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Zelensky's Stand Against Religious Persecution
00:08:32
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| Good evening and welcome to Tucker Carlson Tonight. | |
| So, you remember when Russia invaded Ukraine in February. | |
| And at that time, our leaders told us this wasn't some faraway conflict in Eastern Europe. | |
| This was our war. | |
| No military should ever be allowed to invade a sovereign nation, they told us. | |
| Iraq and Afghanistan obviously not included in that rule. | |
| The invasion of Ukraine could not stand because it was a matter of first principles. | |
| But more than that, it was a world historic moral battle that we were obligated to join. | |
| It was very clear Vladimir Putin was pure evil. | |
| He was Hitler reborn. | |
| The Ukrainian President Zelensky was his mirror image. | |
| He was saint-like, self-denying, brave, honest, very handsome. | |
| And Zelensky was fighting for the very same ideals that our country was founded on. | |
| A number of news outlets, including CNN and the LA Times, compared him to George Washington. | |
| So they told us that, with one voice, month after month. | |
| No disagreement allowed. | |
| Not surprisingly, it worked. | |
| Americans fell hard for President Zelensky. | |
| They all did. | |
| Even in rural areas that voted against Joe Biden, you saw Ukrainian flags hanging from mailboxes. | |
| To many people, it felt like World War II again. | |
| The Good War. | |
| A battle against tyranny abroad for the sake of freedom and democracy at home. | |
| Well, the better part of a year later, it's getting harder and harder to believe any of this. | |
| Whatever you think of the war in Ukraine, it is pretty clear that Zelensky has no interest in freedom and democracy. | |
| In fact, Zelensky is far closer to Lenin than to George Washington. | |
| He is a dictator. | |
| He is a dangerous authoritarian who has used $100 billion in U.S. | |
| tax dollars to erect a one-party police state in Ukraine. | |
| And that's not an overstatement. | |
| Over the past year, Zelensky has banned opposition parties. | |
| He shut down critical media by force. | |
| He's arrested his political opponents. | |
| He has sent soldiers into churches. | |
| Zelensky's secret police have raided monasteries across Ukraine, even a convent full of nuns, and arrested dozens of priests for no justifiable reason whatsoever and in clear violation of the Ukrainian constitution, which no longer matters. | |
| And in the face of this, the Biden administration has said nothing, not one word. | |
| Instead, they've just continued to push to send Zelensky more tax dollars. | |
| So naturally, Zelensky has become much bolder. | |
| Why wouldn't he? | |
| Last week he announced his plan to ban an entire religion, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and to seize its property, all for being insufficiently loyal to his regime. | |
| And he said it out loud. | |
| Watch this. | |
| We have to create such conditions when any people dependent on the country aggressor won't be able to manipulate Ukrainians and weaken Ukraine from within. | |
| First, the National Security and Defense Council instructed the government to submit to the Verkhovna Rada, a draft law on making it impossible for religious organizations affiliated with centers of influence in the Russian Federation to operate in Ukraine. | |
| A free country does not ban a major religion, just because it's not fully on board with the political program of the people running the country. | |
| But Zelensky's doing that, and his cabinet is now devising ways to punish Christians for practicing their banned ancient religion in Ukraine. | |
| Quote, personal economic and restrictive sanctions will be applied to any Christian caught worshipping in unapproved ways. | |
| Now, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is more than a thousand years old. | |
| With the full backing of the Joe Biden administration and the U.S. | |
| Congress, Zelensky has decided to ban it. | |
| So here's the response of one bishop to the news. | |
| "Their of the Church is the Holy Spirit of the Church. | |
| You're not allowed to send soldiers into churches. | |
| You're not allowed to arrest dozens of priests because they refuse to bow before you. | |
| You're not allowed to ban whole religions. | |
| So most of the U.S. | |
| media, most, have just ignored this. | |
| Some have made excuses for it. | |
| Oh, he has to do this because there's a war. | |
| But there's no justification for this whatsoever. | |
| The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is not Russian, it's Ukrainian. | |
| It has no connection to the Putin government. | |
| It has in fact officially denounced the Russian invasion of Ukraine. | |
| So once again, there is no justification for destroying and banning this church. | |
| And yet, Zelensky's many celebrity backers in the West have said nothing about it. | |
| And they should know better. | |
| In May, George W. Bush, the great defender of Christendom, met with Zelensky on a Zoom call and afterward described him as the Winston Churchill of our time, a man who should be praised for his, quote, commitment to liberty. | |
| So where's George W. Bush on this question, now that his friend, the George Washington of Ukraine, has banned a form of Christianity in that country? | |
| Well, George W. Bush has been silent as well. | |
| So have many purportedly Christian members of Congress. | |
| They're backing Zelensky no matter how many Christians he arrests, no matter how many churches he seizes. | |
| To the Ukrainian people, you can expect the Congress to To be there with you in terms of supporting your efforts to maintain your freedom. | |
| Everything that we can do to be helpful to them as they fight for their freedom. | |
| I think the history of the 21st century turns on how fiercely we defend freedom in Ukraine. | |
| We will continue to provide military equipment so that Ukraine can defend its territory and its freedom. | |
| The United States will continue our unwavering support for Ukraine as it defends its freedom. | |
| And let's get the job done so that we can save lives in Ukraine and defend the cause of freedom. | |
| The free world had no choice. | |
| America could not stand by. | |
| The American people did what they always have done. | |
| Defend freedom around the world. | |
| Every single person you just watched has campaigned, many make a habit of campaigning, Lindsey Graham, ladies and gentlemen, in Christian churches in the United States. | |
| Will a single Christian leader say anything to them about this? | |
| You are funding the destruction of Christianity in Ukraine? | |
| Oh, but it's the cause of freedom. | |
| Really? | |
| The reality is that Ukrainians cannot listen to media outlets that criticize the Zelensky government because they've been banned. | |
| They cannot play music from Russian singers. | |
| No, this is not in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. | |
| This is in the democracy of Ukraine that we support. | |
| They can't play music from Russian singers. | |
| They can't vote for an opposition party because they've all been shut down. | |
| And now their churches are being raided and their priests arrested. | |
| So the fact that our leaders are calling this freedom tells you a lot about what they're planning here. | |
| Of course. | |
| Why would you defend this? | |
| Because you approve of it. | |
| For its part, Ukraine's defense ministry has stopped pretending this is about freedom. | |
| They're just happy they're getting paid and they're finally crushing any opposition in their own country. | |
| And that's why Ukraine's military is now using your tax dollars to produce choreographed dance videos for social media consumption. | |
| Sort of like the COVID nurses. | |
| Here's one of them. | |
| It's just a grotesque postmodern psyop, and anyone who's fallen for this is brain damaged. | |
| This is the same Ukrainian defense ministry that lied about the ghost of Kiev and the sailors who cursed out the Russian ship. | |
| Now they're just having fun. | |
| Because they're beating their real enemies, which of course, as always, are domestic. | |
| And Time Magazine is fully on board with this. | |
| They just informed their four remaining readers that Zelensky's president is the person of the year. | |
| And the media chorus is in full scream! | |
| John Meacham! | |
| The purported historian at MSNBC believes that Zelensky is really a lot like the Pope. | |
| Zelensky is being fired by the best fundamental impulses in human nature, which is to stand, to defend, to articulate, to fight back. | |
|
Great Leaders Understand Media
00:00:59
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| And I think it's also important to remember that he is a performer. | |
| That's where he started. | |
| John Paul II was a performer. | |
| Ronald Reagan was a performer. | |
| Winston Churchill understood the means of the media of his time. | |
| He understood the power of radio. | |
| Franklin Roosevelt understood radio. | |
| It's not coincidental that great leaders understand. | |
| Great leaders. | |
| So if they'll defend a man who shut down opposition media, arrested his political opponents, arrested priests, sent the army into monasteries, and then banned a religion. | |
| If they'll defend all of that and call it liberty, they'll defend anything. | |
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