On Wednesday night, the media wasn’t just interested in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during his unprecedented speech before a joint session of Congress. They were interested in who wasn’t wildly applauding it.
Zelenskyy, as you’ve doubtlessly seen by now, appeared on Capitol Hill in a sweatshirt and cargo pants to ask for more money for the Ukrainian war effort against Russia, something he said wasn’t just a handout.
“Your money is not charity. It’s an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way,” Zelenskyy said.
The remarks came a day after Congress reached a bipartisan-ish last-minute agreement on a $1.7 trillion spending bill that included significant amounts of money for Ukraine.
Despite the fact plenty of Republicans were opposed to the budget as a whole, the Ukrainian spending was the most popular major provision by a wide margin.
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However, some grumbling from both the right and left has begun to bubble under the surface about where our money is going, why it’s not being audited and whether it’s being wasted if there’s no realistic endgame in sight in Ukraine.
To some in the media, however, to merely ask the question is heresy. Early in the war, they branded one of the most notable skeptics of the effort on the right — Fox News host Tucker Carlson — a sympathizer of Vladimir Putin for daring to question whether involvement was prudent.
Whether or not you agree with Carlson, that seems a bit much. However, now some of the questions are coming from Congress, which has provoked an even sterner reaction from the legacy media.
Case in point, Carlson noted on his Thursday show: the media frenzy over the members of Congress who didn’t “clap like seals” during Zelenskyy’s speech.
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In the monologue, he noted Zelenskyy’s “handle in the most responsible way” quote — in spite of little to no oversight of where resources are going — and the fact Congress was still beyond impressed with Zelenskyy’s remarks.
“We’re handling your money in the ‘most responsible way.’ Take our word for it. Take our word for it. They laugh, and they clap like seals,” Carlson said.
“But here’s the interesting thing. Almost every person in the room clapped like a seal. So no matter what that man said — ‘Send me more money! I command you! Send me more money! We’re taking care of it the most responsible ways’ — they applaud, all of them, almost like they have to.”
Given the ugly relationship between the two parties, it’s difficult to get them to agree on anything, the Fox News host noted.
“And yet when a foreign leader shows up in cargo pants to tell them lies and give them orders, they all applaud,” he said. “That’s pretty weird behavior in a democracy, if you think about it.”
Even weirder: The media decided to focus on those who didn’t agree with Zelenskyy’s request for more money.
“Clapping is mandatory as long as Zelenskyy is speaking,” Carson continued.
“Now there were a few who didn’t obey,” he said. “That would include Matt Gaetz of Florida, Lauren Boebert of Colorado. And when they didn’t stand up and applaud, they found out the hard way what happens to people who dare not to applaud.
“NBC News took off right after them. That was the headline for NBC. Its house ‘historian,’ Michael Beschloss, declared this: ‘For any members of Congress who refuse to clap for Zelenskyy, we need to know from them exactly why. We need to know why.’”
For any Members of Congress who refused to clap for Zelenskyy, we need to know from them exactly why.
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) December 22, 2022
“Thought crime alert! ‘You’ve been reported as not applauding. Explain yourself, plebe,’” Carson said. “And then Beschloss went on television to drive home the point. ‘Our sources have reported you are not clapping.’”
He then played a clip of Beschloss, who said, “And I think the other thing I’d like to ask is the number of members of Congress — almost all Republican — who did not show up tonight or who showed up and refused to clap.
“And like to know why that was for two reasons. Number one, you’re a public servant. We’re allowed to know those things. You’re supposed to tell us, if you’re serving in Congress, what the reason was. You know, do you love Putin or are you just opposed to democracy or is there something else?”
Well, that’s quite the “are you still beating your wife?” kind of question. After all, there are good reasons for opposing open-ended Ukraine spending — and even Zelenskyy himself, someone Carlson doesn’t particularly admire. You don’t have to agree with them, but the reasons exist.
“Why wouldn’t you clap for a man who banned a Christian denomination?” the Fox News host said regarding Zelenskyy. “A man who arrested priests, raided monasteries, seized churches, outlawed opposition media outlets, outlawed political parties that opposed him, threw his primary political opponent in jail.
“Why wouldn’t you applaud for a man like that? Do you love Putin? Are you opposed to democracy? Explain yourself.”
Keep in mind, too, that this isn’t the first time when those who had questions about the war were considered Kremlin puppets at best. When the Nord Stream pipeline, which brought gas to Eastern Europe from Russia, was blown up in September, we were all told it was a Russian operation.
When people like Carlson questioned why Putin would blow up his own pipeline, “Michael Beschloss and his friends didn’t like that,” Carlson said.
“If you suggested that the administration, the Biden administration, had anything to do with that, including prior knowledge of it, you were a Russian agent,” he continued.
“Really, is that right? Can you fill us in a little bit more? ‘No, you’re working for Putin.’ Foreign Policy magazine, which used to be a real magazine, called any questions about what happened to Nord Stream a ‘Kremlin talking point.’”
And now, Carlson noted, it’s gotten to the point where even The Washington Post has reported that “some Western officials now doubt the Kremlin was responsible” and there’s “no conclusive evidence that Russia is behind the Nord Stream attack.”
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Then there was the debacle about a missile that landed in Poland, initially blamed on Russia. As it turns out, the missile was likely Ukrainian — although the government has refused to take responsibility.
All of this should be an indication that as evil as Putin may be and as unjust and unwarranted the invasion of Ukraine was, it’s not so simple as comparing Zelenskyy to Winston Churchill in cargo pants and writing him and his government a blank check for a war with no endgame and none seemingly being publicly formulated — other than complete and total victory over the Russians, a virtually impossible task that would require great loss of life and money we simply don’t have.
But, no: Clap, you politicians. Clap, or you’ll be called Putinist stooges. And don’t just think you can get out of it by not showing up.
If you think this sounds more like a Soviet party congress from the Stalin era than our Congress, you’re not wrong.
To be fair, the punishment is hardly as sanguinary as it would have been in the Soviet Union. However, when figures like Michael Beschloss are trotted out to question why people didn’t clap and whether that makes them dictatorial sympathizers, it tells you everything you need to know about how rigged the media’s Ukraine narrative is.
