NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo took Tucker Carlson to task over his recent interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a much-anticipated exchange set to air Monday night at 8 p.m. on the network.
The sit-down will mark Carlson’s first appearance on cable news since being ousted by Fox News. Carlson now uses X as a platform to air content and he took a lot of heat over the interview with Putin for not being more confrontational.
“I don’t disagree that sitting across from Putin and getting into a shouting match, or whatever, is going to bear much fruit for people,” Cuomo said in an early tease released by NewsNation. “But you made choices. You didn’t ask about Navalny.”
Cuomo was talking about Alexei Navalny, who died last month in a Russian prison where he was serving a combined 30-year sentence — described in the media as Putin’s most prominent domestic foe, the Russian president was immediately blamed for Navalny’s death.
“You said, well all killers, all leaders kill,” Cuomo continued. “But don’t you feel that if you are gonna go and sit with someone like that you have to hold them for account for things that matter, the fact that he may have murdered somebody or a lot of people.”
Chris Cuomo calls Tucker out over Putin interview. pic.twitter.com/8GVS6PVgUK — BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) March 11, 2024
“I did,” Carlson argued. “Well, the Ukrainians say he didn’t kill Navalny, so I think it’s ummm…”
“Who killed him then? Guy looks good one minute, the next minute he’s dead,” Cuomo pushed back.
Navalny’s mother was reportedly told that the cause of death was sudden death syndrome, with the prison claiming Navalny “felt unwell after a walk, almost immediately losing consciousness.”
Carlson was referencing a claim from Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence, who reportedly said Navalny died of natural causes, specifically a blood clot.
”In some larger sense, the Russian government — the Ukrainian government said he died of natural causes. Now, what is actually going on there, I can’t even guess,” he said.