Fox News host Tucker Carlson ripped into Joe Biden and his allies in Congress for falsely characterizing Ukraine as a democracy and noted President Volodymyr Zelensky is actually revealing all the hallmarks of an authoritarian.
“What exactly is democracy? Well, pluralism is the hallmark of it. In a democracy, citizens can have any opinion they want to have. They can express any opinion they want in public whenever they care to express it, including through mass media,” Carlson said Monday in his opening monologue of “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
“If citizens are dissatisfied with their political leadership, they can challenge their leaders for office. Now, all of these things are true in every free country, in any period, always.”
“These are not just features of democracy. These are prerequisites for democracy. So, with that in mind, you should know about a political party in Ukraine called Opposition Platform for Life. With 43 seats in parliament, it is the largest opposition party in that country. Over the weekend, the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, banned that party. Opposition Platform for Life is now prohibited from ‘all activity within Ukraine.’”
Additionally, Carlson noted that Zelensky also signed a decree combining all national television channels into a single state-run platform.
“So, if all of these details seem shocking to you, if this is not the Zelensky you’ve heard about on the Today Show, then you may not have been paying attention to Ukraine,” Carlson said. “Zelensky has been solidifying complete control over Ukraine for a long time, since long before the Russian invasion and the war. Last year, he had his main political opponent arrested and his assets seized by the state. At the same time, Zelensky shut down three of Ukraine’s most popular television networks—channels that, not coincidentally, had criticized him.”
“So, how should we as Americans assess this? Well, first and most obviously, by admitting this is authoritarianism, it’s not democracy. Then second, by acknowledging that actually it’s pretty common around the world. Even in 2022, real democracy is a rare thing anywhere. Most countries are still governed by some variety of dictatorship, whatever they may call it, and that includes close American allies.”
Even more disturbing, Carlson says, is that U.S. lawmakers and media figures alike are praising Zelensky’s authoritarian actions and falsely claiming they’re democratic.
So why? Why is everyone lying? Why not just say, “Look, it’s outrageous that Russia did this and….we like Ukraine better. We’re going to support Ukraine.” Fine. Why go the extra step to tell us that Ukraine is a model democracy when it’s not at all? Why are they doing that? Maybe because Ukraine now has exactly the sort of democracy they’d like to see here in the United States. They hate to think that could be true. It’s scary to think that’s true, but ask yourself. Play this word game. If they can find a “national security pretext” for a war, for example, do you think Adam Schiff and Kamala Harris or Mitch McConnell would pause for even a second before banning their political opponents for running for office in this country? Do you think they would hesitate before pulling this show off the air forever? No, of course not. They’d do it in a flash. Then they call it democracy.
The answer is that our leaders actually want this same brand of authoritarianism in America but need to brand it as democracy to fool the American people.
So, maybe you’re starting to conclude these people love Zelensky, not because he represents the Ukrainian people, but because Zelensky is exactly the leader they would like to be with wildly expanded war powers to make everyone who complains shut up at gunpoint. Maybe that’s what’s going on. It seems kind of obvious when you think about it. Now, of course, we pray they never have the power to do any of that in this country, the last free country in the world. We should not let them do that because freedom in America is not just important to us, our children and grandchildren. It’s important to the globe. Again, we are the last free country. We must remain free.
“This is a war with moral implications,” he concluded. “This is a war the White House is involved in at every level. So, when the Ukrainian government does something, we have an interest in knowing exactly what it is and what it means, but more than anything, we have an overriding interest and a moral obligation to keep the United States free. So, when you see them admire someone who’s shutting down any opposition to him, you should pause.”