Friday, FNC host Tucker Carlson criticized the Biden White House claims of a possible Russian false flag operation and the willingness of some in Washington, DC to side with the Biden administration on the U.S. response to a potential Russia-Ukraine dust-up.
Carlson questioned the wisdom of an aggressive posture on the “territorial integrity” of Ukraine while a porous U.S.-Mexico border exists.
Transcript as follows:
There aren’t a lot of amazing stories left in The New York Times. They’re also predictable and self-righteous, but if you read the paper yesterday, you did see one. “U.S. exposes what it says is Russian effort to fabricate pretext for invasion.” That was the headline.
The story explained that at some point very soon, Vladimir Putin plans to stage a fake military attack on his own citizens. Putin will use actors to portray Ukrainian soldiers and Intel operatives committing atrocities against Russians, then he is going to videotape the whole thing and secretly release it to the world.
When people in the West see the clips of that on Facebook, they’ll understand why Putin was justified in invading Ukraine. So it’s a psy-op. That was the claim, pretty diabolical.
But you may be wondering, how exactly do we know that Vladimir Putin is actually planning to do something like this? Because in real life, the global intelligence world is a very complicated place. People in it rarely tell straightforward truths.
So actually, if you were devising propaganda for the Ukrainian government, this might be exactly the kind of story you would place in The New York Times, which of course is compliant, they are on your side. A story like this would give you a way to plausibly deny attacking Russian citizens.
Is that what happened here? Well, we don’t know. We have no idea if The New York Times account is true or not. Then again, neither does The New York Times.
Right in the story, the paper conceded that the Biden officials, quote: “Would not release any direct evidence of the Russian plan or specify how they learned of it saying to do so would compromise their sources and methods.” Oh, their sources and methods.
Those are supposed to be the same sources and methods the CIA is protecting by continuing to hide thousands of documents from 9/11, two decades ago, or from the Kennedy assassination almost 60 years ago. Sources and methods.
If you live in Washington, you’ll recognize that is the all-purpose justification for everything.
State Department spokesman, Ned Price knows exactly how this works because Price began his career at the CIA. Watch Ned Price at the briefing yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NED PRICE, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: We have previously noted our strong concerns regarding Russian disinformation and the likelihood that Moscow might create — seek to create a false flag operation to initiate military activity.
Now, we can say that the United States has information that Russia is planning to stage fabricated attacks by Ukrainian military or Intelligence forces as a pretext for a further invasion of Ukraine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Wait a second, Ned Price? What was that? A false flag operation? Really? That’s a jarring term to hear from a Joe Biden employee, much less, an official, because until yesterday, we were under the impression that false flag operations didn’t exist and they said they did exist, it was only within the diseased imaginations of conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones and his minions in QAnon. That’s what they told us.
But now, they are telling us that false flag operations are entirely real. Except they never happen here, never in the United States, never in Washington, only in Russia. Okay. We will let that digest for a minute. CIA veteran Ned Price assures us it’s true.
Now, normally, that would have been the end of it, reporters would have scurried back to their cubicles to write their breathless little stories about Vladimir Putin’s latest false flag operation. And by and large, that’s exactly what did happen. The stenographers wrote Ned Price’s story.
But one of them didn’t. That man’s name is Matt Lee. He is a State Department reporter for the Associated Press. We know nothing about Matt Lee, other than he appears to be a middle-aged man who has been around long enough to ask a skeptical follow up question or two, and in Washington that makes him virtually unique.
Lee noticed that Ned Price hadn’t actually said anything that could be checked or even described in meaningful detail. So Lee asked: Hey, Ned Price, what exactly are you talking about? Here’s the exchange that followed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT LEE, ASSOCIATE PRESS: Okay, well, that’s quite a mouthful there. So you said actions such as these suggest otherwise. Suggest meaning that they suggest they’re not interested in talks and they’re going to go ahead with some kind of ops. What action are you talking about?
PRICE: One, the actions I’ve just pointed to. The fact —
LEE: What actions?
PRICE: The fact that Russia continues to engage in disinformation.
LEE: You’ve made an allegation that they might do that. Have they actually done it?
PRICE: What we know Matt, is what we — what I’ve just said. That they have engaged in this activity in this planning —
LEE: Well, engaged in what — hold on a second, what activities?
PRICE: But, let me — because obviously this is not — this is not the first time we’ve made these reports public.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a second. What are you talking about? That was the question, and it’s a good question. You wish you heard it more in official briefings. In fact, you wish you heard it more in everyday life in this country. It is usually the essential question and the first step toward finding out what the truth is.
Ned Price, of course, didn’t want to answer that question, but Lee kept pressing him. Why didn’t Matt Lee just take Ned Price’s word for it like everybody else? Well, maybe because this is the very same Ned Price, who has a documented history of lying to reporters in the briefing room.
Here is Ned Price promising that Kabul would not fall to the Taliban not long before it did fall to the Taliban.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRICE: The President from the day he announced that the U.S. military would be withdrawing except for the troops necessary to protect our diplomatic compounds was very clear, that we have partnered with the Afghan people and with the Afghan government over the course of some 20 years now, that partnership would not diminish in any way with the withdrawal — with a military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Again, we retain a diplomatic compound in Kabul. That is what we intend to retain going forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Settle down, reporters. “Our partnership with the Afghan government will not diminish in any way with the military withdrawal from Afghanistan,” quote. So days after Ned Price said that, the Biden-backed President of Afghanistan threw millions of U.S. dollars into a duffel bag and fled to the UAE in a private plane.
So actually, the partnership did diminish pretty quickly, in fact. Matt Lee has been around long enough to remember that, and he probably also remembers the time that Colin Powell promised the country there were no WMD. There were WMD in Iraq when there weren’t.
Probably remembers the time Hillary Clinton claimed our ambassador in Benghazi was murdered over an Islamophobic YouTube video. He may remember those two separate occasions not so long ago, when the entire foreign policy establishment in Washington assured us that evil Bashar Al-Assad had gassed his own people with poison gas and deserved to be bombed, but at the same time forgot to show us any evidence that it actually happened. We’re still waiting on that evidence, by the way.
Matt Lee appears to remember stuff like that and he mentioned it yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: Ned, I’ve been doing this for a long time.
PRICE: I know that. You have been doing this for quite a while. You know that when we declassify Intelligence —
LEE: Yes, that’s right. And I remember WMDs in Iraq.
PRICE: We do so in a means — we do so — we do so with an eye to protecting sources and methods.
LEE: And I remember that Kabul is not going to fall. I remember a lot of things. So, where’s the declassified information other than you coming out here and saying that?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: The best question ever. “Where is the declassified information other than you coming out here and saying it?” How thrilling to watch someone asked something so simple.
Imagine if the entire Press Corps behaved like that? We might have a decent government. Ned Price for his part seemed completely unprepared for any of this and highly annoyed by it. Nothing in his CIA training had suggested you might encounter disobedient reporters in the briefing room of the State Department. So he stuck with what he had, which was I said it, therefore it’s true. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRICE: We told you a few weeks ago that we have information indicating Russia also has already pre-positioned a group of operatives to conduct a false flag operation in Eastern Ukraine. So that Matt, to your question is an action that Russia has already taken.
LEE: No, it is an action that you say that they have taken, but you have shown no evidence to confirm that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So it went on and on like this for minutes. We are not going to play the whole thing. If you really want to dislike your government, you can look it up for yourself online. We can tell you that Ned Price’s superciliousness gets more nauseating as it goes on. It does make you wonder about the CIA Do they hire people this oily on purpose?
Where do they find them? Well, the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, of course.
We will play just one more portion of this exchange in which Matt Lee flips the usual script and accuses Ned Price of sounding like a crazed conspiracy nut. It’s beautiful. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: What is the evidence that they — I mean, this is like crisis actors, really? This is like Alex Jones territory you’re getting into now. What evidence do you have to support the idea that there is some propaganda film in the making?
PRICE: Matt, this is derived from information known to the U.S. government, Intelligence information that we have declassified. I think you will —
LEE: Okay, well, where is it? Where is this information?
PRICE: It is Intelligence information that we have declassified.
LEE: Well, where is it? Where is the declassified information?
PRICE: I just delivered it.
LEE: No, you made a series of allegations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: One correction. Alex Jones lies far less and is far more credible than Ned Price is. But you see the point, Ned Price lost that exchange. He claimed to have information that he did not have, and Matt Lee persistently called him out on it. So Ned Price just ran out of BS. The BS barrel was empty.
So what did he do then? What did Ned Price do that? You know the answer, Ned Price did what they all do when they’re cornered. He went right to the lowest personal attack. He didn’t call Matt Lee racist. He is probably saving that for next week. But he did suggest that Matt Lee is more sympathetic to Russia than he is to his own country, the United States, he implied that Matt Lee is a shill for Vladimir Putin. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRICE: If you doubt the credibility of the U.S. government, of the British government, of other governments and want to, you know, find solace and information that the Russians are putting out.
LEE: Solace?
PRICE: That is for you to do.
LEE: I’m asking what the Russian government is putting out and, what does this supposed to mean?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So if you’re on Russia’s side. Now in an earlier age, this is the point where Matt Lee would have vaulted the podium and punched Ned Price right in the face. There was a time in this country when calling a man disloyal was a grave and serious charge. You could not let that stand. That’s not true anymore, we are so used to it now. We hear it constantly.
On Wednesday, two days ago, during a closed-door briefing in Congress on Russia, Jim Cooper of Tennessee, a Democrat, asked an Intelligence briefer to find out if this show is tied to Russia.
We’re not tied to Russia. Of course, this is a cable television program. We’re not a diplomatic mission. Jim Cooper, needless to say knows that.
But that’s not the point. The point is, we’ve criticized the Biden administration’s Ukraine policy. So in retaliation for that, Jim Cooper has asked the Intel agencies to dig up dirt on us.
To be clear, that’s not allowed. It’s illegal.
It is illegal to use the U.S. government to settle partisan scores or to silence opposition journalists. It is also by the way, illegal to secretly monitor their electronic communications. But Joe Biden’s N.S.A. did that to this show this summer. That happened. We’re not speculating about it, the N.S.A. admitted it.
And Congressman Cooper admitted what he did today, when we asked him, though he was too cowardly to come on the show tonight to explain how he could justify that.
This is scary behavior. It’s also revealing.
After a full year of governing, all the Biden administration can muster when challenged are ad hominem attacks and more spying from the Intel agencies. Let’s put the Intel agencies on them.
What they can’t do is explain themselves. They don’t even try. That’s not a sign of strength. It’s a sign of rot. It’s a sign of weakness. And yet they’re doing it and they’re getting away with it.
How are they getting away with it? Very simple. They’re getting away with it, because Republicans are allowing them to get away with it.
Screaming about Russia, even as we ignore China is now a bipartisan effort. You remember Russia-gate, you thought Republicans would never fall for that again? No, they internalize the whole thing. They now believe that Russia is our greatest enemy. They’re the existential threat, all eyes on Putin.
They could stop this tomorrow. If Mitch McConnell criticized the build-up to war with Putin, it would end immediately. If five Republicans, the United States Senate held a press conference tomorrow to declare that the territorial integrity of United States is more important than the territorial integrity of Ukraine, this couldn’t continue. The lunacy would end. But they’re not doing that.
Instead, Republicans are every bit as hysterical about Russia as Adam Schiff ever was. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JONI ERNST (R-IA): So we do need to go ahead and impose sanctions on Russia now. We need to show them that we mean business and we will be there for Ukraine.
QUESTION: Do you think President Joe Biden should send U.S. troops to Eastern Europe?
SEN. TODD YOUNG (R-IN): Without delay.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): It appears to me the administration is moving in the right direction.
REP. DAN CRENSHAW (R-TX): There needs to be clear consequences for what they do, because if we fail to deter, and now you’re inviting conflict. It’s a very bad situation and we left ourselves without many options as a result.
REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX): I don’t think we’re providing the deterrence necessary to stop Putin from invading Ukraine.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): As Putin tries to dismantle NATO and divide NATO, I support President Biden’s decision to send more troops in to reinforce NATO.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So Lindsey Graham just admits it, I’m on Biden’s side, but most of them are too clever to do that. They are doing something that you may not notice at first, they’re attacking Joe Biden for being weak, his weakness is inviting aggression. And on the basis of that, they are in fact agreeing with Biden and supporting his Russia policy. Got that?
We’re against Biden, that’s why we are backing him up in his Russia policy. Pretty clever.
Is that what Republican voters want? Let’s see.
If you ask them they will probably say, well, why don’t we send as much military equipment to the Texas border as we’ve sent to the Russian border? If someone said that out loud, then maybe the entire country could assess how grotesque Washington’s priorities are.
Speaking of grotesque priorities, Senator John Cornyn represents Texas, and has for a long time.
Texas is a state that’s had well over a million foreign nationals pour into it illegally over the last year, right at the border. That’s a far bigger invasion than anything Vladimir Putin is planning in Ukraine. And yet, when John Cornyn talks about border security, he’s not talking about his own state or even his own country. He is talking about Ukrainian border security. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): Make no mistake that an attack on Ukraine is also an attack on America’s global security interest and on world peace, and could have cascading consequences that right now are too horrible to contemplate.
This is an existential threat to our leadership in the world and to the global order we underwrite and to our way of life, and the way of life for freedom-loving democracies around the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Freedom-loving democracies around the world. Now, these are people who sit in Committee meetings often with closed doors, what are they doing? Well, they’re apparently siccing the Intel agencies on anyone who criticizes them. But are they getting unfiltered information from those Intel agencies? Are they making wise decisions on the basis of it? Do they have any idea what they’re talking about, including the man you just saw? No, of course not.
They cloak their ignorance in the usual cliches, freedom-loving democracies like Ukraine. But the truth is, their interests, their beliefs are so far out of alignment with the interests and beliefs of the average person in this country including their own voters that once that is exposed to light. They are in trouble.
Last point, this is only happening, because there is no credible opposition to it in the Congress.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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