Tucker Carlson Gets Heated With GOP Sen. Who Suggested His Syria Rhetoric Was Similar to Putin’s

After Fox News’ Tucker Carlson expressed skepticism that the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was responsible for a recent suspected chemical weapons attack in the country, he brought on a Republican senator to ask about possible US military action against Assad. And things got pretty tense.

After stating that the United States wasn’t in the business of regime change and claiming it would be a mistake to pull troops out of Syria now, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) pushed back against Carlson suggesting Assad may not have had anything to do with the chemical attack.

“I’m very interested in the questions you are asking about whether there is some sort of a hoax or whether this poison gas attack really didn’t happen — was done by someone else,” Wicker said.

As Carlson retorted that he wasn’t saying that, Wicker added that “Mr. Putin is asking and he has a right to ask it and so do you — I find myself on the other side of the issue.”

“I’m not sure I understand that implication,” the Fox News host responded.

With Wicker stating that was the questions the Russian president was asking, Carlson told the Mississippi lawmaker that he hoped Wicker wasn’t trying to impugn his motive and tie him to Putin “as some on the left do.”

“Let me ask again, we were told a year ago that the sarin gas attack in Syria was committed by Assad’s regime,” Carlson stated, adding that it was reported a couple of months ago that there is still no evidence Assad used sarin gas in April 2017.

Carlson then pressed Wicker on why he wasn’t asking whether or not Assad was definitively using chemical weapons in these attacks, causing Wicker to answer that he’s convinced the Syrian leader was involved, based on information he has heard

“Can you characterize it for us because the secretary of defense — I’m sorry, I wouldn’t typically interrupt you,” Carlson shot back. “You suggested I was somehow allied with Putin.”

This led the Republican senator to note that he said Putin was asking the same questions as Carlson, with Tucker exclaiming that Wicker was essentially calling him a “Russian agent.”

“I’m not saying that at all,” Wicker replied. “I’m not saying that at all.”

Carlson went on to snipe at Wicker for supposedly not wanting to get all the facts on the Syrian attacks, adding that “Putin and I would like a little more detail on that before we launch a new war on the basis of it.”

Watch the clip above, via Fox News.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona

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