Tucker Carlson on Thursday accused a Texas congressman of making slanderous comments about the Fox News host’s show.
Carlson claimed that Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) “has told a number of people that this show is an organ of Russian disinformation.”
“In other words, not only are we wrong—which is fine—we are disloyal Americans. We’re doing the bidding of a foreign power,” Carlson said of what he believes to be McCaul’s opinion.
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“That is not fine,” Carlson said. “That is slander.”
Carlson, whose frequent Kremlin-friendly commentary has been cited approvingly on Russian state television, dismissed McCaul’s alleged criticism by claiming that his show is “only and narrowly interested in the interests of our own country.” The Fox News host added that “we don’t care what the Russian government says”—only what the U.S. does. (Perhaps that explains his apparent indifference to being used as an instrument of Russian propaganda.)
McCaul, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” over his invasion of Ukraine in a tweet on Thursday. “We must continue to support Ukraine with lethal weapons and air defense,” he wrote—something that Carlson and some of his frequent guests have either questioned or downright opposed.
