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‘Traitor’: Tucker Carlson, Ahead of Trump Interview, Calls War in Ukraine ‘NATO War Against Russia’
Last month, The New York Times described an Iowa Christian presidential forum hosted by a “conservative evangelical kingmaker,” which featured Tucker Carlson interviewing six GOP candidates, as “Jesus is out. Vladimir V. Putin is in.”
The lineup of six GOP presidential candidates featured Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Asa Hutchinson, Mike Pence, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Tim Scott.
“In the hands of Mr. Carlson, the former Fox News host who was recently fired, Ukraine became the bad actor in the conflict, not Russia,” The Times reported.
When former Trump Vice President Mike Pence tried to blame President Joe Biden for Ukraine allegedly not having enough tanks, Carlson “interjected, to the delight of much of the audience.”
READ MORE: Trump Has Not Committed Serious Crimes, Majority of Likely Iowa GOP Caucusgoers Believe: NBC Poll
“Wait, I know you’re running for president, but you are distressed that Ukrainians don’t have enough American tanks?” Carlson asked.
“For good measure,” The Times added, “Mr. Carlson called Ukraine an American ‘client state,’ accused Ukraine’s Jewish leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, of persecuting Christians and strongly indicated Mr. Pence had been conned, despite evidence to the contrary.”
Donald Trump did not attend that Family Leadership presidential candidate conference in Iowa.
And on Wednesday the ex-president once again will avoid a GOP presidential candidate event, skipping the first Republican 2024 presidential debate and instead enjoy an interview with Tucker Carlson, which NBC News reports has already been recorded. The Trump-Tucker interview is expected to “air” during the debate via X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Trump’s admiration for Putin is legendary, as is Carlson’s.
READ MORE: Fox News Tells Viewers ‘They’ Let Tropical Storm Hilary Into the US ‘Because It’s Biden’s America’
During his Fox News days Carlson, according to USA Today, “had a soft spot for Russia, a country Carlson often mentioned during his broadcasts and on which he expressed a variety of opinions. These opinions often ended up being used for propaganda purposes by Russian state media, which may account for why the anchor appeared to receive job offers from state-run Russian news channels in the wake of his ouster. He also received praise from Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.”
In fact, Carlson’s admiration for strongmen in general is well-known, especially after he broadcast his Fox News show from Hungary in 2021, praising Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has been widely regarded as a pro-Putin and pro-Trump right-wing Christian nationalist authoritarian.
“In interviews with Hungary’s president Victor Orbán, El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele, Poland’s president Andrzej Duda, and most recently, Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro, Carlson has pitched softball questions, praised anti-democratic ideas, and allowed lies about some of the regimes to go unchallenged,” Media Matters reported last August. “Carlson has also repeatedly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, excusing his regime’s aggression in Ukraine.”
On Sunday, Tucker Carlson, once again in Hungary, again appeared to support what experts call Russia’s illegal war on Ukraine, posting video of himself meeting “the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, at the Serbian Embassy in Budapest.”
Just as he did in Iowa last month, on Sunday Carlson made clear he does not see Russia as the villain in its war against Ukraine, which he calls “the NATO war against Russia.”
“So we’re in the car going to the Serbian embassy to meet with the President of Serbia who is in town,” Carlson says from Hungary in his video.
“Serbia has the distinction of being one of the countries in the region that’s been bombed by NATO,” Carlson says. “So I think he’s got an interesting perspective on what’s happening in Ukraine, the NATO war against Russia.”
Later in the video Carlson again says, “the war in Ukraine, the war against Russia led by NATO.”
Former Republican U.S. Congressman Joe Walsh responded to Carlson’s video, calling him a “traitor.”
“I’ll save you the time, so you don’t have to watch this: Tucker blames America & NATO for the war and defends Russia. Once again. Tucker Carlson shows he is a traitor to this country. Once again.”
So did another former U.S. Congressman, Republican Adam Kinzinger: “Tucker is a traitor to the US.”
Watch below or at this link.
We just met with the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, at the Serbian Embassy in Budapest. Here’s what happened. pic.twitter.com/R4fcTMBTlV
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 20, 2023
Image via Shutterstock
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
