Putin and Carlson did not discuss Taylor Swift, the Super Bowl, or Biden being a 'power facade'

By: Christian Haag
February 9 2024

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No, it was not a bombshell but a false transcript. Source: American Media Group/Screenshot/Edited by Logically Facts

Context

A fake transcript of Tucker Carlson's interview with Putin has gone viral on social media. In the transcript, Putin claims that Russia is convinced that Biden does not run the U.S. and that he is just a facade for the power structures "that have always ruled [the U.S.]." The script also claims that Putin and Carlson discussed Palestine, the Super Bowl, and Taylor Swift.

Excerpt from the false transcript. 
(Source: American Media Group/Screenshot)

The transcript seemingly originated from iSourceNews, which has since claimed it has been deleted due to "copyright claims." It has since been picked up by multiple misinformation accounts, including Bakom Kulisserna, referred to in a viral TikTok video which has garnered 100,000 views in about 24 hours.

A Swedish video of the false transcript that went viral on TikTok. 
(Source: TikTok/screenshot/Annotated by Logically Facts)

However, the transcript is fake. 

In fact

Logically Facts has watched the actual interview with Vladimir Putin by Tucker Carlson, and while they do talk about Biden, it does not correspond with the supposed leaked transcript. Putin and Carlson did not discuss Biden as a facade for power structures in the U.S. Furthermore, they did not discuss Palestine, the Super Bowl, or Taylor Swift. Putin primarily talked about history, NATO expansion, Ukraine, Russia's relationship with the U.S., Elon Musk and AI, and imprisoned American journalist Evan Gershkovich. 

Apart from the factual errors of what was discussed, the transcript is too short to encompass the two-hour-long interview and repeats several questions and answers. For example, the question "What's your opinion of President Biden?" and the response "We're convinced he's not running the country. Let's say we have sources that confirm that, but it's plain for anyone to see. The U.S. has now entered into a dark period. It has unaccountable leadership," is repeated five times throughout the transcript. 

The interview was highly anticipated and was released at midnight on Thursday, February 8. Throughout the interview, Putin repeated multiple false claims and accusations towards the West and Ukraine. Carlson was criticized for claiming that Western journalists had not "bothered" to interview Putin. This is false, as numerous journalists have reached out for interviews. Putin's Press Secretary, Dmitry Peskov, also denied the claim.

Logically Facts' analysis of the interview can be read here. 

The verdict

The "leaked" transcript does not correlate with the actual interview and mentions topics Carlson and Putin did not discuss. Therefore, we have marked this claim as fake.