Republican Senator Rips ‘Useful Idiot’ Tucker Carlson for Video Gushing Over Russian Grocery Store

Tucker Carlson

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) condemned Tucker Carlson on Thursday for making a video gushing over a Russian grocery store, remarking, “The Soviets had a term for people like Tucker: useful idiots.”

During his controversial trip to Moscow to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin, Carlson filmed a short video at a Russian grocery store, where he praised the prices and quality of produce.

After walking through the store and highlighting the products, Carlson revealed that a weekly shop with similar products in the U.S. would cost around $300 more.

“That’s when you start to realize that ideology maybe doesn’t matter as much as you thought, corruption,” said Carlson, adding:

If you take people’s standard of living and you tank it through filth and crime and inflation, and they literally can’t buy the groceries they want, at that point maybe it matters less what you say or whether you’re a “good person” or a “bad person.” You’re wrecking people’s lives in their country and that’s what our leaders have done to us, and coming to a Russian grocery store, the “heart of evil,” and seeing what things cost and how people live, it will radicalize you against our leaders. That’s how I feel, anyway. Radicalized.

Tillis lashed out at Carlson’s video on social media, accusing the former Fox News host of being a “useful idiot.”

“Ah yes, Russia is so much better than the U.S. with all those cheap groceries and lavish subway stations!” he wrote. “The Soviets had a term for people like Tucker: useful idiots.”

In recent weeks, Carlson has released a series of videos juxtaposing life in Moscow to life in cities back home in the United States.

In one video, Carlson compared the world renowned Moscow Metro and its highly-decorated, Soviet-era stations to run-down stations in New York City.

Putin complained on Wednesday that Carlson went too soft on him during their controversial interview and claimed he “didn’t get complete satisfaction” from the encounter.

“I honestly thought he would be aggressive and ask so-called sharp questions. And I wasn’t just ready for that, I wanted it, because it would have given me the opportunity to respond sharply in kind,” complained Putin. “But he chose a different tactic.”