Based on what little I saw of the “interview” and the way Carlson sat stiff as a board, looking over Putin’s shoulder at some space in the distance while Putin bloviated, I suspect Tucker was more than a little nervous that he’d be the next American “journalist” to be slung into the gulag if he even twitched in a suspicious manner.
Not a chance Tucker was going to challenge Putin on anything.
Then why do the interview? It would be like talking to the cops when you are a suspect. If anything you say could put you in jeopardy, then don’t say anything.
I can think of two reasons. The first is that it was an idea to help increase ratings. “I’m the only one brave enough to interview Putin.” If so, then the actual result undermines that. But maybe he would still get more people who want to watch how bad it would go.
The second is that he was told he was chosen to be the interviewer who gets to talk to Putin, and he was too scared to back down. There were early reports of him being the one American journalist who Russian media approved of. It would make sense that Putin was there to play for a Russian audience.
Why would he be afraid? Isn’t Carlson a trumpflacker? They love Putin.
He sure is. So if Putin meant to use Tucker to get out a Putin-positive message to the MAGAts, why insult him and treat him like his (Putin’s) own personal ball-washer on live tee vee?
None of it makes sense. Although I’ve read somewhere along the line that they love Tucker on Russian state-sponsored television. Maybe Tucker was auditioning for RT.
Hey, he can flee to Russia along with Tan the Conman!
Putin’s English is really good, I was surprised.
A Trumpian display of power? Showing he’s the Big Lion Amongst Sheep? It’d definitely play with that audience.
I don’t think Putin was there to put a Putin positive message to MAGATs. I think his message was entirely to his own country, since they watch him there.
I think he wanted to be seen as flexing on the West and the US specifically. Tucker is both someone who would have him on, and someone who he could easily flex over.
I don’t think Putin cares all that much about MAGATs. All he cares is that they’re still causing disruption and destabilizing the US. Whether they are pro-Russia or anti-Russia isn’t all that important. And, anyways, MAGATs are all the type who fall behind a strong leader, and are willing to bend reality to maintain that.
Unless Tucker himself will start going after Putin for it, I don’t see many of his fans actually becoming anti-Russia over this. Putin may have said some stuff, but he’s not constantly in their ears.
To sum up, then, my idea is that Putin was appealing to Russians, not MAGATs. He wants to appear strong against the weak American journalist. MAGA is not a priority, but he understands human nature enough to know his comments would not make that big a difference to them.
It’s worth noting here that Putin has consistently refused interview requests from western media. The interview was granted to Carlson with the full knowledge that Carlson would be a sycophantic toadie. In his capacity as an easily manipulated imbecile, Carlson predictably delivered the expected performance, and Putin exploited it masterfully. Putin did the same with Trump, who is even more stupid than Carlson, but in that case, since the Orange Imbecile was somehow actually the president of the USA, it was more frighteningly ominous than funny.
Jim Acosta would’ve never been heard from again!
I tend to agree with this. For Putin this was a show for his audience base, to drive home how Western Media, even sympathetic ones, are just punks who need to know their place.
How much do we all think Tucker regrets this “interview”? Has he received positive feedback on it from anyone? Did Fox News or Breitbart give it a positive spin?
I guess it just seems incredibly short-sighted on Putin’s part, then.
His salvation in Ukraine and pursuit of his other notions of expansionism don’t lie with appealing to Russians, who are already under his thumb. They lie with electing Trump, who will ruin NATO, hand Ukraine over to Putin like a box of chocolates and let him do “whatever the hell he wants” to any former NATO country.
By my reckoning, it seems like getting the MAGAts back onboard to reelect Trump for 2024 would be a higher priority. Humiliating one of Trump’s loyal MAGAt mouthpieces seems counterintuitive.
Because it makes Putin look tougher. He tells Fucker to come to Russia and interview him, and then makes a point of making Fucker look weak, and then goes on a later show and talks shit about Fucker for looking weak. All of that builds up Putin’s reputation among the deplorables who love seeing weaklings get beat up.
As evil as Putin may be, he’s not an idiot. I’m pretty sure this all played out exactly as he scripted it. This whole things looks like “Americans are stupid weaklings, and Russians are smart and strong!”
The purpose of humiliation is humiliation. Vlad knows better than anyone that the true MAGAs will not give a rat’s ass that Tucker got teabagged. As far as they are concerned they will be thinking “hell yeah, THAT is how you do it, that’s how Trump will treat any media nerd who tries to face him”.
Fucker is the class clown of MAGA. Sure, all the “cool kids” laugh when he makes fun of the Special Ed kids, but they also laugh when the captain of the football team stuffs him in a locker.
I keep reading that, “trumpflacker” totally different I think what I keep seeing is prbably at least as accurate if not more so. 
Because Carlson is a fascist and his job is to convince Americans they’d be better off with an authoritarian strongman in charge.
I was too. TBH, he speaks better English than Zelenskyy.
Which, it should be noted, is irrelevant for a whole lot of reasons.