Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday criticized Tucker Carlson for turning some Republicans against the idea of providing military aid to Ukraine by demonizing the war-torn country.
The top Senate Republican argued that Carlson’s outspoken stance on U.S. aid to Ukraine was one of the main reasons it took so long to approve more than $60 billion in emergency spending for the former Soviet state. .
“I think the demonization of Ukraine started with Tucker Carlson. In my opinion, he ended up where he was supposed to be all along, during an interview with President Vladimir Putin,” McConnell said at a press conference. , referring to the former Fox News host’s February sit-in. with the President of Russia.
“He had a huge audience that convinced a lot of rank-and-file Republicans that maybe this was a mistake,” the 82-year-old Republican from Kentucky added.
During a two-hour, unfocused interview with Karlsson and a leading Russian figure, Putin rambled about Russia and Ukraine’s 1,000-year history and made arguments in support of the country’s territorial claims. .
Putin himself accused Karlsson, 54, of not asking “sharp questions” and told Russian media he was “not completely satisfied with the interview.”
McConnell also blamed former President Donald Trump, Democrats and the border crisis for taking so long to get most Republicans to acquiesce in continuing to fund the Ukraine war.
“I think the former president had mixed views on that,” he said of President Trump’s position on aid to Ukraine.
McConnell went on to say, “Everyone felt, including myself, that the border was a complete disaster,” adding that an effort earlier this year to add border security provisions to Ukraine funding had prompted senators to “We needed to make a deal with the Democratic Party…and that’s what a lot of members thought.” That wasn’t enough. ”
“And it seems like our presidential candidates didn’t want us to do anything at all,” McConnell said. “It took months to resolve it.”
The Senate is expected to approve a bill on Tuesday that would send $95 billion in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, following passage in the House over the weekend.
“We ended up implementing the supplement that was originally proposed,” McConnell said, noting that the bill would not solve “all the problems,” but that it would be “a growing threat at this point.” He pointed out that this should be dealt with appropriately.
