Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) slammed Tucker Carlson over a clip where he praised a Russian grocery store experience during his widely condemned Moscow trip.
“Ah yes, Russia is so much better than the U.S. with all those cheap groceries and lavish subway stations!,” wrote Tillis in response to clipsthat Carlson shared from the trip Wednesday.
“The Soviets had a term for people like Tucker: useful idiots.”
The former Fox News host, who has faced criticism for his softball questions in an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, applauded a shopping cart coin lock system –– similar to one seen in stores in the U.S. and abroad –– toward the start of one clip.
Carlson later gushed about a shopping cart escalator –– which is also used in U.S. stores –– and remarked on a loaf of bread before praising the total price of his groceries at checkout, which he estimated to be roughly $400 but claimed it was actually about $104.
“Coming to a Russian grocery store, the ‘heart of evil,’ and seeing what things cost and how they live, it will radicalize you against our leaders,” Carlson declared, “That’s how I feel, anyway, radicalized. We’re not making any of this up, by the way, at all.”
Tucker says after visiting a Russian grocery store he is “radicalized against our leaders” because Russians have it so much better than Americans. pic.twitter.com/Vczo4pf5SK
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) February 15, 2024
Other critics slammed Carlson’s Russian grocery store admiration including Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.).
This is so amazingly stupid. I don’t care what some flagship supermarket in an imperial city looks like. Russia is far, far, poorer than our poorest state, Mississippi. Oh, and it’s also a crappy dictatorship. https://t.co/rF7iEQvgw0
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) February 15, 2024
I wonder what would happen to you if you stole a shopping cart in Moscow?
— JUSTICE_IS_HERE! 🟧🇺🇸 (@justicenow_alan) February 15, 2024
Tucker in America: “Free speech is the main right you have. Without it, you have no others.”
Tucker in Russia, where democracy is a joke and journalists rot in jail : “My, how the grocery store floors glisten like the ice crystals upon Swan Lake!” https://t.co/4g80PDFiyppic.twitter.com/Y2D3cOtfYr
— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) February 15, 2024
On one level, this is a pathetic play for attention by a guy who was fired by Fox.
On another level, standing in a city where real journalists are jailed, tortured and murdered, where mass kidnapping of Ukrainian children is planned, where war crimes of a level not seen in… https://t.co/YOj6NNdHRc
— Stuart Stevens (@stuartpstevens) February 15, 2024
Tucker says groceries in Russia cost about 1/4th of what they cost in America. What he doesn’t mention is the average Russian salary is 1/5th the average U.S. salary. pic.twitter.com/zwWCOTIMZi
— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) February 15, 2024
If he thinks supermarkets in Moscow show how better off Russia’s citizens are than Americans, I can’t wait until he sees the amazing internet cafes in North Korea.
— Kyle Beshears (@kylebeshears) February 15, 2024
This can’t be real. He’s just discovering coin-locked shopping carts, but he had to go all the way to Russia to see it? Dude’s just admitted he’s never gone grocery shopping. https://t.co/0OnMXGzdJy
— Buckley (@ADoseofBuckley) February 16, 2024
1989: boris yeltsin visits a texas supermarket and is radicalized against communism
2024: tucker carlson visits a moscow supermarket and is radicalized against democracy
feels like there’s a marx quote about this somewhere https://t.co/JNdE9vsbuX
— Seva (@SevaUT) February 15, 2024
