I'm not sure that's actually successful. Even a lot of conservatives seem put off by Tucker's recent activities, especially with the Navalny news today.
Of course, he made no mention of how much $100 is to the average Russian's income proportional to the average American's income.
Some of us just panic and react without thinking about why food is getting more expensive or what policies will improve the world for us now and our children in the future.
When people are hangry, they vote for the loudest monkey.
For a MAGA follower (if they ever hear about it and even know who Navalny is) such combinations induce a cognitive dissonance, which translates either into dispair or into open support of Putin after he killed his major critic, either way it would be a win. And the other side of US politics is in dispair wittnessing how the MAGA crowd handles this, which (from Putins point of view) hopefully makes people stresses enough about politics that they just don't want to hear it anymore.
This idea of confusion and despair is how he managed to get the Russians to stay so apolitical after a short optimistic phase in the 90s. Better not think about it — this is the message.
> As far as I know this is kind of the strategy of Russian propaganda. I would not be surprised if killing Navalny was done purposely shortly after the Tucker interview.
Another data point: Putin is now putting down Carlson:
> Speaking with a state television host, Mr. Putin said he was disappointed that Mr. Carlson had not asked “so-called sharp questions” because he wanted the opportunity to “respond sharply” in his own answers.
> “He turned out to be patient and listened to my lengthy dialogues, especially those related to history, and didn’t give me reason to do what I was ready for,” Mr. Putin said. “So, frankly, I didn’t get complete satisfaction from this interview.” ...
> Mr. Putin’s mockery of Mr. Carlson came as the former Fox host was basking in the aftermath of his interview by offering a steady stream of praise for Russia and Mr. Putin, whose leadership he has extolled as superior to Mr. Biden’s.
(https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/16/business/media/tucker-car...)
On one hand you have a KGB guy, who has for decades promoted himself as loyal-to-the-end, burning documents in East Germany while the wall was falling and Moscow wasn't picking up the phones with his colleagues nowhere to be found. And who has gone to great lengths (like using chemical weapons on UK soil) to punish people he sees as traitors.
And on the other hand you have Tucker, a CIA reject who is now running interference against his own nation's interests, who presents himself as a journalist while knowing less about Putin than Putin knows about him, and who was as intrepid as a wet noodle in that interview.
Putin made him wait for 2 hours before it even started. I think he just enjoys dunking on people.
I've seen a few political influencers who reliably follow a pattern of saying something abjectly stupid/offensive which draws mockery and attention for a week or two, and just when this attention is waning, saying something else of more substance which gets widely circulated by the same attention network. If one has a thick skin for hostile criticism, it's a great amplification technique.