Libertarian rips J.D. Vance for 'parroting vile Kremlin talking points'

21 February 2024

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson's recent visit to Moscow and fawning interview with President Vladimir Putin has drawn plenty of criticism from Democrats and Never Trump conservatives in the United States. Carlson, according to critics, has been a mouthpiece for a brutal authoritarian.

The ultra-MAGA Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) weighed in on the visit in a bizarre February 9 tweet defending far-right MAGA activist Douglass Mackey, who was sentenced to seven months in prison in the U.S. for his role in a racist scheme to trick African-Americans into not voting.

Vance sarcastically tweeted, "In 2021 the Putin regime arrested independent journallist Duglas Makki for making memes in the run up to an election. Just a flagrant violation of human rights. Tucker shamefully refused to ask Putin about it. I'm sure real journalists would ask about something like that."

In a scathing article published by The Bulwark on February 21, libertarian/conservative journalist Cathy Young explains Vance's tweet and slams him as one of the Kremlin's useful idiots.

"If you read this tweet and come away bewildered because you've never heard of 'Duglas Makki' and because Vance appears to be criticizing the Putin regime and Carlson," Young explains, "you're not the crazy one. The tweet is a troll job. And if you dig into what it means, you'll better understand why this MAGA senator is parroting vile Kremlin talking points about Ukraine."

Young continues, "There is no 'Duglas Makki.' The reference is to Douglass Mackey, whose alter ego 'Ricky Vaughn' was a notorious alt-right social media figure during the 2016 presidential campaign. In January 2021, shortly after Joe Biden's inauguration, Mackey was prosecuted for election interference…. Why does Vance know or care about Mackey? Because he's a cause célèbre on the right."

According to Young, Vance's tweet "shows how deeply the senator is embedded in the far-right fringe."

The libertarian/conservative journalist writes, "The tweet was presumably a sarcastic rejoinder to those who criticized Carlson for failing to bring up Russian political prisoners, including journalists, during his two-hour interview with Putin…. To see how despicable the moral equivalency is, one need only look at some of the real cases of people persecuted and imprisoned in Russia for speech critical of the war against Ukraine or of the Putin regime."

Cathy Young's full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.

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