Stephen Colbert Blasts Tucker Carlson’s Defense of Putin Following U.S. Sanctions Against Russia: There Go His ‘Sponsors’

Stephen Colbert addressed the sanctions President Joe Biden placed against Russia on Tuesday, joking that they’re bad news for Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. 

In response to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, Carlson has often offered a defense of Putin, and even downplayed Russia’s invasion  into Ukraine as a “border dispute.”

For weeks, the Fox News host has pushed the notion that no matter what geopolitical interests the U.S. may have in Ukraine, they are not worth using the nation’s resources to address them.

On Tuesday night, Carlson even claimed that the Biden administration is “provoking conflict” with Russia in an attempt to make fossil fuels unaffordable.

Carlson’s latest attack on Biden came after the president announced economic sanctions on Russia in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, adding that he believes Putin is “setting up a rational to take more territory by force.”

“So, that means no Russian money in the U.S,” Colbert said on Tuesday night. “There go Tucker Carlson’s sponsors.”

The quip was met with roaring applause from the audience, and even earned a little tune from Jon Batiste and his band Stay Human.

“It’s not just the president — the Senate is preparing its own list of sanctions and, reportedly, Republican lawmakers are itching to sanction Putin’s romantic partner,” Colbert added. “Putin’s romantic partner? So, the horse?”

Biden’s speech also comes after Putin ordered “peacekeeping” forces into two separatist regions of Ukraine, which he declared independent.

“He claims it’s to carry out ‘peacekeeping functions,’ and it’s true,” Colbert said before imitating Putin. “I keep this piece of Ukraine. I keep that piece of Ukraine. I keep all the pieces of Ukraine. I am piece-keeping.”

Watch above, via CBS.