The right has been floundering when it comes to addressing the Russian invasion. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee for 2024 has had to be told to stop praising President Vladimir Putin. Tucker Carlson only recently realized Putin may not be such a stand-up guy. Marjorie Taylor Greene, meanwhile, didn’t exactly deny being for the despised world leader.
Meanwhile, over at Newsmax, they’re having trouble with their guests. The issue? They keep saying mean things about Putin. On Monday, the Trumpist network brought on Alexey Goncharenko, a Ukrainian MP who’s appeared on the channel many times, one of them while brandishing an AK-47. Host Eric Bolling asked Goncharenko about Putin’s list of demands for ending the invasion, among them changing its constitution and surrendering Donetsk and Luhansk to Russia. Goncharenko was not for it, to put it lightly.
Ukrainian MP on Newsmax: "I just want to say to Putin what our soldiers told his Russian military ship – I'm sorry, go fuck yourself" pic.twitter.com/TaNyH5cljU
— Jason S. Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) March 7, 2022
“I want to say some bad words,” Goncharenko told Bolling. “Blank you, Putin, you know? I don’t know how to say this is–not to offend your viewers. I just want to say to Putin… what our soldiers told to his Russian military ship. I’m sorry, go f*ck yourself with all this.”
Goncharenko did elaborate, saying he doubts the sincerity of Putin’s offer. “In half [a] year he will start another war and say, ‘I want another part of Ukraine, then another part of Ukraine,’” he said. “We will never accept this. This is our territory. Crimea is Ukraine. Donbas is Ukraine, and he’s the aggressor, and he cannot demand from us anything.”
Despite repeatedly inviting on a rabidly anti-Putin Ukrainian politician, Newsmax is far from pro-Ukraine. Indeed, in December’s issue of their magazine (yes, there’s a Newsmax magazine), the cover was devoted to Putin, with the headline, “Vlad the Great: Putin’s War on the West.” The current issue, meanwhile, gives the same real estate to Dr. Oz.
(Via Mediaite)