Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA has been having one of its jerkin’ it festivals this weekend in West Palm Beach, and we’re sure many wonderful things have happened there. Do they have a booth where you try to squeeze and smoosh and rearrange your face to make it look like Charlie’s, and if you scare a small animal with it, you win a prize? We don’t know but that would be a good TPUSA carnival game, we think.
Donald Trump Jr. insisted with speedy excitement, like his heart was racing or something, that he doesn’t snort cocaine. That’s a thing that happened there.
But this post is about old washed-up fired Fox News guy Tucker Carlson, who tried Saturday night to attack Mike Pence’s Christianity, but from a Russian propaganda perspective. Doesn’t it make Jesus MAD when Mike Pence does not swallow Russian propaganda like it’s Putin’s right nut?
We’d like to say from the outset that it pisses us off to have to clearly take Mike Pence’s side in an argument.
Tucker said all this to the grunting hordes Saturday night, without mentioning Pence’s name. (Visit Mediaite for the video if you’ve been missing your Tucker fix.)
“There are clergy in Ukraine who are being thrown in prison, convents raided, nuns kicked out, priests handcuffed, thrown in jail,” said Carlson.
OK time out. It’s important to note right now that this is Russian propaganda.
Tucker extremely dishonestly says things like this, claiming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has banned a whole Christian denomination and so much more, when what’s really happening is that the Russian Orthodox Church acts as as a front for the Putin regime in Ukraine. The apparent goal is to give the uncontrollably shitting goats in the audience the impression that Zelenskyy is persecuting Christians. This is particularly potent considering how Zelenskyy is Jewish and Tucker is so beloved by Nazis. Tucker has been spreading this conspiracy theory for a while now, starting back when he was employed.
The truth is nothing like what Tucker suggests. There’s a lot going on here, involving schisms in the Orthodox church and a whole lot of history.
Reducing it to accusations of a Jewish president Tucker Carlson doesn’t like going on the attack against Christians isn’t just misleading, it’s just a pro-Russian Christian supremacist lie.
That said, we may move on.
“So I asked a self-appointed Christian leader about that, and I said, ‘What do you think? As someone who’s spent his life advocating for religious freedom about raiding nunneries and throwing priests in jail?’ And he said with a straight face, ‘Well, they you know, they had the wrong views.'”
Oh, is that what Mike Pence said? Again, it kinda pisses us off that we have to write this post, semi-defending Mike Pence, but is that what Mike Pence said? Or is Tucker radically interpreting the text again?
“I asked a Christian leader in Kyiv if that was in fact happening,” Pence replied to Tucker’s question about Ukraine just cold imprisoning all the Christians, “and he assured me that it was not.” Pence did not say “it’s great if it’s happening.” He shitcanned Tucker’s entire premise. And here’s what Tucker had to say about that:
“Oh, okay. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize what the boundaries were. So you have religious freedom or freedom of speech or freedom of assembly as long as you stay within the lines. But if you express an unapproved view, then you go to jail,” He added. “Is that the freedom that you recognize? No, that’s insane.”
Carlson then claimed that Pence was “not much of a Christian leader” because he supported arming and funding a Ukrainian government that imprisons Christians.
“If you’re a Christian leader and Christians are going to jail for their views, you are required to say something.” Carlson concluded. “And if you don’t, you’re not much of a Christian leader.”
Yeah that literally has fucking nothing to do with the actual genocidal, child-raping war Russia started unprovoked against Ukraine. This has nothing to do with religious freedom. Russia is not a freedom-fighting sanctuary for Christians fighting against a brutal Ukraine. Go fuck yourself, Tucker.
Tucker babbled so much more, but we don’t care. If he’s so worried about poor Russia, he should march his dilettante ass to the frontlines and volunteer for his president’s army.
If you want to watch some of the interview Tucker is referencing, it came from the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa, and Aaron Rupar captured it. Tucker spews his Russian propaganda at Pence, saying it’s “very clear that the Zelenskyy government has arrested priests for having views that they disagree with.” Pence replies that he’s checked into it, and Tucker’s allegations are bullshit. (He doesn’t say the “BS” word, Mother would spank him with the family spanking cross.)
Tucker knows what he’s doing, and only he truly knows who he’s doing it for.
[Mediaite]
Follow Evan on Twitter. I’m also on Threads and BlueSky. Will add those links to this end bio when I good and feel like it.
No, no. American fundamentalist Christians, do not listen to the Mr. Evan. Mother Russia is indeed a very freedom loving home for all white Christians and you all should move there immediately to practice your faith free from Bad Uncle Joe's regime of persecution.
The governor of the state where that convention is being held is treating Christians as second-class citizens, flying them to other states on false pretenses and driving thousands of them out of Florida by refusing to honor their legal right to live and work here. Right under Tucker's nose. But he'd rather lie about Ukraine -- because that's the type of principled talk that cost his previous employer almost a billion dollars.