Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson called comedian Jon Stewart “a tool of the regime in the most sinister way” after the part-time “Daily Show” host sharply criticized him over his recent interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“That’s kind of what I was saying: Even the Russians under Vladimir freaking Putin can live like this. And no, it’s not a feature of dictatorship,” Carlson said during an interview this week. “That’s the most, I think, discouraging and most dishonest line by people like Jon Stewart who really are trying to prepare the population for accepting a lot less. He is really a tool of the regime in a sinister way, always has been.”
Stewart, during his late night show on Comedy Central last week, blasted Carlson for his recent trip to Moscow, during which he praised the Russian economy and infrastructure, days before opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in prison.
“You aren’t as dumb as your face would have us believe,” Stewart said of Carlson, whom he has regularly criticized in the past. “Perhaps, if your handlers had allowed, you would have seen there is a hidden fee to all your cheap groceries and orderly streets.”
Carlson has argued he is “not pro-Putin,” though he has has routinely admonished mainstream media coverage of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The pundit laughed at Stewart and others mocking him for his praise of Russia.
“Like, ‘How dare you expect that? What are you, a Stalinist?’ It’s like, no, I’m an American. I’m like a decent person,” he said. “I just want to be able to walk to the grocery store without being murdered. … It’s really dark if you think about it, you know?”
Carlson was ousted from his gig hosting a prime-time show on Fox News last year and has since launched a media company of his own.