Naomi Wolf sounds alarm at growing power of 'autocratic tyrants'

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Naomi Wolf sounds alarm at growing power of 'autocratic tyrants'

Author and former Clinton adviser warns U.S. about to become 'police state' on 'Tucker'

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," February 22, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: Good evening and welcome to TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT. 

You've heard the name Naomi Wolf before. She has been a prominent person in this country and a prominent Democrat for more than 30 years. 

Wolf is one of the founders of third wave feminism. She worked for Bill Clinton. She advised Al Gore famously. Late last year she voted for Joe Biden. You've almost certainly seen her book. She's written a lot of them. 

A couple of years ago, we criticized Naomi Wolf by name on this show. We didn't think we agreed on much to put it mildly. Yet less than a week after the last election, Wolf surprised a lot of people by tweeting this, quote: "If I'd known Biden was open to lockdowns as he now states, which is something historically unprecedented in any pandemic and a terrifying practice, one that won't ever end because elites love it. I would never have voted for him." 

Wow. Where did that come from? 

And more to the point, how did a faithful lifelong Democrat reach that conclusion? Maybe because whatever her preconceptions, Naomi Wolf has been paying attention. And that's true for a lot of us actually, regardless of who we voted for. 

People who have been watching carefully may find they have very different views than the views they once had, and the reason for that is simple. Reality itself is changing very fast. 

All over the world, countries that once seemed like bulwarks of traditional liberal values: freedom of assembly, property rights, freedom of speech and conscience, have suddenly abandoned their long standing traditions of protecting the individual and now resemble police states. It's not an overstatement. 

The change has been sudden, and it's been dramatic and the pretext for it, of course, has been COVID. Consider Canada, our sprawling ice covered neighbor to the north. 

Not so long ago, Canada was considered such a stable and restrained place that its main problem was being uninteresting. Nothing seemed to happen there. The great white waste of time, they called it. Not anymore. 

Since COVID arrived, the Canadian authorities bear no resemblance to the taciturn Mounties, you may remember. They act like Burmese generals putting down a coup, nothing is too harsh for their own citizens. 

This footage, for example was shot New Year's Eve in the Canadian city of Gatineau. A group of friends gathered in a private home. No one was selling fentanyl, no one plotting a homicide. Just a group of relentlessly polite Canadians celebrating the New Year. 

Apparently somebody called the police and here's what happened next. 

[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS] 

CARLSON: That's pretty shocking, but what happened after that maybe worse than the footage you just saw. The police fined everyone at the gathering $1,500.00 apiece and then they arrested the owner of the home. 

Now, he wasn't charged with attacking a cop or spreading COVID, which no one claimed he did. No. His crime was described as quote, "refusing to provide personal information to the authorities." 

So they barged into his home and when he didn't answer the right questions quickly enough, they arrested him. 

Now that is not a public health measure. It is intentional humiliation, but the humiliation didn't stop there. You may have noticed that some of the police officers you just saw on that video were not wearing masks themselves. 

So in other words, the cops who claimed the people inside were violating Corona law were themselves in violation of it. 

When sharp eyed people on social media pointed this out, the police in Gatineau explained they didn't have to follow public health laws, because it was a public health emergency. 

So just to show you how serious they are about stopping COVID, Canadian Police were willing to spread COVID themselves. That's what they said. 

Canada's so called Liberal Party didn't have a problem with any of this, neither the supposedly liberal Prime Minister. No one in Canada seemed to; and not just Canada, the entire Anglosphere is moving toward authoritarianism that nobody seems to be noticing. 

In the formerly free U.K. last week, a group of people in West Midlands created what authorities later described as -- and if you've got kids, we want to warn you this could be shocking -- a quote "makeshift club" with the bar VIP area and a dance room with a DJ. Yes, a DJ. 

So naturally, the authority sprang into action. They dispatched a thermal imaging helicopter. They kicked down doors. It was a threat worse than ISIS and they acted like it. 

[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS] 

CARLSON: Did we say this was happening in the Anglosphere? No. If only. 

A similar scene played out in Madrid this weekend. You're seeing the images right now. A police raided on an unauthorized party forced the people inside into closets and cupboards hiding under mattresses. 

Madrid's police later released a statement admonishing residents, quote, "We keep asking you for collaboration and responsibility." Now even allowing for the translation from the Spanish, that is Orwellian, but it probably no longer shocks you. You've been living with less dramatic versions of this for nearly a year. 

There may be less door kicking going on in this country, but the result is the same -- traumatized citizens and destroyed lives. 

Listen to this gym owner in San Francisco explain what has happened to her livelihood under the lockdown regime. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Danielle Rabkin owns CrossFit Golden Gate. She is in a lot of debt. 

DANIELLE RABKIN, OWNER, CROSSFIT GOLDEN GATE: I've been a business owner for eight and a half years. I've been running this business. It's been leveled to the ground. 

I've actually thought about leaving the city. I'm watching the city burn to the ground. I'm watching all of my members leave. 

I don't have much of a reason to stay anymore. My business has been completely decimated. 

Show me the data, the contact tracing data that shows transmission is happening there and then I will close my doors. Until then, let me earn a living. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: Daniel Rabkin, just an American citizen, nobody cares what she thinks, "Let me earn a living," she says. I used to resonate, the ability to work was once considered a human right, one of the most basic human rights, but then a lot of things were once considered basic human rights. 

Remember my body, my choice. You've heard people chant that for 50 years. As recently as 2019, Kamala Harris endorsed that idea. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Women have been given the responsibility to perpetuate the human species. Our bodies were created to do that. And it does not give any other person the right to tell a woman what to do with that body. It is her body. It is her right. It is her decision. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: Yes, it's your body. It's your right. Oh, sorry. COVID. Actually, it is Bill Gates's body now. Bill Gates isn't God, just a big shareholder in Microsoft. 

But since COVID, Bill Gates has gained extraordinary powers over what you can and cannot do to your own body. Bill Gates would like you to take the coronavirus vaccine. That's not a request. 

If you don't comply, you could lose your job. Think we're exaggerating. Listen to this waitress from Brooklyn. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): The 34-year-old says she was fired after telling her employer she and her husband are considering starting a family and she had hesitations about getting the COVID-19 vaccine. 

QUESTION: What's your biggest reservation about getting the vaccine? 

BONNIE JACOBSON, FIRED FROM JOB FOR NOT TAKING THE COVID-19 VACCINE: I just need more time. I need more research to come out and I have my reservations about fertility. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jacobson says the restaurant, Red Hook Tavern sent out an e-mail requiring all staff to get vaccinated now that they're eligible in New York. When she pushed back, she says she received an e-mail terminating her employment. 

QUESTION: Do you think it's fair for a workplace to be able to determine whether or not its employees should be vaccinated? 

JACOBSON: I don't. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: You heard what she said, she's not a crazy person. She's not a denier. I'd like more evidence, I'd like more research to come out. She's got questions about the vaccine, a vaccine that was produced faster than any other vaccine in history. But if you have those questions, you can't have a job. 

Now once again, to be totally clear, we're not talking about they deride as vaccine denial, anti-vaxxer. The woman you just saw it says she supports vaccines. And by the way, most people do support vaccines because they've saved more lives than any other advance in science. 

But even the good vaccines can have side effects. And it's fair to ask what those side effects might be. Why wouldn't it be fair to ask that? 

Just days ago, "The New York Times" reported that quote: "A few COVID vaccine recipients developed a rare blood disorder. A link to the vaccines is not certain, and investigations are underway in some reported cases." 

Okay. So let's say you wanted to wait for the results of those investigations you read about in "The New York Times." Sound fair? No, you can't. Sorry, you lose your job for that. You might lose your right to travel within this country, the one you were born in. 

In a moment like this, where things are moving so quickly in a dark direction, you've got to wonder, where are all the liberals? Where are our leaders, the people we elect to protect us from irrational and destructive overreach like what we're seeing now? Most people are gone. 

They've ceded all authority to those who describe themselves as scientists. Joe Biden admitted this out loud in August. Watch. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

QUESTION: If you're sworn in come January, and we have coronavirus and the flu combining, which many scientists have said is a real possibility, would you be prepared to shut this country down again? 

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I would be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives because we cannot get the country moving until we control the virus. 

QUESTION: If the scientists say shut it down? 

BIDEN: I would shut it down. I would listen to the scientists. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: Now you thought the voters were in charge of the country speaking through their elected leaders. That's why we have elections, but that's not true. 

The scientists are in charge, I would listen to the scientists. And Biden is not the only one who says this. This is a staple of our public conversation these days. 

So what are the scientists saying? Well, yesterday, the most scientific of all the scientists, the supremely, science based, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told us we could all be wearing masks in 2022. This was a surprise. You thought the vaccine would make your life -- it could return to normal. No, according to Tony Fauci, you thought wrong, things are never getting back to normal. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You and the President have suggested that we'll approach normality toward the end of the year, what does normal mean? Do you think Americans will still be wearing masks, for example, in 2022? 

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: You know, I think it is possible that that's the case. And again, it really depends on what you mean by normality. 

If normality means exactly the way things were before we had this happen to us. I mean, I can't predict that. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: Oh, I can't predict that, if it means returning to the life you love. So what can Dr. Fauci predict? Well, we don't need masks, he told us. But he said, we do need masks actually, we probably need two masks, maybe three. And in fact, we might need those masks forever. 

Those are some of Tony Fauci's many predictions. We showed you his greatest hits before on the show. We're not going to wreck your night with it again. 

But the question is, and we should be thinking about this. What effect will this current suspension of our Bill of Rights have on American society over time? What kind of country will your grandkids live in? Is anyone even asking that question? No, not anymore, because questions are disloyal. 

If you believe in science, simply obey. Meanwhile, the cost mount -- the real ones, measurable: bankruptcies, addictions, suicides. So what will the country look like when it's over? 

Well, it could be dirtier for sure, the environment. Here's one unintended consequence of the lockdown regime that absolutely nobody is talking about, the degradation of our natural environment. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Odds are over the past several months of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, you've seen a mask or two on the ground. 

The Chattahoochee River keeper, Jason Ulseth says he has never seen the river filled with so much plastic, and we're not just talking about water bottles and food containers. 

JASON ULSETH, CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVER KEEPER: We've actually pulled over two million pounds of trash out of the river system, and gloves and masks have not been something we've seen in the past. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: So where all the people who care about nature? All the environmentalist, where are they on that? Well, they're probably hiding somewhere with the free speech people and the pro-choice community, too afraid to speak up. 

One person who apparently is not afraid to speak up is Naomi Wolf who is undoubtedly losing friends by appearing on this show tonight. She is the author of "The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot" and the CEO of DailyClout. She joins us tonight. 

Naomi Wolf, I appreciate your coming on. I never thought I would be talking to you except in a debate format. I'm sure we disagree on an awful lot. But on this, I was struck by the bravery it must have taken you to write it. 

I'm sure you lost friends over it, for doing this, tell us why you're doing this and why you wrote that? 

NAOMI WOLF, CEO, DAILYCLOUT: Well, it's not just think -- first of all, thank you, Tucker, I'm really happy to be talking to you. 

It's not just that one tweet, I've been writing pretty much every day for months and months about what I see as the terrible crisis that we're in that we have to recognize, under the guise of a real medical pandemic, we're really moving into a coup situation, a police state situation and that's not a partisan thing that you know, as you say, that transcends everything you and I might agree or disagree on and that should bring together left and right to protect our Constitution. 

We're absolutely moving into what I call Step 10. I wrote a book in which I pointed out there were 10 steps that would be tyrants always take when they want to close down a democracy. Whether they're on the left or the right, they always do the same 10 things and now we're at something I never thought I'd see in my lifetime. 

You described it really, really well. It is Step 10. And that's the suspension of the rule of law. That's when you start to be a police state and we're here. There's no way around it. 

CARLSON: I'm so embarrassed, and it's just -- it's another example, there are a million of them of why partisanship is stupid, and it makes you stupid. And I guess I just assumed that we wouldn't agree on stuff, so I didn't read your tweets, and I obviously should have been and I missed a lot. 

And so again, it's nice to remember, you should treat people as individuals rather than as standards for whole political parties. 

You have been predicting this for a long time, you just said. Why don't you think others aren't seeing this? 

WOLF: Well, unfortunately, a lot of people are seeing it, but we are not unified, and as you pointed out, we're a very divided country for a lot of cynical reasons. 

CARLSON: Yes. 

WOLF: I'm in touch with many patriots from all backgrounds and all walks of life, who are horrified. I interviewed, for instance, Moms for Liberty, a group of conservative moms in Florida who are mobilizing to try to get schools open. They're so worried about what's happening to their kids. 

And I talked to a mom, Jen Sey, a famous gymnast and activist in San Francisco on the left, who is also a mom, who is horrified. 

You know, I've interviewed doctors, I've interviewed, you know, ordinary people, restaurant owners from all walks of life, who are absolutely unable to even articulate their fear and horror, recognizing that the State has now crushed businesses, kept us from gathering in free assembly to worship, as the First Amendment provides, is invading our bodies, as you mentioned, which is a violation of the Fourth Amendment, is restricting movement, fining us here in New York State, I could be fined $15,000.00 a day, if I gather people, you know, more than 10 or 25 people, depending on where in New York State I live. 

You know, which is a complete violation of the First Amendment, I mean, the violations go on, and on and on. 

I've talked to restaurant owners who are looking at a sector in which tens of thousands of small businesses have been crushed, and why were they crushed? Not because the pandemic forced them to, there is no real science underlying a lot of these closures. 

It's because autocratic tyrants at the State and now the national level, are creating a kind of merger of corporate power and government power, which is really characteristic of Italian fascism in the 20s. And they are using that to engage in kind of emergency orders that simply strip us of our rights: rights to property, rights to assembly, rights to worship, and all of the rights that our Constitution guarantees. 

So people are definitely horrified and noticing, I think people are shocked and divided, as I mentioned before, and the other thing that happened, as you said, this is all been very sudden. 

And when you look back, you know, March of 2020, a lot of things started to move that kind of locked into place a set of policies that are kind of 360- degree full on totalitarian policies. 

So I think a lot of us are kind of in culture shock. Luckily, or unluckily, I've been studying closing democracies for 12 years. So I recognized early on, you know, once I realized New York State had emergency powers, I know from history that no one gives up emergency powers willingly. 

CARLSON: That's right. 

WOLF: They always drag it on and drag it on. And so every month I'm getting in my e-mail an announcement that Governor Cuomo is extending emergency measures, extending emergency measures. 

Only from studying history, do I know how predictable it is, when you start to have elected officials say we are not going to follow the Constitution because there's a pandemic. 

And I just want to say, lastly, and then I promise it'll stop. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say, all this can be suspended if there is a bad disease. We have lived through typhus, cholera, smallpox, HIV, tuberculosis, polio, the Spanish flu. 

You know, we've lived through an attack on our soil. Never have there been months and months and months of emergency powers when we weren't actually fighting a war. 

CARLSON: That's right. 

WOLF: So this is completely unprecedented. Lockdowns have never been done before in free societies. And really, we are turning into a version of totalitarian states before everyone's eyes. And I really hope, you know, we wake up quickly, because history also shows that it's a small window in which people can fight back before it's too dangerous to fight back. 

CARLSON: Man, I'm starting to think that we're being divided as a country precisely so we don't have conversations like this. And I hope you will come back. 

Naomi Wolf, what a pleasure. When an eye opening pleasure it was to talk to you tonight. Thank you. 

WOLF: Thank you, Tucker. Likewise, thank you. 

CARLSON: In the name of inclusivity, because everything is irony, some of this country's biggest corporations are now teaching employees that they need to be ashamed of how they were born. 

Who's behind this? We looked into it, that's straight ahead. 

But first, the team behind the show is launching new programming soon on FOX nation. We will have a new video podcast plus a new documentary series. Here's a trailer. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: I cannot believe I'm shooting on the Hickok 45 range. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're stealing what we have here in Maine. They're totally full of [bleep]. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go beat Donald Trump. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My concern in my safety and my daughter's. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will pass that, they know that. 

CARLSON: This corridor is more than an energy project, it is an attack of the weak against the strong. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're just so delighted you're a gun guy. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

CARLSON: Seattle's political leadership voted to defund the police last year. What are they doing with all the money? 

Well, they put some of it into a new initiative to degrade and destroy their own people. The city is now funding a homeless shelter that's passing out heroin pipes and distributing so-called booty bumping kits so that junkies can inject drugs rectally, for real. 

Seattle's Human Services Department says the program, quote: "Reflects the varying needs of those experiencing homelessness in Seattle." 

Jason Rantz is a Seattle radio host. He has been documenting the destruction of his city. He joins us tonight. Jason, thanks so much for coming on. 

If you really hated the people you were in charge of, it seems to me you'd do things like this? 

JASON RANTZ, SEATTLE RADIO SHOW HOST: Yes, I mean, when you teach addicts who are already the hardest to get off the street a more efficient way to get high in a way that lasts longer. When you're doing it with the so- called booty bumping kits, all you're doing is making it that much easier for them to stay addicted. 

We have an organization, the Downtown Emergency Services Center that should be helping these people, and they say this is all part of a harm reduction model. That it's about being where the addict is, and making sure that since they're going to engage in this behavior anyway, at least they're doing it safer. 

But at the end of the day, the results speak for themselves and homelessness and addiction is getting worse in Seattle. In King County, we just had a stunning increase and that's in the language of the very people doing the study of an increase in fentanyl overdoses, meth overdoses going through the roof. 

Every step of the way, we are seeing the results worsening, not getting better. So maybe harm reduction is literally doing the opposite. 

CARLSON: Well, maybe it's intentional. I mean, if you did this to your kids, people would say, well, you obviously hate your kids. You're making it easier for them to do heroin. A lot of people die -- I mean, that degrades them. It will kill them, ultimately. 

Why isn't it very clear to us? They wouldn't do this to a population they loved or cared about? 

RANTZ: Well, because we've sort of leapt into this PC culture, they'll say that they don't want to stigmatize anybody who is experiencing this and you and I have had this conversation before. 

I don't want to stigmatize people. I don't want to shame people who are sick and they need help. But I do want to stigmatize the act of shooting up or smoking heroin. We should not be glorifying it. We should not be making it sound like it's exciting to give another aspect of drug addiction a try. 

We should be making sure that everybody understands that this is unacceptable. It's not okay to do this in a park. It's not okay to do this in an alleyway. And it's certainly not okay to do it in a city-backed center for homeless, especially not okay to do it with city funds. 

CARLSON: The funny thing is, if they were passing out Marlboros to the homeless, people would freak out. Those are bad for you. But not heroin, it is totally -- it's a really diseased mind, I would say, responsible for this. 

Jason, it is great to see you. Thank you. 

RANTZ: Thanks, Tucker. 

CARLSON: So you're not really allowed to notice what's happening in Seattle or any of our big cities which are collapsing, and people like Robin DiAngelo are charged with making you not notice. 

According to Robin DiAngelo, America's biggest problem has nothing to do with economics. It's not crime or unemployment. It's not the mismanagement of the people in charge. The problem with Americans is their DNA. 

Now, a sane society would reject that for what it is, open racism, but Robin DiAngelo has gotten richer and more famous. She's all over television saying the same thing. Your skin color determines whether or not you're a good person. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

ROBIN DIANGELO, AUTHOR, "WHITE FRAGILITY": I'll never forget asking a group, okay, so what if you could just give us feedback on our inevitable and often unaware racist assumptions and behaviors and I'll never forget this black man raising his hand and saying it would be revolutionary. 

And you know, just like -- just take that in. I just want all the white people to just take that in. Revolutionary that we would receive the feedback with grace, reflect and seek to change our behavior. 

That's how difficult we are. That's how big a-holes we are. 

JIMMY FALLON, TALK SHOW HOST: Yes. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: Poor Jimmy Fallon. He just wanted to sing songs and do his little comedy thing and yet, he got caught up in this horrible moment and he is going along with it. It is a hostage tape every night. 

That was last year, by the way, Robin DiAngelo has not gone away. Now, she is delivering video lectures as part of something called "The LinkedIn Learning Series." And if LinkedIn is behind it, it's everywhere. 

Several major corporations direct employees to the learning platform, which is owned by Microsoft. In wonderful lunatic presentations, DiAngelo notes that quote, "To be less white is to be less oppressive, less arrogant, less defensive, and more humble." You're seeing that slide on your screen. 

The presentation goes on to urge employees to quote, "Try to be less white." Again, many corporations are using LinkedIn for training including Coca-Cola, which is run, you won't be surprised to know, by a white guy. 

J.D. Vance is the author of "Hillbilly Elegy." He joins us tonight. J.D., I have to wonder what effect this kind of stuff is having on our society. 

J.D. VANCE, AUTHOR, "HILLBILLY ELEGY": Well, first of all, Tucker, I think it's ridiculous and frankly, it's destroying our society. 

So you I think about my own family, Tucker, one of the great things that's happened to me, I think the greatest thing in my life is that I married a woman who wasn't the same skin color as me and I was able to do that, because I grew up in a country that taught us not to think about each other as members of a racial group. We were taught to think about each other as people. 

And what these people are doing by constantly forcing us to focus on the color of our skin is they are destroying an essential part of American heritage that we can judge people based on the content of their character. 

They're doing it, I think, for cynical reasons, but at the end of the day, they're going to destroy something that's critical and important and good about this country and we should fight back against it. 

CARLSON: I wonder how you can you live in -- I mean, we have, cynicism aside, a truly diverse country. There is no majority religion, even barely ethnicity at this point. That's -- I don't think anyone's mad about that. But how do you have a country like that if you're taught by your leaders to hate each other because of your differences? Like how does that work long term? 

VANCE: Well, at the end of the day, it doesn't work, Tucker. And I think one of the big things that's happening in our country right now is that we're constantly divided against each other, because that's the way our leaders want it. 

And it's important to ask what's going on? Why is this happening? And if you look behind identity politics, it's almost always about power. 

What happens to you if you don't participate in these woke trainings? What happens to you if you don't echo the party line? Well, two things happen to you. First of all, you're more precarious at your job. It's easier to fire you if you don't go along with the woke H.R. Department. The second thing that happens is you're deprived of your core freedom of speech. 

So the two things that are core fundamental values and rights in this country, the right to provide for your family, the right to participate in the self-government of this country are both taken away from you if you don't -- if you don't tow the woke party line. 

CARLSON: That's right. This can't be legal. It's happening everywhere. At some point, people are going to start to file class action suits, and we'll support them when they do. 

In the meantime, J.D. Vance, great to see you. Thank you so much. 

VANCE: Thank you. 

CARLSON: So murder rates in almost every city in America, maybe every city, we haven't checked all of them, but in the big ones, they are way, way, way up. Crime is way up. It's out of control. 

At that exact moment, Congress is trying to tell you, you don't have a right to defend yourself. They're trying to take your guns away. It's not a legal right. 

We have a very specific segment coming up on what exactly they are planning for your self-defense. That's next. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

CARLSON: Well, you may not have known this, but we're here to tell you that Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston is in fact a firearms expert, a kind of Rain Man of rifles. 

She is the kind of gun nut who can hold an AR-15, America's rifle and tell you exactly how much it weighs. 

In September of 2019, she did precisely that. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D-TX): My bill that I've introduced dealing with a caliber weapon. I've held an AR-15 in my hand, I wish I had it. It is as heavy as 10 boxes that you might be moving and the bullet that is utilized, a 50-caliber, these kinds of bullets need to be licensed and do not need to be on the streets. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: The bullet that is utilized, the 50-caliber, the AR-15, I mean, it's like so embarrassing. How can someone like that serve in Congress? Why is she in charge of your life? Great question. 

Sheila Jackson Lee has authored a new bill based on her deep firearm knowledge, the AR-15 that shoots the 50-cal. It would set a bunch of restrictions up that have no precedent in American history. 

Minimum gun ownership, age of 21, extensive licensing and psychological evaluations for all gun owners, a firearms registry for every gun sold, even ones you give to your kids for Christmas and a ban on certain kinds of ammo. We don't know which ones yet. Maybe the 50-cal. 

Jesse Kelly is the host of "The Jesse Kelly Show." He joins us tonight to assess. 

I know you've got an AR at home that shoots a 50-cal. Tell us what this bill would -- I am not making fun of it, it is actually not funny that a crazy person who knows nothing could have the ability to write legislation. What does this bill seek to do, do you think? 

JESSE KELLY, HOST, "THE JESSE KELLY SHOW": Well, what it seeks to do is bring control under the A.G., Tucker. If you dig into the bill at all, it gives that licensing you talked about, it gives control of that jurisdiction of that under the A.G. and the A.T.F. I don't know if we could go a worse route in this country than giving control of who owns a weapon to the A.G. and A.T.F. 

Everybody should remember we just had Eric Holder, we're about to have another nut ball I'm sure. Do you think the people who have called you and I Nazis for the last four years are going to determine that you and I should be allowed to open firearms? I don't think so. 

CARLSON: It's just so -- it's such a smart point and it is just so interesting if you look at the death toll over the past nine months of American citizens killed by gunfire, almost nobody who pulled the trigger in any of those thousands of killings was a legal gun owner. So why are they focusing on legal guns owners? 

JESSE KELLY: We know why, Tucker. The same reason all the Antifa-Black Lives Matter animals stayed to the cities when they were burning down cities this summer. 

They didn't go out to the suburbs for a reason. They want you and I disarmed so their left-wing street radical groups can come abuse us at will. I know you've personally experienced this. That's the only reason they want to do this. 

And when they're done doing this, they'll have their corporate partners go after things like ammo. They're going to go after all the things that you and I need. And look, a weapon without ammo doesn't do me any good. It's like handing Sheila Jackson Lee a book. 

CARLSON: No, that's -- I think it's a totally fair point. Why do the rest of us play along? There will be some tragic mass shooting because they are a feature of American life that'll be used as the pretext to strip you of your right to defend yourself, and a lot of Republicans will be like, oh, we need to do something. 

Why do we keep falling for the same lie? 

JESSE KELLY: Because Republicans don't have any spine. Republicans will arrive at the exact right issue, right spot on an issue as soon as it's too late for them to do anything about it. 

So they constantly give ground. You notice, we never take ground, Tucker. When was the last G.O.P. bill, major bill that passed through Congress that increased your and my firearms rights? 

I wasn't alive for that moment. I'm not so sure George Washington was alive for that moment. So I wouldn't bank on the G.O.P. guarding you. 

CARLSON: Very smart point. Jesse, great to see you tonight. Thank you. 

JESSE KELLY: See you, Tucker. 

CARLSON: So the economy collapse in 2008 nobody saw it coming, but actually a couple of people did. And one of them, the person who saw it most clearly is very concerned about the current state of our economy. We'll tell you why. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

CARLSON: Nobody knows anything. That's the point we often make on the show, but it's not totally true. A few people know a lot. 

Michael Burry knows a lot. He is one of the smartest people in American Finance. 

Who is Michael Burry? Well, he was one of the very few Americans who understood that the housing bubble of the late 2000s would lead to system- wide destruction of our economy, which of course, in the end it did. 

How did Michael Burry manage to see that coming? Well, unlike most investors, he is also a physician. He is trained to assess problems empirically on the basis of evidence rather than theory. 

If you're interested in the details of what Burry was saying in 2007 and 2008, read or watch "The Big Short," which is based largely on his predictions of the last financial crash. 

So with that in mind, what is Michael Burry saying about the economy now? 

Well, among other things, Burry is highly concerned about something called Modern Monetary Theory -- MMT. 

MMT is essentially the belief that big governments like ours can pay for everything indefinitely simply by printing more money. Now, that's an old idea, but there's a problem with it. 

Printing more money causes inflation, inevitably, no one denies that. It's always true. What makes MMT new and alluring is that its theorist claim to have a solution to that problem, radically increase taxes. 

Less cash in the system would mean less inflation. If people don't have income to spend, prices can't go up as quickly. When you have no money, you can't overpay for goods and services. No inflation. 

Does that sound appealing to you? To a certain kind of socialist academic, it all makes perfect sense. What does the public think of this plan? Well, no one has asked them because nobody cares. 

But Michael Burry thinks the rest of us should be prepared for the consequences of this, quote: "The U.S. government is inviting inflation with its MMT-tinged policies." Burry wrote over the weekend in a series of tweets. 

Burry went on to quote extensively from a 1974 book called "Dying of Money," which explains what Germany looked like a hundred years ago right before hyperinflation there changed that country and the rest of the world forever. 

As it collapsed, the German economy took on, quote: " ... unmistakable characteristics. One was the great wealth, at least of those favored by the boom. Many great fortunes sprang up overnight. The cities had an aimless and wanton youth. Prices in Germany were steady and both business and the stock market were booming. The exchange rate of the mark against the dollar and other currencies actually rose for a time, and the mark was momentarily the strongest currency in the world." 

"Side by side with the wealth where pockets of poverty. Greater numbers of people remained on the outside of the easy money looking in, but not able to enter. The crime rates soared. Accounts of the time tell of a progressive demoralization, which crept over the common people, compounded of their weariness with a breakneck pace to no visible purpose, and their fears from watching their own precarious position slip, while others grew so conspicuously rich." 

"Speculation alone, while adding nothing to Germany's wealth, became one of its largest activities. The fever to join in turning a quick mark infected nearly all classes. Everyone from the elevator operator up was playing the market," End quote. 

And then inevitably, of course, it all collapsed, quote, "The Deutsche marks that existed in the world in the summer of 1922, all of them were not worth enough by November of 1923 to buy a single newspaper or a tram ticket. That was the spectacular part of the collapse. But most of the real loss in money wealth had been suffered much earlier." End quote. 

A book worth getting. Does it sound familiar? Don't think about it, assures the Biden administration. We've got a female Treasury Secretary, the critical diversity component of American economic policy has been covered. Rest assured. 

But Michael Burry isn't resting assured and he is not convinced. Yesterday, he sent this tweet: "People say I didn't warn last time. I did, but no one listened. So I warn this time, and still no one listens. But I will have proof I warned." 

You've heard a lot about an armed insurrection that took place in Washington on January 6th. Was it armed? No one has really looked at that. Our next guest has looked at every arrest that day and has the answer. That's next. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEE: I supervised the prosecution of the perpetrators of the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building, who sought to spark a revolution that would topple the Federal government. 

If confirmed, I will supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6th, a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy, the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: That was Merrick Garland today at his confirmation hearing to be Joe Biden's next Attorney General. 

Merrick Garland has a lot of reasonable friends who say he is a smart and moderate person, but that was not a moderate statement. It was dishonest, completely dishonest. Dishonest enough, you should be worried about it. 

There is no evidence that white supremacists are responsible for what happened on January 6th, that's a lie. And contrary to what you've been hearing, there is also no evidence that this was a quote, "armed insurrection." 

Now, nobody has really gone through the arrests to reach that conclusion firmly until Julie Kelly did. She writes for "American Greatness." She's got a new piece on this topic, which we recommend. She joins us tonight. 

Julie, thanks so much for coming on. I'm glad that you actually did the work that maybe "The New York Times" could have done, where you looked at the people who were arrested to assess the claim, was this an armed insurrection? What did you find? 

JULIE KELLY, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR "AMERICAN GREATNESS": So Tucker, I know that you will be shocked to learn that the armed insurrection trope that we've been hearing for the past six weeks is not true. 

Of the more than 200 people arrested so far, mostly with misdemeanors, trespassing and disorderly conduct charges, only 14 people have been charged with any type of weapons violation. Only a handful of those people actually used any kind of weapon, pepper spray, a helmet, a riot shield against an officer or against the building, actually, not to downplay what they did. 

But Tucker only two people have been charged with any kind of firearms violation. Now, when most people hear armed insurrection, they think of guns and ammunition and firearms. Only two people face charges, mostly for violating D.C.'s very strict gun control laws. It had nothing to do with the Capitol. They don't even have proof that they were inside the building at any point. 

CARLSON: Right. So your piece, which again, I hope that our viewers read, because it's really smart, repeatedly makes the point what the rioters did on January 6th was wrong. You don't approve of it at all. 

JULIE KELLY: Right. 

CARLSON: You disapprove of it. But the lying about it is so relentless and coordinated. And very -- they are white supremacists. They were armed when they -- there's no evidence they are white supremacists, and they weren't - - no one used a gun inside the Capitol. 

The only firing that took place was from police and an unarmed protester. So like, why are they lying like this about it? 

JULIE KELLY: Well, because they continue to get away with it, Tucker. I mean, from Russian collusion, you go through all of the lies that the left and the Democrats and a lot of Republicans, too, have said over the past five years in an effort to damage Donald Trump, sabotage him. 

But look, it's really alarming what the Justice Department is doing, and for Merrick Garland today to repeatedly say that he is going to put yet another political partisan prosecution at the top of his priority list, overtaking the serious public safety concerns that most Americans have, a lot of his comments today were very alarming. 

This is another use of our Justice Department weaponized against political foes of the Beltway, but now they're targeting average Americans holding them without bail in jail, and bankrupting people for -- really for misdemeanors. 

CARLSON: Yes, this is not equal application of law. 

JULIE KELLY: No. 

CARLSON: And it's scary for that reason. I appreciate you coming on tonight, Julie. Thank you. 

JULIE KELLY: Thanks, Tucker. 

CARLSON: We'll be back tomorrow night, 8:00 p.m. and every week night. The show this the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness and groupthink. Stay cheerful in spite of it, or at least try. 

The Great Sean Hannity, up next from New York. 

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