talking about,” Miller stated with a smile, before continuing to the next question.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Western public has been so flooded with “Russia-hating propaganda” that an interview with Putin would not be viewed “soberly.”
While Peskov did not opine on Carlson’s claims, he responded “we’ll wait and see” regarding whether Putin would explore the notion of an interview with the American journalist.
Furthermore, Carlson has urged the firing of U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman, saying the diplomat has jeopardized the interests of Americans by attempting to enforce an LGBTQ agenda instead of enhancing bilateral relations with Budapest.
Addressing his audience at an event in August this year in Budapest, Carlson said he was compelled to apologize for Biden’s administration’s attitudes towards Hungary.
“The world is realigning at high speed and turning against the United States, but the Biden administration is spending its time harassing one of our last sincere allies in Europe, Hungary, for the crime of being too Christian,” he declared.
In his speech, Carlson alleged that Biden administration officials hate Hungary, just as they hate Russia, for safeguarding Christian values. Pressman, a California-born lawyer who erstwhile worked as an aide to then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, has lambasted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government for limiting the encouragement of LGBTQ lifestyles.
“For a creep like David Pressman … to show up in your country and lecture you about your culture — and threaten you because you do things differently from the way they do things where he lives — hurts the United States and is a grave embarrassment to me as an American and an outrage to me as someone who pays his salary,” Carlson proclaimed. “It’s disgusting.” He continued, “I’m embarrassed that I share a country of birth with a man, with a villain like this. It’s horrifying.”
Carlson then contended that Pressman represented certain leftist ideologues, instead of the American people. The media personality added, “They hate Hungary, and they hate it not because of what it’s done but because of what it is. It’s a Christian country, and they hate that. That is enough to incite our policymakers in the United States. That’s exactly why they hate Russia, by the way.”
Subsequently, Carlson recommended that Hungarians “wait it out,” because the political vision championed by the leftist Biden administration was unsustainable. “You can’t run a global empire on the imposition of boutique sexual politics on countries that don’t want them.”
In February, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó slammed Pressman for reportedly interfering in Budapest’s domestic affairs. The U.S. ambassador had blasted Hungarian leaders for promoting policies backed by Putin. Szijjártó announced that the era of foreign envoys instructing Hungarians how to live had ended.
Carlson — formerly Fox News’ biggest star — left the broadcaster in April this year shortly following the Fox News’ $787.5 million settlement of a lawsuit with voting-machine company Dominion Voting Systems. Fox News had regularly explored allegations on some of its shows that Dominion’s machines were responsible for “rigging” the 2020 U.S. presidential elections in favor of Joe Biden.
Significantly, Carlson’s show Tucker Carlson Tonight, during which he often discussed matters such as gender, race, sexuality and “woke” ideology, was singled out in the Dominion lawsuit.
In the civil case for defamation, Judge Eric Davis gave a verdict in Dominion’s favor on March 31.
“The evidence developed in this civil proceeding demonstrates that [it] is CRYSTAL clear that none of the statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true,” Davis wrote in an 80-page decision.
Carlson aired his final show on April 21, Fox News announced in a statement, and that Fox News Tonight would air live with rotating hosts.
“Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” the network declared.
Since leaving Fox News, Carlson has broadcast abridged episodes of his news show on X (formerly Twitter), attracting tens of millions of views. Carlson had been with Fox News since 2009, with his own prime-time show becoming Fox’s highest-ranked cable news program in the 25-to-54 age demographic.
Days before Fox News publicized Carlson’s departure, the Heritage Foundation jokingly offered Carlson a job, according to online magazine The Morning Dispatch. During the foundation’s celebration of its 50th Anniversary Gala, which Carlson attended, Heritage President Kevin Roberts supposedly joked with the news commentator, “If things go south at Fox News, there’s always a job for you at Heritage.”
