Tucker Carlson defended Vladimir Putin in his opening monologue because apparently the Russian autocrat wasn't mean to the Fox News host and didn't call him names.

Carlson began by pretending Russia was always a US ally.

"Since the day Donald Trump became president, Democrats in Washington told you you have a patriotic duty to hate Vladimir Putin," he said.

This is a complete gaslighting of relations between Russia and the United States. For decades The Soviet Union was a sworn enemy of any Western democracy. After The Soviet Union collapsed, Russia was still a horrible player in the world. Putin has been a murderous thug for his entire career, poisoning those who criticize him at will.

Carlson said, "It is not a suggestion but a mandate. Anything less than hatred for Putin is treason. Many Americans have obeyed this directive with Vladimir Putin and maybe you are one of them."

See, only Tucker is the rational one and you are under the hypnotic control of "Democrats in Washington."

Tucker claims it's only hatred for Putin that will bring the US into conflict, so, like Trump, Putin can do no wrong. Just kill thousands upon thousands of people from Ukraine, an ally of the US and NATO, and call it a day...

What is this really about? Why do I hate Putin so much?"

Carlson then launched into a psychotic fever dream.

Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to Russia? Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked my business and kept me indoors for two years? Is he teaching my children to embrace racial discrimination? Is he making Fentanyl?
Is he trying to snuff out Christianity? Does he eat dogs? These are fair questions and the answer to all of them is no.

This is mind-mindbogglingly insane on a multitude of dimensions. Carlson funnels every criticism aimed at himself and turns it into a defense of Putin.

And then Carlson promotes one of Trump's (and Giuliani's) other Big Lies that the the US is against Putin is because Ukraine made millions for the Biden family.

Putin spent years cultivating Trump as an asset, and now he's got an entire American "news" network flogging his aggressive behavior and glorifying him against their own country.

Here's a few more current reasons why Democrats hate Russia as recorded by Scott Lemieux

*Russia ratfucked the 2016 election campaign. (And, no, not everyone accepts this even now — Tucker, for example is still pushing Seth Rich bullshit.)

*Given that the election was decided by fewer than 100,000 votes, it is entirely possible that this ratfucking was material to the outcome the election. The release of John Podesta’s hacked inbox within hours of the Access Hollywood tape dropped in and if itself could have altered the outcome of the election.

*It is extremely unlikely the careful strategic timing and framing of the Russia/Wikileaks hacks and dumps were done without any collaboration with the campaign they were trying to help win, and there is considerable evidence of such collaboration.

*You can acknowledge the importance of Russian ratfucking while also discussing the flaws in Hillary Clinton’s campaign and candidacy to your heart’s content, and the idea that it’s some kind of either/or question is very dumb. Complex events have many causes!