Conservative writer asks Tucker Carlson and other ‘useful idiots’ if they’re ‘still rooting for Russia over Ukraine’

Following the mass slaughter of civilians by Russian forces in Bucha, Ukrainian officials are asking the International Criminal Court (ICC) to visit the mass graves in that Kyiv suburb and investigate for possible war crimes. Never Trump conservative Max Boot, in his March 5 column for the Washington Post, stresses that the Bucha massacre underscores the brutality that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime is capable of — and he asks Putin’s MAGA Republican apologists if they are still willing to defend Putin after the carnage in Bucha.

“Only someone born yesterday would be remotely surprised by the atrocities revealed in Bucha, Ukraine,” Boot stresses. “Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has been committing war crimes since the day he took office. That makes it all the more sinister and enraging that he retains an influential rooting section of right-wing voters in the United States…. Some of the loudest and most influential voices in the MAGA movement still refuse to support Ukraine or stop pushing Russian propaganda.”

Boot goes on to slam a long list of MAGA Republicans who have been Putin apologists and/or vilified Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — a list that includes Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, the Daily Wire’s Candace Owens, Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina and former President Donald Trump.

“Here is what Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) said a few weeks ago: ‘Remember that Zelensky is a thug. Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and is incredibly evil and has been pushing woke ideologies,’” Boot recalls. “Here is the Daily Wire’s Candace Owens on March 17: ‘President Zelensky is a very bad character who is working with globalists against the interests of his own people.’ Here is Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on March 15: ‘NATO has been supplying the neo-Nazis in Ukraine with powerful weapons and extensive training on how to use them.’”

Boot continues, “Here is Ohio Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance on February 19: ‘I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.’ The worst offenders are also the most influential: former President Donald Trump and Fox ‘News’ host Tucker Carlson. Hey, Tucker, are you still rooting for Russia over Ukraine — as you said you were in 2019? Do you still think there’s no reason to ‘hate Putin’ because he isn’t shipping ‘every middle-class job in your town to Russia’ or ‘teaching your kids to embrace racial discrimination’ — as you said on February 22? Hey, Trump, do you still regard Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as an act of ‘genius,’ and do you still view Putin as a ‘very savvy’ guy…. as you said on February 22?”

Carlson, Boot notes, has been promoting the “bogus Kremlin claim that Russia had to invade because Ukraine was building bioweapons labs with help from Hunter Biden.”

“This odious lie might be designed as a ‘false flag’ operation to justify Russia’s use of chemical weapons,” Boot warns. “Yet Carlson, the consummate ‘useful idiot,’ continues to peddle this loathsome propaganda under the guise of just asking questions.”

Boot wraps up his column by lamenting that the “pro-Putin wing of the GOP” — a term that Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming also uses — is unlikely to rethink its position anytime soon.

“At least the original America First Committee had the good grace to disband after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,” Boot writes. “The current America Firsters, by contrast, continue to cling to their discredited ideology after the Russian attack on Ukraine. If the Republican Party had an iota of self-respect left, it would break with these Putin apologists and rediscover its Reaganite roots…. That, alas, is probably wishful thinking: Trump remains the frontrunner for the GOP nomination in 2024 and, if elected, would destroy NATO’s unity in the face of Russian aggression.”