Tucker Carlson is notorious for rewriting history, but he might have broken the record for the speed of this turnaround.
The Fox News host whined to his millions of viewers on Monday that people are accusing him of rooting for Russia, days after he defended its president, Vladimir Putin, and leaned into Kremlin talking points ahead of its brutal invasion of Ukraine.
He had argued Ukraine was “not a democracy” and delivered a lengthy rant last Tuesday questioning why he should be expected to hate the authoritarian leader.
A clip of that monologue later aired on Russian state-sponsored TV with subtitles.
But when Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) criticized Carlson’s rhetoric, noting that his comments served as televised material to rally Russians for Putin’s cause, Carlson was not happy.
“It’s such an awful thing to say,” he griped after airing Swalwell’s remarks. “We hesitated to even play it.”
He added: “It’s very common. You hear it every day. The question is: Why are they saying that? It doesn’t make sense.”
Carlson’s critics did not have to look far back to offer him an explanation.
The right-wing personality’s latest comments come after several days of backpedaling and shifts in tone following Putin’s offensive into Ukraine.
Polling has shown that the vast majority of Americans think the invasion was unjustified.
His flip-flop was brazen but unsurprising: He’s openly admitted in the past to lying when “cornered.”