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‘What is the status?’ Elon Musk calls out Zelensky, Biden over Tucker video on jailed American journo

December 10, 2023 | | Print Article

Elon Musk has publicly called out President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on X, demanding that they “educate the American people” about the circumstances surrounding American journalist Gonzalo Lira, who has been, according to Tucker Carlson, “tortured in a Ukrainian prison since July, for the crime of criticizing Zelensky.”

From the outset of the war between Russia and Ukraine, Lira, who had been living in Ukraine for some time, began posting videos describing what he was seeing on the ground.

“The Russian economy is sailing on, sailing on,” he said in one of his reports. “The European economy? People are starting to die of hypothermia in the U.K. because they don’t have access to the cheap energy of Russia from before. So, everything that the West has thrown at Russians has boomeranged right back at them.”

Lira blasted Zelensky and was adamant that Ukraine could never win a war against Russia, even as the United States economy and military have suffered as a result of the billions in economic and military aid it has provided.

On Saturday, Carlson dropped his latest video — a heart-wrenching interview with Lira’s 80-year-old father, Gonzalo Lira Sr.

In his opening, Carlson noted that Lira Jr. was “denounced as a Russian puppet and a liar and a propagandist, but in fact, now we know that he was right.”

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Lira Jr. was arrested for his videos, was let out of jail, and was then re-arrested as he tried to cross the border into Hungary.

In his last video, the journalist said, “I will definitely be sent to a prison labor camp where I will most certainly die.”


(Video: YouTube)

He was just five kilometers from the Hungarian border, where he was planning to ask for political asylum when he was arrested again.

“Gonzalo Lira remains in prison tonight, a political prisoner in a country that we were told was free,” Carlson said. “A country whose government we are still paying for.”

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“The Biden State Department is uninterested in the fate of this American citizen,” he said. “In fact, of course, they support his imprisonment, and no one in the national media seems interested in his fate whatsoever.”

Speaking to Carlson from Chile, Lira Sr. passionately pleaded for the United States to recognize his son’s plight.

“Today will mark the seventh full month that he’s been arrested in Ukraine,” the father said. “He has not gone into trial. He’s awaiting trial. He was appointed a court attorney that doesn’t speak English, he’s a Ukrainian attorney. As far as the U.S. Embassy, they haven’t done a thing.”

Neither Lira Sr. nor Lira Jr.’s sister have been able to communicate with him.

“He’s incommunicado,” Lira Sr. said. “The U.S. Embassy has not answered our inquiries. The embassy in Kyiv never offered a defense attorney, never visited him, except for the first time, his court appointment last November 8th.”

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“An American citizen by birth is in jail because he was exercising his right of freedom of speech,” Lira Sr. said.

The father also noted that his son’s arrest came just four days after he posted a video that was critical of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Soon after Carlson’s interview dropped, Musk took notice.

“An American citizen is in prison in Ukraine after we sent over a $100 billion?” he asked Carlson on X. “Is there more to this story than simply criticizing Zelensky? If that’s all it is, then we have [a] serious problem here.”

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Musk then decided to take the direct route, addressing his next post to Zelensky: “President @ZelenskyyUa, please educate the American people about this matter.”


He demanded the same from President Biden.

“What is the status of this American journalist @JoeBiden?” he asked.

Calls to “Free Gonzalo Lira” began trending on X, and, while it doesn’t appear that either Biden or Zelensky have replied to the outspoken billionaire, news of his imprisonment has reached the masses, and his fate is not likely to be forgotten anytime soon.

“This is one of the most important stories inside of the most important stories of our current time in history,” wrote one user on X. “Huge props to Tucker for covering it when NOBODY else will.”


In July, a Change.org petition was set up calling on “Ukraine’s authorities, the highest ones if need be, to report on Gonzalo Lira’s situation, and to release him from detention, as clearly he has not done anything but voice political opinions in good faith, never calling for violent action or the commission of what in most societies (including the US) is deemed unacceptable, illegal.”

“He has never acted as a military informant for the armed forces of Russia -which would perhaps justify expulsion from Ukraine but not jailing. And he has not even released anything that might be deemed classified, secret,” the petition reads. “What the state of Ukraine has done to Gonzalo is already a great violence, a symbol of its mindset, in opposition with basic human rights and the idea of democracy.”

“This petition calls to reason, to sanity: free this harmless civilian, who has done nothing but share his views, which anyone is free to ignore or listen to, disagree with, and contest,” it states. “Freeing Gonzalo Lira will be a necessary sign of respect for democracy and the life of all citizens, a small step in the right direction -towards peace.”

Melissa Fine
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