Tucker Carlson once again used his tony spot atop Fox News’ primetime lineup to advance some conspiracy theories about the Russian war against Ukraine. This time it was a twofer: 1) the idea America was running secret bioweapons labs in Ukraine, and 2) that the U.S. is actually the one attacking Russia with a disinformation campaign, rather than the other way around.
Victoria Nuland, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs in the Biden administration, testified this week before the Senate and discussed biolabs in Ukraine. Right wingers say this is proof that Vladimir Putin isn’t lying — and that the U.S. apparently has been funding secret weapons research in Ukraine. But as even a Fox News’ own Jennifer Griffin explained tonight to Sean Hannity, “those are Soviet-era biolabs that U.S. has been engaged since 2005 in trying to help Ukraine convert the research facilities safely.”
Anyway, back to Tucker Carlson, who spent a long time on his show talking about the possibility the U.S. was involved in illegal bioweapons research in Ukraine. And during this discussion he advanced the idea that it’s the U.S. and not Russia engaging in “disinformation.”
“It is a classic Russian technique to blame on the other guy what they are planning to do themselves, that is what Victoria Nuland said,” Tucker Carlson said after playing a clip of her testimony.
“We almost laughed out loud. So what you are saying, Victoria Nuland, if, for example, you were funding secret bio-labs in Ukraine but wanted to hide that fact from the people who were paying for it in whose name you are doing it, then you might lie about it by claiming the Russians were lying about it. In other words, you might mount a disinformation campaign by claiming the other guy was mounting a disinformation campaign. Is that what you are saying, Victoria Nuland? It’s pretty funny. What is not funny is that this is all entirely real.”
Except, as Fox News’ own Jennifer Griffin explained less than an hour later, “it” in this case is not, actually, real. Watch Tucker Carlson’s comments above, and Griffin’s explanation of the facts below: