'Useful Idiot': Republican Senator Slams Tucker Carlson After Ex-Fox News Host Marvels at Russian Grocery Store
Feb. 16 2024, Published 2:00 p.m. ET
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis branded Tucker Carlson a "useful idiot" after the ousted Fox News host shared a video in awe of a Russian grocery store, RadarOnline.com has learned.
While in Russia for his controversial interview with Vladimir Putin, Carlson made a side quest to visit a local grocery store, where he raved about low prices and produce quality.
In what is shaping up to be a promotional series for life in Russia, the ex-Fox News host gave grocery shopping in the country his stamp of approval.
"If you take people’s standard of living and you tank it through filth and crime and inflation, and they literally can’t buy the groceries they want, at that point maybe it matters less what you say or whether you’re a 'good person' or a 'bad person,'" Carlson said in the video.
"You’re wrecking people’s lives in their country and that’s what our leaders have done to us, and coming to a Russian grocery store, the “heart of evil,” and seeing what things cost and how people live, it will radicalize you against our leaders," the far-right host continued.
"That’s how I feel, anyway. Radicalized," Carlson added.
On X, formerly Twitter, the Senate Republican shared Carlson's video and slammed the far-right host for seemingly suggesting life in Russia is better than in the United States.
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"Ah yes, Russia is so much better than the U.S. with all those cheap groceries and lavish subway stations!" Tillis wrote. "The Soviets had a term for people like Tucker: useful idiots."
Ironically, a community note added to Carlson's video highlighted the reality of what Russians pay for groceries.
"Added context is needed to understand international price differences: The average wage in Russia is 73,383 RUB per month (which is $791 with today's exchange rate)," the note read. "Over 60% of Russians spend half of their salary on food, according to Russia's state-owned news agency TASS."
Carlson's videos from his grocery trip and public transport experience follow previous comments he made on how traveling to Russia "radicalized" him.
In his first public comments since he sat down with the Kremlin leader, Carlson said Moscow was so much "nicer" than any U.S. city he's visited.
"It is so much nicer than any city in my country. I had no idea," Carlson marveled at the World Governments Summit in Dubai.
"My father spent a lot of time there in the ’80s when he worked for the U.S. government and they barely had electricity," Carlson continued.
"And now it is so much cleaner and safer and prettier, aesthetically, its architecture, its food, its service, than any city in the United States that you have to — and this is not ideological — how did that happen? How did that happen?"