The Tucker Carlson Show - Tucker Carlson - Why I'm interviewing Vladimir Putin.
Aired: 2024-02-06
Duration: 04:26


=== Why We're Here (02:04) ===

[00:00:00]  We're in Moscow tonight.
[00:00:01]  We're here to interview the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin.
[00:00:04]  We'll be doing that soon.
[00:00:06]  There are risks to conducting an interview like this, obviously, so we've thought about it carefully over many months.
[00:00:12]  Here's why we're doing it.
[00:00:14]  First, because it's our job.
[00:00:16]  We're in journalism.
[00:00:17]  Our duty is to inform people.
[00:00:20]  Two years into a war that's reshaping the entire world, most Americans are not informed.
[00:00:26]  They have no real idea what's happening in this region.
[00:00:29]  Here in Russia or 600 miles away in Ukraine.
[00:00:32]  But they should know.
[00:00:34]  They're paying for much of it in ways they might not fully yet perceive.
[00:00:38]  The war in Ukraine is a human disaster.
[00:00:41]  It's left hundreds of thousands of people dead, an entire generation of young Ukrainians, and it's depopulated the largest country in Europe.
[00:00:50]  But the long-term effects are even more profound.
[00:00:54]  This war has utterly reshaped the global military and trade alliances.
[00:00:59]  And the sanctions that followed have as well.
[00:01:01]  And in total, they have upended the world economy.
[00:01:05]  The post-World War II economic order, a system that guaranteed prosperity in the West for more than 80 years, is coming apart very fast, and along with it, the dominance of the U.S. dollar.
[00:01:16]  These are not small changes.
[00:01:18]  They are history-altering developments.
[00:01:20]  They will define the lives of our grandchildren.
[00:01:23]  Most of the world understands this perfectly well.
[00:01:25]  They can see it.
[00:01:26]  Ask anyone in Asia or the Middle East, What the future looks like.
[00:01:30]  And yet the populations of the English-speaking countries seem mostly unaware.
[00:01:35]  They think that as nothing has really changed.
[00:01:37]  And they think that because no one has told them the truth.
[00:01:41]  Their media outlets are corrupt.
[00:01:43]  They lie to their readers and viewers.
[00:01:45]  And they do that mostly by omission.
[00:01:48]  For example, since the day the war in Ukraine began, American media outlets have spoken to scores.
[00:01:54]  of people from Ukraine and they've done scores of interviews with Ukrainian President Zelensky.
[00:02:00]  We ourselves have put in a request for an interview with Zelensky and we hope he accepts.

=== Why Media Omits Truth (02:22) ===

[00:02:04]  But the interviews he's already done in the United States are not traditional interviews.
[00:02:08]  They are fawning pep sessions specifically designed to amplify Zelensky's demand that the U.S. enter more deeply into a war in Eastern Europe and pay for it.
[00:02:18]  That is not journalism.
[00:02:20]  It is government propaganda.
[00:02:22]  Propaganda of the ugliest kind, the kind that kills people.
[00:02:26]  At the same time our politicians and media outlets have been doing this, promoting a foreign leader like he's a new consumer brand, not a single Western journalist has bothered to interview the president of the other country involved in this conflict, Vladimir Putin.
[00:02:40]  Most Americans have no idea why Putin invaded Ukraine, or what his goals are now.
[00:02:45]  They've never heard his voice.
[00:02:47]  That's wrong.
[00:02:48]  Americans have a right to know all they can about a war they're implicated in.
[00:02:52]  And we have the right to tell them about it because we are Americans too.
[00:02:56]  Freedom of speech is our birthright.
[00:02:59]  We were born with the right to say what we believe.
[00:03:01]  That right cannot be taken away no matter who is in the White House.
[00:03:06]  But they're trying anyway.
[00:03:07]  Almost three years ago, the Biden administration illegally spied on our text messages and then leaked the contents to their servants in the news media.
[00:03:15]  They did this in order to stop a Putin interview that we were planning.
[00:03:19]  Last month, we're pretty certain they did exactly the same thing once again.
[00:03:22]  But this time, we came to Moscow anyway.
[00:03:26]  We are not here because we love Vladimir Putin.
[00:03:29]  We are here because we love the United States.
[00:03:32]  And we wanted to remain prosperous and free.
[00:03:35]  We paid for this trip ourselves.
[00:03:36]  We took no money from any government or group.
[00:03:39]  Nor are we charging people to see the interview.
[00:03:41]  It is not behind a paywall.
[00:03:43]  Anyone can watch the entire thing, shot live to tape and unedited, on our website, TuckerCarlson.com.
[00:03:50]  Elon Musk, to his great credit, has promised not to suppress or block this interview once we post it on his platform, X, and we're grateful for that.
[00:03:59]  Western governments, by contrast, will certainly do their best to censor this video on other, less principled platforms because that's what they do.
[00:04:07]  They are afraid of information they can't control.
[00:04:10]  But you have no reason to be afraid of it.
[00:04:13]  We are not encouraging you to agree with what Putin may say in this interview.
[00:04:17]  But we are urging you to watch it.
[00:04:19]  You should know as much as you can.
[00:04:22]  And then, like a free citizen and not a slave, you can decide for yourself.