Jacob Rees Mogg has slammed the conversation with Putin as "like interviewing leaders of Hamas" in a heated clash with Col Daniel Davis.
US talk show host Tucker Carlson's interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin last night and instead of pushing the Russian leader - indicted as a suspected war criminal - on his full-scale invasion of Ukraine and challenging his false assertions, Carlson swerved off-piste to talk God and the Russian soul.
Speaking on GBN America Rees-Mogg said: "Do you really want to hear from your enemy? Who is justifying invading a friendly country? Aren't we in a proxy war with Russia?
"Isn't it like going off to interview the leaders of Hamas and to give them a favourable option to get their message across?"
Jacob Rees Mogg and Col Daniel Davis had a heated debate
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Col Daniel Davis, who is a retired United States Army officer, responded: "Well, it's not so much a favourable option as it is an honest option to hear what they have to say.
"As a military man and somebody who's deployed into combat zones four times in my career, I think that I heartily believe that if you know your enemy and you know yourself, then you need not fear the outcome of any battle.
"If you never listen to your enemy, you don't know what they're thinking. And there could be some clues in there for people who are paying attention to see if maybe there's a way to find a negotiated settlement.
"Everybody likes to characterize Putin as being an evil person and all this. I think it's much wiser to say militarily what is actually possible and what's not, and then let's have policies based on the reality."
Putin is the leader of Russia
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He added: "As a military man, I want to win everything that I can.
"But in this particular case, as a military man, I can just tell you categorically there is no path to a Ukrainian military victory.
"And to continue going down that path I think is actually antithetical to Western interest to Ukraine interest.
"To blindly go down that path and say we're going to keep trying anyway, is going to get more Ukrainians killed.
Tucker Carlson conducted the interview in the KremlinTucker CarlsonJacob Rees-Mogg then argued: "But isn't that showing incredible weakness for the West?
"That we can be defeated by Russia because Ukraine is acting as a proxy for the West, whether we like it or not?"
Davis replied: "Yeah, whether we like it or not, we do not have the capacity to win unless Nato gets physically involved with their armies and we go to war with Russia.
"Which of course would be catastrophic and probably lead to nuclear war, that outcome is already ordained."
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