Adam Carolla: Comedians will bring pendulum back from being overly politically correct

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Adam Carolla: Comedians will bring pendulum back from being overly politically correct

Are Americans sick of Hollywood pushing politics on them? Comedian and podcast host Adam Carolla weighs in.

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," February 14, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

ED HENRY, FOX NEWS HOST: I'll see you again Monday morning on America's Newsroom with my co-host Sandra Smith, 9:00 a.m. Eastern. And my friend Martha MacCallum will be back right here Monday night. Until then, have a great weekend.

UCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: Good evening and welcome to TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT. Sadly, it's the end of the road for one of CNN's top presidential picks. Sadly, he's not dropping out. He's behind bars.

Creepy porn lawyer convicted today on a long list of felonies. Developing. We will have details for you just ahead.

We will also tell you about Mayor Michael Bloomberg's emergence as an actual Democratic contender and what that says about the Democratic Party and about America -- worth paying attention to.

But first tonight, as we've chronicled pretty extensively on this show, our leaders in Washington suddenly seem deeply sympathetic to people ensnared in our criminal justice system.

An awful lot of criminals are getting out of prison early these days or not going at all. This is compassionate, they tell us and it may be. Yet somehow, those same compassionate impulses don't seem to extend to Roger Stone, one of the President's oldest advisers.

Stone was convicted of lying during Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. In the end, Mueller couldn't find collusion, but Stone got up to nine years in prison. Good, says official Washington. He is annoying and worse, he is close to Trump. Let him die there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is trying to protect Roger Stone for lying under oath for witness tampering, for trying to cover up Trump's connections with Russia and this is really banana republic stuff.

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: This isn't jaywalking. It was seven felonies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is outrageous. I hope people are infuriated by this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The reason they're doing it is slimy, sleazy, dirty.

JOHN DEAN, FORMER NIXON WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: Roger stone is somebody I hold in minimum high esteem. So I was not unhappy to see him get seven to nine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Now that last person you may recognize, if you're of a certain age -- that was John Dean. Dean led the Watergate cover up for months. He made hush payments to the burglars. He destroyed evidence to keep investigators from finding it.

So how much time did he serve for all that? Well, he served four months. He is not Roger Stone. He didn't get nine years.

Andrew McCabe isn't Roger Stone either. He won't even serve that. In fact, McCabe will serve nothing at all, which is pretty remarkable if you think about it.

As an F.B.I. official, Andy McCabe authorized illegal leaks to the press and then lied to investigators about doing it. McCabe was fired from his job for that as he should have been.

But today, prosecutors announced that they will not bring any criminal charges against him for committing what were obviously crimes.

Over at CNN, they celebrated the news.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Look, many observers looked at this investigation and they believed it to not have merit.

To your point that it doesn't have merit, obviously, you are not a completely objective party in that right. So I just want to put that out there that there are a lot of observers -- independent observers -- who looked at this and said this doesn't make sense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Well, other corrupt former F.B.I. officials were thrilled by the news, too. Lisa Page who spent months texting her boyfriend Peter Strzok about how to stop Donald Trump, not her job by the way as a Federal employee -- tweeted this, "Cheers, Andy," with a photograph of herself holding a glass of wine. In other words, hey America, up yours.

But McCabe was the one man on the left today that didn't seem happy about the news. Believe it or not. He is not grateful that he just dodged an indictment. Instead, he says he is angry. He is the victim here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: As glad as I am that the Justice Department and the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office finally decided to do the right thing today, it is an absolute disgrace that they took two years and put my family through this experience for two years before they finally drew the obvious conclusion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Talk about an ingrate. If he was Roger Stone, McCabe would be in jail right now. Instead, he is a celebrity fawned over by the hair hats on cable news. No doubt his salary has increased.

You ought to be grateful he didn't get caught supporting Donald Trump three years ago. He would be talking to his lawyer through a glass window right now.

And he's not alone. There are an awful lot of people out there who aren't Roger Stone who are walking free tonight.

Take Jose George. George is accused of trafficking in fentanyl. That's the synthetic opioid that's killed tens of thousands of Americans and does so every year.

Police have already linked at least one death to the drugs that he sold, allegedly. He was recently arrested in New York State, but police had to release him, thanks to New York's new bail law even though he was facing life in prison.

After being charged, he was let go without paying a cent in bail. What's stopping him from trying to flee? Nothing. If he doesn't try, he is stupid. That's what life in New York is like now. That's compassion for those who are not Roger Stone.

In November, New York resident, Reeaz Khan who is also not Roger Stone was arrested for domestic violence. I.C.E. requested that he be handed over for possible deportation. New York ignored them and let Khan go.

Now, he has been arrested in raping -- for raping and murdering a 92-year- old woman. It's not just in New York by the way. Across the country, cities are slashing the sentences of people who are not Roger Stone or refusing to prosecute them entirely.

In California, Proposition 48 has fueled a wave of car break-ins and shoplifting by criminals who have calculated the potential gains of the crime outweigh the punishment they're likely to get.

In the City of Philadelphia, we told you this story a few times. District Attorney Larry Krasner has refused to prosecute dozens of cases of illegal gun possession. Well, how's that worked out? Exactly as you would expect.

Maalik Jackson-Wallace for example, is arrested in June 2018 for possessing a gun illegally. Instead of facing charges, he was sent with diversionary program and released.

These are the people who were for gun control for you, by the way, keep in mind.

In March -- you won't be surprised to hear this -- he was arrested for yet another gun crime, and he was released yet again.

After prosecutors asked for no bail in his case, because he's not Roger Stone -- finally last June, he was arrested for a third time, this time for murder. So do you see a thread here? What's going on exactly?

Criminal justice reform is a lot like gun control. It's not about changing the rules for everyone. It's about selectively enforcing them along political lines.

So for example, the left will lecture you for hours about gun crime and how afraid they are of guns and they hate guns and guns are bad. But they don't really feel that way. They oppose stop and frisk, which saved thousands of lives by taking many thousands of guns off the street. But they're totally opposed to that.

Meanwhile, they're working deep into the night, for example, to disarm law- abiding Virginians in rural Virginia who commit essentially no violent crime and are a threat to no one.

They're not for gun control. They are for punishing people who don't vote for them, and the same thing is happening here.

The left doesn't want criminal justice reform. If they did, they'd be on Roger Stone's side. No. What they really want is to send their political enemies to jail and that's what they're trying to do.

Former Trump campaign adviser, Michael Caputo has watched this whole thing from the beginning, and he joins us tonight.

So it's hard not -- Michael, thanks so much for joining us, I should say. It's hard not to compare and contrast the treatment of Andrew McCabe and Roger Stone. What do you make of this?

MICHAEL CAPUTO, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Obviously, it's a two-tiered justice system. We've always wondered about that. But in the wake of Donald Trump's election, in 2016, it became more and more obvious that there's one level of justice for Hillary Clinton, Andrew McCabe, James Comey, John Brennan, the list goes on -- and another level of justice -- right.

And another level of justice for Roger Stone and George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, JD Gordon, and there's no climbing alignment between them.

The fact of the matter is, we know now just by the things that they've exposed accidentally, with the prosecutors manipulating guideline enhancements to drag it up to seven to nine, with the jury foreman revealing that she is a lieutenant in the resistance.

You know, there's enough corruption, malice and ulterior motive here for the President to pardon Roger Stone immediately.

But indeed, there's enough corruption, malice and ulterior motive here for a new trial, at the very least. But we know that Roger Stone is never going to get a fair shake in the District of Columbia. No Republican ever does.

But Andrew McCabe, look at him. He is celebrating tonight with Lisa Page, toasting him on Twitter. It makes one just sick.

CARLSON: And I just want to be clear, unlike as maybe some people who have my politics, I'm not for sending Andy McCabe to prison for nine years. I'm just not. It's enough that he doesn't work for the F.B.I. That's fine.

I actually am not for sending a lot nonviolent people -- criminals -- to prison. I just -- but I believe in fairness and equal application of the law and I can't remember the last time a high profile Democrat in a politically tinged case went to jail.

Tony Podesta, for example, did the same thing that Paul Manafort did. They both lobbied together as partners for Ukraine. Tony Podesta is probably in Italy gazing at his art collection, and Paul Manafort is where tonight? Can you remind me?

CAPUTO: Yes, absolutely. Federal Prison with no sign of when he is going to get out. And I'll tell you another thing. I mean, you look at the likes of Hunter Biden, no matter what he did in the Ukraine, you know, he lobbied Cabinet level officers without a fair registration.

He did far more than Paul Manafort did, even more than Tony Podesta did, who is probably dining out in Washington, D.C. right now.

But there's a justice system for the Democrats and a justice system for the Republicans. That's why we're asking people to go to freerogerstone.com. We've got a really impressive petition going on there. We are well over 130,000 people demanding Roger Stone's pardon at freerogerstone.com.

We want the President to really take a look at this and have some compassion on the Stone family.

What's happened to Roger from the very beginning, by the way, Tucker, I was interrogated by the same prosecutor, Aaron Zelinski that Roger Stone was. The way that that guy wielded power, the arrogance of he would walk into a room with --

I remember a story of him screaming at a female defense attorney, "I am the government." And the stories of his bullying go on and on, but how he manipulated the guidelines --

CARLSON: People like that should not have power.

CAPUTO: Absolutely. I mean, the way he manipulated the guideline enhancements to take Roger Stone into the seven to nine-year category is an example of how they've done everything.

It's all done with bad faith, Tucker. They did the FISA warrants in bad Faith. They did the Fusion-F.B.I. dossier in bad faith. They followed, you know -- they were following and spying upon aides to the opposing candidate for President in bad faith. Everything here has been done in bad faith.

And the President needs to consider that when he sees what's going on with Roger Stone, who -- one thing is very clear, Roger Stone should never have testified before the House of Representatives. He never should have. It was a fix from the very beginning. It was a trap from the beginning.

CARLSON: But people on the right, they don't understand and I am on the right, so I can say this, you are, too. They don't understand -- we don't understand the stakes that the other side is playing for.

They don't want to win an argument. They want to crush you. They want to pull you off the internet. They want to cancel your checking account. They want to send you to jail, and they mean it. They're not joking at all. They are watching it now.

CAPUTO: They do.

CARLSON: Michael, great to see you tonight. Thank you for that so much.

CAPUTO: Once again, freerogerstone.com. Thanks a lot, Tucker.

CARLSON: I appreciate it. Well, one of CNN's top presidential picks -- and this was someone identified by their crack politics team -- is not going to be on the ballot in the fall.

The creepy porn lawyer was just convicted on all counts today, and we've got details.

Plus, how does Michael Bloomberg become the Democrats' best shot to beat Bernie Sanders? Let's just say the key factor rhymes with sunny, lots of it, like 60 billion of it. That's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: You profited from Stormy Daniels? You've done tens of millions of dollars with the free media on the basis of your relationship with her, and she's working in strip clubs.

You're exploiting her and you know that. Why aren't you paying her some of what you're making?

MICHAEL AVENATTI, LAWYER: Sir, this is absurd.

CARLSON: But it's my question. Why are you rich and your client is working in seedy strip clubs?

AVENATTI: I am not -- sir, do you have any idea how much money I've earned?

CARLSON: You're on every cable show. You're running for the President.

AVENATTI: You have no idea. You have no idea.

CARLSON: Well, I know that you haven't paid your taxes. Like so many lawyers, you were taking advantage of her, and you pose as a feminist hero, because you are shameless and the others let you get away with it, but you're an exploiter of a woman and you should be ashamed of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Well, I guess the headline is, that man is not going to be the Democratic nominee. He is not going to be giving the State of Union Address next January.

Creepy porn lawyer, the man you just saw that tape came to the end of the road today. Prosecutors charged him as you remember, with crimes, essentially accusing him of extortion. And today he was convicted in Federal Court in New York on three of those charges.

He was convicted of trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike. He could get more than 40 years in prison for that. He is facing even more charges in California as well.

No novel or summer blockbuster could even compare with the true exploits of the creepy porn lawyer.

Just two years ago, like Napoleon before Waterloo, he was a Colossus of American public life. Cable news producers trembled when they said his name, which we have never said in the show, not one time.

They put him on television almost daily for months on end. They couldn't stop themselves. They loved him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's a beast.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a beast. He keeps popping Donald Trump and all of these folks in the mouth. Jon Meacham says he may be the savior of the Republic.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I owe Michael Avenatti an apology. For the last couple of weeks, I've been saying, enough already, Michael. I've seen you everywhere. What would you like to say? I was wrong, brother.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: No, you don't owe Michael Avenatti -- whoever that is -- an apology. You America an apology for promoting a guy you knew was filthy at the time, but because he hated the same person you hate, you made him seem like a hero.

And you do owe us an apology for that. You should least acknowledge that the guy you made famous is now going to jail for extortion.

But we saved all the tape, especially this one. Here's Jeff Zucker's marionette over on CNN telling you that creepy porn lawyer actually is a presidential contender.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Looking ahead to 2020, one reason why I'm taking you seriously as a contender is because of your presence on cable news.

AVENATTI: I've got 20 years of experience at a very high level. As an attorney, I understand how governmental regulations are passed, how laws are passed, how the Supreme Court works. I have an extreme depth of knowledge --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Oh, the Icarus Syndrome came into play. CPL fell as quickly as he rose. Initially, we were pretty much the only show calling him exactly what he was -- a scam artist, someone who specializes in exploiting the weak.

But soon, it became clear to everyone, maybe when they learned he tried to defame Brett Kavanaugh and then when they learned that he'd stolen money from Stormy Daniels. Stormy Daniels, please. Even from a disabled client, he apparently defrauded.

But eventually, everyone knew exactly who he was until they didn't know that is, because this recent "Jeopardy" clip show the man who so dominated cable news that you couldn't get his face out of your head was swiftly forgotten once he couldn't get back on the cables.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX TREBEK, HOST, JEOPARDY: This lawyer's star rose while prepping Stormy Daniels, but fell after he was accused of trying to extort millions from Nike in 2019.

His name quickly forgotten obviously.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Author and columnist, Mark Steyn has been following creepy porn lawyer from his earliest creepiest days and so we're happy to have him back for a final assessment of the saga.

So I must say I never take pleasure, I mean this sincerely, in anyone going away because prison is horrible.

MARK STEYN, AUTHOR AND COLUMNIST: Yes.

CARLSON: But it's not really CPL I'm miffed with, it's the people who promoted him. You've been following this since day one. You and I had exactly the same reaction to this guy. Are you kidding? How did they fall for him?

STEYN: Well, absolutely. Everyone thinks you're some -- how was it that Tucker Carlson is the only person in the media who could see that this guy was just a creepy porn lawyer while everyone else thought that this very week, he should be standing on stage somewhere in Concord, New Hampshire thanking everyone for his tremendous victory on primary night because he was supposed to be the magic bullet that would take out Donald Trump?

I mean, you're right. This is -- this is actually on the media. And just to go back to what you were talking about earlier. He is a disgusting man and it is absolutely disgraceful.

As you said, he is wearing like $3,000.00 suits while poor old, Stormy was standing on a bar in some sleazy club in Virginia hoping there would be enough dollar bills tucked in her garter belt. I mean, he treated his clients appallingly.

But to go back to what you were talking about earlier, this is actually the embodiment of what the last three years has been about. He was supposed to get Trump out of the Oval Office and into jail. And instead, the guy they said was going to be the next President is himself going to jail.

And the only problem I have with it is that it goes back to the distinction you made. There are those in the club who never pay a price. The McCabe's and the Hilary's who just sail from one TV contract to one new book deal on to the next TV contract.

And this guy was just actually some sleazy chancer, as we say in Ireland, an undoubted criminal, the most reprehensible kind of guy.

But again, the reason he is going into jail and the coup plotters aren't is for the reason you were talking about earlier, he is not a member of the club.

Otherwise, if he were really the guy those rubes at CNN mistook him for, he'd be laughing at us the same way that that awful McCabe guy is laughing at us today.

CARLSON: Have you ever noticed that the people who spend the most time talking about how concerned they are about the world and injustice and you know, the big picture compassion are always the worst to the people around them?

They've got a trail of ex-wives and alienated children and defrauded clients. There's a connection, right?

STEYN: Yes, absolutely. And I think -- one thing I think I said at the time he began representing Stormy. You've seen this with so many sleazy lawyers before. You know that at the end of it, he is going to be rich and famous, and she is still going to have no money and she is still going to be completely forgotten.

And that actually gets to the heart of what's wrong here. They so hated Trump. They bet their chips on this guy. How stupid do you have to be?

CARLSON: Exactly.

STEYN: To think that -- oh, never mind about Biden, never mind about Bernie. We've got creepy porn lawyer as the best President we never had. That's on Stelter and Jon Meacham and all those other idiots. You're the guys -- I'd rather be hot for Stormy Daniels than hot for creepy porn lawyer.

CARLSON: I totally agree. I do feel a little sorry for CPL. I don't feel sorry at all for the panels on those shows you just mentioned. Mark Steyn, great to see you tonight. Thank you for that summation of the career of creepy porn lawyer. Great to see you.

STEYN: Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot, Tucker.

CARLSON: So Michael Bloomberg is a former Republican. He is a billionaire. He made his money on Wall Street, and he is the guy whose every good idea is now considered racist by modern Democrats.

So how did he wind up a top contender for the Democratic nomination? There is an explanation. We've got it for you.

Then we'll talk to Adam Carolla. Interesting conversation. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: There are two primaries in in the Democratic nominating contest and as the smoke clears, it looks like Bernie Sanders is the front runner for the nomination. But he's not way out ahead of everyone else.

Pete Buttigieg actually leads him in the delegate count. Amy Klobuchar, all of a sudden seems like a semi-real candidate. Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren have already lost the race, but each is refusing to drop out for their own psychological reasons.

Bottom line, it's a mess. Each of the Democratic contenders is dragging the others down. It's chaotic and chaos like this is a disaster for the Democratic Party.

On the other hand, it's a massive opportunity for tiny billionaires who think they should run the country. People like that view our political system, like an aging family company with a dysfunctional Board of Directors -- ripe for hostile takeover. That's Michael Bloomberg plan.

Just a few months ago, it seemed absurd. Bloomberg was entering the race so late he wasn't even on the ballot in the first few states. He was polling in the single digits. He didn't even seem like he wanted to run for President. Remember?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's just not going to happen on a national level for somebody like me starting where I am, unless I was willing to change all my views and go on what CNN called an apology tour.

[LAUGHTER]

BLOOMBERG: Joe Biden went out and apologized for being male, over 50, white. Beto, whatever his name is he has apologized for being born.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Well, it turns out he was willing to change all of his views. Bloomberg has made an awful lot of apologies over the last six months about core beliefs. He no longer has them. And by the way, it's worked.

Amazingly, he has risen in the polls week by week. In the RealClearPolitics average, he is now third. Soon, he'll be second when he inevitably overtakes a collapsing Joe Biden campaign. At that point, the Democratic race could be a contest between a socialist and one of the world's richest man.

So how exactly did this happen? Well, just the way you'd think. The same way Bloomberg wound up with 14 houses. He bought it.

For months, Warren and Sanders had been complaining about the possibility of that happening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The fundamental problem in this country is the power that the billionaire class has over the economic and political life of this country.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think any billionaire ought to be able to do it, and I don't think people who suck up to billionaires in order to fund their campaigns ought to do it.

SANDERS: They corrupt a political system in which billionaires are buying elections.

WARREN: He doesn't need people. He only needs bags and bags of money.

SANDERS: One person, one vote, not billionaires buying elections.

WARREN: We've got billionaires who think they can just buy an election. Case in point, Michael Bloomberg.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Look, you may not agree with either one of those candidates, we certainly don't. But they do raise an important point about a basic vulnerability in our system. It is possible that if someone had enough money, he could get much farther than he would otherwise and that challenges the idea of democracy.

So when Sanders and Warren said what you just saw them say, it sounded very much like an attack, but it turned out nobody really cared.

Bloomberg is trying to buy the election. He is open about that. He is not hiding it one bit -- and it's working.

So what does that prove exactly? Well, among other things, it proves that in America, race politics may be powerful. Unfortunately, it is. But it's nothing compared to the power of cash.

We know this because better Beto O'Rourke, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren all ran on identity, race, gender, sexual orientation, and they all failed.

Bloomberg isn't doing that. Bloomberg is running on his checking account, and it's working. So if you had to choose between wokeness and money, go with money. It matters much more. You should remember that.

Four years ago, you often heard people say that Donald Trump was trying to buy the presidency; if only, in fact Trump's campaign was a tiny operation. He didn't put much money in it.

Hillary Clinton dramatically outspent him. Democrats, I think outspent Republicans two to one. Trump's top challengers in the Republican primary outspent him. Even Ben Carson spent at a higher rate before he dropped out.

But Bloomberg occupies an entirely different level. Bloomberg is worth almost $62 billion dollars. That's about 17 times richer than Donald Trump. Bloomberg's net worth is higher than the GDP of seven U.S. states -- like actual states in our country.

So Bloomberg is not just rich, he is incredibly rich. One of the richest people on the planet and he uses that money effectively.

In a recent Twitter thread that you should read because it's fascinating, journalist Blake Zeff laid out the way that Bloomberg operates in his running for President.

So the first thing Mike Bloomberg buys with his money is loyalty. In years past, Bloomberg's political operation spent $2.2 million to elect New Jersey Democrat, Mikie Sherrill. He spent the same amount electing Congresswoman Haley Stevens in Michigan, and then another $4.5 million electing Congressman Harley Rouda in California.

Now all three Members of Congress have since endorsed Bloomberg, not surprisingly.

Ever since his days as Mayor of New York, Bloomberg has showered millions of dollars on community groups, charities, nonprofits, a lot of gun control organizations. All of them are now totally indebted to him. That's helpful when you're running for President.

You can also buy a lot of talent, and he has and he spent a lot for it. Michael Bloomberg campaign staffers get free Macbooks, free iPhones, three catered meals a day and salaries that are two or three times greater than what staffers get in other campaigns.

And by the way, he has promised that he will pay through November whether he wins or not. When you offer benefits that generous, you don't have to be a cynical political operative to be won over.

Money corrupts almost anyone, if there's enough of it. A committed socialist who badly wants to beat Trump will learn to love Michael Bloomberg, if he's being paid a six-figure salary to do it, and many are.

And of course, money is good for advertising. That's the traditional use of it in politics. It's still doesn't hurt.

Bloomberg spent millions to run an ad for example, during the Super Bowl. If you're stuck in a Super Tuesday state, you will see Bloomberg's ads virtually all day on all TVs.

As Zeff explained in that Twitter thread, all of this works because Bloomberg and the people around him aren't stupid. Not at all. They're smart.

He isn't working with the same useless consultants who have killed other campaigns. Most consultants are stupid and overpaid. His aren't.

"Mike's team has a rare combination, maybe even unprecedented -- in U.S. politics: unlimited money, elite intelligence and Machiavellian ethics. They know Mike has real vulnerabilities in the primary and issues and his Republican past, but they also know Democrats hate Trump. That's where the campaign turns all its focus. This presents one of the biggest Republican donors ever Mike, as the world Democrat who just wants to see Trump, his old golf buddy lose. So far voters are lapping it up."

It's scary when you think about it actually. It's so dishonest. Some voters lap it up anyway. There are a few holdouts. Bernie Sanders is still the front runner. So there are Democrats, the ones who aren't being paid, who don't want to see their party sold to the single richest man on Wall Street.

And a lot of other normal Americans of both sides look on in horror as they watch a major party's nomination go to the highest bidder. It's horrifying if you think of it. It's not democracy.

Bernie Sanders is wrong about a lot. He's absolutely right about that. It's not democracy. But that doesn't mean it doesn't work. It does.

Seth Barron is an Associate Editor at "City Journal," and he joins us tonight. Seth, thanks so much for coming on.

SETH BARRON, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, "CITY JOURNAL": Hi, Tucker.

CARLSON: You know, I'd forgotten until just the other day that Bloomberg essentially bought a third term as mayor. Previous mayors weren't allowed to run for a third term. Am I missing that?

BARRON: No. Well, there had been third -- three-term mayors. There was term limits imposed. But Bloomberg managed to convince the City Council to overturn the referendum that had established them and give him a third -- give him and them a third term.

Yes, Bloomberg, when he was mayor, he was a very -- he was an effective mayor. I'm not going to say he wasn't.

CARLSON: Yes, I know.

BARRON: But he bought playability from arts organizations, social service organizations, activist groups, by giving them a lot of money.

I mean, he gave Al Sharpton's group National Action Network, hundreds of thousands dollars. And you know, over the course of his term, Al Sharpton pretty much -- you know, Bloomberg said Al Sharpton has been a calming influence in New York City, which is not something that you usually think of when you think of Al Sharpton.

CARLSON: No.

BARRON: But in fact, under Bloomberg's term, Al Sharpton, you know, basically kept a lid on protests and things like that. So it was an effective strategy to run the city.

I don't know how well that translates to a national stage. New York City has very low electoral turnout, and not that many people vote on a national level.

If you have, you know, 10 million rabid socialists, it might be hard to convince them that this is the right way to go.

CARLSON: Yes, it might be. You'd have to buy a lot of Al Sharptons to do that. That's fascinating. I didn't know that about Al Sharpton -- a calming influence. Amazing.

Seth Barron. Great to see you tonight. Thank you.

BARRON: Thanks, Tucker.

CARLSON: Well, one reason Bloomberg is doing pretty well is the steady disintegration of Joe Biden. Biden finished fourth in Iowa and fifth in the State of New Hampshire.

Now even his hecklers are demanding that he drop out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AUDIENCE: Drop out, Joe. Drop out, Joe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Skip Nevada. Skip South Carolina. Just go home early.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Are those hecklers on Mike Bloomberg's payroll? I have no idea. But even if they aren't, other much richer Bloomberg allies are putting pressure on Biden tonight to leave the race. That is a scoop.

A new report from Fox Business senior correspondent Charlie Gasparino and we're really happy to have on tonight. Charlie, try thanks so much for coming on.

CHARLIE GASPARINO, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK SERNIOR CORRESPONDENT: Thanks for having me.

CARLSON: So if you wouldn't mind, for our viewers, explain your scoop.

GASPARINO: Well, I mean, simply this. I speak to a lot of Biden supporters on Wall Street and my producer Lydia Moynihan who was a huge assist in this. We spoke to them, we asked them what's going on with the campaign post Iowa and post New Hampshire and it was simply this.

They were saying, listen, we're almost out. If he doesn't turn it around quick, we are moving out. We are going to support Bloomberg. Obviously, Bloomberg doesn't need their money, but he does like their moral support and moral suasion.

CARLSON: Yes.

GASPARINO: And you know, we're about to leave and they're basically saying this, Tucker, this thing is over. If he doesn't -- and particularly if he doesn't do well in South Carolina, and they are losing confidence in him.

A lot of them are saying he should just leave now so we can just pick up the pieces and save what they believe is the moderate wing, the establishment wing of the party because Joe Biden cannot keep up with Bernie Sanders.

I mean, it's unbelievable that Bernie Sanders -- and they're about the same age, just when you see him on TV, he is so energetic.

I don't agree with anything he says, but, you know, I could see how he rouses up the base. You don't get that out of a Biden right now. And these guys are saying that.

And they mean a lot to Biden because if Biden doesn't have money, you know, he's not going to make it to Super Tuesday. I mean, he is that low in cash.

Last night, he had two fundraisers. They thought they were going to get a million. We should point out that those fundraisers, a lot of people were locked in pre-Iowa when he was still the front runner.

CARLSON: Right.

GASPARINO: He got less than a million. He got about $800,000.00. So, you know, you could already see the wheels coming off this and that's essentially the story right now.

Bloomberg is encroaching on becoming that moderate -- taking over that moderate wing.

Now, a lot could happen. He could surprise us in Nevada, right? Biden could. He could kill it in South Carolina and somehow get a second life, but people are betting against that right now.

CARLSON: It sounds like there, boy, that is a really telling story. Thank you for telling that on the show. Appreciate it.

GASPARINO: Thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: Charlie Gasparino. Well, the coronavirus turned out to be so infectious that it may have penetrated even North Korea.

But North Koreans have a particularly bloody way of keeping that virus in check. We will tell you what they're doing in response to it.

Also Democrats have a plan to fly foreign felons back into this country at your expense, maybe into your neighborhood. The Acting Secretary of D.H.S. is here to respond.

And then Adam Carolla is back. Great interview as always. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: The Chinese coronavirus continues to spread tonight. Friday brought another 5,000 confirmed cases in China. Again, these are the official numbers. That includes at least 139 new deaths; 1,700 healthcare workers have been infected themselves hindering efforts to stop the disease.

Fortunately, there's still only 15 confirmed cases here in this country. But last night, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control said the virus will likely be a problem for months, if not years and will eventually have a sustained presence here.

So despite many people in the media ignoring this crisis or downplaying it, Americans ought to be paying attention to the story.

One country though that was taking radical measures to keep the disease in check, North Korea. North Korean government claims it has not seen a single case of coronavirus.

According to a South Korean news outlet, a North Korean trade official broke quarantine by visiting a bath house after he returned from China, his penalty -- execution.

Well, in this show, we've told you a lot about the New Way Forward Act. That's a bill co-sponsored by more than 40 sitting House Democrats that would completely remake America's immigration system and the country itself for the sake of protecting foreign born criminals.

Violent felons could not be deported back to their home countries unless they received at least a five-year sentence. Even then a judge could easily override that.

The government, meanwhile, meaning you would have to pay to fly deported criminals back into the United States to resume living here. So what would this means for America? Nobody has a clearer picture of that than Chad Wolf. He is Acting Secretary of Homeland Security. He joins us.

So you've read this legislation. You're familiar with it. If it became law, what would happen to the country?

CHAD WOLF, ACTING SECRETARY OF DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Well, it's very dangerous, I would say it completely guts our immigration enforcement system that we have in place. It also is -- just from a pure legality perspective, it just guts the rule of law.

So envision a world where individuals no longer have to wait in line for visas. They can come across the border. It's no longer a criminality to do that. They can then come into the system, we can't deport them. We can't hold people. It essentially abolishes I.C.E. and then on top of all of that, going back 25 years, we then have to find folks, bring them back into the country, re-litigate their immigration proceedings.

So if you're looking for a way to abolish our immigration system, abolish I.C.E. and just rewrite our Immigration Code completely, this would be the legislation for you.

CARLSON: In effect, you'd abolish the country. Tell me the thinking behind this. Why would anyone want the U.S. government to affirmatively seek out foreign criminals and import them into the country?

WOLF: Well, we've seen this over the last several years in a number of pieces of legislation, and I think the idea here is that somehow, even though they go through due process, even though they have a legitimate order from an immigration judge that they have no legal right to be here and that they need to be deported. They need to return home.

Somehow, that's not good enough. Somehow, we've stacked the deck against them, and so we need to bring them back, re-litigate them, and provide them attorneys at government expense.

So there's a theory here that somehow the deck is stacked against these individuals when that's not the case at all. They have full due process. They go through the immigration system like everyone else.

At the end of the day, if the judge -- and immigration judge declares that they have no legal right to be here and orders them deported, that's what the men and women of I.C.E. do -- carry out legal immigration orders and deport individuals. And so I think there's a group of individuals that say we don't like that. We don't like the rule of law, and we'd like to rewrite it.

CARLSON: And we want to pay to bring the worst possible people into the country. It's a kind of punishment meted out against America. Are you worried about this, like if this became law, would you be concerned about the country?

WOLF: Absolutely. I'm not sure I am so much concerned about it becoming law. I think there's a lot of steps that would have to occur between the then and now and obviously President Trump would never sign anything like this into law, but should it become law, yes, absolutely. It would be very devastating to not only the Department of Homeland Security, I.C.E., C.B.P., and our whole immigration mission at the Department.

It would be very dangerous for our country, dangerous for our communities. Again, you would have hardened criminals being able to come into the country illegally. We would have no ability to enforce that law and deport them, and so basically, your sanctuary city policies that we have in effect around the country in several jurisdictions become nationwide. And that may be the end result at the end of the day.

CARLSON: Boy, this is the kind of thing you do to a country you hate and clearly, they do. Mr. Secretary, thanks so much for joining us. I really appreciate it.

WOLF: Thank you.

CARLSON: So ratings for the Oscars plunged to a record low last week and it's just something really disturbing that is happening in Hollywood. The situation is worst we've ever seen it.

Adam Carolla who lives out there is back for a second appearance this week to diagnose exactly what it is. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: So did you enjoy the Oscars this year? Probably not. TV ratings of the Academy Awards were the lowest ever this year with a 20 percent drop over last year's show.

One possible explanation for this? Maybe Americans remembered how unbearably political, how pedantic and boring last year's Oscars were, and decided not to watch this year.

Well, the people who do this -- will the actors ever learn anything and back off a little bit? We recently asked that question to comedian and podcast host Adam Carolla about Hollywood's political turn. He lives there. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARLSON: So you live here. Ricky Gervais shows up at the Golden Globes and just lacerates the people in the room.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICKY GERVAIS, COMEDIAN: If you win, all right, come up. Accept your little award. Thank your agent, and your God and [bleep].

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: What did you think of it? What was the effect of it, if any?

ADAM CAROLLA, COMEDIAN AND PODCAST HOST: It was funny because I had a little precursor to that when I did the Alec Baldwin roast on "Comedy Central" a few months ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROLLA: Comedians need a place where they can be offensive without your fake [bleep] outrage. You #heroes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAROLLA: And I was writing some jokes and Jimmy Kimmel said, you should do a little soliloquy at the end of the all woke and no joke culture and sort of tell them to get over it.

And I did a little piece on it at the end of the "Comedy Central" Alec Baldwin roast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROLLA: You already ruined the Oscars. You're all woke and no joke.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAROLLA: So I was sort of thinking about it and it was kind of --

CARLSON: How did that go over by the way when you did it?

CAROLLA: It's funny. It always goes over and then everyone goes back to it. Like if you did a corporate event for lawyers, and you said, oh, lawyers, all of them are shysters who cheat on their wives. Everyone would laugh.

But I don't know why you're calling them that. You know what I'm saying?

CARLSON: But they wouldn't stop being shysters who cheat on their wives.

CAROLLA: They wouldn't stop. But if you take a group of celebrities and say celebrities are the worst, and they all start clapping and laughing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROLLA: Here is how [bleep] up Hollywood is. Bruce Jenner announces he is transitioning and everybody applauds. But when they find out he's a Republican. They're outraged.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAROLLA: Which is an interesting thing. I don't think it would work that way for tuna fishermen. No, you can get a harpoon through your chest.

But either way, I've said and I love what Ricky Gervais did, and I've said that -- Dr. Drew has always said to me -- when is the pendulum going to start swinging back? We're so politically correct. Everyone is woke. We're getting everyone fired for -- the thought police are out there.

I said, the comedians. The comedians are always the tip of the spear. The comedians are going to bring the pendulum back. Ricky Gervais did a great job as the tip of the comedic Spear of bringing it back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GERVAIS: If ISIS started a streaming service, you'd call your agent, wouldn't you?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAROLLA: Dave Chappelle doing a stand up special that's unapologetic. The comedians, I believe, are going to be the group that usher us back towards sanity.

CARLSON: I hope that's right.

CAROLLA: It would be nice.

CARLSON: Amen. Thank you.

CAROLLA: Sure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARLSON: Well, a quick public service announcement. The U.S. Space Force, which is real is asking for public input on what it should call its members, its ranks, its units. Do you have any idea? Stargeants? Blasternauts? Space Marines? Sky Admirals?

You can do better than that. We'd love to hear your ideas. We've posted a link to that request on the TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT Facebook page. Go there and share them with us.

That's it for us tonight and for the week. We'll be back Monday, 8:00 p.m. The show that's the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness and groupthink.

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