American Patriots Support... Vladimir Putin?
On the Media
WNYC Studios
4.6 • 8.7K Ratings
🗓️ 28 February 2024
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In February, Donald Trump praised Russia for being a "war machine" and said that Russia should “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies that do not contribute enough to the military alliance. Far-right figures like Nick Fuentes, who referred to Vladimir Putin as "my Czar," have also shown support for the Russian president and his war on Ukraine. And while more mainstream Republican pundits like Tucker Carlson have walked back past praise for Putin, the American far-right's obsession with Russia goes back almost two decades.
Brooke sat down with Casey Michel, writer and investigative journalist, to discuss why white nationalists like David Duke, Richard Spencer, and Matthew Heimbach have long since looked to Putin's Russia as inspiration for their far-right movements in this country, and why Putin's attempts to create a nationalist Christian ethnostate serve as their model.
This segment originally aired on our March 4th, 2022 program, The Fog of War.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is on the media's midweek podcast. I'm Michael Lohanger. |
| 0:05.0 | Former President current candidate Donald Trump is back in the news with more |
| 0:11.0 | incendiary comments about Russia. |
| 0:13.4 | The former president told his supporters yesterday |
| 0:15.9 | that he would encourage Russia to do, quote, |
| 0:19.0 | whatever the hell they want to any NATO member country |
| 0:22.3 | that did not meet its spending obligations. |
| 0:24.4 | And he compared his own legal woes to the trials of recently deceased Russian |
| 0:29.3 | opposition leader Alexei Navalny. |
| 0:31.8 | I got indicted four times. |
| 0:33.4 | I have eight or nine trials, all because of the fact that I'm, |
| 0:37.1 | you know this, all because of the fact that I'm in politics. |
| 0:39.7 | It's a lot of, a lot of. |
| 0:40.7 | A lot of. A lot of. A lot of. |
| 0:42.0 | It is a form of Navalny. It is a form of communism or fascism. And then in a Fox Town Hall |
| 0:49.1 | he praised Russia for being a war machine. They defeated Hitler, they defeated Napoleon, you know they're a war machine. They defeated Hitler, they defeated Napoleon, |
| 0:54.0 | you know, they're a war machine. |
| 0:55.0 | But Trump's Russia suck-upary is not unique to him. |
| 0:59.0 | Not long after Putin launched the war in February 2022, |
| 1:03.4 | Far-right Conservatives and white nationalists |
| 1:05.8 | gathered in Orlando, Florida |
| 1:07.7 | for the America First Political Conference. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WNYC Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of WNYC Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.