Rep. Devin Nunes: I do believe James Comey will be held accountable
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This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," August 2, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
TUCKER CARLSON, HOST: Good evening and welcome to a Special Inside the Issues Edition of "Tucker Carlson Tonight."
For two and a half years you may have noticed, official Washington has cracked down hard on even minor violations of the law.
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Roger Stone, for example, faces a life ending felony trial, because he apparently couldn't remember details from a totally irrelevant e-mail exchange he once had.
Paul Manafort, meanwhile, is likely to die behind bars, in part because he didn't file the right paperwork before he lobbied for Ukraine.
If you're involved in politics in Washington, suddenly, there's not a lot of room for error unless you happen to be Jim Comey. If you're Jim Comey you can do pretty much whatever you feel like, you can flagrantly break the law and then you can brag about it, and nobody will touch you. How do we know this? We know this because Comey actually did that.
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Shortly before he was fired from the F.B.I., Comey wrote memos describing his private meetings with his boss, the President. Comey then leaked those memos. Some of them contained classified information -- that is a crime. How do we know it's a crime? Well, Comey himself conceded that in an interview. Watch.
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JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: I think of a leak as an unauthorized disclosure of classified information.
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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Really? That's it? That's --
COMEY: That's I thought about as F.B.I. Director.
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CARLSON: So by Comey's own definition, which you just heard, he committed a crime. Comey was responsible for the unauthorized disclosure of classified information, and yet according to Comey, this was legal because it wasn't leaking. It was quote, "communicating."
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COOPER: But you did leak -- you did leak memos? I mean, is it okay for somebody at the F.B.I. to leak something, an internal document, even if it's not classified? Isn't that leaking?
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COMEY: There was a whole lot of wrong with your question, Anderson, first, I didn't leak memos. I asked a friend to communicate the substance of one unclassified memo --
COOPER: Whether you --
COMEY: Can I finish for a second?
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COOPER: Sure, okay.
COMEY: One unclassified memo to the media --
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CARLSON: It wasn't a leak, "I asked a friend to communicate the contents of a memo." Well, it's a lie on multiple levels and as it turns out, the F.B.I. has determined that Comey's leaked memos did in fact contain classified information that Comey failed to redact.
Keep in mind this was the head of the F.B.I. This is a guy who knew what the rules were and ignored them. He committed a crime. Comey admits that he committed that crime entirely for political reasons.
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COOPER: When the President said he was eager to find leakers and would like to nail one to the door as a message --
COMEY: I said that.
COOPER: Shouldn't you be nailed to the door then? I mean, aren't you a leaker? Aren't you a leaker?
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Plenty of people leak non-classified information to reporters and the White House and the F.B.I. gets upset about it.
COMEY: The F.B.I. gets upset when people make unauthorized disclosures of protected information.
I intentionally gave this information to a friend intending that it would be out in the media. I wanted it to get it in the media.
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CARLSON: "I wanted it to get out in the media." A memo with classified material in it. What you just saw is a confession. Comey admitted everything on camera. If you were prosecuting this case, it would be open and shut.
But it won't be prosecuted. Apparently, Comey will never be tried for the crimes he committed. According to "The Hill's" John Solomon, citing a source, the D.O.J. has decided not to prosecute James Comey on the grounds that punishing him for breaking the law would seem quote, "petty and vindictive."
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Of course, petty and vindictive describes the culture of the F.B.I. under Jim Comey. Petty and vindictive is the reason Roger Stone has been treated far more harshly by Federal authorities than Jeffrey Epstein ever was. Petty and vindictive sums up the entire Russia investigation, in fact, an investigation that destroyed people's lives for the crime of supporting Donald Trump for president -- petty and vindictive.
Jim Comey disgraced the F.B.I. He abused the public's trust in him. In 2016, he repeatedly injected himself into the political arena and by his own admission. He considered the political effect of his actions when he did so.
His subordinates, meanwhile, people like Peter Strzok and Lisa Page -- loathsome people -- repeatedly conspired to use F.B.I. resources to sabotage a presidential campaign they didn't like. Then in 2017, there was the climax of the affair.
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According to reports, Comey lied to the President -- his boss -- telling him that he was not under investigation when in fact Comey was maneuvering to begin an investigation.
Then with the leaks that he just admitted to on camera you saw, Comey launched the Russia Special Counsel investigation.
From the very beginning, there was no evidence to justify such an investigation. There never was. Russia collusion was always just a Hillary Clinton campaign talking point, an excuse for her humiliating election defeat. Comey knew that, everyone who paid attention knew that.
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But instead of behaving responsibly, he indulged the same conspiracy theory that CNN pushed for two years. Prosecuting Jim Comey for his crimes -- crimes he has admitted to -- would not be petty or vindictive, just the opposite. It might reassure the rest of us that justice is in fact blind in this country. We're losing faith in that, not surprisingly.
Congressman Devin Nunes represents the State of California. He is of course on the House Intelligence Committee, and he joins us tonight. Congressman, why wouldn't D.O.J. prosecute Jim Comey for committing a crime that he has admitted to committing?
REP. DEVIN NUNES (R-CA): Well, Tucker, I agree with everything in your opening statement. I think it's -- every Americans should watch what you just said. I want to actually make sure, though, that you understand what john Solomon reported on here, because I think, it may be taken a little bit out of context.
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CARLSON: I hope so.
NUNES: The IG, supposedly, according to Solomon's sources made a recommendation. Okay? Just because the D.O.J. is not going to act under that recommendation does not mean he is not going to be further looked at.
So remember, the U.S. Attorney in Connecticut now is taking all of this information in; so he has taken our criminal referrals, for example.
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So look, I haven't disclosed who we've referred criminally, but I think one could guess it's highly likely that we would name people who leaked classified information.
So, they're not going to act on any of our referrals. Those have all been given to the U.S. attorney in Connecticut. My guess is, the same holds true for the IG, everything is going to be given to the attorney in Connecticut.
So, if I was James Comey, I wouldn't be walking in the cornfields of Iowa yet running for President.
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CARLSON: So if Comey -- and this sounds like a minor detail, but I don't think it is -- if Comey is in fact indicted for the crime, again, that he has committed and admitted committing, if that happens, will his house be raided by say 30 armed Federal agents with an amphibious vehicle and the collusion of CNN?
NUNES: Well, I would guess probably not because I believe U.S. Attorney John Durham is actually a man who does see the blind lady that doesn't pull any -- is not partisan at all, and is fair in justice is conducted.
CARLSON: Exactly.
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NUNES: Unlike what you saw with the Mueller dossier team, which now we know Mueller wasn't even in-charge of that investigation. So, I don't believe you will see that. But I do believe that James Comey will be held accountable.
And there's one other point that is important to make. The IG although has important powers, the IG does not have the power to investigate or compel people to be interviewed that don't work with the Department of Justice, or in the government.
So, I've always been hesitant to -- although, I appreciate what the IG is doing -- they are limited, where John Durham is not limited, the U.S. Attorney looking at this.
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So, there are a lot more people that need to be interviewed, even in our investigation. You know, we would love to have a law enforcement arm that we could go out and conduct more interviews.
But the F.B.I. and the U.S. Attorney in Connecticut, they have -- they're building their team, they have a lot of people out, there will be a lot of people that are interviewed, because what we want to make sure is, is that that it's not just James Comey that gets looked at, but this whole fiasco that's occurred.
CARLSON: That's right.
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NUNES: You know, you just touched on a little bit in your opening. Don't forget the worst that's done, the leaking is really bad, and it was wrong. And it was done to incite a Special Counsel and poisoned millions of Americans.
But the worst thing I would argue in all of this is that the spying on the political campaign began in the first place long before they told Congress that it began.
So, this began in early 2016, and it was done in conjunction with the Hillary Clinton campaign. It doesn't get worse than that.
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CARLSON: Yes, by the Obama administration, who were still venerating like gods for some reason.
NUNES: That's right.
CARLSON: Congressman, thanks very much. Great to see you.
NUNES: For some reason. Thank you, Tucker.
CARLSON: Thanks. Well, Russia and Robert Mueller where the story of the century on cable news, certainly they were the reason CNN existed for more than two years. Then Robert Mueller testified before the Congress and suddenly the story went away, it was invisible.
For example, during CNN's two nights of Democratic debates, Russia and Mueller were barely mentioned at all. Did the scandal go away?
Robby Soave is Editor at "Reason," and author of the book, "Panic Attack: Young Radicals in the Age of Trump," and an answer of deep questions like this one, Robby, why did this story -- the hacking of our democracy, we were at war, I think you'll remember -- how did this story evaporate into nothing?
ROBBY SOAVE, EDITOR, REASON: Right. It was the story of the century. I mean, if they had spent as much time talking about Mueller and Russia collusion during the debates, as they have spent night after night on some of the other networks, they would have spent the entire debate on this subject and never touched a second of policy.
I think -- you know, I don't think the candidates want to talk about the Mueller stuff anymore. I think they know that the kind of voters they have to attract to have hopes of competing with Donald Trump are interested in what policies are you going to support that are going to make our lives better.
There was always this kind of fiction that was being pushed by so many of the media that the way we get rid of Trump, whom we don't like, is to -- is the Mueller investigation, is collusion, is bringing up these things -- there's no other way to get rid of them.
And we're just going to have an election year and a half, like you could defeat Donald Trump, if you were more invested in sort of the normal political process for replacing the President, if you don't like them.
CARLSON: If you believe in democracy.
SOAVE: And then later focus -- right, right, if you -- and they always say they do, they say we're all about democracy. But this was an extrajudicial means of dealing with a President they don't like.
I mean, and it was day after day. There was -- every new development these other journalists promising their viewers, you know, just stay through to the next commercial break, if you stick with us -- you know, it's coming next. The development that will be the end of the Trump administration.
It's like reminiscent of like, you know, Puritan sects who were always promising the end of the world, you know, on some specific day, and then it doesn't happen. It's like, "Oh, we read this, but the passage is wrong. It's actually next week." And they all get excited for it again, that's what it was like, for so long.
CARLSON: But those sects have been thoroughly discredited. And we laugh at them, as you just did. But the people who push this hoax on us who called for example, me, a traitor and a tool of Putin and, you know, really used language that was totally over the top and unsupported by fact and really wrong, in my opinion. Not one of those people has apologized. Why?
SOAVE: Yes. And it's still -- I mean, it's still going on to some extent. I saw after the debate, you know, like the next morning, I'm seeing people, journalists, some of them with prominent purchase, claiming, "Oh, well, like Tulsi Gabbard going after Kamala Harris had something to do with Russia." And like it was trending because Russian bots were tweeting about it like, not, it's just two candidates having a really interesting debate, actually about Harris's record on some criminal justice issues that I think is very -- should be criticized.
It's not -- you know, not everything you don't like and disagree with is somehow this grand conspiracy, which is what these other networks have just -- have peddled for forever, and I wish they would admit that this is just like gone way too far and it would be great to talk about policy again.
I have some policy differences with the Trump administration. I would love to see them talked about; it just been nothing, but this for years.
CARLSON: Yes, it hasn't served anyone. It's hurt the country. Robby, great to see you tonight. Thank you for that.
SOAVE: My pleasure.
CARLSON: Well, in the Democratic debate on Wednesday night Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard got into it with Kamala Harris, took her to task for her record as the Attorney General of California.
Harris is now pretending to be a crusader for prison reform and justice reform, but as Gabbard pointed out, for six years, Harris was the AG and she sent a bunch of people to jail for relatively mild crimes.
Millions of people saw that exchange between the two and some of them naturally might want to find out more about what Kamala Harris did as the Attorney General of the State of California. But as of right now, the State of California is making that information very hard to find.
Twice a year, the Department of Corrections in California releases a report on newly incarcerated people in the state. The reports provide information on offenses, sentences, demographics, and a lot more. It's great information.
Until very recently, anybody could read these reports online. That's called transparency parents because it's our government, right? Supposedly. Not anymore. The Corrections Department just redesigned the website, and now, all reports prior to this year, immediately, including those covering Kamala Harris's six years as Attorney General have been removed. They are no longer publicly accessible.
Theoretically, you can still get those reports if you e-mail the right person and they feel like responding, but the information is far harder to get. And of course, that's the entire point. In California they know that an ignorant public is much easier to control.
The entire Democratic field seems like they want to be President of anywhere but America, a country they clearly find loathsome, is disliking the country you want to run a good way to get elected? We'll discuss that next as our Inside the Issues Special continues.
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CARLSON: Welcome back tonight's Inside the Issues Special Hour. Bill de Blasio is running for President. He has got no chance of being in the White House. But his campaign is still having an effect. It is solidifying his position as the single worst mayor in the 400-year history of New York City.
He stands apart. There have been a lot of bad mayors, Bill de Blasio is in his own category. Here's the latest.
On Thursday, yesterday, de Blasio and his staff flew into La Guardia Airport, New York's smallest airport following the presidential debate in Detroit. De Blasio and his guards who were traveling with him forced the rest of the flight to wait in their seats for 10 minutes, so that he could deplane first. Why?
Well, he'd have plenty of emergencies that might justify that; for example, 900 classrooms in New York City have just tested positive for lead. The city has tens of thousands of people living on the streets. The middle class is fleeing. New York's population is actually in decline for the first time in decades.
So, de Blasio has a lot to worry about. There are emergencies he could be dealing with. But of course, yesterday, he wasn't dealing with any of them. No, he had a different kind of emergency.
De Blasio was racing off to appear on a taping of "The View," possibly the dumbest show on television. In fact, not possibly, the single dumbest show on television and that's why everyone else had to wait for de Blasio to get to "The View."
His campaign can't end soon enough. His time as Mayor can't end soon enough.
Well, Joe Biden is running for President as well. He is currently the leading the polls on the Democratic side, but that doesn't tell you much. There isn't in fact, a single politician called Joe Biden in America, there are really two Joe Biden's and they have radically different views.
One has been around for a long time, we'll call him Old Joe Biden, and one just entered politics, we will call him new Joe Biden. So, new Joe Biden is the one running for President right now, and that's too bad because old Joe Biden had something going for him. Old Joe Biden, for example, believed that executing terrorists and mass murderers, probably not a bad idea. New Joe Biden has a different view.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I support the death penalty. The Biden Crime Bill, the only reason why that McVeigh is convicted in Oklahoma, he gets put to death. The Biden Crime Bill. I wrote the law.
By the way, congratulations, you all, we are ending the death penalty here.
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CARLSON: Old Joe Biden cared about protecting America in a lot of different ways, including from dangerous drugs, and the people who sold them. Drugs kill a lot of people in this country. New Joe Biden doesn't care at all, even though America is now in the worst drug epidemic it's ever seen.
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BIDEN: We must hold drug users and traffickers accountable for their crimes. We can send Federal and state drug offenders serving short sentences for relatively minor drug offenses to boot camps; regional programs at former military base where young adults would serve their time on a military style discipline.
The rational way to go about is to make sure you're not putting people in jail, who in fact, have not committed violent crimes, you should put them in work programs, you should put them in positions where they are on probation and et cetera.
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CARLSON: Old Joe Biden was liberal. He was not a conservative or anything, and he was for legal abortion -- most of the time. But he was moderate in some ways. He opposed taxpayer funding for abortion because he recognized that for some people, it is repugnant.
New Joe Biden, though is not moderate in any sense, he is a radical. He wants taxpayers to cover abortions. This can take place all the way to the moment of birth.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Biden voted in 1977, and again in 1981 to end Federal funding for abortion for victims of rape and incest. In 1994, he wrote to a constituent, quote, "The government should not tell those with strong convictions against abortion such as you and I that we must pay for them." He supported the Hyde Amendment since its passage in 1976.
Last night, he changed his tune.
BIDEN: If I believe healthcare is right as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone's zip code.
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CARLSON: New Joe Biden is better than Old Joe Biden in one way, probably only just one way. Old Joe Biden didn't care about China. In fact, there's some evidence Joe Biden tried to get rich from China -- his relatives did. New Joe Biden at least pretends that he worries a little bit about China -- sometimes.
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BIDEN: China is going to eat our lunch. Come on, man.
They're not bad folks, folks. But guess what? They're not a competition for us.
While Trump is tweeting China is making massive investments in new technologies, in artificial intelligence. You bet I'm worried about China.
When it comes to taking on China first, let's invest in America.
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CARLSON: So, good for new Joe Biden for recognizing the China threat or at least mouthing the words, but in almost every other way, the new Joe Biden is far inferior to the Joe Biden that came before. Old Joe Biden wanted to secure the border and protect American workers, he actually cared about people who lived here.
New Joe Biden wants free healthcare for illegal aliens. Old Joe Biden voted to pass the Firearm Owners Protection Act. New Joe Biden wants to get rid of the Second Amendment.
Old Joe Biden supported due process for men accused of crimes. New Joe Biden says that America's English common law system is racist.
It's too bad Old Joe Biden isn't the one running for President instead of new Joe Biden, he would probably be a pretty decent President actually.
So, the new Joe Biden probably is not going to wind up in the White House. But are the other Democratic candidates any better? Based on the debates we saw this week, the answer is no. The Democratic field appears to be trapped in an alternate reality where American voters want to give all of their wealth to the world's poor, while getting lectures about how they're racist and evil.
The actual American electorate, by the way, is less excited about those ideas. If nothing changes, the Democratic Party will lose once again. Robert Patillo is an attorney. He joins us tonight. Mr. Patillo, thanks very much for coming on.
ROBERT PATILLO, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Hey, Tucker. Great to be here.
CARLSON: So two days of debates, and this is this is a generalization. I think there are a couple of sane candidates -- Tulsi Gabbard for example, John Delaney, Tim Ryan -- but the front runners are pretty focused on the shortcomings of the American people. America is a crappy, racist country that owes a lot to the rest of the world. Is that a winning message?
PATILLO: Well, I don't think that's the message of the front runners. Let's understand, there's only one front runner in the race, which is Joe Biden and everyone else trails him by double digits. They try to create this argument that somehow Bernie and Elizabeth Warren are co-front runners, you can combine the poll numbers of Bernie and Warren together and they're still -- they still trail Biden.
And at the same time. Let's look at the Thursday debate. You have Bernie and Elizabeth Warren in the middle, you have eight people who disagree with him.
CARLSON: But wait, wait. May I stop you right there? Okay. Let me stop you there though. That's true. But we're pretty early -- I mean, Jeb Bush was leading the rest of the pack by that kind of margin four years ago. Do you really believe Joe Biden, having watched him carefully in two debates, is capable of sustaining a winning presidential campaign between now and the November after this coming? Do you really think so?
PATILLO: Well, I think he has to stick to his guns. I think as you said, he has to be the Old Joe Biden, he has to be the Joe Biden that served the American people for the last 40 years, so the two-term Vice President and not be pulled to the side.
And let's understand that when you have a field this big, it's hard to get your true message across in a couple of seconds of sound bites, at the same time if you're a two-term Vice President, you're arguing with some lady who sells magical crystals and with Bill de Blasio on the other side, who is the equivalent of a hobo on the train yelling policy positions at you. So of course, his message is going to get drowned out when you have to compete with that.
As the field tries to shrink down --
CARLSON: So the lesson is, don't put Biden near too many Democrats because he looks bad?
PATILLO: No, no, you put -- put Biden next to actual Democrats. Don't put him next to random socialists, crazy lady selling crystals, some guy who wants to give everybody $1,000 a month; put him in an actual policy debate. Let him and Kamala actually hammer things out as to what exactly they're going to do, how their plans work, how they are funded, instead of having these broad verisimilitude that don't actually teach the American people anything.
I think all he has to do is get through this American Idol phase of the campaign, and then his camp -- and then we will get to see the real Joe Biden, but as long as he is constrained to 10 and 20-second sound bites, which are made to go viral on cable news, then yes, he's not -- we are not going to see the real Joe Biden until he is able to break out of that pack.
CARLSON: Well, he's been around for, as you said, 40 years, 50 years, whatever. I mean, I think we would have seen the real Joe Biden, but very quickly, and this is a conversation I often have with our friend, Richard Goodstein, who I think is coming from roughly the same position, to a more traditional Democrat.
Has it occurred to you that the center of gravity in the party has really changed and the crystal lady and in some of the wackos really do represent mainstream Democratic views now?
PATILLO: Oh, absolutely not. I think if you look at the Clinton electoral map from 1996, that is what Democrats need to be striving for; that Mississippi corridor, the Rust Belt across the Midwest, when you're talking about union jobs, when we're talking about -- and the first two debates and eight hours of talking, the only education question that was answered was Joe Biden talking about busing from the 1950s.
Once we get back to subject matter that people care about, to talk about jobs, economies, kitchen table issues, that's when you're going to see a real change in the in the electorate, but as long as we're off on Medicaid for all, free tax payer funded abortion for illegal immigrants -- all of these other crazy issues, then you're not going to see the real Democratic Party shine through.
CARLSON: They brought that stuff up. I mean, they endorsed that crap.
PATILLO: Well, it's because you've got 25 people --
CARLSON: Giving free healthcare to illegal aliens. It's nuts.
PATILLO: You've got 25 people running --
CARLSON: And Biden is for that, but by the way, Biden -- I agree with you, Biden is probably the sanest of the front runners, but Biden has endorsed giving free healthcare to illegal aliens. That's demented.
PATILLO: Well, let's understand. As the policies get refined as all these things come out, we're going to get a more moderate policy position. Let's understand that when you are running against 25 people, you're not going to get good policy and good talking points out.
As we as we get past Labor Day, as we get into the fall, as we move into Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina, we're going to get more sane policies. Right now, anybody who stumbled in off the street, who can get a couple of donors and who can do well in one poll or two, they get to be a part of the debate.
You could be a part -- you could be a Democratic candidate for President right now and get on the debate stage if you just declared.
CARLSON: Yes, I don't know.
PATILLO: So, let's also understand how low the bar is.
CARLSON: Biden said -- okay, we'll see. I'm just saying Biden endorsed that crap. He didn't have to. Robert, great to see you. Thank you for that.
PATILLO: Thanks, Tucker.
CARLSON: Donald Trump was supposedly a racist for calling Elija Cummings's Baltimore a dirty and dangerous city, but Cummings just learned firsthand that the President was actually right. We will tell you how we learned that.
Plus, yet another Google employee fired from the company for his political views. He joins us just ahead as our live special continues.
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CARLSON: Welcome back to our live Inside the Issues Special. President Trump spent an entire news cycle being denounced as a racist and a Nazi for the sin of calling Baltimore a dirty and dangerous place, but he was right as anyone who has been there knows. Righter maybe then he even knew.
It turns out that burglars targeted a home owned by Congressman Elijah Cummings -- who represents Baltimore -- just last week. Cummings himself was only undergoing what more than 7,000 Baltimore residents experience every year.
But on Twitter, Democrats have already tried to claim that Baltimore is an amazing, law-abiding city, so the burglary must be the work of a rogue out of state Trump supporter, like many Russians.
New York Congressman Adriano Espaillat tweeted in response, quote, "Donald Trump's hate rhetoric and racist rants are reckless and dangerous." Moron. Just one problem, cops say the burglary took place hours before Trump even tweeted about Elijah Cummings, and yet despite that, this gives you a sense of how wildly politicized everything in Washington is right now, Capitol Police say they are investigating whether a quote, "threat nexus exists for Elijah Cummings," even though what happened to Cummings happen before the President tweeted about him. It tells you a lot?
Well, it's pretty clear that Google isn't simply just a business enterprise, though it is the most powerful business in the history of the world. It's also an ideological organization to its core, who cares what you're able to see and what you're able to think and they exercise the same kind of control over their own employees.
Kevin Cernekee would know that firsthand. He spent three years at Google working as an engineer. He says he faced relentless bullying and intimidation from Google for his political views which are not liberal, one manager added him to an internal blacklist until finally, Google fired him last year. Kevin Cernekee joins us tonight.
Kevin, thanks very much for coming on. So, you believe that Google knew what your politics were, that you're a conservative, harassed you for those views, and then ultimately dismissed you on the basis of them?
KEVIN CERNEKEE, FIRED GOOGLE ENGINEER: Yes, that's true. So basically, what happened is, when I joined Google, I saw a lot of employees being mistreated and abused and harassed for sharing conservative views or just for questioning company policies.
And I raised these issues through all the appropriate channels, I raised it through HR, I went to VPs, eventually wound up filing a charge with the Labor Board. And Google knew about this. This opened a Federal investigation from the Labor Board. I was working very closely with an investigator over there.
What happened was Google decided they did not like this investigator, and they made a lot of false accusations against me and they fired me. They said in writing that the reason they fired me was for participating in this labor investigation, and they're basically daring the government to do anything about it.
CARLSON: I don't think it's illegal, is it? I mean, you can't fire someone for initiating a labor action, can you?
CERNEKEE: I wouldn't think so. I have appealed the decision, and the Labor Board came back and basically said, "Denied." They did not cite any case law. They didn't really have a reason for it. It's basically their will against anybody else's.
CARLSON: Right. The most powerful country -- company and country -- yes, Freudian slip in the world. How ideological is the management at Google?
CERNEKEE: It's highly ideological. You can see bias at every level of the organization. One thing that I've noticed is that just handling of routine issues is plagued with bias, like they will get a report, an e-mail from a liberal reporter complaining about something and they will jump on it and they will fix the issue very, very quickly.
And contrast, one thing that I saw when I worked there was, if you do a Google search for "Crippled America," which is Donald Trump's book, you would get results that showed my Minkoff instead of "Crippled America," and I reported that. I filed a bug against it. I escalated it. I tried to run it up the chain. They took nine months to fix that bug.
They just stalled at every opportunity. They assigned it to people who no longer worked there. They made every excuse in the book to avoid taking down something that made Donald Trump look bad. And I saw a number of other incidents just like that.
CARLSON: Do you believe that Google will attempt to influence the election outcome or will attempt to try to prevent Trump from being reelected?
CERNEKEE: I do believe so. I think that's a major threat. They have openly stated that they think 2016 was a mistake. They thought Trump should have lost in 2016. They really want Trump to lose in 2020. That's their agenda.
They have very biased people running every level of company. And they have quite a bit of control over the political process. So, that's something we should really worry about.
CARLSON: And yet, Congress, including Republicans are just sitting back and acting like it's not happening. It's disgusting. Kevin, thank you for sounding that alarm. I appreciate it. Good to see you.
CERNEKEE: Thank you.
CARLSON: It's Friday. You know what that means. It means Dan Bongino is ready to explode with his weekly news explosion, must-see television on the way.
But first, it's time for "Final Exam." Can you beat the news professionals at remembering every weird thing that happened in the past week? Cable News's favorite game show. In fact, Cable News's is only game show, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARLSON: It's time now for "Final Exam" where the hardened news professionals compete with one another for the right to hoist the coveted Erik Wemple mug aloft. This week's first contestant is Fox News Headlines 24/7 reporter Carley Shimkus. She will be competing with "America's Newsroom" anchor William "Bill" Hemmer, ladies and gentlemen.
BILL HEMMER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: William George.
CARLSON: William George.
HEMMER: Yes, true story.
CARLSON: Great to see you.
CARLEY SHIMKUS, FOX NEWS HEADLINES 24/7 REPORTER: Oh, very nice.
CARLSON: Amen. It's great to see you both. It is another contest where you just -- you can't pick a winner and you can't decide who to root for. So I'm just going to let nature take its course.
SHIMKUS: I'm rooting for Bill.
CARLSON: You know the rules, but I'll repeat them for the sake of our audience.
HEMMER: And I've got money on Carley already, Tucker. So --
CARLSON: The kind of man he is.
SHIMKUS: Look at that. What a gentleman.
CARLSON: All right. So hands on buzzers. I ask the questions. The first one to buzz and gets to answer the question. Critically, you must wait until I finish asking the question before answering. You can answer once I acknowledge you by saying your name. Every correct answer is worth one point. Each incorrect answer subtracts a point from your total. Best to five wins. Are you ready?
HEMMER: We are.
SHIMKUS: Yes. Yes.
HEMMER: Okay, bit of a disadvantage.
SHIMKUS: Yes.
CARLSON: Deep breath. Okay. Here we go.
HEMMER: Yes, the answer is yes.
CARLSON: Good. Question one.
SHIMKUS: We're helping each other.
CARLSON: Which 2020 Democratic candidate told a child reporter that her cat was dead?
SHIMKUS: Wait. We need the judges on this one.
CARLSON: And so our judges are saying it goes to Carley because Mr. Hemmer buzzed early.
HEMMER: Oh, you're kidding me. Okay, no problem.
CARLSON: They said just coiled steel, lightning fast. We've got to pull it back up just a tiny bit. Carley Shimkus.
SHIMKUS: The answer is Marianne Williamson.
CARLSON: Marianne Williamson's cat passed away. Is that correct?
SHIMKUS: Sadly, it did.
CARLSON: To the tape we go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: Do you have a pet?
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Do I have a pet? I had a cat and the cat died.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: I jumped the gun. My fault.
CARLSON: Boy is that grim.
SHIMKUS: I heard -- I heard that her cat is sliding down a rainbow into a pool of Jell-o in the heavens above, so everything is okay.
HEMMER: On a Ouija board.
CARLSON: Yes.
SHIMKUS: Yes.
CARLSON: Into a love pool.
SHIMKUS: Yes.
CARLSON: Question two, which Democratic candidate prepared for the debate this week by going for a run around the City of Detroit? Which candidate went for a pre-debate run around the track who looks like --
SHIMKUS: Yes, that's a good question. Oh, I have a guess --
CARLSON: Bill Hemmer.
SHIMKUS: Go.
HEMMER: I think it's Robert Francis. I think it is Beto.
CARLSON: You think it is Robert Francis O'Rourke.
HEMMER; I believe.
CARLSON: Beto. Is Mr. Hemmer correct?
SHIMKUS: Okay, let's see.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: How are you doing?
BETO O'ROURKE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Good. How are you doing?
NOAH GRAY, CNN PRODUCER: Noah Gray with CNN, how are you feeling about the debate?
O'ROURKE: I'm feeling good. Feeling good.
GRAY: What are you doing to prepare?
O'ROURKE: Running.
GRAY: This it?
O'ROURKE: Running and thinking through what I want to say tonight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: He is running.
SHIMKUS: I would have said Cory Booker.
CARLSON: Of course, he is doing it on camera.
HEMMER: You would have.
SHIMKUS: Because he is vegan, he is healthy.
HEMMER: But Beto did the whole thing where he across Nebraska or Iowa or whatever --
SHIMKUS: Yes, good guess. Good job.
HEMMER: Tucker.
CARLSON: That was nice. So one-one. All right. Moving on to question three now. Last question on the Democratic 2020 field. Candidate Julian Castro has an identical twin brother, Joaquin Castro. People often confuse the two. Joaquin came up with a solution, he recently changed his appearance in what way?
SHIMKUS: Oh, I want to -- oh, I'm going to take it. Okay, I am I'm--
CARLSON: Carley.
SHIMKUS: I am unconfidently going to say he grew facial hair.
HEMMER: It's a good one.
CARLSON: He grew facial hair. Did he grow facial hair?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good to see you. It's the first time I've seen you with a new beard is that to distinguish yourself from your identical twin?
REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX): That's one of the reasons, yes. It helps that people don't -- they could tell right away that I'm not the one running for President.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHIMKUS: I think he said he was going to do to enhance --
CARLSON: Very good. Carley, that's -- I'm impressed. Okay, so it's two to one. Carley leading Mr. Hemmer by one. Moving into question four. Here it is. Prince Harry of Great Britain is very concerned about climate change. So concerned he recently told a reporter he is going to limit the number of children he has with his wife to how many.
HEMMER: Oh, come on.
CARLSON: Carley?
SHIMKUS: Two.
CARLSON: Two. Just two.
SHIMKUS: Just two babies.
HEMMER: All right, that's it.
CARLSON: Is that correct?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now to that Royal revelation, Prince Harry is saying he and Duchess Meghan will have two children maximum.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He said the couple plans to have only one more child out of concern for the environment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: That was -- that's it.
SHIMKUS: That's it. Those are two very lucky children.
HEMMER: Three-one, Shimkus.
CARLSON: Pretty impressive.
HEMMER: All right, killing it.
CARLSON: Our judges are saying Carley is just fast on the buzzer. So going into the final question which is by the way a two pointer, so potentially we could have -- we could have a tie here.
HEMMER: All right, that would be interesting.
CARLSON: And this is a multiple choice.
SHIMKUS: Okay.
CARLSON: And here is the multiple choice. So you wait for all the options.
HEMMER: All right.
CARLSON: You often see some unusual things in the Las Vegas Strip, but there's a new one. A massive swarm of what kind of insect has taken over the city? Is it A. Ladybugs? B. Grasshoppers? Or C. Honey bees? Bill Hemmer.
SHIMKUS: Oh my god.
HEMMER: And I'd break the darn thing?
SHIMKUS: I had nothing to do with that.
HEMMER: I do believe it was grasshopper, Tucker. I do believe.
CARLSON: It was grasshoppers. Is that correct? To take the tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bright lights of Vegas have attracted an unwanted new visitor -- a horde of grasshoppers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At first glance it looks like the apocalypse had come to Sin City.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The insect invasion is no desert mirage. The grasshopper swarm so massive it can actually be seen from outer space.
Bug experts say the grasshoppers are probably attracted to the bright lights in Vegas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHIMKUS: No, I didn't know it. I didn't. I didn't know that. Wow, maybe they're all just a bunch of alcoholics.
CARLSON: Amazing. Amazing. Okay, so this brings us to an unusual place.
HEMMER: Yes. It sounds -- okay.
CARLSON: It doesn't often happen. We have a tie.
HEMMER: It's a good game.
CARLSON: We are going to resolve that with a sudden -- so hold on. No, no, we don't ever end on a tie. This is sudden death. So we have a bonus question for you. Okay. So the traditional bonus question is what is the capital of Burkina Faso? We've asked it too many times and our audience is aware that it's of course Ouagadougou. So, the judges have asked that we increase the intensity and the difficulty of the question. Okay.
SHIMKUS: Okay.
HEMMER: All right.
CARLSON: Prepare. Get ready.
HEMMER: Okay. Is it multiple choice?
CARLSON: Here's the question.
HEMMER: It's sudden death.
CARLSON: No, no. Not multiple choice. One question, one answer. And this is tough. What is the capital of Canada?
HEMMER: Sorry.
SHIMKUS: Go.
HEMMER: It's Ottawa.
CARLSON: Bill.
SHIMKUS: I was going to say that. No.
CARLSON: I don't think that's right. But let me -- we're going to check with our judges. Judges? The judges are saying it is Ottawa. That is literally capital of the country. That's unbelievable.
SHIMKUS: Oh, Canada.
CARLSON: Bill Hemmer.
HEMMER: My home and native land.
CARLSON: Immersed in the news. I am so impressed.
HEMMER: God, don't be.
CARLSON: The man from Ohio knows --
SHIMKUS: Geography, not my strong suit.
CARLSON: You -- I didn't know that either.
HEMMER: Thank you, brother.
CARLSON: You did -- you win the Erik Wemple mug. Congratulations.
HEMMER: Awesome stuff.
CARLSON: Bill Hemmer. Carley, great to see you. Thank you for that.
SHIMKUS: Thank you.
HEMMER: Thank you, Tucker.
SHIMKUS: This was lovely.
HEMMER: Yes.
CARLSON: That's it for this week's "Final Exam." Pay attention to the news each and every week and tune in to see if you can beat the experts. Erik Wemple mugs available on tuckercarlson.com. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARLSON: Well, it's Friday and that means things go boom. Time for a "Dan Bongino News Explosion." Our favorite former Secret Service agent here with his top stories of what has been a remarkable week. Dan Bongino joins us now. Hi, Dan.
DAN BONGINO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Tucker, always good to see you especially at the end of the week on Friday. So, let's get right to it.
Story number three, my top three of the week is kind of a two-parter, so I cheated a little bit. Snuck this in there. Democratic debate takeaways. Takeaway number one, the Kamala Harris train derailed this week. Tucker, she was flying to the top. She was creeping on Joe Biden, had a great performance at debate one and ran into Tulsi Gabbard who just entirely derailed that train. Held her to account.
Kamala Harris has been trying to take alternate positions on everything. Tulsi Gabbard called her to account and that didn't work out well for her.
So takeaway number two from the Dem debate. There were a lot of takeaways, by the way. So, I had to kind of distill this down to two. Joe Biden, Tucker has run into Doc Brown from "Back to the Future." Remember Christopher Lloyd? And Joe Biden is going to be running in the year 3330. He quoted some crazy website at the end. Go to Joe 30330 whatever it was, we found out later of course, it was a text. We'll give Joe a pass on that one.
But it didn't end well for Joe, Tucker. Not a great debate night, so there are my takeaways on that.
CARLSON: Poor guy. That made me feel sorry for him.
BONGINO: And you know what, it did, kind of me too. You know, people screw stuff up. But gosh, 3030 -- and it was so three, zero, three, three, like he was trying to think it through as he was saying it.
All right, story number two.
CARLSON: Yes, it's a bad sign.
BONGINO: Yes, very bad sign. Trump -- the Elijah Cummings-Donald Trump feud explodes. Tucker, here we go again, with the -- you know, "you're a racist stuff." You know, everybody these days is a racist to the Democrats, of course.
We had Kamala Harris, who we referenced before. You notice how I tie these things in nicely? Kamala Harris had kind of attacked Joe Biden insinuating he may have had some kind of racist past with busing. Everybody is a racist now.
Donald Trump calls out the failures in Baltimore, which are obvious, haven't had a Republican in charge there since McKeldin in the 60s, and all of a sudden he tries to benefit the plight of a largely minority inner city by calling out the problems and amazingly, Trump is a racist. "You're a racist. He's a racist. They are racists." Where everybody is a racist, it's unbelievable.
The word is entirely losing its impact, which is a shame because real racists will then get a pass. Unbelievable.
CARLSON: It is unbelievable.
BONGINO: I'm sorry, I need to take a breath on that one. All right. Story number one.
CARLSON: Number two wore you out.
BONGINO: Yes, it did a little bit. Story number one, Teflon Jim Comey strikes again. This guy is amazing. You covered in the beginning of the show very well, but he leaks classified information, right? Leaks it then says, what did he say? "No, I didn't leak it, I communicated it," which -- this guy is like the king of euphemisms, Tucker.
But get a load of this one. He didn't know it was classified. No, no, it was retroactively classified. He tweeted out something today with the word "bruh" in it like "Hey, bruh." Hey bruh, you were the F.B.I. Director, bruh. You didn't know was classified information? You may want to put that on your resume for your next job that you have a trouble distinguishing what classified information is, Jim. Just a pro tip from us here on the show.
CARLSON: All the people are going to jail for less than that. Roger Stone, it's shocking.
BONGINO: You're darn right.
CARLSON: Don Bongino, thanks for that. Appreciate it.
BONGINO: You've got it, buddy. Good to see you.
CARLSON: And that is it for us tonight and for the week. Tonight's live special is out of time. We'll be back though, 8:00 p.m. on Monday and every weeknight. The show that is the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink.
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