Former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson, who interviewed Russian leader Vladimir Putin last week, said there is no contest when comparing the leadership and accomplishments of Putin and President Joe Biden.
“If this were boxing, the fight would be called by the medic,” Carlson, speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, said. A clip of his comments was posted to X.
“And I say that as an American. I don’t have another passport. I don’t plan to ever leave my country. My family’s been there for hundreds of years. I am a patriotic American,” he said.
“And I grieve when I see that the president is non compos mentis, and that in my country, it is considered very rude to say that,” he said.
(The phrase “non compos mentis,” according to Merriam-Webster, means “not of sound mind.”)
Tucker Carlson says Vladimir Putin is a far more accomplished leader than Joe Biden:
“It this were boxing, the fight would be called by the medic.” pic.twitter.com/1EjfhbzX9k
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) February 12, 2024
Carlson noted that life expectancy in the United States has actually decreased under the Biden administration. According to The Associated Press, life expectancy in the U.S. dropped in 2021 and rose in 2022 — but it remains below its pre-pandemic levels.
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He added that, “You sort of wonder, how did you get to a place where you have an incompetent president who’s driven not simply the standard of living, but life expectancy downward? And no one feels free to say that.”
Carlson said his comment was “not a political observation. It’s a statement of fact, which is provable empirically.”
Some said Biden is making Carlson’s comments look perfectly on point.
Putin just spoke to Tucker Carlson for two hours on Russian history, the war in Ukraine, and major geopolitical shifts. All unscripted.
Biden just confused the president of Egypt as the president of Mexico.
The U.S. empire is in shambles.pic.twitter.com/h0bhfmDXhW
— Danny Haiphong (@SpiritofHo) February 9, 2024
Carlson said the order of Moscow left a deep impression upon him.
“The most radicalizing thing I would say for me, in the eight days I spent in Moscow, was not simply the leader of the country. Of course, it’s impressive. It’s the largest land mass in the world and it’s wildly diverse, linguistically, culturally, religiously.”
“It’s hard to run a country like that for 24 years, whether you like it or not. So an incapable person couldn’t do that. He is very capable and many of you know him, and you know that,” he said.
Carlson posted the full video of his comments.
Tucker’s first discussion since the Vladimir Putin interview. pic.twitter.com/t4O4NRYSV1
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) February 12, 2024
“What was radicalizing, very shocking, very disturbing was the city of Moscow, where I’d never been, the biggest city in Europe, 13 million people. And it is so much nicer than any city in my country. I had no idea,” he said, noting that the city had come a long way since the Soviet era.
“My father spent a lot of time there in the ’80s when he worked for the U.S. government and it barely had electricity. And now it is so much cleaner, safer and prettier, aesthetically, its architecture, its food, its service, than any county — city — in the United States,” he said.
Saying his comments were not ideological, Carlson said, “How did that happen? At a certain point, I don’t think the average person cares as much about abstractions as about the concrete reality of his life. And if you can’t use your subway, for example, as many people are afraid to do in New York City because it’s too dangerous, you have to sort of wonder, isn’t that the ultimate measure of leadership?”
