Carlson: ‘We Are Moving Toward Some Kind of Larger Confrontation with Russia — Why Are We Doing That?’

Nearly a year after a New York Times report surfaced alleging the Russian government offered bounties on U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the Biden administration revealed the intelligence community had “low to moderate” confidence in the report.

Friday, FNC’s Tucker Carlson reacted to that recent revelation in Russia bounty story and warned the heated rhetoric regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin could be a sign of a coming conflict with Russia.

Transcript as follows:

CARLSON: For five full years, through his campaign for President into his term in the White House, Donald Trump said often that he wanted American troops to leave Afghanistan.

Finally, in his last months in office, Trump seemed ready to act on this. He told aides he was going to pull the troops out. Then on June 26 of last year The New York Times stopped him from doing that.

The Times writing a story saying that the American Intel Community had quote, “Concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan.” Vladimir Putin was murdering American soldiers. Obviously, there was no leaving Afghanistan now. Anyone who suggested leaving Afghanistan would bowing to Vladimir Putin.

As a matter of principle, American troops had to stay in Afghanistan, and they did stay. They are still there today.

Official Washington went berserk over The New York Times story. Though the piece contains no actual facts, CNN senior intelligence correspondent declared it richly reported, a rich tapestry of reporting. And the rest of the media fervently agreed with this. “The Times” story was quote, “Independently confirmed” by many other outlets, though no one explained precisely how it was independently confirmed, but they didn’t need to because it was definitely true. We knew that. The story was real.

The only question was, why hadn’t Donald Trump attacked Russia in retaliation for the killing of U.S. soldiers? The White House has yet to authorize any steps in response, The Times gravely noted.

Suddenly, it was clear who Donald Trump was really working for.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: We need to look at the real threat to U.S. troops and the risk that Russia was putting a bounty on their heads, no matter what memos may have been ignored.

What is the truth of the matter here? Where do we have to focus?

JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: To say nothing of putting bounties on American troops.

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is unbelievable, Joy. I mean, he is still yet to say anything as the President of the United States about bounties on American troops.

NICOLLE WALLACE, MSNBC HOST: Do we really have a President, who on his fourth year as the country’s Commander-in-Chief doesn’t understand what Intel is? It is all a theory. They are all leads until the explosions go off, until the bombs go off, until the attacks happen.

I mean, this says something really, really scary about his fundamental lack of understanding about what the Intelligence product is and does.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: How bad is it? Donald Trump doesn’t even believe his own Intelligence agencies. That is the lady who used to flack for Jed Bush and she was highly upset by this. That is really scary, she said. The Washington Post thought so.

The Post fact-checker gave the President four Pinocchios and that is bad for the crime of not believing blind quotes in The New York Times. The predictable rage avalanche followed. The Daily Beast declared it a scandal.

And then Adam Schiff, the Ranking Member on the House Intelligence Committee reminded this country that unnamed sources quoted in dishonest left-wing newspapers are the quote, “gold standard” for what is true.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): He is inviting Putin to Washington all the while there is this credible allegation of Russians putting a bounty on American heads. That to me is just inexplicable.

This is not a hoax, and the fact that the Intelligence Community is still looking for additional evidence doesn’t make it a hoax.

Americans reading this are outraged about what Russia may be doing. The one person who isn’t outraged is Donald Trump. It doesn’t end up in the presidential daily brief if it is a hoax.

Our Intelligence Community not only doesn’t put hoaxes at his presidential daily brief, but rather it is the gold standard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So if it doesn’t wind up in the President’s daily brief, it is a hoax, obviously. It’s not like we invaded IRAQ or anything.

We wish we could tell you it was just Democrats who were getting hysterical, but it wasn’t. Lying and neo-conservatism are unfortunately bipartisan afflictions.

Ben Sasse, the sensitive tough guy Republican who represents the State of Nebraska in the Senate said that he wanted to see those dastardly Russian Intelligence agents quote, “in body bags.” Kill them. Kill them all.

Liz Cheney of Wyoming who by any measure is twice the man Ben Sasse is demanded to know what the President knew and when he knew it. “What has been done in response to protect our forces and hold Putin accountable?” Liz Cheney asked.

The cable news shows turned it up to 11. The House Foreign Affairs Committee held hearings on it.

The New York Times story didn’t simply because political problems for Donald Trump, though it did, it changed the foreign policy of the United States government.

Here is professional windbag, Seth Moulton who somehow got elected a congressman from Massachusetts telling you how important this is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. SETH MOULTON (D-MA): But now we learn that he was making this deal at the same time as there were bounties on the heads of American troops, American sons and daughters.

We clearly need more oversight over what the President is doing in Afghanistan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Seth Moulton speaks slowly because he thinks slowly, but he is clear on one thing, we need more oversight over Afghanistan. And the Congressman got it.

Just days after The New York Times story, both Democrats and Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee voted overwhelmingly to amend the Annual Defense Budget. They did this to prevent the President, any President from pulling troops out of Afghanistan. That is the one thing Presidents aren’t allowed to do.

That amendment sponsored by Jason Crow, he is a Democrat and by Liz Cheney who is a Republican. And it passed the committee by a vote of 45 to 11. It became law later in the year after the Senate overrode Donald Trump’s veto.

I seem to recall that’s only veto they overrode.

So rarely has a news story with a swifter or more profound effect than this one did. And by now, of course, you have guessed the punch line: it was fake.

The New York Times story was a lie. It was placed in the paper by neocons in order to subvert our democratic system, and it did, and once again impose their will on the country.

The public didn’t want to stay in Afghanistan for 20 years, they did, and got their way because they lied.

The so-called Intel Community is now admitting this. They are admitting that the story was not true and they are doing it for a very specific reason, Joe Biden has decided he now wants out of Afghanistan, but before we can withdraw the troops, we need new facts.

You have to fix the story or you can’t pull the troops out and the CIA is happy to oblige. So none of it was real. They can say that now.

But what we can’t do with stop attacking Russia. So maybe Russia didn’t actually put bounties on our troops, but Russia is still very bad. Russia, not China, is our chief enemy, and Adam Schiff, helpfully reminded us of that yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: The Intelligence Community says that they only have low to moderate confidence that it is an accurate story. So it looks as though in this case, Trump might have had the right response, don’t you think?

SCHIFF: Well, I don’t think Trump had the right response in that he didn’t confront the Russians on this. He didn’t even appear to take the issue very seriously.

You know, it is my sense that the Intelligence Community believes that the Russians did engage in this conduct, but they don’t have the requisite level of confidence in that conclusion to go forward with sanctions on that basis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So Donald Trump didn’t take the hoax seriously enough and that is a sign of bad character. We don’t know if the Russians did anything wrong, but we must confront Russia over what we don’t know they did anyway. So attack Russia every day. If you don’t know why we are doing it, they will know.

That is our new position.

The Biden administration just yesterday declared a national emergency for no obvious reason. Joe Biden announced that Russia had somehow taken maligned actions against U.S. interests. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, I have approved several steps including expulsion of several Russian officials as a consequence of their actions. I have also signed an Executive Order authorizing new measures, including sanctions to address specific harmful actions that Russia has taken against U.S. interests.

I was clear with President Putin that we could not have gone further. But I chose not to do so. I chose to be proportionate.

If Russia continues to interfere with our democracy, I am prepared to take further actions to respond.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Save that tape for the future when you want a reminder of just how insane things got in the year 2021. That wasn’t posturing. That wasn’t their bad. Those are actions against a sovereign nation, a foreign power, expelling their diplomats, destroying their economy and threatening to back their enemies in a war? A real war, too, not a war of words, a war where people get killed.

We are doing all of those things. But the question is why are we doing them? That is the part that nobody ever explains. But they don’t really need to because Vladimir Putin is so unbelievably historically monstrously evil, you don’t need a justification to go a war against him.

A man that bad should be punished just for existing with nuclear weapons, if necessary. Here is Joe Biden explaining that Vladimir Putin has no soul.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS HOST: You said you know he doesn’t have a soul.

BIDEN: I did say that to him, yes, and his response was, we understand one another. I wasn’t being a wise guy, I was alone with him in his office, that’s how it came about.

It was when President Bush had said, I looked in his eyes and saw a soul. I said, I looked in your eyes and I don’t think you have a soul. And he looked back at me and said, we understand each other.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you know Vladimir Putin, you think he is a killer?

BIDEN: I do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: That is taking corn pop to a new level. You don’t have a soul. You’re a demon, a human gargoyle.

This is a head of state who has like over a thousand nuclear weapons aimed at us. Why does our President talking about Russia this way?

Well, it is obvious. Clearly, we are moving toward some kind of larger confrontation with Russia. Why are we doing that? And what would it look like?

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor