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Fox News host Tucker Carlson at Business Insider's IGNITION.
- Fox News host Tucker Carlson defended his coverage of the Uranium One deal.
- Carlson knocked journalists for ignoring the 2010 deal.
- His comments came in an interview at Business Insider's IGNITION conference.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson defended his coverage of an Obama administration-era uranium deal that conservative lawmakers and media outlets have covered extensively in recent weeks.
Conservatives have revived outrage over a Russian company's 2010 purchase of Uranium One, a Canadian uranium company operating inside the US.
The purchase was approved by nine agencies, including the State Department when it was run by Hillary Clinton, whose foundation also received money from individuals associated with Uranium One. There is no evidence the donations affected the approval of the deal.
In an interview with Business Insider global editor-in-chief Nicholas Carlson, the pugilistic Fox News host said the coverage of Uranium One was justified. He argued that the company shipped American uranium to Canada without an export license.
"I don't know if it's the biggest story, but here's the context: First of all, Uranium One was shipped out of the country despite the fact that the company doesn't have an export license to do so," Carlson said, noting that The New York Times reported this previously.
"I don't know if that's a world-ending problem, but if you believe that many people seem to that Russia is our primary adversary on the world stage, the idea that a Russian company got control of some portion of our uranium," he said.
Critics of coverage of Uranium One have argued that there is little new news in the deal and said its revival has been used as a political tool to knock Democrats. Further, non-partisan fact-checkers have knocked Carlson and others for exaggerating how much US uranium was controlled by the Russian company that purchased Uranium One.
But in Thursday's interview, the Fox News host argued that journalists ignoring Uranium One were exposing their bias.
"That's how you ask honest questions, and you get to the core of the matter, which is does the person casting aspersions on your views know anything about what he's talking about," Carlson said.
He added later: "Here's what bothers me: The repetition of talking points by people posing as journalists. 'Oh, well I can't believe it's a conspiracy theory.' OK, maybe it is. Tell me how."