This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," March 20, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
TUCKER CARLSON, HOST: Good evening and welcome to “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” There is a loud debate going on in Washington right now, one that we participate in about border security whether to build a wall, how much funding ICE should get, whether our detention centers are big enough to hold everyone they need to hold. People argue about these questions every day. You watch it on TV.
And so it seems like, the parties are divided on the matter. But on a deeper level there really is no debate, there is instead consensus. Virtually everyone in the political system knows as an article of faith that mass immigration is good for our economy. Immigrants make us richer. The Chamber of Commerce tells us that often. Libertarian think tanks produce studies claiming to prove it's true.
In the Democratic Party, it is a bedrock principle. America would collapse without a steady torrent of new arrivals from the developing world. That is what they tell us. Immigration does not just improve the economy, we wouldn't have an economy without it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER FIRST LADY: I want us to be a country where hardworking immigrants who pay taxes, and by the way, one half undocumented workers pay Federal income taxes.
JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: These people are just waiting -- waiting for a chance to be able to contribute fully and by that standard, 11 million undocumented aliens are already Americans in my view.
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT: We cannot continue to grow this economy unless we grow more diverse and take more immigrants.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: Our history and the facts show that immigrants are a net plus for the economy and our society.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Half of the illegals pay their taxes, says Hillary Clinton. You should be impressed and grateful. Well, this is not a new talking point as you could tell from the aging video we showed you, but like everything in this country, it has accelerated dramatically the past couple of years.
The left's new position is that immigrants are not just good for America, they are better for America than you are. They don't complain, they don't file H.R. complaints. They don't get expensive long-term diseases like diabetes or opioid addiction, they just do what they're told. They are the noble workers our leaders have always wanted.
Just two days ago, Senator Kristen Gillibrand of New York who by the way is running for President explained that every single immigrant in America is good, no matter how they got here or why, just by virtue of the fact that they are immigrants. Ever heard anybody say that about American citizens? No, don't hold your breath. But Gillibrand clearly meant it about immigrants. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, D-N.Y., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is no such thing as an illegal human.
[Applause]
GILLIBRAND: You have immigrant populations across the state, refugee populations that make your economy stronger, that make the city and state stronger, that make this country stronger.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Falsest person in Washington, but she is saying something that everyone else believes. Immigrants makes our economy stronger. Okay, that's the claim. It is it true? Well in some cases, it is true. Plenty of immigrants have done a great job in this country. They are highly patriotic. They are successful in business. They are great neighbors and friends. Everybody knows people like that and everybody is glad they are here.
But not every immigrant is like every other immigrant. Now, don't tell Kirsten Gillibrand, but they are not all the same. Our current immigration system treats them like they are. It treats people like widgets. Our government does virtually nothing to separate the good from the bad. A system like that is not designed to help America, it is designed for the benefit of foreigners, and by that measure, it has been wildly successful.
A new study shows that just last year, immigrants living in the United States send at least $120 billion in remittances to the countries they came from. Even in the age of expanding cost, $120 billion is a lot of money. It is more for example then we spent on the first Gulf War. It is more than the entire Russian military spends every two years. That's enough money to buy Costco, not the stuff on the shelves, but the entire company and still have $15 billion left over. It is a lot of money and all of it could be going to Americans, many of whom badly need it.
But instead, Mexico received $33 billion in remittances just last year. That country's own President admits the Mexican economy would go under without those remittance payments. In Guatemala, remittances from the United States amounted to a full 11% of their entire GDP. In El Salvador and Honduras, that is 18% and 20% respectively.
In the past decades, those three countries have received a total of $120 billion in remittances from the United States. And by the way, it's not just Latin America that is benefiting from this. China which hardly needs it gets $15 billion a year in remittances. India $10.5 billion; Vietnam, $7 billion; Nigeria, $5.5 billion; Russia, $300 million. We could go on and on.
Now, none of this is an attack on immigrants. In most cases, they are just helping their families back home and good for them, it's not their fault. It is our fault. Much of this money has never been taxed at any level. More than 10 million illegal aliens are believed to be working in this country under the table. And that is part of the reason that between 2012 and 2016, an estimated 39 million Social Security numbers were stolen from Americans for fraudulent use. A fact that's rarely reported.
But legal or not, immigrants send their earnings abroad and they pay nothing when they do it because remittances are untaxed. It is a pretty good deal for Mexico and Guatemala. When was the last time, you made a financial transaction that wasn't taxed? Can you even remember?
At one point, the Trump administration proposed a remittance tax. Lobbyists from Mexico didn't like the idea. The idea went nowhere. We can't fix that on this show, what we can do is be honest about what is happening.
Immigration is good for the economy, sure, it can be good. Immigration is always good for our economy? More immigration is always better for our economy? No. That is a lie. There is nothing to support that claim. There is a lot of evidence to disprove it. Anyone who tells you that and that's pretty much everyone you see on television either doesn't understand the subject or is lying to you purposely and may be both, just so you know.
Steven Camarota does understand this subject. He is the Director of Research for the Center for Immigration Studies and he joins us tonight. Mr. Camerota, thanks very much for coming on. $120 billion in remittances and they are not taxed, I can't think of anything in American life that is not taxed, except remittances, why is that?
STEVEN CAMAROTA, DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH, CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES: At present, except for the state of Oklahoma which does have its own tax, it taxes remittances sent overseas, money is allowed to flow out of the United States in very large dollar amounts, and no, we don't collect any.
CARLSON: Wait a second, I know for a fact if I brought $100,000.00 in cash through an airport and was caught doing it, they would seize it from me.
CAMAROTA: They might, yes.
CARLSON: Yes, they do. But I can send as much as I want to Mexico and not be taxed on it, I guess I need a better lobbyist, maybe -- is that the lesson?
CAMAROTA: Well, it's true. I mean, you're right, it isn't just American businesses that don't like it or the Mexican government, but there are Americans who handled these wire transfers. They charge a fee. They collect money from it, but not the taxpayer. He doesn't get anything from it, at least not right now.
CARLSON: So look, again, and I don't begrudge anyone, in fact, I commend people who want to help their families, especially their aging parents. I'm totally for that, but this does undermine the universally accepted claim that immigration always makes the economy stronger if immigrants are sending $120 billion out of the country, how does that help the economy?
CAMAROTA: No, it probably doesn't. You're right. It is money flowing out of the United States so it can't be taxed in the way it would. It's not here for savings or investment. It does not spur consumer spending here, and the other problem is, it is often flowing out of many of the poorest communities in the United States.
Remember, for Mexico and Central America, more than half of immigrants from those regions live in or near poverty in the United States and they are still sending a large fraction of that money from those immigrants from there. So that is a big concern, in other words, it's poor people, in effect making themselves somewhat poor, but they are choosing to do it, but it's also flowing out of communities that really could use the resource, and that is one of the disadvantages of immigration.
CARLSON: Yes. I wish people would stop lying about it. Thank you very much ...
CAMAROTA: Sure.
CARLSON: ... for coming on, Steven Camarota. Jonathan Harris is a Democratic political commentator and we are happy to have him on the show as always. Mr. Harris, thanks very much for coming on.
So you often hear the claim, the blanket claim, and as I said in the open, I am not making the claim that immigration is always bad. We have a lot of great immigrants here, some of them are my friends.
JONATHAN HARRIS, DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Correct.
CARLSON: But the idea that the more people you bring into this country, especially poor people, the richer you get, is a lie. There is no evidence to support it and the evidence outlined tonight shows why, so why are we still lying about this?
HARRIS: I don't think that that is the claim. I don't think everybody is saying that immigrants are all good. They are all good. There is nothing bad that comes with them. I think, obviously people understand that there is sometimes crimes, sometimes things that comes with them, but I think what they are saying is that by and large, they are less likely to commit a crime. They take jobs that not only the typical argument you hear that Americans don't take, but also jobs that specifically stimulate our economy. They take less in tax using programs. So I think that's actually the claim, not the claim that they are --
CARLSON: What are the jobs that -- I mean, clearly, there are a lot of very successful immigrants and start a lot of companies, that stimulates the economy, but I'm talking about immigrants and this is, I think more than half who don't have a high school education and are working for the lowest wages that we pay in this country. What jobs do they take that quote, "stimulate" the economy?
HARRIS: But a lot of those jobs specifically are service jobs, they are farming jobs. They are jobs like hospitality for example. Hospitality jobs doing housekeeping services and things like that. These are jobs that actually stimulate the economy because if Americans were going to take those jobs, we have to pay far more than they pay them.
CARLSON: Oh they would have to pay a living wage, so instead, they pay less than someone can live on and then offload the cost on to the U.S. taxpayer in social programs.
HARRIS: Well, that's something -- that is a whole another problem. That's something that happens -- no, that's a whole --
CARLSON: No, it's the same problem. So if I'm an employer, would I'd rather hire you, who is a college-educated American and pay you enough to live or would I rather hire someone who is used to making $3.00 a day and then just encourage him to go on food stamps and get housing vouchers, which is what we do.
HARRIS: Well, again, that's capitalism in this country. They do that with -- Walmart does that with their workers, all companies do that with their workers. They pay them the bare minimum and then we get stuck with the tax.
CARLSON: Why is it capitalism to off-load my labor cost on to U.S. taxpayers without telling them? That is not capitalism, that is a criminal scam.
HARRIS: That is the way the system works.
CARLSON: That is not capitalism.
HARRIS: But how many companies pay workers -- Amazon, McDonald's -- all of these companies that pay their workers far less and then they have to go get government assistance and we pay for it.
CARLSON: I'm very aware, we've done many segments on this show.
HARRIS: That's not just something that happens with illegal immigrants. That happens all the time.
CARLSON: So I guess -- it's not just illegal immigrants, you are absolutely right. They make it much worse though by flooding the labor market at the lower end, and they lower the price of labor because businesses can do this, because of people work for less. My question though, and this is all supply and demand, Econ 101 --
HARRIS: Of course.
CARLSON: My question is why is the Democratic Party making excuses for this and defending those people who do that? Why are they defending Jeff Bezos and the big employers who are hurting the poorest in our society?
HARRIS: That's not what they are doing. What they are doing is --
CARLSON: Oh, what are they doing?
HARRIS: They are responding to a conservative Republican Party that demonizes illegal immigrants as if we are not all here because of illegal immigrants or immigrants depending on how you view history.
CARLSON: It's not an -- but it's an economic question and there is all this moralizing --
HARRIS: But it is partially a moral question.
CARLSON: I am a good person -- no, look this is economic.
HARRIS: It is not a moral --
CARLSON: There is a moral proponent, but ultimately, it is - how much does it cost to employ somebody?
HARRIS: Right.
CARLSON: And if someone from the third world is willing to work for a lot less, why wouldn't that shaft poor Americans? They can't make that amount because they are not living -- they are not used to the same standards of living. I mean, do you see what I am saying? It's really simple.
HARRIS: Of course, I see what you're saying. But what I am saying is, this is not a problem that solely affects illegal immigrants. What you are talking about is a problem with low wages overall, which I actually agree with you on. Low wages overall are bad for this country because taxpayers get stuck with paying for the services that their workers go to the American --
CARLSON: Okay, so we are on agreement on that, but let's connect a few dots. Did you ever wonder why Nancy Pelosi and Kirsten Gillibrand and Cory Booker and all of these supposedly liberal people are on the same side of the argument as all of these big low-wage employers -- the chicken plants, Walmarts -- have you ever noticed how they are on the same side of the debate? It was an accident?
HARRIS: That's actually using --
CARLSON: Just because they are all for transgender bathrooms or could there be something deeper going on?
HARRIS: No, that's actually, usually the conservatives that support businesses like that.
CARLSON: Yes, it has been, you're right.
HARRIS: Again, right, but what liberals are doing is they are actually countering conservatives who demonize immigrants, illegal and otherwise.
CARLSON: I am getting this phony like, you are being mean to people in Latin America or whatever this moral step --
HARRIS: I am not saying you're being mean. The head of the Republican Party --
CARLSON: But hold on, but answer my question --
HARRIS: The President of the United States is the one that spews lies about immigrants constantly.
CARLSON: Who cares? What I said is not a lie.
HARRIS: They probably care.
CARLSON: It is real. And has it ever occurred to you that maybe you are doing the bidding of big companies. You, specifically in your Party for sure, the bidding of big companies that are lowering the price of labor in this country and hurting people.
HARRIS: But my Party is specifically asking for these companies to pay a higher living wage so that these people do not go to the government for services. So I don't know how we're doing that. It's simply not --
CARLSON: But because they are making it possible for millions of poor people who will work for much less than Americans will to live in this country.
HARRIS: But when we are saying that we want illegal immigrants in this country to be documented, to be verified so we know that they are here and we want people to be making a living wage, I can't understand how you are making that that we are fighting for lower wages.
CARLSON: Because more people willing to work for less causes the price of labor to drop. If you have an overabundance of something, its value falls. That is why sand is cheap --
HARRIS: Absolutely.
CARLSON: This is supply and demand.
HARRIS: But that's if you take part of the argument. The full picture of what progressives are doing --
CARLSON: Let everybody in.
HARRIS: No, not let everybody in. Who gave out amnesty? That was Reagan. That's you guys letting everybody in.
CARLSON: Because 1986 -- you are not going to going to get me to defend the Reagan amnesty. I am just saying, look, if you want to take the side of Amazon against normal people --
HARRIS: That is not at all what we are doing.
CARLSON: That's you know --
HARRIS: That's not at all what we're doing.
CARLSON: Yes, it is very much what you're doing.
HARRIS: Asking for a living wage, asking for these people to be documented is the exact opposite of that.
CARLSON: Mr. Harris, thank you very much.
HARRIS: Thank you for having me.
CARLSON: Good to see you tonight. Democrats are telling you the border is irrelevant. It's a fake crisis, the real crisis is global warming. It could end this world in 12 years. They tell you that every day on TV. Does anyone really believe it? Well, a new poll shows that literally not one person who is not on TV believes it. We have the numbers for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARLSON: At this point, the Democratic Party has about as about as many presidential candidates as it has members. But strangely, there is not a lot of diversity of viewpoint in that Party. On a couple of topics, big topics everyone agrees -- the first is immigration.
And the view from the Democratic Party is, no big deal. It's a fake problem and if you think otherwise, you are insane.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is absolute fiction that there is a national emergency here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Showing that this is not about a crisis, it is a political ploy. Crisis, crisis, and the crisis does not exist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This national emergency is completely made up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A wall is a colossal waste of money for a crisis that does not exist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But even if he declares a national emergency, he is lying. Even if he declares it, it will be a declaration of a falsehood.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This whole idea of declaring a national emergency is ludicrous because there isn't one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: These people just get their talking points and read them. Obedient little foot soldiers that they are and what they are telling you is the border is fine. I don't care what is happening in your neighborhood. It is fine. You know what the real threat is? It is something you can't see, but it's deadlier than Godzilla and Vladimir Putin combined -- it is global warming and it is going to kill us all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JULIAN CASTRO, FORMER SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT: The biggest threat to our prosperity in this 21st Century is climate change.
BETO O'ROURKE, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The crisis that could, at its worst, lead to extinction.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, I-VT, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The climate change is real. It is a threat to our country and the entire planet.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, D-MASS., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are running out of runway to be able to fix this problem. We need all hands on deck.
SEN. CORY BOOKER, D-N.J., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When the planet has been imperiled in the past, who came forward to save Earth from the scourge of Nazi and totalitarian regimes? We came forward.
GILLIBRAND: So if you don't take global climate change seriously, you don't care about the world and the country. You don't care about people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Now, here is just a note, just because you string a series of unrelated cliches together, doesn't make it a sentence, much less than idea. But they tell you this every single day. The border is totally fine. You're racist, if you disagree. The real problem is global warming.
So the question is, does anyone believe this or do people just write it off as the transparent propaganda that it is? Well, we have a new poll that answers those questions. The poll asked voters what issue was most important to them. The number one issue -- immigration. What percent picked global warming? That imminent threat? Two percent.
So voters know which issue is radically changing their country and which is a totally abstract distraction and excuse for another power grab? Joe Bastardi is a meteorologist. He is the author of "The Climate Chronicles: Inconvenient Revelations You Won't Hear From Al Gore and Others," and he joins us tonight. Joe, thanks a lot for coming on tonight. Is it surprising to you that after 25 years of really relentless propaganda, beginning in children's cartoons going all the way up probably until the moment of death that Americans rate climate change at 2% concerned, 2% are most concerned about climate change. Are you shocked?
JOE BASTARDI, METEOROLOGIST: Well, not really that shocked because I think my experience is, there is a much greater percentage of people in their 20s that believe what's going on. I think it's because they don't look at everything.
I've said hundreds of times that if all I looked at and all I was told was the global warming issue, I'd say, "Well, I believe it too. CO2 is causing this." But when you start looking at the entire picture, the totality of the picture and you put some perspective into it that the last 40 years is the equivalent of six seconds out of an 80-year-old man's life, you realize that there is a very, very different story here. It's like one scene in a movie for five seconds determining the whole movie. That's not the case here at all.
The foundation you stand on today was built yesterday to reach for tomorrow. It's the same thing with weather and climate, folks, what happens is you have to go back and look at the big picture. In our business, and what I do at Weather Bell is we need to supply accurate forecast for energy companies that includes wind and solar retail companies. And knowing what happened yesterday and putting it in perspective and say, "Guys this can happen again," is something that we do.
CARLSON: So I just want to be clear. I'm not denying and I'm not a meteorologist unlike or a climate expert that climate changes, it does change of course.
BASTARDI: Absolutely.
CARLSON: It has from the beginning - since the planet cooled. But can I ask you a question? Why since more people were killed last year in the United States by illegal aliens than were killed by climate change, why do you think they are so focused on scaring us and telling us we're all going to die? Why do they need to tell us that when they don't know that.
BASTARDI: Well, I think H.L. Mencken and I quoted this in my book said it best that practical politics always tries to whip up this kind of thing. Most of them are imaginary and the urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule it.
Now that was a Democrat that said that back. He passed away in 1956. But since I come from that kind of background from an old Democratic background, I knew who H.L. Mencken was. So I think that's what's involved here.
I wrote that book because the purity of what I've loved since I was three, my dad's a meteorologist, right? This is all I ever wanted to do. I can't believe that this is what it has come to, it has turned into this political football or whatever. It's really bad.
CARLSON: It is, and it's clearly political, not science speaking. Joe, thanks very much for that. I hope you come back.
BASTARDI: If you invite me back, I'll be here. Thank you.
CARLSON: Done. CNN ran anti-gun propaganda last year in primetime. They called it a town hall. And now, they are being given some kind of journalism award for it. A hilarious story after the break.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: All right, it's time right now to get your free trial on Fox Nation, our new streaming service. It is the perfect complement right here to the Fox News Channel and foxnation.com features exclusive shows even for me and your favorite Fox News personalities, people you know and people you are just meeting. Here is a preview of Season Two of "What Made America Great."
BRIAN KILMEADE, HOST: I'm going to bring it to the Lincoln Memorial, but I'm going to bring you to a place that you've not seen before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the most visited monument, the iconic place to be in Washington and across the world.
KILMEADE: You promised me a visit. Can we go?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go.
KILMEADE: All right. We're really going in?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're really going in and we're going to go down the stairs below the Lincoln Memorial. It's so grand. The public should see it too. Well, what we're going to do is we are going to go in the grand chamber and show you some fascinating art. It's really a time capsule back.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To 1914 to 1922.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARLSON: Well, to punish America for not giving it absolute power two years ago, the Democratic Party has decided to undermine or crush every institution that stands in its way. One of the newest targets is the Electoral College. Senator Kamala Harris of California says, "We must abolish it."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY KIMMEL, LATE NIGHT SHOW HOST: Senator Warren -- Elizabeth Warren had a Town Hall last night and she said that she thinks we should do away with the Electoral College. Is that - do you agree with that?
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think that it's -- I am open to the discussion. I mean, there's no question that the popular vote has been diminished in terms of making the final decision about who is the President of the United States, so we need to deal with that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So that would have been a pretty far out thing to say a couple of years ago, but without question, the view you just heard will soon be mandatory on the left, and if you disagree with it or question it, you will be -- you know what you'll be, a racist.
On Tuesday, Congressman Steve Cohen of Tennessee demonstrated exactly how that will work. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. STEVE COHEN, D-TENN.: The country is different than it was when the Constitution was drafted and when the Constitution was drafted, a lot of it had to do with slavery. This was all conceived and seen and perpetuating slavery on the American people and on the African-American people directly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So if you're for the Electoral College, you're for, quote, "perpetuating slavery." You're a bigot. Of course, freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, due process, separation of powers, they were also created when slavery existed. In fact, so was the country. So maybe that's why the left is trying to undermine them, too. Who knows?
Dana Perino hosts "The Daily Briefing," co-hosts "The Five," one of our favorite people at Fox News and joins us tonight.
DANA PERINO, HOST: Thank you.
CARLSON: So Dana, this is one of the -- I'm just struck by how quickly things are moving. If Barack Obama had said two and half years ago, I really think we should get rid of the Electoral College. That would have been a stop the presses moment, but now it's becoming consensus, wouldn't you say?
PERINO: It's a litmus test, right? So now it's like, is there a Democratic candidate who would say no. I mean, Cory Booker kind of tapped the brakes on, he's like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, I don't know." But he'll get there. I mean, this is happening. And remember, it's Eric Holder, also, I think who during the Obama administration suggested this, but the Democrats didn't need to talk about this when President Obama was President because he won the Electoral College, okay.
CARLSON: That's true.
PERINO: So now -- you know how the left talks a lot about the concerns with President Trump that he's obliterating norms, because he is not civil.
CARLSON: I've heard that.
PERINO: and also, look, you know how I feel like the nicknames and all that stuff, but the institutions have held up, but the Democrats are now talking about actually dismantling those institutions and what's interesting to me is that the reason that the country is set up this way with different states is because we are a Republic, you have a representative government.
If you go -- if you put -- if you do away with that and you just elect your Presidents by whoever lives in New York and California, then -- and you just erase all of those boundaries, then you truly are for open borders, then you are no longer the United States of America. You are like the United People of America or perhaps not so united, right, you're just the people of America.
CARLSON: Well, it seems like it would be a massive drain of power from the weakest parts of the country -- rural America -- the interior of the country to the coast, which is already brimming with power and wealth, so why would you want to exacerbate that divide?
PERINO: For example -- and Elizabeth Warren, one of the candidates. She made her announcement about being for abolishing the Electoral College in Mississippi and you heard what the Congressman from Tennessee said, right? Like who is going to go campaign in Mississippi if all they need to do is get the popular vote.
The other thing is, remember we've talked about this on your program, Tucker, Abraham Lincoln only won because of the Electoral College. He didn't win the popular vote, so the argument doesn't actually last.
CARLSON: Wait, does that mean that he is racist?
PERINO: Well, that's -- I'm trying to be ironic.
CARLSON: I want -- can I just ask really quickly? I mean, I think there's really a cost. I mean some things are racist and you should say it and people are embarrassed to be racist in my view.
PERINO: Of course.
CARLSON: But if you call everything a racist, it really under - it devalues the term.
PERINO: It does.
CARLSON: Will anyone ever stand up and say, "Just stop with that. Let's have an adult conversation."
PERINO: Well, let's see. Will Joe Biden do that? Because here's what I would think ...
CARLSON: Good point.
PERINO: Just from -- I look at things from a communication standpoint. I'm looking for the Democrat who would say, "Oh, I don't need to worry about talking about something that might happen in 50 years if we change the Electoral College," because the Electoral College is not going to change for the 2020 election, okay, and bringing that -- I think that they're wasting their time.
Where was President Trump today? In Ohio. What was he talking about? Manufacturing jobs and the economy. What have we been talking about? This is Wednesday. We've been talking about the Electoral College for an almost an entire week. So they are missing the opportunity. He's basically saying, "Come over to my turf. You want to talk about the economy? Great, I'd like -- I'm here." He's ready to take the slings and arrows, but instead they're talking about the Electoral College and the Green New Deal. It's actually great in San Francisco and New York City. It is not great in all the states that you have to win in 2020 -- if you want to win.
CARLSON: Yes, Yeah, they live in a Russian hill in Tribeca, very popular. Dana, thank you so much. It's great to see you tonight.
PERINO: Well, thank you. Thank you. Bye.
CARLSON: Well, here are two more institutions that are under fervent attack in this country. The Second Amendment and an objective press. This week, CNN received something called the Cronkite Award. You didn't win, but they did, and they won for a full-blown propaganda event that they staged after last year's Parkland shooting. It was a Town Hall on gun violence. It was a transparent excuse to ambush anyone who supports the Second Amendment and denounce them on national television, which is what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARCO RUBIO, R-FLA: I think what you're asking about is the assault weapons ban.
FRED GUTTENBERG, LOST CHILD TO PARKLAND SHOOTING: Yes, sir.
RUBIO: So let me be honest with you about that one. If I believe that that law would have prevented this from happening, I would support it and I want to explain to you why it would not.
CAMERON KASKY, STUDENT: Can you tell me right now that you will not accept a single donation from the NRA in the future? I wish the NRA lady, I could have talked to, because I would ask her how she can look in the mirror considering the fact that she has children.
DANA LOESCH, NRA SPOKESWOMAN: Let me answer the question. Let me answer the question. You can shout me down when I'm finished, but let me answer Emma's question. I would have done everything in my power to prevent that.
SCOTT ISRAEL, BROWARD COUNTY SHERIFF: You just told this group of people that you are standing up for them, you're not standing up for them until you say, I want less weapons.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Such demagogues, CNN did that. Dana Loesch is the spokeswoman for the NRA. She was at that town hall. You just saw the tape and she joins us tonight. It's upsetting to watch that tape because it is so unfair. It's a mob basically screaming at you. What was it like to be there?
LOESCH: Tucker, thanks for talking about this. Well, we've learned so many things since that time, right? Especially with Scott Israel on that stage.
CARLSON: That's right.
LOESCH: I don't know how to describe it. When we found out that the Town Hall was taking place, I believe it was on a Wednesday. I found out that I was going there, Tuesday. I found out that I was going to be asked questions that afternoon while on the plane and it wasn't until I got there that I found out that I was going to be on stage and then later, on stage with Scott Israel and they actually queued me to walk out into the arena to a Black Eyed Peas song and that's some of the footage. That's after the cameras stopped rolling with CNN.
What CNN didn't tell people is that they allowed and invited politicians to come up on stage and electioneer. Scott Israel was able to make a big old electioneering speech before this even began, in which he already started deflecting blame, by putting it on me.
It was treated as this -- I think, for ratings. They tried to stylize this to make it most emotionally impactful. I question the ethics of them putting it on this way. This wasn't -- Tucker, this wasn't a journalistic endeavor. They had this Town Hall literally titled -- it was called "Stand Up: The Students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas Demand Action." That's not a journalistic endeavor. That is not a journalistic enterprise. That's advocacy.
CARLSON: Well, I wouldn't question the ethics. This is flat out unethical. It's wrong. I can't imagine why they'd win whatever dumb award they won, they should be ashamed of what they did. Well, I mean, people were really hostile towards you. How did you feel? What was that like?
LOESCH: I've never been in a situation like that. I've never been in a situation where I had someone rush me from behind and try to get me and a member of my detail grabbed them. I mean, I showed up in good faith to have a discussion about the issue at hand and it wasn't just this Town Hall either.
I mean, you'll remember, Tucker, even after this, that particular network allowed to stand unchallenged on their airwaves, accusations about not just my integrity as a person and as a mother, but also millions of law-abiding gun owners all across the United States, their integrity was questioned, their parental genuineness was questioned. They were questioned -- the same people -- simply because they thought differently.
What they did, what this Town Hall did was set dialogue back by - I don't know how much. I mean, it pushed dialogue back. It was an embarrassing display of bias and they should feel ashamed instead of back patting themselves for this.
I mean, honestly, one last thing, Tucker, this for them to say that this advanced the national conversation on gun control is like saying the Salem Witch Trials advanced the conversation on women's rights. That's exactly what this was like. It was an embarrassment and should be ashamed.
CARLSON: And to do this just days after a mass murder to leverage that tragedy the way they did, they should be ashamed. I agree with you 100%. Thanks very much for telling us what that was like. It's disgusting.
LOESCH: Thank you, Tucker.
CARLSON: Well, there's new information tonight about marijuana, which all of a sudden is everywhere. It's totally cool. There's no problem with it, except according to a reputable study by physicians could make you schizophrenic. No big deal. We'll have details in a minute. Also, Google employees want to use their power to take away your freedoms, they are already doing that. Meanwhile, they're empowering China on the world stage. That's just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOOKER: So I'm all for legalizing marijuana.
O'ROURKE: I call for the end of the prohibition of marijuana.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should marijuana be legal?
WARREN: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Oh, Cory and Beto are for weed. Of course they are. In the midst of the greatest and most fatal drug epidemic in the history of this country, marijuana is entering a golden age. Democratic presidential candidates compete to show how cool they are and how much they love it. Ten states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana, most of the rest tolerate medical marijuana, often on flimsy pretexts.
Every year, the drug becomes more prevalent. Nationwide legalization seems inevitable. Just probably just a few years away. What will happen? Well, a couple of companies will get very rich, but as marijuana becomes more common, what will happen to the people who smoke it?
We're not supposed to ask that question, but we think it's interesting, so we do. A new study in "The Lancet," the British Medical Journal finds that daily marijuana use substantially increases an individual's chance of having psychotic episodes or developing schizophrenia. No big deal, just schizophrenia.
Dr. Marc Siegel is a Fox News medical contributor and he joins us tonight. Doctor, thanks very much for coming on. This -- I mean, I can't think of a disease more serious than schizophrenia. Do you take this study seriously?
DR. MARC SIEGEL, MEDICAL CONTRIBUTOR: This was an extremely well done European study, Tucker, and it looked all across Europe, and it found three big cities -- London, Amsterdam and Paris -- all had up to 50% cases, new cases of psychosis were linked to marijuana use.
Now, why would that be? Let me tell you a little biology lesson here, Tucker. Marijuana is not what people out there think it is because the active ingredient that causes problems in the brain, psychiatric symptoms is now 20 to 30 times more powerful than it was in the 1970s when we were teens -- 20 to 30 more times THC in marijuana now and THC is what's causing all this. It's causing depression. It's causing anxiety, it's causing psychosis and in places that have legalized pot, fully legalized it recreationally like Colorado, like Washington, like those 10 states you mentioned, like Canada, the amount of cannabis induced psychosis is doubled or tripled. It's a real rampant problem.
CARLSON: So I'm a little bit confused. I mean, so if this is really kind of beyond debate from a medical perspective is what you're saying, like we know this is happening.
SIEGEL: Well, first of all, it's beyond debate from a medical perspective. This study absolutely proves it. Fifty percent -- and that's just psychosis. We're not even talking about anxiety and depression and you mentioned schizophrenia. You know what's really troubling, there are people out there who are at risk of schizophrenia. We give them a lot of regular use of pot. We're talking about regular heavy use of pot. They get a schizophrenic break. They may never come back. We may never be able to treat them out of it with anti-psychotic medication.
I don't want to scare people out there. You could stop smoking pot. You could use anti-psychotic medication. And in some cases, the paranoia goes away. The suspicion goes away. You come back to reality. In some percent of cases. Tucker, you don't come back to reality. And you stay as a schizophrenic and this may be the reason.
This is really, really a disgrace that this is not being considered and I'm really glad you brought it up. It's becoming a worse and worse problem, the more powerful pot gets, and you know, when it gets legal, that it gets more powerful. It's in food. It's in juices. It's in cosmetics even and it's more powerful than what they smoke, what people smoke.
CARLSON: Anyone who's ever seen the tragedy of schizophrenia up close will know exactly what you're talking about. There's nothing more upsetting. Dr. Siegel, I appreciate your coming on tonight. Thank you.
SIEGEL: It's a big warning. Thank you for having me, Tucker.
CARLSON: Amen. We have an exclusive report tonight based on information from the White House. The Trump administration is planning to issue an executive order designed to protect freedom of speech on American college campuses.
Public schools are supposed to protect the First Amendment. By definition, it's in the Bill of Rights. But increasingly, they trample on it with impunity in order to protect the sanctity of their dogma.
Now, the administration's executive order will allow every Federal agency to deny grants to public colleges and universities if they are found to contravene the First Amendment, if they are hostile to free speech. Amen.
The other half of the executive order will do something different. It will help protect students from economic exploitation. Currently, there are countless programs that charge students a lot in tuition, but offer no reasonable job prospects in return. Schools know that, of course, but students don't know it a lot of the time.
Now, the administration will require all public colleges to make that information public. Every program will have to disclose what its graduates actually earn and students can decide whether a degree is worth it or it's a scam as so many degrees are.
Student loans are still the biggest problem for the young people in this country and more will have to be done to fix that. We're going to have more on that topic later in the week. But this is a start.
Google is, you know, is the single most powerful company in the history of the world, almost every day, there are new reasons to be suspicious of that much power concentrated in that few hands. Tonight, we can report an internal Google e-mail obtained by this program.
In it, an employee says a manager told him the company would fight so called hate speech and fake news because he blamed hate speech and fake news for the election of Donald Trump, whom he hates. Other leaked internal documents revealed that a Google Vice President banned a Christian video from advertising on YouTube because it promoted conventional marriage.
So while Google tramples your freedoms here in the United States, Google enhances the power of tyrants abroad. Last week, testifying before Congress, General Joseph Dunford accused Google of empowering China by doing research work over there while simultaneously refusing to support America's own Department of Defense. Hard to believe that's true, but it is.
Harmeet Dhillon is an attorney and she joins us tonight. Harmeet, thanks very much for coming on. To the second point first, Google helping China - - really are the only global rival we face -- but refusing to help the Department of Defense. Am I overstating that?
HARMEET DHILLON, ATTORNEY: No, not at all, Tucker. And it's actually even worse than that. A lot of people don't understand that. To do business in China, you have to agree to basically be in bed with the Chinese government, you have to keep your data and your business over there in China, you have to respond to their data requests, and you have to, you know, have them looking over your shoulder in everything you do, and perhaps taking the stake of what you have.
And so on top of that, China has its own sort of government-run business operations, and those are staffed with and owned by the children and the princes of the people who are in power in China. So there's no doing business in China without being intertwined closely with the Chinese government and that's what Google is doing.
CARLSON: So I just want to digress because I can't control myself. If Google really has a chokehold on all information in English, okay, Google has a demonstrated political bias, which is overwhelming.
DHILLON: Absolutely.
CARLSON: They are banning things they don't like. How can we believe that the 2020 election is going to be fair?
DHILLON: You would be naive, in fact, I would say stupid to believe that. I think there is ample evidence even going back to a couple of years ago. I filed this lawsuit, as you know, against Google. And then similar documents to the one that you mentioned in that e-mail. Google has been punishing conservatives and hounding them out and criticizing people who support anything conservative for the couple of years ever since the election, actually. So it's been almost three years now.
And now that they are openly -- and Twitter and Facebook as well to a certain degree -- openly banning and cracking down on conservative speech because they think it is dangerous and they want to protect people from these conservative ideas. They are absolutely going to wheel that in favor of Democratic candidates. I mean, we've already seen Google banning ads from the President on immigration issues, Marsha Blackburn on abortion issues and other issues like that. Sometimes they're called on it and they back off, but that's happening, and you know, interestingly, Tucker --
CARLSON: But can you see -- do you think the President understands that he will not be reelected in a free and fair election unless someone gets a hold of this?
DHILLON: I'm not sure the whole establishment understands that. They are probably going to -- I'm not sure. I keep saying it.
CARLSON: Do you believe that?
DHILLON: I do.
CARLSON: I do, too.
DHILLON: I absolutely do. I think it is -- I think we were in crisis mode. I mean, so the old technology, the FCC doesn't allow sort of traditional broadcasters to ban ads from political candidates, but these social media companies can and they do, we have evidence to that.
So if we allow this to continue, if we allow this to happen in 2020, it is game over for conservatives in this country and for competition in our politics.
CARLSON: They act like it's just, "Well, we're going to let the free market do its thing." No, there's nothing free about this. This is a company collaborating with our enemies, stifling political speech and we will not have a fair election unless someone does something.
DHILLON: That's right and the think tanks and the conservatives who say that this is free market, they're getting contributions from Google and big techs.
CARLSON: It's disgusting and I don't think anyone has done more in this than you have and I appreciate that.
DHILLON: Thanks, Tucker.
CARLSON: Thank you. Harmeet Dhillon. Great to see you. Well, the Mueller investigation may soon claim its first Democratic victim. Ha? What did he do allegedly? And could more people follow? We will tell you after the break. Plus the Southern Poverty Law Center has been completely rotten for decades, so why are people just realizing that now? Ha? We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARLSON: According to a new report, former Obama White House Counsel Greg Craig may soon face criminal charges stemming from the Mueller investigation. Craig is one of the most prominent Democrats in Washington and has been for decades. He was a lawyer in the Clinton White House.
Craig, it turns out was also an unregistered lobbyist for Ukraine. He got that gig after being hooked up by Paul Manafort, who of course also worked the Ukrainian government. Like so many foreign lobbyists in Washington, Craig apparently did not disclose his work to the Federal government, even as he was making millions from Ukrainian oligarchs.
According to "New York Times," Craig could face charges for failing to register under FARA, the Foreign Agent Registration Act, that's a 1939 law that until recently went essentially unenforced.
Okay, so it looks like both sides will now have FARA indictments, but let's not lie about it. If failing to register foreign lobbying is a crime, there are a lot of felons walking free tonight in the nation's capital. How many of them will ever face indictment? Well, all of them should. Virtually, none of them ever will. That's not an argument against upholding the law, we should. But selective enforcement is not justice. It's persecution. And that's true even when they indict someone you don't like.
Last week, the Southern Poverty Law Center's founder Morris Dees was canned under mysterious circumstances. Dees' organization exists to tar all enemies of the Democratic Party as hate groups, racist, sexist, bigots, and should not be allowed to speak in this country or make a living. They should be disappeared.
So it does seem a little fitting then that apparently Dees was fired amid allegations that his own organization was rife with racism and sexism. But it turns out this is nothing new.
All the way back in 1994, the Montgomery Advertiser, the paper in town reported on a hostile racial climate inside the SPLC. This group has been rotten for years. Why are people just now noticing?
Tyler O'Neil is a senior editor at PJ Media and he joins us tonight. Tyler, thanks so much for coming on.
TYLER O'NEIL, SENIOR EDITOR, PJ MEDIA: Thanks, Tucker.
CARLSON: So I guess we've known for 25 years that the Southern Poverty Law Center had a racism problem inside its own offices, but we still treat it like it's legitimate?
O'NEIL: That's an excellent question. The story actually is really, really bad. You had 13 black former employees of the SPLC interviewed; 12 of them said they witnessed racist incidents in their time there and three of them called the organization a plantation for its black workers.
CARLSON: Did the SPLC put itself on its own list of hate groups?
O'NEIL: No, although they did fire their co-founder. The interesting thing is, it wasn't just the Montgomery Advertiser in 1994. Two years ago in 2017, we had former employees go on to the website, Glassdoor and talk about their experiences facing racial discrimination. There are apparently 100 lawyers and advocates of the SPLC, only five of them are black. There were black employees who worked there for 12 years, and yet none of them were elevated to senior leadership.
CARLSON: I'm not surprised. What I am -- that they are living as they accuse other people of living, of course they are. What I am surprised by is the fact that news organizations, big ones -- "New York Times," CNN, certainly NBC News take SPLC press releases and report them as if they're news. At this point, knowing what we know, can they continue to do that?
O'NEIL: Well, it's a biased left wing smear factory. It's gone way down. I mean, back in the day, they sued the KKK and made life better for black Americans. But today they list conservative and Christian organizations as hate groups. As you've mentioned, Maajid Nawaz, you know, they had to pay him $3.375 million.
CARLSON: Maajid Nawaz who is obviously an anti-Muslim bigot, you can tell by his name is actually a great guy and a valuable voice, I would say in this conversation, but how can news organizations get away with pretending that they are a credible source of news?
O'NEIL: It's the liberal bias. They can't see it and that's actually one of the positive things if the SPLC hires more black leaders, there's a possibility because blacks tend to be more Christian and believe evangelical beliefs at a higher rate than whites do. There's a chance that some of those new black leaders could know that Christianity is not anti- LGBT hate.
CARLSON: I bet -- possibly, I mean, it's hard to see how anything could redeem the SPLC or Media Matters, both of which are cited relentlessly by the press which really isn't even trying anymore.
O'NEIL: Oh, and it's companies, too.
CARLSON: I am aware of that.
O'NEIL: Yes, we talked about that.
CARLSON: Tyler O'Neil, it's so nice to see you tonight. Thank you for doing that.
O'NEIL: My pleasure. Thanks, Tucker.
CARLSON: We end tonight on a happier note. Congratulations are in order, the rapper Zuby just set a major women's sports record and he did it without even training and without even being a woman.
A couple of weeks ago, Zuby tweeted this, quote, "I keep hearing about how biological men don't have any physical strength advantage over women in 2019, so watch me destroy the British women's deadlift record without even trying," and then you know what he did? He did just that.
Now why is that a record? Well, Zuby explained quote, "P.S. I identified as a woman while lifting the weight. Don't be a bigot."
One of the prevailing wisdom right now, in fact under mandatory belief systems that you must adopt or be punished, he's absolutely right. If gender is fluid as the Democratic Party claims, then Zuby is a weightlifting champion. Don't be a bigot. Shut up and believe it or we'll hurt you or laugh at it, which is exactly the right response. Don't get mad. Laugh in their faces. They deserve it.
We are out of time. We'll be back tomorrow night, 8:00 p.m. The show that is the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, groupthink, lots of other bad things. We mean that all very sincerely, but we have a special surprise for you. Those of you are disappointed that this show is going off the air and it's little early to do this, but I'll announce it anyway. Coming next in nine seconds, there he is --
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: If you want a real surprise, why don't you say, you are doing the hour. Hannity, go have a couple of drinks and go to bed.
CARLSON: You know, what -- I hope I can do that. I want to be your fill in guy someday, I'm serious.
HANNITY: OK, done.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: When I'm on vacation.
CARLSON: Thanks, Sean.
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