Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) reacted in real time on Wednesday night to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s address before Congress and, while not known for her even-handed takes, offered commentary that made her look eminently reasonable when compared to the demagoguery of Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Boebert, a leading light among the more hard-right members of the House GOP conference, had this to say after Zelensky spoke:

I just finished attending the address by President Zelensky, and we’re going to have votes here at the Capitol for the next 4 hours or so. Here’s what was clear from tonight. The people of Ukraine are suffering. The war is deadly and horrific and the carnage has not stopped. Sadly, what I didn’t hear tonight was a clear explanation of where the first $50 billion we sent to support their efforts went. Until Congress receives a full audit on where our money has already gone. I will not support sending additional money to this war. President Zelensky is working to protect his country’s border and his people. I get it. I really just wish our commander in chief would do the same right here at home and secure our southern border and protect our people.

While sticking to her guns about not wanting to send further U.S. tax dollars to Ukraine until an audit has been done, a common talking point on the hard right of the GOP, Boebert both noted the horrors of the war and offered appreciation for the battle Zelensky is fighting – two things that Carlson simply refuses to do.

Since the beginning of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military has openly targeted both Ukrainian military targets and civilian targets. Russian missiles have rained down on apartment complexes, train stations, power stations, schools and theaters – targeted because the Russians understood they were being used as civilian shelters.

The war has so far left at least 14 million Ukrainians displaced, creating one the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. Reuters estimates that over 40,000 Ukrainians have been killed and some 54,000 have been injured. Ukrainian officials have also sounded the alarm on various horrific war crimes committed by Russian soldiers, from torture to rape, and have reported some 13,000 children have been abducted and taken back to Russia.

Also, it’s worth noting that the war was entirely of Vladimir Putin’s making, part of a larger desire to reclaim the territory of the Soviet Union. Putin has farcically claimed he invaded Ukraine to free its people from Nazi oppression while rewriting the history of the region and erasing Ukrainian nationalism.

Carlson omitted those atrocities entirely as he attacked Zelensky, the president of the country that has been invaded by Russia. Instead, he fixated on Zelensky’s clothing and undertook some seriously bad-faith character assassination.

Carlson’s show was already on air as Zelensky finished and here was the first thing the Fox News star said to introduce his show on Wednesday: “As far as we know, no one’s ever addressed the United States Congress in a sweatshirt before, but they love him much more than they love you. Welcome to Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

“Sam Bankman-Fried showed up in Washington wearing a t- shirt and spouting nonsense, and all the self-described geniuses declared him a hero. The media, the Congress, the White House, they all love this weird little guy called Sam Bankman-Fried. Do you remember that? Somehow we were reminded of it today when the president of Ukraine arrived at the White House, dressed like the manager of a strip club and started to demand money,” Carlson continued, ignoring the substance of Zelensky’s remarks or the geopolitics surrounding the war and went straight into character assassination of the Ukrainian leader.

“Amazingly, no one threw him out, and instead they did whatever he wanted. American taxpayers declare Joe Biden will continue to give Zelensky whatever he demands for, quote, as long as it takes,” Carlson continued, referring to Zelensky as a “Ukrainian strip club manager.”

Carlson then went off on a tangent slamming Republican officials who dare support Ukraine’s fight to repel the Russian invasion.

“If you were a Republican officeholder and Zelensk came to Washington, maybe you would for a moment ask him about his current and ongoing war against Christianity in Ukraine. Especially if you were, say, Mitch McConnell or John Cornyn and a lot of your own voters go to church on Sunday. They might care about that issue,” Carlson added, repeating a blatantly false talking point attacking Ukraine’s Jewish leader.

As Matt Lewis explains in the Daily Beast, Carlson is distorting the fact that Ukraine “effectively shut down the Moscow-linked Russian Orthodox Church in the country.”

“The reason? As Christianity Today reported, Ukrainian authorities say they have ‘uncovered large amounts of cash, ‘dubious’ Russian citizens, and leaflets calling on people to join the Russian army…Other material cited as evidence included prayer texts of ROC patriarch Kirill and a video of hymn singing that celebrated Russia’s ‘awakening,’” Lewis explains.

Christianity is still widely and publicly practiced in Ukraine today.

“But McConnell and Cornyn didn’t mention it. They didn’t say a word. You will not hear a word on television tonight about the fact that Zelinski has banned an entire ancient Christian denomination in Ukraine and then seized churches and then thrown priests into jail. According to Mitch McConnell, who apparently hasn’t left his office since the mid-eighties. Anti-Christian despotism is what most Republicans want,” Carlson added.

The Fox News host went on for another few minutes bashing McConnell and at one point claimed “punishing Vladimir Putin for putting Donald Trump in office is more important than all of that, says Mitch McConnell.”

Carlson concluded his 7-minute tirade by attacking U.S. leaders for standing up against Putin and offering aid to the Ukraine:

So the leader of a foreign government dressed in a sweatshirt walks into the United States Congress. And starts demanding money. And then has the gall to tell the people sitting there who are giving him tens of billions of dollars more of your money, that is not charity. It’s an investment, really. What are the returns on that?

The Wall Street Journal made clear on Thursday what that return is, writing, “U.S. aid is helping to degrade an enemy military without the death of a single American in uniform.”

“And by the way, what’s the point of it? What is the goal here? What’s the justification for it? Do we have a historic debt to Ukraine? Do we have a historic animosity with a non-Soviet Russia?” Carlson continued, concluding:

No, no. How do we win here? What’s in it for us? Isn’t this our country? And where do you get off talking to us like that? We hate ourselves so much. We have so little respect for the United States of America that we put up with it will applaud it. Thank you, sir. May I have another? What’s wrong with us? What’s wrong with our leaders? And where is this going?

Carlson’s screed made no mention of Putin’s aggression in beginning the conflict, no mention of the suffering of the Ukrainian people, no mention of Russia’s attack on civilians or civilian infrastructure and no mention of Russia’s allegiance with China in trying to weaken the U.S. and rollback democracy internationally.

The post Even Lauren Boebert Acknowledges the Suffering of Ukrainian People While Criticizing U.S. Aid — Why Can’t Tucker Carlson? first appeared on Mediaite.

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