Does it Matter if Trump Pal Tucker Carlson is on Putin's Payroll?

Oh Yes, Yes It Does

18 days to go and Trump is on his back foot, skedaddling away from the tough assignments, looking like a loser. I’d go on. But Dave Bautista summed it up much better than I could.

Meanwhile, Vice President Harris is just rocking it. I’d tell you more about that, but we did such a great podcast about where the election stands today with Simon Rosenberg, Tara McGowan and Tom Bonior—our politics regulars for many a moon now—that I really strongly suggest that you give it a listen. (I don’t often tout our podcasts at the DSR Network—and we do 15 or more every week. I just assume you’ll go to thedsrnetwork.com and become a member or sign up for them whereever you get your podcasts. But this one was especially good. And remember, our little band of merry pranksters called bullshit on the “red wave” in 2022 long before anyone else did.)

One of the lessons I learned back when I was in the government (the Millard Fillmore administration) was that we win when we are on offense and we lose when we play defense. Better to bring it and that is just what Kamala Harris and the Dems are doing as we enter this, the third act of this year’s election drama. (This will make more sense if you listen to the podcast.)

Still, there’s so much happening that it is often hard to make sense of it. So here are a few of today’s items in an explanatory nutshell (at least as far as they appear to me.)

• Begin with the most serious news of the day. The IDF found and killed (accidentally it appears) Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. No one should shed a tear for this bastard. He was a terrorist monster. He has not just the blood of the Israelis who died on October 7 of last year on his hands, but that of the hostages that have died since and of the many Palestinians who have suffered the consequences of his actions. But what does it mean? U.S. officials immediately made it clear that they see this as an opening to return the focus to gaining the release of the hostages and a ceasefire. Even Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu suggested it meant the war was closer to its end. But, do we believe him? Even though recent successes against the leadership of Hezbollah in Lebanon and now this blow to Hamas (which is already greatly weakened) have strengthened Netanyahu politically, he must still know that the end of the war will mean that his past behavior and his errors that led to the 10/7 terror attack will once again be under scrutiny putting his tenure as PM and possibly his freedom in jeopardy. Nonetheless, it is going to be much harder justifying the war with the leadership of both organizations largely obliterated. And, from a purely strategic perspective, making moves for peace that might lock in the blows to Iranian influence in the region seems eminently sensible. Of course, common sense seldom guides events in that part of the world. Further, there are longer term questions to reckon with. Notably: Will Israel’s brutal onslaught against Gaza and then against Lebanon someday be noted for the terrorists it eliminated or will it be remembered for the number it created? Will it all have made Israel safer? Brought peace and stability closer to the region? Or not? The jury is out. My bet is for a big press from Biden & Co. to get a ceasefire and the remaining hostages out. And it may work. But longer term, Israel will resist peace terms that would really empower the Palestinians and provide international peacekeepers in the area and since these are pre-requisites for rebuilding Gaza, it will remain an open and festering wound and a site of immense human suffering not just for months but for years to come.

• Today, the Prime Minister of Canada, under oath said that Tucker Carlson and Jordan Peterson were on Russia's payroll. He said that they were being paid through Russian propaganda engine RT and that it was all part of Russia’s efforts to influence the U.S. election. Carlson is of course, known as a TV hack who could not live up to high ethical and journalistic standards of Fox News and who since has made a name for himself plumping for Russian supermarkets. (Oh goodness, they have shopping carts!) He’s also the person who more recently joked with Gigatroll Elon Musk about the assassination of the Vice President. As a consequence, he is precisely the kind of person who would be of no consequence in a sensible world. Which does not, naturally, cover Trumpworld where Carlson (and Peterson) are seen as titans. Carlson in fact, helped guide Trump to his choice of Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance who, and sit down, this is going to come as a shock, is a huge Putin fan himself. You might remember seeing Carlson in Trump’s box during the Republican convention. He has Trump’s ear and into it he surely whispers the talking points delivered to him daily in the complimentary shipments of borscht RT leaves on his doorstep. This would be funny if it were not so treason adjacent.

• The other big story is, of course, Trump’s mental and campaign free fall. Oh I know, he’s doing fine in all the polls that the Magarians have pumped into the Muskverse but then again, those polls are conducted among the early bird special crowd at Mar-a-Lago. So they’re meaningless. What does matter is that Trump has been behind for weeks and is faltering in some of the key battleground states. Further, he has now cancelled six different appearances this week alone. Which is not, for those of you who are not Washington insiders like me, how presidential campaigns are ususally conducted with only just over two weeks to go to election day. (Yes. That’s right. Sit down. Have a shot of tequila. Take a few deep breaths. It will all be over soon.) As Kamala Harris now regularly notes, this is not the behavior of a man who is fit for the presidency. (My immigrant Dad—who came to this country to escape Nazis and would not be happy with where we are right now at all—had a predilection for dumb English sayings and puns and would often refer to someone who was ill or in distress as “not being a well bucket.”) But for the most part the big media outlets have been laying off the big story that one of the two people who could be the next president of the United States is not only a criminal and fascist and a traitor and a terrible person and a lousy president…but he is also losing his marbles. Or as the great TV writer David Simon has put it, “He's lost a ball in tall grass." But fortunately others are speaking up on this point including our friend the also dependably great Kimberly Atkins Stohr of the Boston Globe. Her piece, “Trump's Decline is Too Dangerous To Ignore" is where I will leave you today. But don’t worry, I will be back tomorrow with more of what you may think is a daily column and I see as an excellent form of group therapy.