The former Fox host accused Britain’s ex-prime minister of attempting a “shakedown”
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson interviews Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, February 6, 2024. © AP / Sputnik / Gavriil Grigorov
American journalist Tucker Carlson has said former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson would only agree to an interview if he received a $1 million fee. He made the claim following his high-profile interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking to Blaze TV founder Glenn Beck for an interview that aired on Tuesday, Carlson contrasted his experience interviewing Putin with attempts to sit down with Johnson, who has slammed the former Fox host as a “tool of the Kremlin” after Carlson’s lengthy discussion with the Russian president earlier this month.
”So I’m over in Moscow, I’m waiting to do this interview, it gets out that we’re doing it, and I’m immediately denounced by this guy called Boris Johnson,” he said. “So I put in a request for an interview with [Johnson], because he’s constantly denouncing me.”
Tucker: "Boris Johnson calls me a tool of the Kremlin or something. So I put in a request for an interview with Boris Johnson. Finally one of his advisors gets back to me and says he will talk to you but it's going to cost you a million dollars. He wants a million dollars." pic.twitter.com/Y7qADbx2H4
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) February 20, 2024
Hoping Johnson would “explain his position on Ukraine,” Carlson said he soon heard back from Johnson’s staff, who revealed the former prime minister would agree to the interview – but only on one condition.
”Finally an adviser gets back to me and said, ‘He will talk to you, but it’s going to cost you a million dollars.’ He wants a million in US dollars, gold or bitcoin – this just happened yesterday or two days ago!” he continued.
Carlson went on to note that he had just finished his interview with Putin, who “didn’t ask me for a million dollars.”
“So you’re telling me that Boris Johnson is a lot sleazier, a lot lower than Vladimir Putin? So this whole thing is a freaking shakedown,” Carlson added.
Johnson was highly critical of Carlson’s two-hour sit-down with Putin, penning a scathing op-ed for the Daily Mail soon after the interview aired.
”When Tucker Carlson went to the Kremlin, he had a function well known to history. He was to be the stooge of the tyrant, the dictaphone to the dictator and a traitor to journalism,” Johnson wrote, adding that Carlson had failed to press Putin on Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.
Carlson’s interview was similarly condemned by a range of Western leaders and commentators, who accused him of asking the Russian leader only softball questions, and for allowing Putin to give lengthy responses without interruption.
Asked why he hadn’t raised certain topics during the World Government Summit in Dubai earlier this month, Carlson said he wanted to do the interview because he was interested in Putin’s worldview, and did not wish to inject himself into the discussion. The journalist also explained that he wanted to talk to Putin because the US media were “lying” and because the American public was ill-informed about the conflict in Ukraine.
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