Tucker Carlson Roasted For Not Challenging Putin’s Claim that Poland Was to Blame For Hitler Invading
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s sitdown with fired Fox News opinion host Tucker Carlson resulted in an avalanche of criticism for both participants, with many critics highlighting that at one point Putin parroted actual Nazi rhetoric from World War II – rhetoric that went unchallenged by Carlson.
Carlson posted the two-hour-long interview to X on Thursday night and noted that Putin spoke for a solid thirty minutes about Russian and European history when asked why he invaded Ukraine.
Tucker told his viewers that “what you’re about to see seemed to us sincere whether you agree with it or not. Vladimir Putin believes that Russia has a historic claim to parts of western Ukraine. So our opinion would be to view it in that light as a sincere expression of what he thinks.”
After Putin’s long opening, Carlson said, “But may I ask, you’re making the case that Ukraine, certainly parts of Ukraine, eastern Ukraine is in effect Russia, has been for hundreds of years. Why wouldn’t you just take it when you became president 24 years ago? You have nuclear weapons. They don’t. It’s actually your land. Why did you wait so long?”
“I’ll tell you, I’m coming for that. This briefing is coming to an end. It might be boring, but it explains many things,” Putin replied.
“It’s not boring. Just not sure how it’s relevant,” Carlson replied.
“Good, good. I’m so gratified that you appreciate that. Thank you. So before World War II, Poland collaborated with Hitler. And although it did not yield to Hitler’s demands, it still participated in the partitioning of Czechoslovakia together with Hitler, as the Poles had not given the Danzig corridor to Germany, and went too far, pushing Hitler to start World War II by attacking them,” Putin continued.
“Why was it Poland against whom the war started, on 1st September 1939? Poland turned out to be uncompromising and Hitler had nothing to do but start implementing his plans with Poland,” Putin continued. After speaking for another few minutes, Carlson simply interjected, “Right” and let the Russian strongman continue.
While Carlson didn’t pushback on the idea that Poland is responsible for Hitler invading it, many critics and historians were quick to cry foul and call out the irony of Putin, who is claiming to “denazify” Ukraine, pushing actual Nazi rhetoric used to justify World War II in the 1930s.
“The irony of Putin, the self-appointed “de-Nazificator” of Europe, openly embracing the Nazi historical narrative of WWII,” replied the Wall Street Journal’s Yaroslav Trofimov.
The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols jested, “Yes, never forget that Hitler is the real victim here. (Putin has been spending a lot of time in a bunker of his own, clearly.)”
“Tucker was clearly hoping that Putin would help him undermine the Ukrainian war effort by advancing the conspiracy that NATO & Ukraine provoked the war. Instead, he got absurd revisionist history lectures and boilerplate Russian revanchism. This actually helps Ukraine’s cause,” replied security analyst Colby Badhwar.
The BBC’s Anthony Zurcher added:
Putin: The Ukrainian government is full of neo-Nazis
Also Putin: Poland was totally asking for it in 1939.
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