Tucker Carlson: ‘No decent person would defend’ what happened to Navalny

Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson said “no decent person would defend” what happened to Alexei Navalny after the Russian opposition leader’s death in prison was announced Friday.

Carlson, a former Fox News pundit who has faced backlash for his recent extended interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, told the Daily Mail in a statement, “It’s horrifying what happened to Navalny.”

“The whole thing is barbaric and awful. No decent person would defend it,” he added.

Carlson recently traveled to Russia to interview Putin in his first media appearance with a member of the Western press since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago. Carlson was immediately accused of allowing Putin to spread Moscow propaganda and not asking difficult questions.

The former Fox News anchor, who has expressed skepticism of ongoing U.S. support for Ukraine, spent eight days in Moscow and said it was “nicer” than any city in the United States, praising Putin’s governing of it.

The Daily Mail noted that on Monday, when asked about accusations of lobbing softballs at an autocrat like Putin who has been accused of countless deaths, Carlson replied, “every leader kills people, leadership requires killing people.”

“I didn’t talk about the things that every other American media outlet talks about because those are covered,” he said at the time.

Navalny, who campaigned against official corruption and organized anti-Kremlin protests while running for public office, was the most prominent face of the opposition to Putin’s leadership in the past decade.

He was poisoned in 2020 while outside of Russia and claimed Putin was behind the nerve agent poisoning. Putin denied the accusation.

Navalny was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism denounced by international observers.

President Biden and other top U.S. officials promptly blamed the Russian leader for Navalny’s death.

“Putin is responsible. What has happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality. No one should be fooled,” the president said in remarks from the White House.