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‘You cherry-picked…’: Chris Cuomo clashes with Tucker Carlson over Capitol riots and Putin interview
NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo clashed with Tucker Carlson during a wide-ranging discussion over the January 6th Capitol riots and Trump's involvement in it.
NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo clashed with Tucker Carlson during a wide-ranging discussion over the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots and former US President Donald Trump's involvement in it.
In a NewsNation interview titled "Cuomo & Carlson: The Conversation," Cuomo told the former Fox News presenter that he disagrees with his views on insurrection and slammed his "cherry-picked" use of Capitol surveillance footage that he played that day. The video was confidentially provided to him by then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
Criticising Carlson's approach of handling the Capitol riots coverage, Cuomo stated, “I think it was a riot. And I think they were motivated to go over the line in part by the president of the United States.”
In response, Carlson agreed that "parts of it obviously were a riot". He, however, mentioned that there was a lack of transparency around the presence of federal agents in the crowd that day. The FBI has dismissed any role in orchestrating the attack.
Cuomo stressed that transparency is the “key to understanding” and blasted Carlson, saying that "you cherry-picked that tape, by the way." Carlson said that he "aired whatever they sent me."
Last Spring, Fox News fired Carlson after the network decided to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million to resolve a defamation settlement involving Trump's bogus accusations of 2020 election fraud.
Cuomo-Carlson conversation focuses on Putin interview and Navalny's death
Cuomo further quizzed Carlson about his recent interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Carlson was widely criticised for barely grilling Putin over the Ukraine invasion and allowing him to speak freely about Russia's history.
“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. But you made choices,” Cuomo said.
He then pointed out that one of the absurd things was that Carlson didn't question Putin about Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died later in a penal colony.
“Don’t you feel that if you are gonna go and sit with someone like that you have to hold them to account for things that matter?” he asked.
Also Read: Tucker Carlson condemns Putin, calls Alexei Navalny's death ‘barbaric’
Carlson claimed wrongly, "Ukrainians say he didn't kill Navalny," when he should have said Putin. He even said that he “can't even guess” who actually killed Navalny, adding that he has realised that Russia's political environment is "extremely complicated."
Navalny's family, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and US President Joe Biden have blamed Putin for the Kremlin critic's death.
