Jimmy Kimmel is confused why Tucker Carlson would want to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin in the first place.
“Tucker Carlson still doesn’t have a job,” Kimmel joked during his talk show on Monday, February 5, referring to how he was axed from Fox News in 2023. “He’s in Moscow — house-hunting I hope.”
“Vladimir Putin: He’s a murderer, he’s a war criminal, he hates America, he hates everything America stands for,” Kimmel continued. “He’s a liar and a propagandist — but Tuck thinks we just need to hear him out.”
Carlson previously boasted about he's the "only journalist" who is willing to do the hard work and interview the president of “the other country involved in this conflict.”
“It’s like saying that in Jaws, the great white shark was involved in the biting. It takes two to be eaten, you know?” Kimmel quipped.
As OK! previously reported, Carlson announced in early February he would be airing his interview with Putin soon.
"There are risks to conducting an interview like this, obviously, so we thought about it carefully over many months," he shared via social media. Since the day the war in Ukraine began, American media outlets have spoken to scores of people from Ukraine, and they have done scores of interviews with Ukrainian president Zelensky. We ourselves have put in a request for an interview with Zelensky. We hope he accepts, but the interviews he’s already done in the United States are not traditional interviews, they are fawning pep sessions."
"Not a single Western journalist has bothered to interview the president of the other country involved in this conflict: Vladimir Putin," the TV personality added. "Most Americans have no idea why Putin invaded Ukraine or what his goals are now — you’ve never heard his voice. That’s wrong. Americans have a right to know all they can about a war they’re implicated in and we have the right to tell them about it."
Following the news, many bashed Carlson, including Hillary Clinton.
"Well, it shows me what I think we’ve all known. He’s what is called a useful idiot. I mean, if you actually read translations of what’s being said on Russian media, they make fun of him. I mean, he’s like a puppy dog. You know, somehow, after having been fired from so many outlets and the United States. I would not be surprised if he emerges with a contract with a Russian outlet because he is a useful idiot," she said of Tucker in an interview that aired on MSNBC on February 7.
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"He says things that are not true. He parrots Vladimir Putin’s pack of lies about Ukraine. So, I don’t see why Putin wouldn’t give him an interview because, through him, he can continue to lie about what his objectives are in Ukraine, and what he expects to see happen," she shared. "It’s really quite sad that not just somebody like Tucker Carlson who has, as I said, been fired so many times because he seems unable to correlate his reporting with the truth, but also because it is a sign that there are people in this country right now who are like a fifth column from Vladimir Putin."
