Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Feb. 6 confirmed he’s in Russia to interview President Vladimir Putin.
“We'll be doing that soon,” Mr. Carlson said in a video posted to the X social media website.
Rumors had swirled for days after reports Mr. Carlson was spotted in Moscow.
“There are risks to conducting an interview like this, obviously. So we thought about it carefully over many months,” Mr. Carlson said.
He said the motivation to interview Mr. Putin stemmed from gaining insight into his mindset. If the interview happens, it would be the first time Mr. Putin is interviewed since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022.
“Our duty is to inform people. Two years into a war that’s reshaping the entire world, most Americans are not informed,” Mr. Carlson said.
He noted that many media outlets have interviewed Ukrainian figures, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but few have conducted interviews with Russians.
“Most Americans have no idea why Putin invaded Ukraine, or what his goals are now,” Mr. Carlson said. “They’ve never heard his voice. That’s wrong. Americans have a right to know all they can about a war they’re implicated in, and we have the right to tell them about it.”
Some of Mr. Carlson’s competitors, including CNN host Erin Burnett, have criticized Mr. Carlson for interviewing Mr. Putin.
Defending the Interview
Mr. Carlson said in his video announcement: “We are not here because we love Vladimir Putin. We are here because we love the United States.”He noted that the video of the interview will be available for free and said Elon Musk, the owner of X, has already promised not to censor the interview in any way once it’s posted to X.
“We’re grateful for that. Western governments, by contrast, will certainly do their best to censor this video on other less-principled platforms because that’s what they do. They are afraid of information they can’t control, but you have no reason to be afraid of it,” he said. “We are not encouraging you to agree with what Putin may say in this interview. But we are urging you to watch it. You should know as much as you can. And then, like a free citizen and not a slave, you can decide for yourself.”
Mr. Carlson, 54, is an American journalist who has worked for CNN, PBS, and MSNBC in addition to Fox News, which he left in 2023.
A show he started on X has drawn hundreds of millions of views and high-profile guests, including former President Donald Trump. He has been rumored in some circles to be a possible vice presidential candidate for President Trump, who is the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.
The video of Mr. Carlson appeared to be filmed on a balcony overlooking some of the buildings in Moscow.
Blocked Interview?
Mr. Carlson has said in the past that he tried to interview Mr. Putin but was blocked by the U.S. government.“'You’re not allowed to hear Putin’s voice. Because why? There was no vote on it. No one asked me. I’m 54 years old. I’ve paid my taxes and followed the law,” he told Swiss magazine Die Weltwoche recently.
In the new video, he added: “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. They did this in order to stop a Putin interview that we were planning. Last month, we’re pretty certainly did exactly the same thing once again. But this time, we came to Moscow anyway.”
Mr. Carlson said in 2021 that he was trying to arrange an interview with Mr. Putin when the National Security Agency (NSA) unmasked his identity and leaked some of his emails to rival news outlets. The agency has denied the allegations.
“Tucker Carlson has never been an intelligence target of the agency and the NSA has never had any plans to try to take his program off the air,” the agency said previously.
The White House on Tuesday declined to deny the claims but described them as ridiculous.
“It’s a ridiculous premise and a ridiculous statement that was made about this administration,“ White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. ”I just want to be very, very clear.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, meanwhile, told reporters in Moscow this week that “I am not commenting in any way on the movements of an American journalist.”
“Many foreign journalists come to Russia every day, many continue to work here, and we welcome this,” he said. “We have nothing to announce in terms of the president’s interviews to foreign media. If such plans will be coming true, we will let you know.”
