Mollie Hemingway: Media feel empowered to smear people like Nick Sandmann

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Mollie Hemingway: Media feel empowered to smear people like Nick Sandmann

There is little accountability and no repercussions for getting stories completely wrong, The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway says.

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," May 2, 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.” Antifa went on the attack in Portland, Oregon yesterday. One of the victims who was bashed by them joins us just a head with an account of what happened.

But first tonight, it's been a bewildering couple of months for Bill Barr. Imagine you're Bill Barr. Barr first served as Attorney General in the George H.W. Bush administration. That was 1991. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez it just turned two years old at the time. That's how long ago it was. Then this February, purely by process of elimination, basically as he was the one guy could get confirmed, Barr became Attorney General of the United States once again.

The Mueller investigation was nearly over when he got the job. Barr probably didn't expect to becoming a major figure in the Russia story because he had nothing to do with it. As far as we know, Barr never met with secret agents in Prague. He never texted Vladimir Putin on his Blackberry. He never managed a Macedonian content forum.

If Barr betrayed this country for a sack of rubles or a case of vodka, nobody has ever proved it. But it doesn't matter. The Russia story cannot die. CNN, "The Washington Post," the Democratic Party, many others have too much invested in that story. The fact it's been proven to be untrue is irrelevant to them. Bill Barr is a handy way to keep Russia in the news.

Watch today's talking point in action. Somewhere in the basement of the Democratic National Committee, some messaging consultant has decided that credibility is the most effective line of attack. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You are now joining the chorus of Democrats saying he should resign. Why?

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, D-CONN.: Well, first of all his credibility was shredded yesterday.

REP. ERIC SWALWELL, D-CALIF., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He played a home game today and his credibility was destroyed.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This Attorney General lacks all credibility.

SEN. CORY BOOKER, D-N.J., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He has burned through any credibility he had in that role, and he should resign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: What we have here is what we always have here every single time. We have projection. They call you what they themselves are, whether it's privileged or bigoted or hateful, or in this case, fraudulent. These are the same people who spent two full years ginning up hysteria over a bogus story. But as the rest of us, they tell us with a straight face who lack credibility.

These are the people who hated the results of a democratic election so much that they dropped everything and worked tirelessly for years in order to nullify that election. So guess what they're calling other people tonight? Enemies of democracy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE, D-TX: The Attorney General joined with his supervisor, the President of the United States, decided to show the American people that this is not a democracy.

REP. HANK JOHNSON, D-GA: Stop this attack on our republic and save this nation, its democracy.

REP. JERROLD NADLER, D-N.Y.: It's simply another step in the administration's growing attack on American democracy. This is a grave danger for American democracy and it is part of the attack on American democracy by this administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: English is the largest language in the history of the world, more nouns, more adjectives, more verbs in any language, ever. And yet, night after night, we've managed to find tape of people saying exactly the same thing. Almost like it's coordinated.

Tonight it's "They're attacking our democracy," says the guy who refuses to wait until the next election to throw out the elected President. Okay. It went on like this today and on and on. Democrats stopped in the end trying to make a rational case for their position or even use words. By the end, they were resorting to prop comedy.

Here's Congressman Steve Cohen of Memphis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are looking at images of you at that committee hearing today with what appears to me a bucket of fried chicken and oh, there it is. You brought props I see with you here. What is the message you're trying to send?

REP. STEVE COHEN, D-TENN: The message is that Bill Barr is a chicken. He was chicken to come to the House Judiciary Committee, he does not deserve respect. He has lowered the bar for lawyers and for the Attorney General.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: "He deserves no respect. He has lowered the bar," says the guy who just brought a bucket of fried chicken on to the House floor. So how long does this circus continue? And by the way, why is it still in progress? Why hasn't it left town yet?

Glenn Greenwald founded "The Intercept." He has followed the Russian story since the very first day. We're happy to have him for the first time in the studio tonight. Glenn, thanks very much for coming on.

So if you think about it for a second, it's a little strange that this is continuing since you know the Mueller report is out, the President likely not going to be impeached on the basis of anything the Mueller report found. So what is the point of continuing with the story?

GLENN GREENWALD, CO-FOUNDING EDITOR, "THE INTERCEPT": And the point is everything that you just said, namely that for three years, it's almost been three years. It started in mid-2016. The Democrats have put all their eggs in one basket, which is that they've insisted the central theme of the Trump presidency is that he was a Russian agent who collaborated with the Kremlin in the election, and they all agreed that Robert Mueller was going to be empowered to get to the bottom of this and we were all going to accept whatever it was that Mueller found.

And what Mueller found was that the entire conspiracy theory was a hoax, that there's no evidence to establish that it's true, and they led their flock to believe for so long and profited greatly from it. Cable networks that did it saw massive increases in their ratings. Newspapers that did it saw huge subscription increases. They made tons of money exploiting people like con artists, and now it's kind of like the leader of an apocalyptic Doomsday cold, who keeps promising the world is going to end on a certain date and then the day comes and the world still goes.

And so you need to keep giving people reasons to follow you and to believe and we are now descended from Trump is a Russian agent. He is controlled by the Kremlin. He conspired with the Russians to people eating fried chicken, because they say that Bill Barr waited three weeks before releasing the entire Mueller report that he himself gave to the public.

CARLSON: Where's the part where we stop, assess what we've just seen for the past three years, hold people accountable for it, learn something from it and move on?

GREENWALD: I think the reason that you're seeing so much intense rage toward Bill Barr is because they know what he's now going to do, which is what journalists should be doing, and at least some of us are which is asking the question, which is now for me the central question in American politics -- how is it that our discourse has been drowned out for almost three years by a conspiracy theory or really a set of conspiracy theories as inflammatory and as dangerous as you can possibly get? That turned out to be totally untrue.

Who started this conspiracy theory? How are the vast invasive powers of the FBI, NSA and CIA used to spy and infiltrate a campaign and spy on American citizens in the name of a conspiracy? As a leftist, somebody who is steeped in the history of the Church Commission, the abuses of the FBI under Hoover -- these are the most serious things that can happen.

CARLSON: I agree.

GREENWALD: You want to talk about threats to democracy? How about spying on and listening in on the calls of American citizens by convincing a FISA Court that they are Russian agents, when then you unleash a prosecutor for 22 months who concludes that they aren't Russian agents, that there's no evidence to suggest that that was the case. That's the real scandal and that's where the investigation is now going to turn and that's why there's panicking about Bill Barr because they know that he is going to unflinchingly pursue that.

CARLSON: I couldn't agree more. And in fact, that's where the show is turning right now. Glenn Greenwald, thank you very much.

GREENWALD: Great to be with you.

CARLSON: During yesterday's hearing, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island said he was outraged that the Attorney General would call FBI monitoring of the Trump campaign spying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, D-R.I.: You use the word spying about authorized DOJ investigative activities.

WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think spying is a good English word that in fact doesn't have synonyms because it is the broadest word incorporating really all forms of covert intelligence collection. So I'm not going to back off the word spying and up until all the full outrage a couple of weeks ago, it's commonly used in the press to refer to authorized activities such as referrals to the FISA Court and is used by court.

WHITEHOUSE: But it's not common to use by the Department.

BARR: What?

WHITEHOUSE: It is not commonly used by the Department.

BARR: It's commonly used by me.

WHITEHOUSE: My time is up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Barr of course, was right. Almost always the guy who speaks in plain and clear English is right. That's why he is speaking plainly because he's not trying to hide anything. A new "New York Times" story reveals that the existence of a previously unknown informant was used to spy in the Trump campaign.

A woman who went by the alias "Azra Turk" was sent to meet with campaign aide George Papadopoulos and tried to extract information from him. George Papadopoulos has a new book out called "Deep State Target: How I Got Caught in the Crosshairs of the Plot to Bring Down President Trump." Probably the most accurate title of a book in a long time. He joins us tonight. George, thanks very much for coming on.

GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS, FORMER DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGN AIDE: Thanks for having me.

CARLSON: So briefly, describe your experience with the woman you believe was sent to spy on the Trump campaign by the Obama administration?

PAPADOPOULOS: Sure, that's a great question. And I received an unsolicited e-mail in September of 2016, from a man named Stefan Halper, who was suggesting that he wanted to pay me $3,000.00 to write a report on energy security questions that I was a recognized expert on at the time in Israel, Turkey and Cyprus, and I looked him up. I'd never heard of him before. I just saw that he had worked in four U.S. administrations, and he was a professor at Cambridge. So I accepted his offer.

He flew me to London where he paid a five-star hotel and my flights. And he said, "Before I meet with you, I need you to meet my assistant." And he put this assistant in an e-mail chain along with me. And I saw her name was Azra Turk. I recognize it as Turkish, which was a bit suspicious right away because my policy positions throughout my entire career were very hostile to Turkey.

So when I noticed the Turkish name, I didn't understand why she'd be involved. But anyways, I went and I met with her and she was very suggestive as you can understand, younger, you know, very flirtatious and I right away understood that this wasn't a Cambridge assistant.

And you know, she barely spoke English. She was very flirty, and was trying to do two things; one, to extract information about my professional connections in the Middle East; and two, to see if I had any information that she could potentially extract for me about Trump and Russia, which of course is nonsense.

And so anyways after I meet with her, she is then introduced to me again the next day with Stefan Halper where she goes from this suggestive young lady to now pouring us coffee and Stefan Halper is very belligerent. I explained it in my book, how belligerent he is, how he invited me to basically castigate me about my policy positions. And of course, Azra Turk then took me to dinner, and was just basically trying to extract information. I was very suspicious.

And, you know, from that moment, I knew there was something wrong and I was laughing about it. But now, of course, "The New York Times" reported that she was some sort of agent, but I don't think she was FBI think she was CIA.

CARLSON: But she was dispatched by the Obama administration, Barack Obama, was the President of the United States, led the Executive Branch including CIA and FBI, and every other agency to spy on, in effect, the Trump campaign. Am I missing something or is that what happened?

PAPADOPOULOS: That's absolutely what happened and I and I want to make something very clear here. I don't think President Trump was tweeting about U.K. interference out of the blue for no reason last week, because let me explain why.

The day I met with Stefan Halper and Azra Turk in London, I was invited by the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs to meet with them at their offices, including with Tobias Ellwood, who was a number two at the time under Boris Johnson. So clearly, when "The New York Times" suggested in their reporting today that the British were told of this operation, I believe the British actually were actively spying on me as well.

And I think part of what President Trump was tweeting last week about the British spying was about this involvement and this operation in London. So I guess we have a lot more to find out.

CARLSON: I would just remind our viewers, I mean, you went up going to jail briefly, correct?

PAPADOPOULOS: Yes, I did. I went for 11 nights.

CARLSON: Yes.

PAPADOPOULOS: Yes.

CARLSON: So you go to jail. You didn't spy for Russia. It turns out you didn't do anything wrong and your life is destroyed, but we shouldn't figure out how this happened because why? I don't know. George I -- congratulations on the new book.

PAPADOPOULOS: I think we definitely need to find out.

CARLSON: You think? Yes, I think we do. And your book is a good way to start that process. Thanks for joining us tonight, George Papadopoulos.

PAPADOPOULOS: Thanks a lot for having me. Thanks a lot for having me, Tucker. Thank you.

CARLSON: Of course. Richard Goodstein is a lawyer, a former adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton and we're happy to have him tonight. Richard, so how about that?

RICHARD GOODSTEIN, FORMER ADVISER TO BILL AND HILLARY CLINTON: Yes.

CARLSON: So are you curious? Are you concerned? Does it make you wonder what country this is that that could have happened to George Papadopoulos?

GOODSTEIN: I'm sure George has many positive qualities. This focus on him reminds me of the focus of many people on the caravan to the run up to the election. Everybody in the Trump world bought that this was a horrible thing and nobody else did, which is why the Congress flipped, okay.

And just here, George -- let me tell you what Donald Trump said about your friend, George, which is that he's a proven liar. What Michael Caputo said, he is a coffee boy.

CARLSON: Hold on. I want to know --

GOODSTEIN: No, this notion of spying --

CARLSON: No, but I want to know what you think. Hold on.

GOODSTEIN: I'll tell you exactly what I think.

CARLSON: It's just that Halper has worked for the U.S. government, for CIA as a contract spy, he reached out to this kid who had no knowledge of him at all. He is clearly acting on behalf of a campaign --

GOODSTEIN: Right -- to listen to Corey Lewandowski who was the campaign chairman?

CARLSON: But hold on, is okay with you that the Obama administration would dispatch spies to spy on an American citizen? It is clearly what happened.

GOODSTEIN: Yes.

CARLSON: Is that all right?

GOODSTEIN: I think what's all right is that when five friendly countries report to our Intelligence Agencies, that there are these reports that they are getting that are, you know, they credit that the Russians are in fact, as we now know from our Intelligence Community, trying to infiltrate the campaign and try to tip the scales, yes that troubles me.

CARLSON: But Papadopoulos -- so does it bother you that he wasn't a Russian spy? He got spied on by Obama, and then they sent him to -- no, he did.

GOODSTEIN: That's like saying babies in cages were done by Trump.

CARLSON: Yes, that's what people say. Look, the President is in charge of the Executive Branch of government. The Trump campaign was spied on by the Obama administration. This guy went to jail but he didn't do anything. He didn't spy for the Russians.

GOODSTEIN: He lied. He admitted lying. That's why he went to jail.

CARLSON: In the course of an investigation into something he didn't do.

GOODSTEIN: Well, then he should have not --

CARLSON: So is that justice?

GOODSTEIN: Well, he should have then not admitted lying and gone to trial if he thought he had the merits on his side?

CARLSON: But do you have a problem with that?

GOODSTEIN: I don't have a problem. Look, we now know Donald Trump invited the Russians to help and they did and it benefited him. I'm troubled by the fact that nobody in the administration is as upset about that as they are about poor Carter Page and George Papadopoulos.

CARLSON: Well, their lives are destroyed and they didn't do anything wrong.

GOODSTEIN: That's what troubles me. And our country was attacked, according to Dick Cheney.

CARLSON: No, it wasn't.

GOODSTEIN: As an active -- well, you take that up with him next time you talk with him.

CARLSON: That is so stupid. Our country was not -- you know, I don't care how many Republicans repeat that line. We're not even certain exactly where that information came from. How -- no, I'm serious. People who have looked at it carefully, people with deep knowledge of this question are not convinced that we've never seen evidence exactly how those servers were hacked. Why is that, I wonder?

GOODSTEIN: I think I've seen people in this network interview Mike Pompeo, when he was head of CIA.

CARLSON: I don't care.

GOODSTEIN: He was unqualified about saying what the Russians did.

CARLSON: Oh, I'm sure he wasn't -- that means -- let me just say how much that means to me. Oh, nothing. I want to see the evidence.

GOODSTEIN: Well, I think --

CARLSON: I don't trust anymore -- I don't trust my government just because they tell me to shut up and accept it.

GOODSTEIN: I get it. And I'm not saying we should shut up and accept everything.

CARLSON: Ys, they were saying that.

GOODSTEIN: But every Intelligence Agency that's looked into it is unqualified about saying what the Russians did.

CARLSON: They lie to us all the time and we're not allowed to ask questions over Russian agents?

GOODSTEIN: I don't think we're confident enough to kind of all line in sync. I think the evidence was pretty clear.

CARLSON: Well, actually, they have lied -- all in sync. They lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They're lying now on many levels.

GOODSTEIN: Yes.

CARLSON: And we have a right as American citizens to ask real questions and I'm going to. I don't care.

GOODSTEIN: We've had Republicans control Congress at the time and they could looked into it and why didn't they?

CARLSON: I don't care. I don't care in there. I don't care if they're Republicans. I don't trust them either.

GOODSTEIN: Yes.

CARLSON: Okay, that's the truth. Richard, thank you.

GOODSTEIN: Of course.

CARLSON: More parents could soon face criminal charges in the Varsity Blues cheating scandal that is next. Plus another media outlet is being sued for its handling of the Covington High School news story. Fake story. That's also ahead. Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Nick Sandmann of Covington High School in Kentucky is suing NBC for $275 million for its coverage of his confrontation with Nathan Phillips, the supposed tribal leader and Vietnam veteran at the Lincoln Memorial. The lawsuit says correctly that NBC helped promote the fake storyline that Sandmann tried to intimidate Phillips.

Later footage revealed exactly the opposite. As usual, Phillips came up and confronted Sadmann who was simply standing there. Even after it was clear exactly what happened because there were multiple tapes and they all showed the same thing, Sandmann went on "The Today Show" and the host badgered him like he was the aggressor. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, NBC ANCHOR: Do you feel from this experience that you owe anybody an apology? Do you see your own fault? We looked at that video and thought about how it felt from the other's perspective. In other words, there were a lot of you, a handful of the others. There's something aggressive about standing there, standing your ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Yes. Something aggressive about standing there. Mollie Hemingway said that for years. She's a senior editor at "The Federalist" and she joins us tonight. Something kind of aggressive about you sitting there Mollie, I have to say.

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, CONTRIBUTOR: Apparently. Yes, no it is --

CARLSON: I feel intimidated. So does this -- this lawsuit, I mean, I guess the upside is it really kind of offers a very clear explanation of a fraudulent story.

HEMINGWAY: Right. And it's not the first of these lawsuits that's been filed. There have been two others against two other media outlets. And what's important about it where it is interesting why people are paying attention, because currently, there aren't any repercussions really for getting stories completely wrong.

And you're seeing this where the media feels sort of empowered to smear people, including, in this case, a child who had come out to Washington, DC for the March for Life, and they did this over the course of days. They said false things about this boy and his school that were demonstrably untrue.

And right now, there's not a lot of accountability for this. You know, they do these false stories, they get ratings, they get money, and they never really are held accountable for it.

CARLSON: And no one pauses to kind of reverse engineer it. How did this happen? How did this -- it began on a weekend. It's not really a news story, is it? I mean, there's a lot going on in the world, but the networks are all over this, like it was the most important thing.

HEMINGWAY: I think, because if you were to look into how this happened, it would not make the media look very good. They liked this story because it was a way to make the March for Life, an event that they do not cover year after year, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of people attended each year in Washington, DC.

CARLSON: Yes.

HEMINGWAY: It was a way to make the March for Life look bad. It was a way to make Donald Trump voters or supporters look bad. And so it was just convenient. It fit a narrative that they would like to perpetuate. And if they were to look at their own biases, and look at how those biases can lead to really bad news, they might start to think about other issues that they have covered poorly.

I mean, you just -- in the earlier part of the show, we're talking about this Russia collusion hoax that went on for years and caused real damage to the country, including in our foreign policy, administration of government, and you're not even having people take accountability for that. Or the other people that have been smeared like Brett Kavanaugh, who, when he was going through his confirmation battle, so they don't want to look into it because I think the entire edifice would come crumbling down.

CARLSON: It's all the destroyed lives. I mean, and no one ever stops to say well, we just wrecked someone's life. He will never work again. And we're responsible for that.

HEMINGWAY: And that's why I think this story has resonated so much with Nicholas Sandmann. They've done it to people who are adults. They've done it to people who they think deserve it. You know, Donald Trump, you can do whatever you want to him or conservatives or Republicans.

This was a boy, you know, a teenage boy who was doing something good and got smeared as doing something bad. People sense the injustice of that and they want to see some people finally take responsibility for it.

CARLSON: And I hope someone finally does. Mollie, thanks. It was great to see you.

HEMINGWAY: Great seeing you.

CARLSON: Another of President Trump's Federal Reserve nominees has withdrawn his name after his character was assassinated. He joins us to respond, just a head.

Plus Antifa got violent in Portland, Oregon yesterday. Cops did nothing. The journalist who was there joins us, after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Well, a group of fascists who claim to oppose fascism -- not very incredibly -- assembled yesterday in Portland for a May Day rally, they call themselves Antifa and as usual, things got violent when they gathered.

Quillette editor and independent journalist, Andy Ngo was there. He wound up punched in the stomach and sprayed with bear mace. Portland Police did not intervene. Afterward, they described the event as entirely peaceful. Here's the tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[INCOMPRESSIBLE SHOUTING]

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Yes, entirely peaceful. Andy Ngo joins us tonight. Andy, thanks a lot for coming on. So, just describe if you would, what we may have missed in that video. Why were you sprayed?

ANDY NGO, EDITOR, QUILLETTE: So yesterday's event was supposed to be a celebration of diversities and workers' rights, but in reality it was a celebration of Marxism, communism and political violence.

Antifa had mobilized outside the I.C.E. office in an unlawful protest where they shut down streets in a critical area near a hospital. And it was there that they targeted my camera equipment. And then I was punched in the abdomen, both times were by different masked individuals.

I immediately alerted the Portland Police officer who was standing yards away, and he let me know that if they stepped in to intervene that that would be an escalation and that that could incite the crowd. So he was going to do -- that he couldn't do anything. And if I wanted to, I could file a police report later.

Later on the day, there was a brawl/riot outside the Cider Riot bar in in Portland. And it was there that I was singled out and targeted by a masked individual who sprayed me nearly point blank in the face with bare mace and blinded me. Fortunately, a woman who I have no idea who she is, but she led me across the street because I was -- I could not see and I was only there as a journalist and I was harassed and attacked all day. And when the riots happened, the police were nowhere in sight.

CARLSON: It's disgusting. It's disgusting. Is this the official policy of the Portland Police not to protect the citizens of Portland from violence?

NGO: Of course they wouldn't say it like that. The policies that were explained to me was that in the middle of protests that are politically heated, if they step into intervene that could lead to an escalation and that's what they want to avoid.

CARLSON: Yes, I wonder if they take that same position on armed robbery and rape. I mean, it's demented. I will say, the one kind of upside of the whole event is some of the fascist wrote white privilege in chalk -- oh there, we have tape of it right there and misspelled privilege, which does kind of tell you everything about them.

Really quickly, Andy, first, glad you're okay. Any idea why they targeted you?

NGO: Because one of my beats is I write about the accesses of the radical left in Portland, and Portland is the epicenter of radicalism on the left. My other beat is I write about hate crime hoaxes, and I go after the grifters, and they're angry about that.

CARLSON: Yes, they hate the truth. You're a brave man. Thank you for doing that.

NGO: Thank you for having me on.

CARLSON: For covering it and for telling us about it. Appreciate it. Well, for the second time, in just two weeks, one of the President's nominees to the Federal Reserve Board has withdrawn after his character was attacked. They said almost nothing about his views and economics, but for the moment he was nominated, Heritage Foundation senior fellow Stephen Moore was tarred as a woman hater, a nut-job, a racist --unbelievable. Every vulnerability was hyped to hysterical proportions, and all it shades, the Brett Kavanaugh hearings just several months ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRETT KAVANAUGH, ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: I love teaching law. But thanks to what some of you on this side of the committee have unleashed, I may never be able to teach again.

My family and my name been totally and permanently destroyed by vicious and false additional accusations.

The Swetnick thing is a joke. That is a farce.

Ten days passed where all this nonsense is coming out and these things are printed and run breathlessly by cable news.

You know, I wanted a hearing the next day. My family has been destroyed by this, Senator, destroyed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Yes, and he's not the only one. A lot of people have been destroyed by the left in the last couple of years. I made it through. Steve Moore hasn't been so lucky and we're happy to have him on this show anyway, or maybe especially now.

Stephen Moore is the author of the book, "Trumponomics," and he joins us on set. So Stephen Moore, I mean, you can defend yourself, but let me just say what I was struck by watching your character get impugned is that nobody even mentioned your views on relevant issues, at all. It was, "You're a bad person" because you told a joke that must not have been a joke. You must be a bigot.

I was fascinated see that CNN, where you worked up until about 20 minutes ago, leading the charge against you. How does that work?

STEPHEN MOORE, SENIOR FELLOW, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Well, first of all, let me just say that, you know, I'm bummed out today because I hate quitting. I'm not a quitter. And so I'm sad about that. And people, by the way, all over -- I'd be in airports, I'd be at, you know, at restaurants and people would come up to me. I mean, people were so great to me about you know, "Don't let these jackals get you."

CARLSON: They are jackals.

MOORE: And what surprised me, Tucker, and look, I'm not playing the victim here because the truth is, I have settled -- I have a two-mile long paper trail. I've given out 500 speeches and written a lot of articles, and I've said things that are in politic, things that --

CARLSON: Did you tell a joke -- did you make a mistake of telling a joke?

MOORE: Almost always --

CARLSON: Well, damn you for telling a joke.

MOORE: Almost all of the things that were a joke.

CARLSON: Of course.

MOORE: Look, again, I'm not saying that everything I've said, you know, some of the things I've said are stupid. And there should -- I wish there were a statute of limitation on stupidity. Because some of these things were 20 to 25 years old.

CARLSON: Who cares?

MOORE: But here's the point. I had hoped, you know -- I was excited about this. Because when Trump asked me to do this, I'm like, "This is great. I will have this ability to really talk about the economy and the amazing things that we can do if I'm at the Fed," and it never even came up.

I mean, the left understood from the first couple of days, because they did surveys of the senators, the Republican senators love, you know, my economic views and so on. And that's when they launched this character assassination.

CARLSON: But I don't understand --

MOORE: By the way, let me just say one thing.

CARLSON: Yes.

MOORE: They went into my -- the most amazing thing. "The "Washington Post," "New York Times," CNN, they got my divorce settlement from 10 years ago, unsealed, so they could just put all of this dirt on me that had nothing to do with my qualifications to be on the Fed.

As I've said a hundred times, I'll debate anybody on the economy and what we should do and what the best monetary policy is. It almost never came up.

CARLSON: The White House never should have given in to this. They should have not. They should have not have. They shouldn't have because that's more weakness, it draws more aggression.

MOORE: No, I've got to tell you one thing about this. Well, there's a lot of truth to that because -- but I will say that, you know, who know who the biggest -- the guy who did not want me to withdraw from this?

CARLSON: Who?

MOORE: Donald J. Trump.

CARLSON: Good. Well, I believe that.

MOORE: That's what I love about him. He is a fighter and I just said at the end -- I just had to say, "I don't know if I can."

CARLSON: I believe it. So really quick, I thought you just resigned at CNN. They wanted you to work there and then I'm watching tonight, and they're telling me that like you're evil. How did that --

MOORE: Well, this is a little awkward for CNN because every night they trash me now, when for the last two and a half years, I had been their senior economics writer, and the things that they're talking about now are things that happened 20 years ago. Wait a minute, if I'm such a scoundrel and sexist, why did they have me on every night?

CARLSON: What's the answer?

MOORE: Well, I mean, I don't know. You'd have to ask them. But the point is, you know, I don't think you should hold accountable, you know, for things that were written 25 years ago. They even been looked at my Christmas letters that we would send out to friends and family that were just kind of jokes where we'd make fun of everyone.

CARLSON: You've got to stand up to these people. I mean, this is -- it's disgusting what's happening. It's disgusting what happened to you and Kavanaugh and a lot of other people in this city. Anyway, Stephen Moore, you're always welcome on the show. Thank you for coming on.

MOORE: Thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: Good to see you. Hillary Clinton's world grievance tour is going strong into its third year. Massive discount on the tickets, but whatever. Now she says America is lurching toward tyranny because she is not the President. New polls show voters disagree. That's just the head.

But first, it's time for "Final Exam." Can you beat our experts at remembering the weird things that happened over the past seven days? A great lineup tonight after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Time now for "Final Exam" where the news professionals compete with one another to see who has been paying closest attention to what happened over the past seven days. Smart people this week, two new contestants joining us tonight. Fox News correspondent, Gillian Turner and University of Maryland Professor, Jason Nichols.

Wow. Now, as I said to you both a second ago, smart people can be at a disadvantage on this show. So don't take it personally no matter what happens. Okay? Now, I'm going to repeat the rules. I know you know what they are. You look nervous.

GILLIAN TURNER, CORRESPONDENT: No, I'm ready.

CARLSON: Okay, good.

TURNER: I just want to go.

CARLSON: Okay, good. Hands on buzzers, I ask the question. First one to buzz in answers the question. You have to wait until I finish asking the question before you buzz in. That's key. You can answer once I acknowledge you by saying your name. Every correct answer is worth a single point. Each incorrect answer detracts a point from your total in the cruel math of "Final Exam." All right, best of five wins. Are you ready?

TURNER: Born ready.

CARLSON: Born ready. Wow.

JASON NICHOLS, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: Wow.

CARLSON: Question one.

NICHOLS: I'm scared now.

CARLSON: Norwegian fishermen believe they have discovered an actual Russian spy in their waters. This time, it's an animal though with a recording device attached to its body. What kind of animal is it? Gillian.

TURNER: A whale.

CARLSON: A whale. A whale? A whale can't be a spy.

TURNER: I'm telling you it's a whale.

CARLSON: Is it some kind of whale?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fishermen discovering a beluga whale wearing a Russian made harness. On it were written the words, "Equipment: St. Petersburg" fueling all kinds of speculation about spying. One newspaper reporting that the Russian military believe to have trained over sea mammals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NICHOLS: I don't stand a chance. This is over.

CARLSON: So you're saying that the whales are now spying for the Russians.

TURNER: I'm sorry, did you say you wanted to concede now?

CARLSON: No don't. She is trying to intimidate you.

TURNER: I'm sorry, I thought you said that.

NICHOLS: You know --

CARLSON: We'll see.

NICHOLS: We'll see how it goes.

CARLSON: Okay, question two is multiple choice and these are the shoals upon which many a ship has gone down, okay -- these multiple choice questions. Okay, you've heard about the war on straws. There's now a war on Styrofoam single use Styrofoam, which state out of 50 just made history by banning Styrofoam by 2021? Is it A. State of Maine? B. State of New Hampshire? Or C. Vermont? Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont.

NICHOLS: I'm going to guess.

CARLSON: Professor Nichols.

NICHOLS: I'm going to go with C. Vermont.

CARLSON: It sounds like a Vermont thing to do. Well, it does, it does.

TURNER: It does.

CARLSON: Is it actually a Vermont thing to do?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "USA Today" reports Maine has become the first state to ban food containers made of Styrofoam. All goes into effect in 2021. Businesses will be prohibited from selling or distributing disposable food service containers made of Styrofoam. Violators will face fines of up to $100.00. The Democratic Governor who approved the ban says Styrofoam cannot be recycled and it eventually breaks down into micro plastics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NICHOLS: I should have known it was Maine. Damn you, Bernie Sanders.

CARLSON: Hard to believe. They've got a new Governor in the State of Maine and -- it is not Vermont -- all of a sudden. All right, question three. The New "Avengers" movie shattered box office records, $1.2 billion and its opening weekend, which 2020 candidate says Disney ought to do the ethical thing and give all profit from the film directly to employees. Which candidate running for President says that the studio ought to give the profit from the film to employees -- who would say that in the Democratic field? Like, I guess it could be anybody?

TURNER: Elizabeth Warren?

CARLSON: I don't know, you've got to hit the buzzer and let me know.

TURNER: I'm not. That's not a formal guess.

NICHOLS: You can do that? You can make a guess and not buzz?

CARLSON: No. You can't. You've got to buzz. You've got to buzz. Okay, I'll give you a hint. Man not a woman. Okay, this is really simple, which candidate is proposing socialism at the movies. Professor?

NICHOLS: Bernie Sanders.

CARLSON: Yes, Bernie Sanders. All right, is it Bernie Sanders?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to talk about Bernie Sanders, and something the Senator has tweeted out, he says what would be truly heroic, is if Disney use its profits from "Avengers" to pay all of its workers a middle class wage, instead of paying its CEO Bob Iger, $65.6 million over 1,400 times as much as the average worker at Disney makes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Can you say for the record? I agree with every word of that.

TURNER: I kind of do, too.

CARLSON: You know, why is that so crazy? Disney's Bob Iger --

NICHOLS: That was crazy.

CARLSON: Yes, ridiculous. Good job. Question four, another multiple choice question. Robert Francis O'Rourke, known to some of us as Beto announced this week that his family is undergoing some kind of crisis. A pet turtle has run away from home. What is the name of Beto's runaway turtle? Is it A. Greg? B. Gus? C. Godfrey?

TURNER: I feel like you made the quiz harder this week.

CARLSON: No. Okay. It's one -- it's one of them. It's one of those three, it begins with a G. It's either a four letter word, a three letter word, or a seven letter word.

NICHOLS: I would guess, but I have zero so --

CARLSON: Okay, you want to go for it?

TURNER: Why don't you give us a clue.

CARLSON: Okay, I'll give you a clue. It starts with G. By the way, it's the kind of thing you would name a pet. I'm going to count down from four -- one. Jason Nichols.

NICHOLS: I'm going to go with B. Gus.

TURNER: Yes.

CARLSON: Is it B. Gus?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETO O'ROURKE, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And to address some crises that we've got in our house, our baby turtle, Gus went missing here last night. And it does not look good. We followed the trail of turtle food out the living room, through the kitchen, the dog door into the backyard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NICHOLS: Yes.

CARLSON: There you go.

NICHOLS: Yes. I love how you made his name French, too.

CARLSON: Beto. I try to do that. Don Lemon, Beto -- so what we have now is a sudden death situation. One to one.

TURNER: Aren't we two to one?

CARLSON: You were two to one. But now -- but the remarkable comeback from the Professor from Maryland.

TURNER: Right, right.

CARLSON: You weren't even looking and Gus kind of sealed it. Okay, this is the final question. Are you ready?

TURNER: I'm ready?

CARLSON: Which member of congress brought shame to himself and his state today by marching around the capital with a toy chicken his way of mocking the Attorney General? Which congressman brought a toy chicken to work today?

TURNER: I can see him in my mind's eye.

CARLSON: You can see him.

NICHOLS: I don't know.

CARLSON: Okay, I'll give you a hint. He represents the state of Tennessee. He represents the western part of Tennessee. He represents the city of Memphis.

TURNER: I'm not a Capitol Hill correspondent. I don't know why you're looking at me.

CARLSON: Some people think he's related to Michael Cohen, but he's not because he is the same last name.

NICHOLS: That would be Cohen.

CARLSON: Right, it would be Cohen, but what --

NICHOLS: Congressman Cohen.

TURNER: Representative Cohen.

CARLSON: You're right, if his name is Cohen, it's definitely -- it would be Cohen, that is -- you're on it. You're on it there. Does he have a first name?

NICHOLS: Who knows their first name?

CARLSON: We're going to go to the tape. Watch the tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Chicken Barr should have shown up today to answer questions. Attorney General who is picked for his legal acumen and his abilities would not be fearful of any other attorneys questioning him for 30 minutes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NICHOLS: Beto, acumen.

CARLSON: I think our judges are saying we have no choice but to give it to you.

TURNER: No.

CARLSON: Yes.

TURNER: No. No, I object.

NICHOLS: Oh, what a comeback.

CARLSON: I don't know what to say.

NICHOLS: That's right.

CARLSON: It's the -- that's the weirdest segment we have ever done. All right. But --

TURNER: I object.

CARLSON: Look, I'm a marionette carrying out the orders of New York in all things, especially in this segment. All right, you get the coveted Eric Wemple coffee mug. Will you pass that to the Professor. Thank you.

TURNER: I've got to go.

CARLSON: All right, that's it for this week's "Final Exam." Bizarre though it was. Pay attention to the news each week. Tune in on Thursdays to see if you can beat our experts. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Well, for years, the entire city of Washington accused the President of treason because at one point he said he wanted better relations with Russia. "Does he know that Russia is our number one enemy?" They squawk. But that's absurd. They're wrong. Russia isn't our top enemy, not even close. And it might be worth improving relations with them. Why wouldn't we?

We have a top enemy, a real threat and it's China. They have far more people, a much larger economy, a much bigger military, far more spies and hackers. They are breaking into more servers in this country than Russia ever thought of and they're getting stronger every single year.

Which brings us to Joe Biden. He is the front runner on the Democratic side. His position is, "don't worry."

At a recent rally, Biden said this of China quote, "They're not bad guys. They're not competition for us." Biden has been pro-China for a long time. In 2011, he wrote an op-ed arguing that China getting stronger is not a threat to the United States. Kind of interesting. Why would he say something like that so demonstrably untrue? Maybe he's a Chinese spy. No, we're not going to make that allegation, we're just going to make the point that he's dead wrong. Because he is.

Well, Hillary Clinton is not running for President, not once again, but she is still in the news. She was on MSNBC last night and she says she is mad, because she is not in the White House, and therefore, this country is lurching toward tyranny.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER FIRST LADY: If they find, barring contempt, which they have no reason to, because he actually is --

He is the President's defense lawyer. He is not the Attorney General of the United States.

RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC ANCHOR: Barr's argument about that today he went, I believe, even further than he went in his 19-page memo.

Not just the President can obstruct justice, that is the President can't be investigated if the President doesn't want to be investigated.

CLINTON: And that is the road to tyranny. That is what authoritarians believes and those who service them argue.

If the President were not in office, he would have been indicted for obstruction of justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: There was a lot of agreement during that segment last night, as you can imagine, didn't do that well in the ratings. It turns out not all people want to watch that. I wonder why? Probably because there was so much projection as there always is going on.

At one point Hillary said that President Trump is obsessed with her. "He is not living in my head," she insisted, "I'm living in his."

She is not living in most people's heads in this country. A new poll from Rasmussen finds that only 42 percent of Americans think the country would have been better off had Hillary won, 48 percent disagree.

Author and columnist, Mark Steyn is on the fence on that question. He joins us tonight to deliver his verdict -- Mark Steyn.

MARK STEYN, AUTHOR AND COLUMNIST: Well, I was on the fence, Tucker. She lost because she was a stinking candidate. But look, it isn't funny anymore. I mean, basically, this is the woman who is more responsible than anyone for the totally pointless and discreditable Russian investigation that destroyed your first guest's life -- Papadopoulos.

We had all this talk in November 2016, about how, oh, you know, America is the only country that has the peaceful transfer of power, which I always find a little odd because I can't remember the last time I saw a Belgian or Danish Prime Minister hanging from a lamppost.

But the fact is that the more people who said it, the more it became conditional because it was her refusal to lose gracefully, that in fact enabled this last disgusting two years in which the losing party's men on the inside have conducted an investigation into the duly elected president.

It's quite disgraceful. She is quite disgraceful. And to listen to your friend, Richard Goodstein. I like Richard, but for him laughing at what happened to -- Papadopoulos landed at Washington and the FBI agents seized him and put him in shackles -- shackles -- for doing nothing. And that's all on Hillary because she didn't know how to lose, because Clinton's shouldn't lose.

CARLSON: And she's lecturing us about tyranny. Amazing.

STEYN: No, yes.

CARLSON: No, the self-awareness is in short supply, I would say in Washington. Mark Steyn.

STEYN: Absolutely. And it could happen to Richard and all the other defenders of Hillary Clinton, too.

CARLSON: Yes, that's true. I hope it doesn't. Mark Steyn, great to see you tonight. Thank you.

STEYN: Thanks a lot, Tucker. Good to be with you.

CARLSON: We're out of time. Don't know what happened to the hour, but we will be back, we can promise you tomorrow night 8:00 pm. The show that is the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and especially groupthink from which we dissent until they shut us up. They haven't yet. We have good news for you. It's not over. 9 p.m., Sean Hannity awaits in New York City. Take it away, Sean Hannity.

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