Tucker Carlson Challenges Zelensky to Prove Ukraine Is a Democracy

Tucker Carlson has questioned whether the war in Ukraine was a fight for democracy after the nation's President Volodymyr Zelensky said that it was unlikely to hold elections this year and next, due to the ongoing invasion.

In a scathing attack on his personal Twitter show on Tuesday—which, as of 7:40 a.m. ET on Wednesday, had been viewed 7.3 million times—the former Fox News anchor appeared to say that Zelensky was a "demagogue" who was using the war to give himself absolute power.

The monologue, titled "the war for democracy enables dictatorship," included claims that Ukraine's battle for sovereignty was "the most pointless war of all" and that elections had been "suspended" by Zelensky himself. This is despite suspension being stipulated in Ukraine's constitution, which pre-dates his election as president.

Newsweek approached the office of the Ukrainian president via email for comment on Wednesday.

Carlson has repeatedly drawn criticism for his analysis of the war in Ukraine, being seen as sympathetic to Moscow—a sentiment that has been reciprocated. After the pundit was unceremoniously let go from Fox News, one Kremlin mouthpiece described him as a "voice of reason," who was "welcome in Russia."

The anchor said that Kyiv was likely behind the recent collapsing of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, which caused widespread flooding. Russian officials have also made this claim. Ukraine's Centre for Strategic Communications described Carlson as a clown.

During his online broadcast, Carlson noted various American politicians, both Democrat and Republican, who had described the war as a fight for democracy. As a former Soviet nation, Ukraine has only recently regained a balanced democratic system after overcoming a leader aligned with Russia.

In 2014, the Revolution of Dignity culminated in the ousting of then-President Viktor Yanukovych, a Kremlin ally who had overseen democratic backsliding. It restored the nation's constitutional reforms, which significantly lessened the power of the presidency in favor of Ukraine's elected legislature.

However, Carlson added: "We have a problem. It looks like they're not going to be able to vote in Kyiv—and no, for once, it's not Putin's fault. Democracy in Ukraine seems to be suspended by the world's foremost democracy advocate himself: field marshal Zelensky."

Carlson cited a BBC interview with the Ukrainian leader on June 22, in which he was asked if there would be elections in 2024. Parliamentary elections were originally due to be held this year, with a presidential election next year.

"This is a global question," Zelensky said. "If we win, there will be. So there will be no wartime (martial law), no war. Elections should be held in peacetime, when there is no war, according to the law."

The Ukrainian president's remarks echo the nation's 2015 constitutional law regarding martial law, which Zelensky declared on February 22, 2022—shortly after Russian troops began crossing the border.

It says: "In the conditions of martial law, the following are prohibited: conducting elections of the President of Ukraine, as well as elections to the Verkhovna Rada [legislature] of Ukraine," as well as local elections. The law was passed by Ukraine's elected legislature, and Zelensky was elected as president in 2019.

The BBC interview is also not the first time a Ukrainian official has said publicly that elections would not be held while the war was ongoing.

In May, after facing criticism from a branch of the European Union, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, told Ukrainian Pravda that the EU "has to realize that we have our own Constitution and our own laws, which we must observe."

"When [martial law] is in effect, as it currently is, no elections can take place," Danilov added.

However, Carlson chose to interpret Zelensky's comments differently. "He says, 'if we win, we'll let people vote. Otherwise, no, you vote when we feel like it—because ultimately, we're completely in charge and make all the decisions,'" the political commentator said.

Later on in the broadcast, Carlson added: "Once war breaks out, politicians become gods with the power of life and death. So in a peaceful democracy, you have to debate your opponents in public—and that's tiresome. But, in a war for democracy, you can just throw them in jail, or have them executed."

When the war does come to an end, Zelensky is on track to be re-elected by a landslide. A poll of 1,029 Ukrainians was conducted between May 26 and June 5 by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. It found that, while 73 percent support a renewal of government after victory, 77 percent wanted Zelensky to stay.