Fox News host Tucker Carlson has condemned American lawmakers for applauding Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s demands for more weapons and money. Carlson argued that the US gets nothing in return for the tens of billions of dollars it funnels to Kiev.
Zelensky arrived in Washington on Wednesday, and after a meeting with US President Joe Biden, addressed a session of Congress on Capitol Hill. There, the Ukrainian leader thanked the US for the roughly $68 billion in military and economic aid it’s sent to his government already, before calling on Democrats and Republicans to “invest” even more.
“So the leader of a foreign government, dressed in a sweatshirt, waltzes into the United States Congress and starts demanding money, and then has the gall to tell the people sitting there who are giving him tens of billions of dollars more of your money that it’s not charity, it’s an investment,” Carlson told his prime time audience that night.
“Where do you get off talking to us like that?” Carlson continued. “Do we hate ourselves so much? Do we have so little respect for the US that we put up with that, applaud it?”
Carlson is one of a handful of prominent American conservatives who have consistently opposed the US’ bankrolling of Ukraine. He has argued that arming Kiev against Russia risks dragging the US into the conflict, and that American money would be better spent at home, shoring up the country’s border with Mexico and addressing the spiraling fentanyl crisis.
The Fox host has condemned both Democrats and Republicans for propping up Zelensky’s military. Pointing out that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell described supporting Ukraine as the US’ “number one priority,” Carlson slammed McConnell for not asking Zelensky about “his current and ongoing war against Christianity,” considering many of McConnell’s conservative voters “go to church on Sunday.”
“It may be impossible to imagine a more humiliating scenario for the greatest country on Earth,” Carlson said of Zelensky’s speech and the multiple standing ovations it received from lawmakers. “This was bipartisan masochism. The Uniparty is alive and well.”
“He’s the houseguest who would not leave, and every moment we tolerate him, the demands become bigger.”
Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, described Zelensky’s trip to the US as a “Hollywood-style” jaunt intended to ensure that the US “proxy war” against Russia continues.
Congress will vote this week on a $1.7 trillion spending bill that allocates another $45 billion to Ukraine, bringing the total amount given to Kiev to around $113 billion since February, or more than half of the country’s pre-conflict GDP. Moscow has repeatedly warned Western nations against arming Kiev, stressing that this would only prolong the conflict.