Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Fox News' former star host Tucker Carlson a "useful idiot", belittling him as a career journalist ahead of the release of his interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Carlson, who departed from Fox News after a 14-year career and launched his own YouTube show, recently garnered attention when he announced his intention to interview Putin. This decision prompted strong criticism from the Western mainstream media and the US government.

Rather than reaffirming the historical facts to counter the Russian discourse about the special military operation in Ukraine, which Putin has repeatedly presented as a response to NATO's eastward expansion and alleged broken promises by the West, Clinton attacked Carlson personally, echoing statements formerly made by the White House.

"Remember, you’re listening to Vladimir Putin," US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said earlier on Thursday, "You shouldn’t take it face value, anything he has to say."

While statements by US officials have made it clear the issue at hand is that Carlson has given Putin a platform to propagate a counterpoint perspective of events in Eurasia that resulted in the war in Ukraine, Clinton sought to cast doubt on Carlson, painting him as a "useful idiot" and a "puppy dog".

It is worth noting that the term useful idiot has been used in the US political jargon as a derogatory term falsely attributed to Vladimir Lenin to undermine the trustworthiness of anyone who questioned US policies against the Soviet Union back then. As such, dubbing Carlson comes with implications, as the claims against him only emerged after he left the Murdoch-owned Fox News.

Undermining journalism as fifth column

In her interview with MSNBC, Clinton first attacked Carlson as a career journalist, saying, "Tucker Carlson is in Moscow right now interviewing Vladimir Putin, the first American, I’ll say ‘journalist’, to interview Putin since the war in Ukraine began."

Following that, Clinton slammed Carlson saying, "He’s what is called a useful idiot," just before she claimed, "If you actually read translations of what’s being said on Russian media, they make fun of him – he’s like a puppy dog."

Without explaining her statements, Clinton then proclaimed, "He says things that are not true. He parrots Vladimir Putin’s pack of lies about Ukraine."

Hillary Clinton on Tucker Carlson's Putin interview: 'He is a useful idiot'

Watch more of Alex Wagner's interview with Clinton tonight!

9pmET on MSNBC pic.twitter.com/936lATJBAm

— Alex Wagner Tonight (@WagnerTonight) February 7, 2024

Brushing aside the large anticipation for the interview across the US, Clinton also portrayed Americans interested in what Putin has to say as a "fifth column from Vladimir Putin" inside the US.

Carlson releases preemptive video ahead of the interview

In a Tuesday afternoon post to X before the interview's release, Carlson framed it as an opportunity for the American public to witness the truth behind the war in Ukraine, contrasting it with what he called a series of falsehoods propagated by Western media outlets.

Why I'm interviewing Vladimir Putin. pic.twitter.com/hqvXUZqvHX

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) February 6, 2024

In a four-minute video recorded in Moscow and previewing the interview, Carlson stated, "Most Americans have no idea why Putin invaded Ukraine or what his goals are now." 

He said “You’ve never heard his voice. That’s wrong. Americans have a right to know all we can about a war they’re implicated in, and we have the right to tell them about it,” adding that Western governments will try to censor the video because "they are afraid of information they can't control."

Read more: Key points from Tucker Carlson's interview with Putin