Tucker Carlson on Monday’s episode of his Fox News show had a weird complaint about the U.S. response to the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Russia: That response, he argued, has actually made America “the real victim here.”
Carlson was set off by comments outgoing White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki made in response to complaints about rising prices since the war began. She used the term “Putin’s price hike” to describe the interruption in global supply chains resulting from that invasion as the global response to it.
Carlson of course didn’t agree with that assessment. “So like, if you think it’s ‘Putin’s price hike’ — I guess they expect we do think that — the bottom line is, Russia invades Ukraine, it’s appalling, everyone agrees,” he said during his show on Monday. “But our response to it, does it hurt Putin? No. It hurts the United States. We’re the real victim here.”
Now, Carlson insists he doesn’t support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, even if he very frequently expresses opinions that definitely seem to line up closer to Russia’s POV than opponents of the invasion. So much so that Russian state media frequently uses clips from his show to advance its own cause. And he actually did at least call the invasion “appalling” on Monday’s show.
