Russian Foreign Minister Insinuates Tucker Carlson Was Fired on Orders From the U.S. Government
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov implied that Tucker Carlson’s firing by Fox News was done at the behest of the U.S. government.
Speaking at the United Nations on Tuesday, Lavrov brought up the matter unprompted. CNN’s Erin Burnett aired the snippet on OutFront.
“Perhaps it would be useful to consider how things are with freedom of speech in the United States,” Lavrov said. “I’ve heard that Tucker Carlson has left Fox News. It’s curious news. What is this related to? One can only guess. But, clearly, the wealth of views in the American information space has suffered as a result.”
Carlson has been more than a critic of U.S. aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in February 2022. He has demonized Ukraine’s leadership, including President Volodymyr Zelensky by calling him a dictator.
Not surprisingly, clips of Carlson have appeared on Russian state-run media.
“That’s the foreign minister for Vladimir Putin, Sergey Lavrov,” Burnett said. “With all that’s going on here in the United States, coming here, talking about the loss of Tucker Carlson. It’s unbelievable, right?”
Fox News fired Carlson on Monday, less than a week after the network agreed to pay $787.5 million as part of a defamation settlement. Fox is also facing a lawsuit from a former Tucker Carlson Tonight producer who alleges sexual harassment and discrimination. The company denies the claim.
Burnett aired a clip of Carlson downplaying Putin’s villainy.
“It might be worth asking yourself, since it is getting pretty serious, what is this really about?” he said in February 2022, just before Russia invaded. “Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? … Does he eat dogs? These are fair questions, and the answer to all of them is no. Vladimir Putin didn’t do any of that.”
Shortly after his termination on Monday, Kremlin-backed RT offered Carlson a job on Twitter.
Watch above via CNN.
