Carlson was Fox’s most popular host, and he made a name for himself by spouting falsehoods, conspiracy theories, and a range of racist, sexist, and homophobic ideologies. Court documents from the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit showed that he knew the things he said on air weren’t true, but he continued to say them anyway.

Carlson also issued what sounded like a warning Wednesday, saying that people who tell the truth prevail. “At the same time, the liars who’ve been trying to silence them shrink, and they become weaker,” said the man who was found by a court to have lied on air. “See you soon.”

https://newrepublic.com/post/172252/tuc ... total-scam

The whole interview is based on a false premise that the public don't know Putin's point of view. Actually we regularly hear his opinions, and we can even watch Russian TV here so we know it's not just something the "MSM" made up.

So we have an admitted liar interviewing Vladimir "I won't invade Ukraine" Putin, and it all conveniently aligns with what Donald J. Trump says - so it must be the truth.

I'd been looking forward to it and watched the whole thing as soon as it was released. Here are a few of my takeaways:

It's refreshing to hear a president that has clearly taken the time to study and understand the history of the country he leads. He clearly knows his stuff, and whilst I admit, I have no idea if much of what he said about history was true, it's probably worth taking it at face value because he didn't seem to offer his opinion very much on the historical events he spoke about, he just laid them out as facts, and he would know that there would be historians watching who would instantly know if what he was saying was correct or not.

However, while it's important to understand history, he seemed to be almost worshiping it, and using it as one of his biggest defences against the actions he's taken. History is created by human beings, no different to you or I, making decisions, and just because a decision was made by a historical figure a thousand years ago which changed the course of history, it doesn't mean that that decision was inherently the right decision to make. A person from the past declaring that a piece of land belonged to them, and simply taking it, thus changing the course of history, doesn't necessarily mean that that land was theirs in the first place. As we all know, history is made by the victors, and the decisions made were only the right decision if it fits your narrative.

Whether you like Putin or not, whether you agree with any of what he has to say or not, you can't deny that he came across much more statesman-like than most of our western leaders. As soon as this interview was announced, we had people like Hilary Clinton coming out calling Carlson a 'useful idiot', amongst other personal insults and put-downs made by various media outlets and political figures, but Putin didn't make a single personal attack on anyone. At all. In the west, we have come to expect 'loose mouths' from our leaders, who don't think twice about making personal attacks against those they disagree with, but Putin came across as incredibly dignified and even appeared to show some respect to some in the west he was talking about. It is rare to see a political leader being so stately and solemn in the west these days. His twenty five years of experience as leader of one of the most prominent and influential countries really did come across, I thought.

I wasn't so impressed by Tucker and his interviewing 'skills'. Instead of trying to get the meat off the bone, he seemed to be dipping the odd taco into some salsa. There were many questions I wanted him to ask but he didn't, which makes sense, as it would have been agreed beforehand which topics he could ask about and which he couldn't, which is worth bearing in mind when deciding how much of this interview was 'an interview' and how much of it was just Putin playing the propaganda game.

It has long been said by many political figures in the west that the west could and should have done more to welcome and help Russia become part of the rest of the 'civilised' world after the collapse of the USSR, and I'm glad Putin bought that up. Whilst it's known that he said of the collapse of the USSR “was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century”, he seemed to accept that Russia had lost the cold war, and expected more to be done to unite Russia with its former enemies, but there seems to have been an agenda from the start that this was never going to happen. He talked about Russia asking to join NATO and being turned down. It's believed that he asked to join it to affirm whether NATO really was a genuine defence alliance against all threats, or whether it was aimed primarily at defending countries against Russia. When he was turned down, he had his answer. This was why Tucker followed up with "would you really have joined it if you had been accepted?" to which Putin didn't give a clear reply.

I thought the interview was fascinating and I'm glad it happened. I was impressed by the way Putin came across, and for the most part, he put across his point of view well. Nothing he said justified his invasion of Ukraine however. He's still a ruthless leader who either kills or imprisons his political opponents, runs the biggest mafia organisation on the planet, and has stolen so much of his country's wealth that he's richer than Elon Musk.

Which makes him no better than most of our lying, thieving and corrupt leaders in the west.