Who is Tucker Carlson, the fired Fox News host who interviewed Vladimir Putin?
His ratings broke records, but Tucker Carlson was abruptly fired from his primetime Fox News show in April last year. Now, Carlson has become the first Western journalist to interview Vladimir Putin since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Friday 9 February 2024 11:55, UK
Controversial US media personality Tucker Carlson has interviewed Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The 54-year-old is the first Western journalist to interview Mr Putin since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago.
But who is Tucker Carlson, why did Mr Putin agree to the interview and what was Carlson's rationale for giving the Russian leader a platform?
Tucker Carlson's Fox News show
Carlson, who has been a vocal supporter of Mr Putin in the past, was sacked from Fox News in April last year.
He took up the prime-time weekday evenings spot on Fox News in 2016 with his show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, and quickly established himself as a key player in the network and an influential voice in Republican politics.
The show was the highest-rated cable news programme in the key 25 to 54 age demographic, with Fox News the most-watched US cable news network.
Ratings slumped after his departure - however they rebounded since then, the company said, adding they had finished 2023 as cable television's most-watched network.
He often embraced conspiracy theories and far-right issues. He repeatedly questioned the efficacy of COVID vaccines and compared mandates to "Nazi experiments".
While he found success with viewers, his inflammatory comments caused some advertisers to distance themselves from the programme.
His exit from mainstream TV
Carlson left Fox News in April last year, less than a week after parent company Fox Corp agreed to pay $787.5m (£631m) to Dominion Voting Systems to avert a defamation trial.
The network offered no explanation for the move.
Dominion, which makes voting machines, had sued over the channel's coverage of false claims the machines rigged the 2020 election.
Carlson, 53, had been expected to testify in the Dominion trial.
In messages revealed as part of the lawsuit, Carlson acknowledged the claims about voter fraud were baseless. He also said he "passionately" hated former president Donald Trump - a departure from his rhetoric on the show.
Carlson turned to X, where the Putin interview was shared
Carlson rebooted his show on X last year, calling Elon Musk's site the last big remaining platform to allow free speech.
The media personality shared the Mr Putin interview both on X and on his own website on Thursday night.
What was said in the interview?
Mr Putin spoke at length about his thoughts on Ukraine, a possible negotiation and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
He told Carlson he was prepared to negotiate a peace deal with Volodymyr Zelenskyy but added that Russia had not yet achieved its aims in the country, including "de-Nazification".
The Russian president also said that he had "no interest" in attacking Poland or Latvia, saying he would only do so if either country were to attack Russia.
On the topic of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been in a Russian prison for almost a year, Mr Putin said he would not "rule out" returning the journalist to the US, provided the US takes "reciprocal steps".
Russia has accused Gershkovich of being an American spy, something the US denies.
Before the interview began, Carlson said he began by asking the "most obvious question" - why Mr Putin started the war in Ukraine.
"The answer we got shocked us," he said, explaining that the Russian president "went on for about half an hour" about the history of Russia.
"We thought it was a filibustering technique and found it annoying," Carlson said.
But he said his team later concluded it was "not filibustering" and "seemed sincere".
Read more:
Ukraine, American 'spies' and Russia joining NATO: Putin's main talking points
Why did Putin agree to Carlson talk?
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the interview was granted because Carlson's approach differs from the "one-sided" reporting of traditional Western news media.
"When it comes to the countries of the collective West, the large network media, TV channels, (and) large newspapers can in no way boast of even trying to at least look impartial in terms of coverage," Mr Peskov said.
"These are all media outlets that take an exceptionally one-sided position. Of course, there is no desire to communicate with such media, and it hardly makes sense, and it is unlikely that it will be useful."
Mr Peskov added that the president granted the interview with the former Fox News host because "his position is different from the others".
"It is in no way pro-Russian, it is not pro-Ukrainian - it is pro-American, but at least it contrasts with the position of the traditional Anglo-Saxon media."
Why Carlson says he did it
In a video shared on X a couple of days before it aired, Carlson said he was interviewing Mr Putin to "inform" Americans.
"Not a single Western journalist has bothered to interview the president of the other country involved in this conflict, Vladimir Putin," he said, a claim that has been rejected by journalists covering Russia.
Mr Carlson said there have been "scores" of interviews with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which he described as "fawning pep sessions" to amplify his demand for greater US involvement.
"Americans have a right to know about the war they are implicated in," he added.
He said the war in Ukraine is a "human disaster" that altered longstanding political and trade realities throughout the world.
"And yet the populations of the English-speaking countries seem mostly unaware, they think that nothing has really changed and they think that because nobody has told them the truth," he said.
Carlson's pro-Putin past
The former Fox anchor has criticised US support for Ukraine in the war and has previously propped up Mr Putin.
When Russia's invasion began, he questioned American aid for the war effort. He also falsely claimed that Ukraine's President Zelenskyy was an authoritarian leader.
In 2022, he said: "Zelenskyy has no interest in freedom and democracy. In fact, Zelenskyy is far closer to Lenin than to George Washington. He is a dictator. He is a dangerous authoritarian who has used a hundred billion in US tax dollars to erect a one-party police state in Ukraine."
Similarly in 2017, Carlson said: "Why is Vladimir Putin such a bad guy? He's not Saddam Hussein, he's not Adolf Hitler, he's not a danger to the United States."
His other politics
Carlson is a Republican who opposes abortion and gun control.
Despite the messages about Trump revealed in the Dominion case, Carlson's support for the former president was credited with fuelling his success.
In a 2021 profile, Time magazine labelled him the "most powerful conservative in America", fuelling controversy with right-wing rhetoric while maintaining record viewing figures.
Carlson's most controversial takes
He has regularly drawn controversy for incendiary statements about race, LGBTQ rights and other topics, and earlier this year Carlson came under fire from Republicans when he described the deadly riots on the US capitol on 6 January 2021 as "mostly peaceful chaos".
In 2018, he said immigrants would make the US "poorer and dirtier", prompting advertisers to cut ties with Tucker Carlson Tonight.
He defended the actions of Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who shot dead two Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020.
Carlson said Kenosha, the town where the shooting happened, had "devolved into anarchy" and added: "How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?"
He has made a string of derogatory comments about women, including telling writer Lauren Duca to go back to writing about thigh-high boots instead of politics, calling journalist Arianna Huffington a "pig" and labelling Britney Spears and Paris Hilton "the biggest white wh***s in America".
His life before Fox News
Carlson was born in San Francisco in 1969 and began his journalism career as a fact-checker for a conservative journal before making the move to TV in 2000.
In his early years on-screen he was known for his signature bow tie, which he abandoned in 2006.
He represented the political right on CNN's Crossfire from 2001 to 2004. When comedian and The Late Show host Jon Stewart was a guest in 2004, he lambasted the show and Carlson. Shortly after, the show was cancelled.
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Carlson went on to work for television networks PBS and MSNBC. He co-founded political news website The Daily Caller in 2010 and kept a stake in the company until 2020.
He joined Fox News as a contributor in 2009.