Watch: Tucker Carlson lashes out at 'aging' Republicans 'in their orthopedic shoes' for opposing Vladimir Putin

22 December 2022

Fox News angertainer and star of Kremlin state television Tucker Carlson told his audience on Wednesday evening that Republicans in the United States Senate support Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's battle against Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine because they are "punishing" Putin for helping former President Donald Trump win the 2016 election.

Zelenskyy addressed a joint session of Congress after meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, where he presented Biden with a medal on behalf of a soldier defending Ukraine. In his speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, Zelenskyy voiced his appreciation for the West's backing and noted the importance of fighting for democracy.

"Your money is not charity. It’s an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way," Zelenskyy said, later adding that solidarity with his nation "will be the basis to protect democracy in Europe and the world over."

Earlier this month, Zelenskyy issued a controversial ban on religious sects that are “affiliated with centers of influence” inside Russia over concerns that members of the clergy with ties to Moscow could be aiding Putin.

"Ukrainian officials suspect the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is promoting pro-Russian views and that some priests may be actively collaborating with Russia. Moscow Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has justified Russia’s war in Ukraine as part of a 'metaphysical struggle' to prevent a liberal ideological encroachment from the West," PBS reported on Friday, December 2nd.

For Carlson – whose show is frequently rebroadcast by Putin's minions to reinforce their on-air bluster – Zelenskyy's appearance in the Capitol signaled that the GOP is colluding with a budding holy war.

"The uni-party is alive and well despite the best efforts of voters, including last month. And if you doubt that it's alive and well, here's a picture of Zelenskyy that he had taken with elderly Republican senators in Kyiv back in May. They stand grinning next to him in their orthopedic shoes. Seventy-year-old Susan Collins [Maine], John Barrasso [Wyoming], John Cornyn [Texas], led by their eighty-year-old ringleader Mitch McConnell [Kentucky]. Forty-four-year-old Zelenskyy poses between them in a skin-tight polo shirt flexing like a weightlifter and trying to look ferocious. They seem awestruck. Not since a young Fidel Castro showed up in New York wearing battle fatigues has this country's aging leadership class tittered more loudly in delight. They love a man in uniform. What a hunk, so strong and decisive. Look at the expression on Mitch McConnell's face. You can almost hear the giggles of pleasure," Carlson carped before launching into a pro-Putin pontification.

"No rational person assessing the issues ever would have predicted this moment. If you are a Republican officeholder, and Zelenskyy came to Washington, maybe you would, for a moment, ask him about his current and ongoing war against Christianity in Ukraine – especially if you were, say, Mitch McConnell or John Cornyn and a lot of your own voters go to church on Sunday. They might care about that issue," Carlson continued. "But McConnell and Cornyn didn't mention that. They didn't say a word. You will not hear a word on television tonight about the fact that Zelenskyy has banned an entire ancient Christian denomination in Ukraine, and then seized churches, and then thrown priests into jail. According to Mitch McConnell -- who apparently hasn't left his office since the mid-80s -- anti-Christian despotism is what most Republicans want, above all. They don't get enough. They're just begging for it."

Carlson played a clip of McConnell opining that "providing assistance for the Ukrainians to beat the Russians – that's the number one priority for the United States right now, according to most Republicans. That's sorta how we see the challenges confronting the country at the moment."

That further fueled Carlson's acrimony – despite the GOP's platform being heavily predicated on conservative fundamentalism.

"And two other senators stand behind him nodding like it's true," he stated of McConnell's remarks, declaring that what the Senate minority leader really meant was that destroying Putin is all that matters.

"Defeating Putin is 'the number one priority among Republicans,' says Mitch McConnell, who leads Republicans in the Senate? Number one? Before our own economy or our own children's schools, or for that matter, before the more than two-thousand young people killed last year by fentanyl in Mitch McConnel's 'home state of Kentucky'?" Carlson bloviated. "Punishing Vladimir Putin for putting Donald Trump in office is more important than all of that, says Mitch McConnell. Ukraine's borders matter. Ours don't matter. You may have suspected they thought that, ho ho ho, but at this point, they're just coming out and saying this right in your face."

McConnell has never publicly correlated Putin's role in Trump's 2016 victory to the American alliance with Ukraine. He has, however, condemned right-wing affinity for the Russian autocrat.

Watch below via Media Matters for America or at this link.

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