The 9th episode of Tucker Carlson’s new show is up and it’s a lengthy interview with Andrew Tate. In fact, it’s so long (2 1/2 hours) that I’ve only watched about half of it. Here’s what I’ve seen so far:

• There’s a 4-minute introduction where Carlson lays out his theory that maybe Andrew Tate was accused of crimes because people didn’t like what he was saying. In other words, maybe the allegations were made up.
• Tate says he’s been accused of recruiting girls to work for him and then taking money from their TikTok views. He clearly wants this to sounds absurd and I guess it does. He also mentions “the loverboy method to convince women to do TikTok videos to make money.”
• Tate suggests the advantage of this allegation is that prosecutors can ignore the statements of the women involved and assume they are acting under duress.
• Tate tries to universalize his situation saying that any man anywhere could be accused of similar crimes just because he knows two women with TikTok on their phone. To say he’s stretching this a bit would be putting it kindly.
• He summarized the case, “Andrew and his brother, by being nice men, convinced girls to have TikTok accounts and then take the money.” But he added there’s no evidence of any financial transactions in the case file.
• At this point, a decent interviewer would have probably gone to the obvious question: Then where did you get all your money? Tate had something like a dozen luxury cars and owns a large compound and apparently several other large properties in Romania. Where did all of that money come from? Tucker doesn’t ask (at least not then).
• Tate suggests that the allegations against him are not only false but were motivated by a desire to silence him and his teachings.
• Tucker says Romania sounds like the kind of place where sex trafficking happens and Tate agrees it’s pretty common and says they probably could have found a real trafficker without much trouble.
• Tucker says that Tate isn’t actually accused for rape (19:37). I’m not sure that’s accurate. Just a couple weeks ago reports at every news outlet said one person involved (either Andrew or his brother) had been charged with rape. I’m actually not sure where Tucker is getting the idea that he hasn’t been charged with rape. As far as I know that charge has not been dropped.
• Again, Tate suggests the real goal was to shut him up by throwing him in prison.
• There’s a talk about COVID and how Andrew and his brother spent part of it in Sweden partying and how this gave him a different perspective on what was happening in the rest of the world.
• Tucker next adopts the idea that Tate was sent to jail because of what he was saying and because people didn’t like it.
• “The UK has become more authoritarian than anywhere in the Persian Gulf,” Tucker says. Oh, come on. The UK is more authoritarian than Iran which is literally a theocracy? Sorry, Tucker, but that’s nonsense. Granted the UK has problems and stupid woke politics just like the US but it’s not Iran or Saudi Arabia. Get a grip.

Here’s the full interview. I’m just shy of an hour into it. I’ll keep watching a bit more and add updates if anything grabs me. I’m probably swimming against the tide on this and that’s okay but I don’t think Andrew Tate is an innocent. He’s been charged with trafficking and rape and he’s been accused of reaching out to underage girls on social media in a way that sounds a lot like grooming to me.

Ep. 9 The Andrew Tate interview pic.twitter.com/0KKMzSVmMO

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) July 11, 2023

Update: I’ve kept watching and it’s more of the same. Tate gives Putin credit for “curing COVID” because once the invasion happened no one cared about COVID anymore. Tate says he understands very well what is happening in Russia and that there are no good guys and bad guys. Tucker agrees that “anyone who doesn’t understand that should shut the f**k up.” He added, “Anyone who tells you this is Churchill versus Hitler is an idiot.” Tate adds that the war clearly isn’t about freedom or democracy because that’s “already been destroyed by Zelensky.”

From there we’re on to Tate view of depression which he explains he doesn’t believe in: “I don’t believe in it and because I don’t believe in it it has made me the kind of person who can’t become depressed.” This goes on for a while and I think I would describe Tate (in general) as unschooled but smart. He’s sort of knocking on some of the elements of cognitive behavioral therapy, i.e. get fit, eat better, realize there are things you can do to improve your own situation, etc. He’s not wrong about everything he’s saying he’s just too cavalier about it. Not everyone’s problems can be fixed as easily as going to the gym and working hard.