Tucker Appears to Take Swipe at ‘So-Called Reporter,’ ‘Flack’ Jennifer Griffin

Tucker Carlson on Tuesday seemingly criticized his Fox News colleague Jennifer Griffin, the network’s national security correspondent who has made headlines of late for issuing on-air fact-checks of right-wing narratives about Ukraine.

Prior to a segment with Ret. Col. Douglas MacGregor, Carlson introduced his guest as a trustworthy authority on the Eastern European crisis.

“Unlike so many of the TV generals you see all day long, MacGregor is not angling for a board seat at Raytheon,” Carlson said. “Unlike many of the so-called reporters you see on television, he is not acting secretly as a flack for Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon. No, Doug MacGregor is an honest man.”

On Sunday, MacGregor, a former Trump military adviser, offered a Kremlin-friendly analysis of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, suggesting that the U.S. should end sanctions on Russia and stop providing military aid to Ukraine. He also claimed that Ukraine should stop resisting Russian advances and just let it take what it wants.

Shortly afterward, Griffin came on air and said MacGregor sounded like a Putin “apologist” because “there were so many distortions in what he just said.” Griffin proceeded to push back against the retired general’s arguments, something she has done on Fox airwaves several times over the last month or so. When a co-host of the opinion panel show The Five suggested that the Ukraine crisis was manufactured to divert attention from the Durham filing and Hillary Clinton, for instance, Griffin stepped in. She took on a similar role when speaking with Sean Hannity, Steve Doocy, and Harris Faulkner.

And so by Tuesday, Carlson appeared to have decided that these appearances were grounds to label Griffin a “flack” for the secretary of defense. At no point in his discussion with MacGregor was her name mentioned, so that was the extent of Carlson’s perceived criticism of his colleague.

But Carlson, who has made enough Putin-friendly remarks that top Kremlin mouthpieces on Russian state TV wanted him to interview the Russian president, ended the discussion by making a pretty simple game of connect the dots regarding his views on Griffin.

MacGregor is “a man you can believe,” Carlson asserted, adding, “That’s a commodity that’s in short supply right now.”