Mark McCloskey reacts to police seizure of rifle from his St. Louis home

close

Video

Mark McCloskey reacts to police seizure of rifle from his St. Louis home

St. Louis couple have rifle seized by police after defending home from threatening mob.

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," July 13, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

TUCKER CARLSON, HOST: Good evening and welcome to "Tucker Carlson Tonight." Here's something you probably didn't know.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the voice of the streets actually grew up in an idyllic little town 45 miles north of New York City. It's called Yorktown Heights.

You never know it from listening to her recent race baiting, but the population of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's hometown is over 90 percent white. The median family income there is more than double the national average. Real estate listing show million dollar homes on big pieces of gated property.

It is not Queens. It is a very nice place. Yorktown Heights is so active fluent, and so peaceful, in fact, it doesn't need its own police department. Instead, it relies on a 59-man force that protects the larger town around it.

This is the hood that spawned Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the country's most privileged revolutionaries.

She called herself Sandy Cortez back then. She imagined that every place could be just like Yorktown Heights, if only we got rid of the police, and apparently she still believes that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ, D-N.Y.: It's funny because when people ask me, what does a world where we defund the police -- where, you know, defunding police looks like? I tell them, it looks like a suburb.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: It looks like a suburb. Unfortunately, not everyone lives in a suburb as placid and protected as the one Sandy Cortez grew up in, bake sales and pool parties.

Cities like St. Louis and Baltimore are more violent than El Salvador, and they're getting more dangerous by the day. In Milwaukee, homicides have risen nearly 40 percent just this year.

Killings there could soon break the city's all-time record. That's likely to happen soon in Chicago and Kansas City. Just this weekend in the City of Chicago, 64 people were shot and 11 murdered -- 11 corpses in one weekend.

None of those people died because there were too many cops on the street, they died because, thanks in part to sloganeering from pampered dilettantes like Sandy Cortez, there were too few cops.

Less law enforcement in dangerous places means more killings. There's not much debate about that, at least not among adults. New York City disbanded its plainclothes police unit and cut funding for the NYPD by a billion dollars. The result? Shootings in New York are up more than 200 percent compared to this time just last year. Murders are up 21 percent. Burglaries have risen 30 percent.

It is the most dangerous time to live in New York City in a quarter century. Just last night, an infant was shot to death while sleeping in a stroller at a cookout in Brooklyn. Mayor Bill de Blasio, who almost single handedly destroyed that city described the child's murder as so painful.

Then, de Blasio moved forward with his plans to disable the NYPD. He canceled the hiring of more than a thousand cops. He announced the police will no longer keep the schools safe. How will this end? We know very well how it will end. More poor children will die.

That will not affect Bill de Blasio though. His family will remain protected by armed security paid for by taxpayers. So, will Sandy Cortez, so will Barack Obama. So will the rest of the politicians calling for taking away your protection. They will never suffer the consequences and that's why they're for it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: The folks in law enforcement that share the goals of reimagining policing.

REP. JERROLD NADLER, D-N.Y.: Reimagining policing in the 21st Century.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rethinking and reimagining policing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Community efforts to reimagine policing.

REP. RASHIDA TLAIB, D-MICH.: To reimagine policing.

AL SHARPTON, MSNBC HOST: We have to reimagine what policing looks like.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Reimagining policing. Reimagining our public safety.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reimagine a citizen led approach.

JULIAN CASTRO, D-FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We can begin to reimagine law enforcement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reimagine public safety in this country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What can we do to reimagine public safety?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reimagining public safety.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To reimagine public safety?

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF.: They must reimagine what public safety looks like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: We must reimagine public safety. That's their new talking point. It was devised by some pollster at the D.N.C. and they're all faithfully repeating it like the robots they are. But what exactly does it mean?

Mark McCloskey doesn't have to imagine. He was a test case for reimagined public safety. When a mob showed up outside his home and threatened his life, the police never came. McCloskey and his wife had no choice, but to defend themselves.

[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS]

CARLSON: For centuries since the beginning of recorded history, self- defense has been the most basic principle of civilization. But now that we've reimagined public safety, it's illegal.

Watch CNN's resident bodybuilder, explain the new standard. Keep in mind as you watch that the guy doing the lecturing in this tape has repeatedly threatened violence against others for invading his personal space. But he gets to do that. His brother is the governor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: They did not go up your steps. They didn't go to your house. They didn't touch you. They didn't try to enter your home. They didn't try to do anything to your kids.

But you say you were assaulted. You're using the civil definition of that, which is that you had the apprehension that something bad was going to happen to you, but nothing did.

But to call it terrorism when the people are there protesting how the community is treated by the police is a little bit of reverse psychology at a minimum, is it not?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Now, it's hard to know exactly what the CNN anchor was trying to say. Some of those sentences didn't make sense, but you get the larger point.

Homeowners who try to protect themselves from violence are the real terrorists now and they must be punished. Increasingly, they are punished.

Listen to the local political hack/prosecutor in St. Louis, threaten to hurt the McCloskeys for daring to defend themselves.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIM GARDNER, ST. LOUIS CIRCUIT ATTORNEY: I am disturbed by the events that occurred over this weekend, where there were peaceful protesters who were met with guns and a violent assault.

Since learning of these events over this weekend, I worked with the public and the police to investigate these tragic events.

I will use every extent of Missouri law to hold individuals accountable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: It turns out she wasn't bluffing. Just a few days ago, police raided the McCloskey's home and reportedly seized the firearms they had used to protect themselves. In other words, their safety has been fully reimagined.

Mark McCloskey joins us tonight. Mark, thanks so much for coming on. So before I ask you about how you feel about this reimagined public safety you've been subjected to, tell us specifically what happened when the police visited your home recently?

MARK MCCLOSKEY, DEFENDED HIS HOME IN ST. LOUIS: Well, you know, the police were really very professional and very nice. The cops that came out to issue the search warrant on us. They're almost apologetic.

CARLSON: Yes.

MCCLOSKEY: They didn't want to have to be there. They're doing their job. I mean, Patti wanted to take a picture to document it, and she asked them if they wouldn't mind facing away from the camera so that people wouldn't get mad at them if their faces were shown on TV. And they all did so.

I mean, they, unfortunately, are stuck between a Circuit Attorney that wants to prosecute us and their own belief that we did absolutely nothing wrong.

CARLSON: It goes without saying -- I mean, police departments are structured along the lines. The military, they don't make independent decisions. They're told what to do, and they do it.

So they didn't make this decision independently, but you still can't escape the contrast between what happened the night the mob came to your home, you called the police, they didn't come and then they come at the command of the prosecuting attorney later to take the firearm used to defend yourself.

I mean, is that what police are for, do you think?

MCCLOSKEY: Well, you know -- and this is the same -- my attorney advised me not to be on the show tonight because the rumor is that we're going to be indicted shortly. Okay.

Having said that, this is the same Circuit Attorney, there are at least 35 of the protesters that torched and looted downtown St. Louis, but now she wants to indict me. I didn't shoot anybody. I just held my ground, protected my house, and I'm sitting here on television tonight instead of dead or putting out the smoldering embers of my home.

CARLSON: So, I mean, your strategy in response to all of this seems to be staying silent doesn't get you anything, obviously. If you just retreated into your house, it probably would be burned to the ground as you just said, but is that how society should function? I mean, shouldn't someone in authority in the State of Missouri be coming to your aid right about now?

MCCLOSKEY: I mean, the way I view it is that when you have certain elements of society encouraging violence, at the same time asking the police to stand down, what's the only possible result? The only possible solution is for individual citizens to stand up and defend themselves.

And I'm afraid that what's being promoted is causing citizens to stand up and defend themselves so they can be chilled and you know, abused the way we have been.

CARLSON: I don't think there's any doubt about that. I don't think there's a homeowner in America who wants to defend his own home with a gun. I mean, that's something you do if you have no choice.

You'd much rather the police came and took the risk for you. That's why you pay them, but they -- but they won't. What do you make of the media response? You were lectured on another channel by a guy who has repeatedly threatened violence against people -- actually threatened violence against people for getting in his space and yet he dressed you down for defending your home? What do you make of that?

MCCLOSKEY: Well, you know, the traditional media is right behind the mob. I mean, we're not allowed to use that word anymore -- the large crowd of angry people -- and are supporting these entities which are from my understanding Marxists and oppose everything that I stand for and I hold dear and near.

We've gotten tremendous support from ordinary people. My phones and my e- mails are running about 90 percent positive now. We've gotten calls from all over the world.

I got a nice letter from a lady in Ireland this morning, congratulating us for taking a stand against the violence. And so I think the vast majority of Americans wish they could do something.

The problem is, if nobody stands up and supports them, if the media blasts them, if they -- I'm self-employed, I mean, I own my own law firm. But what if I was an employee somewhere?

If I did what I did, and I was an employee of anybody else, I'd have been canned the next day. My family would have been canned. No one would ever get a job again.

This is the kind of social pressure that keeps people from standing up and defending themselves.

CARLSON: That's right.

MCCLOSKEY: I think it's time for people to take a different stand, to actually stand up and have some risk. I mean, Patrick Henry said, "Give me liberty or give me death." Now, everybody is afraid of losing their job.

CARLSON: I think you're exactly right. Slogans like that are meaningless unless people in power stand up to defend the country.

Mark McCloskey, who has defended himself, we appreciate you coming on tonight despite lawyer's counsel. Thank you.

MCCLOSKEY: Thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: St. Louis is an almost entirely Democratic city, so it may not surprise you that leaders there are defending criminals and threatening to prosecute the McCloskeys.

But Missouri is not an entirely Democratic state, the Governor, the Attorney General, the State Legislature are all Republican. They have done so far nothing to defend the McCloskeys. Why is that?

Eric Greitens is also Republican. He's the former governor of Missouri. He joins us tonight from St. Louis.

Governor, thank you very much for coming on. It's a very simple question. You see a citizen, a taxpayer legally defend himself against a mob threatening to murder him, his wife and their dog. And the Republican elected leaders of Missouri do nothing to help. Why?

ERIC GREITENS, R-FORMER GOVERNOR OF MISSOURI: Well, Tucker, I think the first thing that's important for all of your viewers to remember is that Kim Gardner who is attacking the McCloskeys, who's letting looters loose is a George Soros funded prosecutor. He paid for 70 percent of her campaign.

And what you're seeing now is that the radical left is getting what they paid for. She is letting looters loose, businesses are being burned. Police officers are being shot. You have people engaged in prayer who are attacked and assaulted by Black Lives Matter activists and no one is charged and then, she turns around and charges people who are defending themselves.

But Kim Gardner is, as you pointed out, she's only part of the problem. And I'm sad to say that part of the problem is also that you have some Republicans whose cowardice and complicity is also accelerating and fueling the problem here.

And we need to have leaders who are willing to stand up, be clear, act with some courage and some clarity.

Tucker, I talk to police officers every single day and they tell me the same thing. There is no leadership. There is no direction. There is no clarity. There is no plan.

We need to have leaders who stand up with compassion, with clarity with courage to bring peace.

CARLSON: Amen. And it's not just Missouri, by the way you're seeing it in Georgia.

GREITENS: That's right.

CARLSON: The Republican -- the utterly useless Republican Governor of Georgia, Governor Kemp had done nothing. But in the State of Missouri and I've got nothing against -- personally, I don't know the Governor of Missouri. But why didn't he send State Troopers to defend the McCloskeys or anybody else who was being threatened -- whose lives are being threatened?

The police don't help. The prosecutor threatens them. He issued some statement about how he supports gun rights. Really? They just took the McCloskey's firearm away -- their legal firearm like why isn't -- why isn't he doing something?

GREITENS: Well, look, you have a cowardice problem, Tucker. I'm telling you, when I was governor, we beat Antifa and we did it by bringing people together.

We had police lieutenants standing right beside clergy. And I was very clear. I was a Navy SEAL. We fought for everyone's constitutional rights, and that included everyone's rights to freedom of speech, everyone's rights to freedom of assembly.

And we were clear, Tucker, that if you were out protesting peacefully, you would see the police out protecting people's constitutional rights.

CARLSON: Amen.

GREITENS: But we were so clear with everyone that thrown a brick through a window is not free speech, and that if you assault a police officer, you are going to be arrested. And with that clarity, my team, we came together, we brought people together and we defeated Antifa.

It can be done, but it takes courage.

CARLSON: I don't think anything you said is complicated. I think it's a very straightforward template that Republicans and Democrats could follow.

GREITENS: That's right.

CARLSON: Take the side of the people who obey the law, who pay the taxes, who make this country a good place and against the people seeking to destroy. I don't know why your words aren't tattooed on the forearm of every leader in this country, and I'm grateful to you for stating the obvious. Thank you.

GREITENS: You're welcome, Tucker.

CARLSON: Good to see you tonight.

GREITENS: It's good to be on. Thank you.

CARLSON: Well, Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyers are trying tonight to get her free on bail. What exactly is going on with that story? Probably more than we know. We want to find out a little more after the break.

Plus, a story we told you about weeks ago, Planned Parenthood affiliates took millions of dollars from the coronavirus bailout. They shouldn't have, but they're not giving it back. Our investigation is straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Ghislaine Maxwell, assuming that's how you pronounce her name, finds out tomorrow whether or not she will have to stay in prison as she awaits trial for sex trafficking. Will she be released? And what exactly are the Feds doing to keep her alive before the trial?

Emily Compagno is the host of "The Crimes That Changed America." It's on Fox Nation. We're happy to have her on tonight. Hey, Emily.

EMILY COMPAGNO, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CONTRIBUTOR: Hi, Tucker. Ghislaine Maxwell is charged with six Federal crimes as you know, four of which involve transporting minors for illegal sexual activity.

Earlier today, Federal prosecutors told the court she tried to flee the F.B.I. just before being apprehended at her hideaway this month. After agents breached the locked gate and announced themselves as F.B.I. directing her to open the door, they saw her fleet inside instead and were forced to breach the front door in order to enter the house and arrest her.

They also found her cellphone wrapped in tin foil on top of the desk in a misguided effort to evade detection. Maxwell had private security at her estates staffed by former members of the British military.

Arguing she is an extreme flight risk, prosecutors also pointed toward her millions of dollars she holds in multiple overseas bank accounts and opaque finances, as well as her apparent skill at quote, "living in hiding" and her French citizenship.

If she fled to France upon release, they point out, France does not extradite its own citizens. There will be no trial for the victims if the defendant is given the opportunity to flee the jurisdiction they argued, and there is every reason to think that is exactly what she will do if she's released.

Fifty-eight-year-old Maxwell has asked the judge to release her on $5 million bail and over $3 million in property and said she would surrender her passports and wear an electronic monitor.

In addition to heightened suicide watch protocol, she is reportedly being moved from cell to cell sometimes with a roommate, but always accompanied for fear of her being killed by another inmate.

Prosecutors said they expect one or more victims will testify at tomorrow's hearing at 1:00 p.m. EST and reported that since her arrest, more people have offered the government evidence to support its case.

She faces up to 35 years in Federal prison if convicted -- Tucker.

CARLSON: Quite a story. It probably won't end there, I wouldn't think. Thanks, Emily. Great to see you tonight.

COMPAGNO: I agree. Thank you.

CARLSON: Well, the Federal government tried and spent trillions trying to help ailing small businesses survive the coronavirus shutdowns by giving them aid.

It turns out that Planned Parenthood, which of course gets close to half a billion in aid already from taxpayers, took up to $150 million of those funds and is now refusing to return the money.

Fox Business's Hillary Vaughn has been following the story from the very beginning and joins us tonight with a report. Hey, Hillary.

HILLARY VAUGHN, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Tucker. Well, almost every single Planned Parenthood affiliate in America received taxpayer cash from the Paycheck Protection Program. That's the loan program that benefits small businesses to help them keep workers on their payroll and pay their rent.

Forty three different Planned Parenthood locations raked in as much as $150 combined. Three different centers each received as much as $10 million in loans funded from taxpayer dollars.

The Small Business Administration sent letters in May to those locations demanding that Planned Parenthood affiliates return the money.

SBA claimed they were ineligible to receive the funds because the affiliates are part of a larger organization that is too big for the program and warned of civil or criminal penalties.

Instead, many Planned Parenthood affiliates replied back to SBA telling them they're keeping the cash. Planned Parenthood says this is a partisan political attack on them, and that there are affiliate organizations that received the PPP money are independent from the national organization and therefore are entitled to the cash.

SBA tells us, the loan data is currently being reviewed and some in Congress want a full investigation. The chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee, Senator Marco Rubio says the Department of Justice needs to get involved saying this, quote, "It's unacceptable that the administration is slow walking an investigation into this unlawful activity. Planned Parenthood's local offices are mocking the rule of law by calling themselves small businesses."

Now, Tucker, Planned Parenthood does facilitate donations on their website to their affiliates, but they did not dip into their own $1.6 billion revenue pot to help bail their own affiliates out.

The point that a lot of Republicans are making, Tucker, is big name businesses like Shake Shack, the LA Lakers, they returned PPP money because they didn't need it. They have access to millions.

In fact, more than big name businesses decided to opt out of this cash. I talked to a small town barber in Hershey, Pennsylvania who told me he even didn't apply to the PPP program because he had his own savings, and he used that instead of applying for the money -- Tucker.

CARLSON: A lot of decent people in this country. Hillary, great to see you tonight. Thank you.

VAUGHN: Thanks.

CARLSON: So the two largest school districts in the country's largest state, California, are defying widespread request to reopen this fall. On what grounds? Does science have anything to do with it? We'll tell you after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Around the world, schools have reopened in many places; daycare facilities have, too, with none of the restrictions we're seeing. No masks, no separated classrooms. And in none of these places have you seen an uptick in cases, much less deaths.

CNN claims to be an international news network, but they seem unaware of this. If you watch that channel, you would think the President of the United States is trying to murder children by sending them back to school.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Are you confident that students and teachers will go back safely to school in the fall?

REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF.: No, I think what we heard from the Secretary was malfeasance and dereliction of duty. This is appalling. They're messing -- the President and his administration are messing with the health of our children.

Going back to school presents the biggest risk for the spread of the coronavirus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: This is what happens when science intersects with politics. Both lose and the country loses most of all. Keeping kids out of school, keeping the elderly inside, forcing everyone to wear a mask when there's no evidence that helps. All of these become statements of resistance and moral imperatives.

You're seeing it happen in the State of California on a wide scale. The San Diego and Los Angeles school districts announced today they will not be reopening for in-person learning this fall. They may feel virtuous. But what about the kids who should be in class?

Fox News medical contributor, Dr. Marc Siegel joins us tonight to assess the science behind this. Doctor, thanks for coming on.

DR. MARC SIEGEL, FOX NEWS CHANNEL MEDICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Hi, Tucker. From a public health point of view, you know what two things could not be more different? Bars and schools. I'm sure you'll agree. What do they have in common? Absolutely nothing.

In fact, I can't think of a public health measure that a bar brings you. Drinking -- that's not good for your public health.

So I'm with Governor Newsom of California today that he is closing the bars and that he is even closing the restaurants and movie theaters at a time when there's over 6,000 hospitalized patients from COVID-19 in California.

And my sources on the ground tell me that they're even having to transfer patients from hotspots into the major medical centers in Los Angeles.

I think we can get control of this and they'll get control of it in California. But you know when you can tell a politician, when they're talking about bars and schools at the same time. Schools are about public health. Schools are places of nutrition. Schools or places of learning. Schools are places to handle mental health issues and special needs -- that schools.

And in fact, physicians at the University of Vermont, Tucker, just published a commentary in a major journal "Pediatrics," looking at four studies around the world in Switzerland, in New South Wales, in China, in France, pointing out Tucker, that children in school and out are not the spreaders of COVID-19.

Over 95 percent of the time, it's adults spreading to children or adults spreading to each other. Children are not the source so that we can't target them and take them out of schools. Very big tragedy from a public health point of view.

My buddy in California has two young children, Tucker, age eight and age 10. The eight-year-old is really good at Math, not so good at reading. The 10-year-old, great at Reading, bad at Math.

You know who it is that smooths the way? A teacher. You know who did it for me, for you, for your children, for my children? A teacher. That's how you smooth the way. That's how you socialize. That's how you teach learning.

So I have a prescription for the Governor of California tonight. Governor, if you want to be a leader, and not just a politician, Governor, close the bars, but open the schools in LA and San Diego. Open them -- Tucker.

CARLSON: Follow the science. We'll trust you when you follow the science. We won't trust you when you follow your political imperatives and that's what they're doing.

Dr. Siegel, great to see you tonight. Thank you.

SIEGEL: Thanks, Tucker.

CARLSON: Over the weekend, multiple Christian churches and Christian monuments -- statues -- were targeted for violence. Some of them were completely destroyed. It's a disturbing story that's not being covered in many news outlets for some reason.

Eric Metaxas joins us after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Well, the mob has turned its focus from American history to Christianity. Over the weekend, vandals in Boston torched a statue of the Virgin Mary outside a church.

In New York, they defaced a statue of the Virgin Mary in front of a Catholic school. In Florida, a man drove his car into a church as it was preparing for Sunday Mass. He then dumped gasoline in the entryway and set the building on fire.

In the State of California, a historic church was destroyed completely by flames as it prepared to celebrate its 250th anniversary.

Local fire departments suggested it may have had something to do with outrage from the mob directed at Junipero Serra. That was the founder of California's mission system.

As churches burned and statues were defaced, former Democratic Party leader, Howard Dean, the dumbest person ever to run the D.N.C. tweeted this, "Unfortunately, Christians don't have much of a reputation for anything but hate these days, thanks to Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell and other Trump friends." End quote.

Eric Metaxas is a Christian. He's the author of the book, "If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty" and also, of maybe the single best biography of Martin Luther King. He joins us tonight.

Hi, Eric, thanks so much for coming on. So, here you have the former head of the D.N.C. attacking Christianity as a religion of hate and its disciples as haters.

Imagine, Howard Dean saying that about any other religion? What would the response be, do you think?

ERIC METAXAS, AUTHOR: Listen, you've got to give Howard Dean a pass. He's a Jughead. You cannot take him seriously.

Here's the issue. When you start to scapegoat Christians, and you say it's because of them that these things are happening, unfortunately, you fall into the trap of being like the Emperor Nero, when Rome burned and, of course, he could have done something about it and he didn't. He blamed the Christians.

It's very convenient. It's happening now, I think a lot of the nastiness that is being directed at these statues, it really has to do with something deeper, Tucker.

I hate to say it, but there's something very dark. You saw this in the French Revolution. There was a hatred at the bottom of it, of God of any kind of authority, and these people are drunk with the idea that they can, you know, somehow be an authority themselves that they can seize power.

And if you really want to cut to the chase, you forget about statues of generals and things. You go right for God. You go right for the Virgin Mary. Oh, my goodness, you go for churches. You cut to the chase.

Someplace in "Moby Dick," one of the greatest novels ever written by a great American. He talks about Ahab who is consumed with rage, wanting to strike through the mask, in other words, sort of to punch a hole in the sky and murder God. That's really where the source of hatred is coming from. It's a hatred of God, and a sense of deep injustice. That's what we're talking about here.

We're talking about something that goes way beyond Confederate generals.

CARLSON: I think I think you're right. The acknowledgement of God suggests that you're not the ultimate authority, that there's someone more powerful than you and our leaders can't stand it.

I do think, though, that Christian leaders play a role in this. I mean, Muslim leaders to their credit, if they watched mosques burn and Islamic monuments be defaced, the Islamic Center in Washington, they would not put up with it for one second. They would say something. I don't see Christian leaders doing the same and I don't know why.

METAXAS: Well, I'll tell you why. There are many Christian leaders who don't understand the Bible. When David killed Goliath, it wasn't like before he became a Christian, and then he became a Christian and he repented.

No. We celebrate David killing Goliath. There are many instances of scripture where people fight. Elijah the Prophet is sarcastic. That has been lost. There are many people -- they've got a watered down kind of Christianity. They're offended by Trump.

They seem to think that being nice is what it means to be a Christian. Well, if someone is raping a family member, and you sit there, and you say, well, I'm going to pray about it, but I'm not going to try to stop that. It brings us really to Bonhoeffer.

Bonhoeffer understood that the most Christian thing he could do was participate in a plot to kill Hitler because he understood they were victims. When you know that there are people suffering, if you don't do something about it, you are to blame.

And actually, interestingly, when Kristallnacht happened, Bonhoeffer knew that this attack on the Jews by these mobs, as far as I'm concerned, who were animated by the spirit of antichrist, these were not just political mobs, there's something deeper and darker.

He understood that this attack on the synagogues, it was an attack on God himself. There's a rage and a sense of envy, that you know, I don't like to use the word too lightly, but there's something satanic about it.

There's something about it that is an unbridled, roaring fury. And if you don't treat it in the way that it needs to be treated, if you don't deal with it with some force, really then you are allowing other people to be harmed and any Christian leader who doesn't understand that this is a Marxist, violent organization. This has nothing to do anymore with George Floyd and that they've hijacked this in everything they want to do.

They want to burn down everything that has been built by good people over centuries, most of whom, of course, were Christians.

CARLSON: You have a right and we need to preserve the right to live in this country as a faithful Christian. Period. And our leaders should help, I think.

Eric Metaxas, thank you for that analysis. Really smart.

METAXAS: Always good to see you. Thank you.

CARLSON: Over the weekend, you may have seen stories about a writer on the show called Blake Neff. For years since he was in college, Blake posted anonymously on an internet message board for law school students.

On Friday, many of those posts became public. Blake was horrified by the story and he was ashamed. Friday afternoon, he resigned from his job.

We want to say a couple of things about this. First, what Blake wrote anonymously was wrong. We don't endorse those words. They have no connection to the show.

It is wrong to attack people for qualities they cannot control. In this country. We judge people for what they do, not for how they were born.

We often say that because we mean it. We will continue to defend that principle often alone among national news programs because it is essential. Nothing is more important.

Blake fell short of that standard and he has paid a very heavy price for it. But we should also point out to the ghouls now beating their chests in triumph for the destruction of a young man, that self-righteousness also has its costs. We are all human.

When we pretend we are holy, we are lying. When we pose as blameless in order to hurt other people, we are committing the greatest sin of all and we will be punished for it. There's no question.

Lawlessness and disorder have broken out on nearly unprecedented scale in New York City. We have a disturbing report on what's happening right now including dramatic new video. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: One of the most impressive things that anybody in this country did in decades was to completely rehabilitate the City of New York, which many thought was lost.

City leaders in the early 90s embraced policies that began with the broken window's theory of policing. That actually worked.

The city got safer. It got cleaner. More people move there. The homicide rate collapsed completely. New York became one of the safest urban areas in the country, if not the hemisphere.

So it is a tragedy and it's not an overstatement to watch the city's current leadership and the leadership of the Democratic Party, reverse all of that in a very short time.

State law in New York now requires judges to release the vast majority of criminals back onto the streets without bail. The city just cut the NYPD's budget by $1 billion.

The plainclothes unit famously effective was recently disbanded because it was famously effective. So what's happening now? Exactly what you would expect. Criminals having their way with police, facing no consequences for it.

We could play a lot of tapes on it. It's too upsetting to play. We'll play you a couple.

Take a look at this scene from the Bronx earlier this month.

[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS]

CARLSON: Assaulting a cop right in the middle of the street. That's not going to end well.

This tape we actually debated a lot before deciding to play it, but we decided we would because it's real and it gives you a sense of what's happening.

This is from Queens. Two elderly men stabbed while riding the subway.

[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS]

CARLSON: That knife attack comes as a city experiences a massive surge in violence, in shootings and murders and stabbings.

Just last night, a gunman shot and murdered an infant in a stroller at a cookout in Brooklyn. We told you about it at the beginning of the show.

City leaders are unmoved by this. They're still intent on removing the population's protection, defunding the police department. Watch what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told constituents at a virtual town hall meeting just this weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CORTEZ: Maybe this has to do with the fact that people aren't paying their rent and are scared to pay their rent. And so they go out and they need to feed their child and they don't have money. So you maybe have to -- they're put in a position where they feel like they either need to shoplift some bread or go hungry that night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Yes, that's the view from BU where she went, one of the most expensive private schools in America. Talk about privilege. Talk about disconnection from reality.

The people murdering babies at cookouts, knifing old men on subways, assaulting cops. They're all doing it because they're going hungry. It's idiotic. It's worse than that, it's decadent.

One group who knows exactly what's happening is the police of New York City, record numbers of them are filing for retirement. That number soared 411 percent just last month. Of course, would you be a cop in New York City? No, you wouldn't.

Karol Markowicz is a columnist for The New York Post and The Washington Examiner. She's been following this story in maybe greater detail than anyone else, and she joins us tonight.

Karol, thanks so much for coming on.

KAROL MARKOWICZ, COLUMNIST FOR THE NEW YORK POST AND THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Thanks for having me. Thank you.

CARLSON: It feels like and we don't. We don't want to whip up hysteria or mislead with the tape that we show, but it feels like things are coming apart in New York.

MARKOWICZ: They are. Yes, they absolutely are. I mean, just tonight, five people were shot in Brooklyn and Canarsie. It keeps happening. And you know, the thing is that you can put up a picture of the map of New York City and I can tell you which neighborhoods these shootings will happen in that nobody will care about.

If a one-year-old got shot on say, Mayor, Bill de Blasio's Park Slope, it would be a wall to wall story in every part of the media for many days.

But listen, some neighborhoods are just, you know, people don't care about them and the elected officials who are supposed to care about them just don't.

CARLSON: Yes, black lives don't matter to Bill de Blasio or to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ...

MARKOWICZ: Exactly. Right.

CARLSON: ... of Westchester. Yes, no, it's absolutely right. So the police, I mean, we keep reading these stories about record numbers of police officers filing for early retirement. What are the consequences of that going to be, do you think?

MARKOWICZ: Yes, absolutely. It's really rich people who believe in defunding police and saying, you know, pushing the defunding police slogan are taking away services from poor people. That's literally what's happening in the streets of New York City.

And for so long, we watched that kind of thing happen in other cities and thought, well, we've got, you know, good control over and that's not going to happen here.

And a lot of people came to believe that the safety and security of New York City was accidental, and there's nothing accidental about it. It was absolutely due to policing and good policing, and policing that was paid for, and defunding any part of that is going to hurt everybody.

CARLSON: It's worth remembering that the NYPD is regarded not just in the United States, but by the world as the most sophisticated big city police department that has ever been.

I mean, NYPD consultants go to other countries to advise them on police tactics. So just I mean, am I imagining this? The NYPD was never thought of in the past 20 years as being an abusive police department, correct?

MARKOWICZ: Yes, absolutely. And also, it's one of the most diverse police departments in the world. Bill de Blasio enjoyed bragging about that in the days before, you know, before 2020 and yet now, he doesn't mention that at all.

Yes, it's a real problem that one of the best police forces in the world are being treated the way that they are. I've spoken to so many police officers who are just -- they want out. They're tired of it. They don't want to be abused. They get spit on. They get called names. They get things thrown at them. They get shot at.

And they're just not having it anymore. And I really don't blame them.

CARLSON: Just in 10 seconds, like who would ever want to be a New York City police officer right now?

MARKOWICZ: Right. Well, that's what they keep saying to me. They're telling me that they would never tell their kids to be police officers, and that was traditionally a very legacy job. Nobody -- nobody wants to be a police officer right now.

CARLSON: Only the worst people are going to want to become police officers, and we should all be worried about that.

MARKOWICZ: Exactly.

CARLSON: Karol, thank you for the reporting that you do day in and day out about this.

MARKOWICZ: Thank you so much.

CARLSON: Appreciate it. Well, we're out of time. I am going to spend the next four days trout fishing. Long planned.

This is one of those years where if you don't get it in now, you're probably not going to. If something dramatic happens, of course, we'll be back. We've got some taped segments for you. Brian Kilmeade will be sitting in.

But in the meantime, we hope you have the best and happiest week and we'll be back on Monday, if not before, 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

The show that is the sworn and totally sincere enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness and groupthink. Until then, the Great Sean Hannity steps in from New York. Hey, Sean.

Content and Programming Copyright 2020 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2020 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.