Tucker Carlson released an interview with Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance on Monday in which Carlson excoriated the Ukrainian government as “corrupt” and said Western support for the country’s war effort against Russia is “abetting the killing of an entire generation of Ukrainians.”
Vance appeared on Carlson’s show to discuss the Ukraine aid bill that was then being considered by the U.S. Senate.
Carlson began the interview by insisting that Ukraine can’t beat Russia.
“It became very clear to anyone paying attention several months ago that Ukraine cannot win its war against Russia. The Ukrainian military will not be able, even with Western backing — hundreds of billions of dollars of it — to expel the Russian military from parts of eastern Ukraine,” Carlson said.
“And that means that further support from the West for the Ukrainian military only means more dead Ukrainians and a further degraded Western economy,” he continued.
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“So it’s not simply a fool’s errand — it’s self-destruction. It’s insane, it’s cruel. It’s abetting the killing of an entire generation of Ukrainians.”
Ep. 74 The Ukrainian government canceled elections and killed an American journalist. Congress is about send them another $60 billion. J.D. Vance is trying to stop it. pic.twitter.com/x6mQFfuZFL
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) February 12, 2024
Carlson also asserted that the West is supporting a “corrupt and authoritarian” regime in Ukraine.
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“They’ve canceled elections, they banned an entire Christian denomination, and then they killed an American journalist for noting any of this,” he said, a reference to the journalist Gonzalo Lira, who recently died in a Ukrainian prison.
Carlson then went into the reason he invited Vance on his show, noting that the Senate had proposed “a plan to send another $60 billion to Ukraine.” The host described Vance as “one of the very few Republican senators who’s bothered to make the counter-case.”
For his part, Vance blasted the Ukraine funding bill as a “terrible piece of legislation.” He also told Carlson that there is something very worrisome buried in the bill.
“It doesn’t just fund Ukraine in 2024,” Vance explained. “It actually funds Ukraine in ’25 and ’26. Now, what’s the problem with that?
“Say, for example, that we have a new president in 2025. That president would be handcuffed by the promises that we are making in law to Ukraine today.”
The senator pointed out that “in 2019, the U.S. House impeached then-President Donald Trump on the theory that they had appropriated money to Ukraine and Donald Trump refused to send it to Ukraine.”
“So if Trump is elected president again, … he will conduct diplomacy. And if that diplomacy does not include sending additional billions to Ukraine, there is a theoretical argument — a predicate, if you will — for impeaching Donald Trump because they have tried to tie his hands.”
Vance said the proposal is “anti-democratic, and it will lead to endless war all over the world.”
Carlson then asked how Vance’s fellow senators can claim to be acting on behalf of the Ukrainian people and democracy “when it’s destroying an entire generation and it’s not a democracy.”
“Well, Tucker,” Vance replied, “they bought into the propaganda that what is in the best interest of Ukraine is to prolong this war.”
“Everyone knows that this war will lead to the destruction of Ukraine. I’ve had conversations with Democratic colleagues where they get this sort of dark look in their eyes and they say effectively that they want to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian drop of blood,” Vance went on.
“I think if you really ask these guys, they recognize that this is not in the best interest of Ukraine. This is fundamentally in the interests of military contractors and people who think that America’s most pressing challenge is to defeat the Russians.”
The aid package in question passed the Senate on Tuesday in a 70-29 vote, with 22 Republicans in favor, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
However, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson immediately put the brakes on the bill, citing its lack of any border security measures.
