Tucker Carlson joined Steve Bannon and declared his love of Putin, only after being criticized for his apparent... love of Putin.

This is a weird one.

Does that mean Donald Trump embraces Nazi-ism now?

CARLSON: I want to go back, you know, I'm missing a lot of my favorite things and a lot of my favorite people. I don't want to argue about Israel of all subjects, oh my gosh. And I don't want to become, I'm not going to become a crazy person or a hater.

Part of the dynamic here is you become the things they accuse you of being, like I've seen this happen to many people, not many, but I have seen it happen, where they say you love Putin, they say that to me for years now, and then one day you're like, fuck it, I love Putin.

I mean, I actually, I kind of, I think Putin's an amazing leader.

I'm not, I've always thought that, but I'm not like a close friend of Putin's.

They can drive you to become a worse version of yourself by accusing you of being it.

You sort of grow into the attack.

Vladimir Putin is a vicious dictator who murders his rivals as well as journalists.

How can a person, even Carlson, respect Putin as being "an amazing leader" when he quells all dissent with violence?

This is Tucker Carlson. He is actually a hater and a destroyer of US democracy who embraces homophobia, white supremacy, and Christian nationalism.