Steve Bannon on fraud charges: ‘They’re not gonna shut me down’

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Steve Bannon on fraud charges: ‘They’re not gonna shut me down’

Former White House adviser Steve Bannon on being charged with fraud, the upcoming presidential election and big tech’s political influence.

This is a rush transcript from “Tucker Carlson Tonight" September 17, 2020. 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. It is hard to believe that the current virus has been in this country for about nine months now since January. 

And since the day that doctors discovered the first case within our borders, our leaders have assured us that they only care about our safety. 
That's what this is about -- our safety. 

They've told us that every decision they make as they fight this pandemic, they make in our interest. Every restriction they impose they tell us. They base on science alone. 

Most Americans want to believe that because most Americans want to trust their government, but few still do. There's too much evidence that the COVID regime is political and our leaders are lying about it. 

Tonight, there is conclusive proof of that, a remarkable story. A reporter with the FOX 17 TV station in Nashville, a man called Dennis Ferrier caught that city's top officials hiding key health statistics, and for no justifiable reason. 

Ferrier uncovered a series of e-mails between the Mayor's Office that would be Nashville Mayor John Cooper who is a Democrat and the city's Health Department. In those e-mails, city officials discussed the fact that only a very low number of coronavirus cases have been traced to bars and restaurants in the city. 

As of June 30th, of this year, for example, nursing homes and construction sites in Nashville each produced more than a thousand cases of the coronavirus. Bars and restaurants just 22 cases total. 

Numbers like this could be great news for the City of Nashville. Bars and restaurants have been suffering there for months under crushing COVID restrictions. Thousands of workers have been laid off and many businesses have gone under and many more are on the brink. 

Over the summer, the mayor, Mayor Cooper used the economic damage from his shutdowns to justify a massive 34 percent property tax increase on residents of Nashville. 

So quarantines have hurt that city quite a bit. Residents would have been thrilled to learn that bars and restaurants were safe once again. But the Mayor refused to tell them that. He hid that information. 

After reviewing new health numbers from bars and restaurants, a woman from the health department called Leslie Waller e-mailed this to Mayor Cooper's office. Quote, "This isn't going to be publicly released, right? Just info for the Mayor's Office." A senior adviser to Mayor Cooper, Benjamin Eagles responded this way, quote, "Correct. Not for public consumption." 

Not for public consumption? Why would that be? These aren't the nuclear codes. This isn't national security information, it is public health data, and it should be public. 

A month later, a reporter in Nashville heard rumors that bars and restaurants there were safer than the city was admitting they were, so he e-mailed the health department to find out exactly what was going on. What are the numbers? 

E-mails now show that behind the scenes, this simple request for transparency panicked city officials. They schemed among themselves to hide what they knew, quote, "We have certainly refused to give counts per bar," 
wrote one. Why is that? Why would they refuse to give those numbers? Here is the answer and this is a direct quote, "Because those numbers are low per site." 

Oh, the numbers are low, so we hide them. Hide all good news. That's the policy. Otherwise, the fear might subside and our power along with it. 

Today, reporter Dennis Ferrier tried to get more information from the Mayor. Why did the Mayor's Office lie about health information that could have helped the people of Nashville? The Mayor wouldn't answer that question, of course, so instead, he sent his minion, a flack called Chris Song to scold Ferrier for daring to ask that question. Watch. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

DENNIS FERRIER, FOX 17 REPORTER: We did ask for context yesterday and we're told not just no comment, but FOIA us and that doesn't really feel like a we-are-all-in-this-together comment. 

CHRIS SONG, PRESS SECRETARY, OFFICE OF THE MAYOR: What you should have done was to come back, tell me that you had validated those e-mails in whatever way that you did -- 

FERRIER: Because you wouldn't -- you told us to FOIA, sir. You gave us -- you said, go through legal to extract this information because you don't want to share it, sir. I will argue with you all day but you're not going to -- you're not going to talk to me like this and walk away, I'll talk back to you the same tone that this is -- you know, this is America and the people have a right to know the real COVID number.

Don't shake your head. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: Finally, a real reporter somewhere. What you should have done was go back and tell me you validated the e-mails, said the flack. Rather than respond to the substance of the story, much less apologize and beg forgiveness for lying, the mayor's minion delivers a fussy little lecture about the proper protocol required before the public can ask a question of the Mayor. 

Don't question your overlords, prole, you will take the coronavirus data we give you. 

So why are they so afraid to tell us the real numbers? You know the answer. 
The more data you have about the virus, the more facts, the more science, the less frightened you may be. 

And that's why they always emphasize how many people have died, almost 200,000. But almost never who died. 

If you knew the details, you might realize that getting a drink at a bar in Nashville or for that matter, sending their children to school in person poses very little risk to anyone. 

As of tonight, COVID-19 remains what it has always been, overwhelmingly a threat to the elderly and to people who are already sick. 

The median age of coronavirus deaths in this country as of June 1st is 75 years old. Ninety percent of all deaths have occurred among people over 55. 
Americans under the age of 44 account for just 2.7 percent of coronavirus deaths. 

This does not mean that COVID-19 is not dangerous, of course it is. It is dangerous. It's just not dangerous to the overwhelming majority of people who are being destroyed by the COVID-19 restrictions and that is unforgivable. There is no justification for it. They don't even want to talk about it and so they don't. 

As of tonight, the restrictions, terrible policy decisions made by stupid and dishonest politicians like Mayor John Cooper of Nashville and many more like him are causing far more harm to this country and this population than the virus itself has caused. 

For example, this summer, deaths attributed to Alzheimer's and dementia have risen to more than 20 percent above what is normal. Experts say that's because stress and isolation are contributing to those figures. They are killing people. 

Suicide and substance abuse meanwhile have increased dramatically. We know that 12 percent of coronavirus deaths for the ages one to 24 include, and we're quoting now from the C.D.C. "intentional and unintentional injury, poisoning and other adverse events." Those are comorbidities in their deaths. That is the real story, in other words. 

But many Americans, because of the information encouraged by the left, which is misinformation, it is propaganda, they have no idea that any of this is going on. They don't know what this pandemic actually looks like. 
They are told lies and they believe them. 

Study after study has shown that one reputable study found that Americans quote, "overestimate the risk of death from COVID-19 for people aged 24 and younger by a factor of 50 and they think the risk for people age 65 and older is half of what it actually is." End quote. 

In other words, this is a disease that overwhelmingly threatens the elderly, but most people don't know that. Why is that? Why don't they know nine months in? Well, it might have something to do with the barrage of dishonest propaganda from national media organizations. 

Watch CNN's chief body building expert explain why you must stay inside indefinitely as he goes out to harass bicyclists in the Hamptons. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, so while most Americans are staying inside or should be, right, if they are not out protesting like fools, they are not happy about being told to stay home. 

Staying home saves lives. 

And the rest of us should be staying at home for our mothers and the people that we love and to keep us farther apart will ultimately bring us closer together in this cause. 

No matter where the virus goes, the way to stop it will always be the same, our collective conscientious actions. Staying home. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: Staying farther apart will bring us closer together. But it hasn't brought us closer together. It has atomized us. It has kept us apart. It hasn't ripped apart our society in ways that will be very difficult to fix. 

The media have abetted this. Multiply what you just saw by hundreds of broadcasts on all the major networks for months and you begin to understand why so few people know anything about the facts of coronavirus. They are ignorant. It's sad to say, but it's true and the survey show it. 

Why? Because their ignorance serves the purpose of the politicians who spread it. Terrified populations are easier for them to control. If you are frightened to go out outside, by definition you are also distracted, so you are less likely to wonder for example why the Governor of New York killed all of these old people by forcing coronavirus patients into nursing homes? 

Not thinking about that suits, the Governor of New York just fine. Watch him blame you for putting the elderly at risk. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): My mother is not expendable, and your mother is not expendable, and our brothers and sisters are not expendable and we are not going to accept the premise that human life is disposable. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: Thank you, Father Cuomo. 

Andrew Cuomo should have been impeached for what he did in the nursing homes in the State of New York, if not criminally charged for what he did, but he wasn't. He never will be. What's amazing is he is still lecturing you for your supposed shortcomings. 

He is guilty as hell personally, but he is every bit as self-righteous and never under any circumstances is he ashamed. None of them are ashamed. Just last week, the LA County Public Health Director, Barbara Ferrer admitted out loud without a trace of embarrassment that her entire lockdown scheme is tied to the national political calendar. 

Kids must suffer, she said until quote, "after the election." 

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) 

DR. BARBARA FERRER, LA COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH DIRECTOR: We don't realistically anticipate that we would be moving to either tier two or to reopening K-12 schools at least through -- at least until after the election. 

It seems to us a more realistic approach to this would be to think that we are going to be where we are now until we get, after -- until we are done with the elections. 

(END AUDIO CLIP) 

CARLSON: Until we are done with the elections. So at least it is clear now, we are not pretending. Until you learn to vote the right way, America, your businesses will die, your children won't be educated, and your population will cower alone. So let that be a lesson to you and in the meantime, don't ask questions. 

Steve Glover is a City Council member in the City of -- the great City of Nashville and we are happy to have him on tonight. Mr. Glover, thanks so much for coming on. 

STEVE GLOVER, CITY COUNCIL MEMBER, NASHVILLE: Thank you, sir. 

CARLSON: A very straightforward question. It is your city, you're an elected official within the city, why can't you and the population of Nashville get a straight answer about what the basic coronavirus data are from the Mayor? 

GLOVER: So I will give you what I think is probably a simple answer. I believe that the Mayor happens to substitute his wisdom on a regular basis for those who are in the health department, along with the professionals that he has around him in his own office and he constantly inserts his own wisdom versus those of outside and there seems to be a heavy-handed approach to his management style. 

CARLSON: Yes, this doesn't seem to be guided by science in the slightest. 
If you had 22 cases in bars and restaurants, then that suggests that maybe they shouldn't be locked down. Why would he hide that information? What's in it for him when the population of Nashville suffers? 

GLOVER: Well, I mean, the problem is, all you're got to do is speculate on this. You know -- and you said, Nashville, a great city. 

CARLSON: Yes, it is. 

GLOVER: Nashville is absolutely a great city. We've got great people who live here. 

We have people who embrace one another and who love one another. And we are also so very fortunate and blessed that we have great tourists that come and visit us and by the way, spend a lot of money in Nashville. 

CARLSON: I know. 

GLOVER: The major problem is, we don't have a city problem here in Nashville, we have a lack of leadership problem in Nashville and I don't -- I mean, I think you're asking the right question, forgive me for not being able to give you the answer in a definite manner. 

I don't understand why we are doing this. We are destroying the downtown area literally, not only the economic engine for Nashville, but also an economic engine for the State of Tennessee. 

You know, Governor Lee is opening the state back up. It's time that we do the same thing for Nashville.

CARLSON: So you just had a reporter catch the Mayor of your city, one of the fastest growing cities in the country, hiding critical health data for political reasons. Why not impeach him? Why should he still be your Mayor for a single more day? That seems unforgivable to me. 

GLOVER: Well, so I don't know the exact legal answer to that, I will tell you, Tucker, over the last 24 hours, life has been a little hectic here because of this. 

I've started working with the group, https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__smarternashville.org&d=DwICAg&c=cnx1hdOQtepEQkpermZGwQ&r=tgDLkJy54PfJyWJwul3dKe54qGxqO7b7d5vjo7RcZds&m=sQ6pYl1px_eT1cXrVuKXpj_rbTvcTZUCEj1IBgBNnXw&s=UTW4cK8DREPhBcBHjWeVLkfN5cQRfBJIml9_ekL-WzY&e=  about a month ago, and we started looking at this data and as they brought it, because they are a lot smarter than I am -- as they brought this data to me, I looked at it because nothing ever added up. 

But it's the same in any one of those cities that are run by the far-left liberal group. And so the problem was, none of the data made sense. Well, there are some wonderful people here that live in Nashville, very, very smart people. I mean, gosh, you want to talk about hospital area. 

You know, Nashville is blessed to have wonderful hospitals, but they couldn't get the right hospital data. They could get the number of beds. 
You know, they report ICU. They report all of these other things and you are going, OK, based on what? It never was factual or actual as far as what the real numbers were. 

CARLSON: I hope you can find a way to get rid of that Mayor. There's no reason a city like Nashville should be held hostage by a liar like Mayor Cooper in my opinion. 

GLOVER: We are working on it. 

CARLSON: Mr. Glover, thank you. 

GLOVER: Thank you, sir. 

CARLSON: Godspeed on that. Thanks for coming on. 

GLOVER: You, too, sir. Thank you. 

CARLSON: As we just told you, the elderly has suffered more than any other group by far, it is not even close. And many are suffering extreme stress during these lockdowns. They are trapped alone, and many have died alone. 

Why is no one talking about this? Why does no one seem to care? 

Charles Camosy cares. We've talked to him a couple of times about this before. He is the author of the book, "Resisting Throwaway Culture: How a Consistent Life Ethic Can Unite a Fractured People." What a great title. 
Mr. Camosy, thanks so much for coming on. 

So, we have talked before and I don't think we can talk enough about the effect of older people -- on older people of these lockdowns. What do you think it has been so far? 

CHARLES CAMOSY, AUTHOR: What I think we have done is we have become utilitarian during the pandemic, Tucker. In my classes, we talk about how utilitarianism puts a number of values and pushes it down to one value, say pleasure or pain or something like that. 

We have decided that lowering the chance of increased infection rates is the only value we care about and when we do that, we end up with 11,000 more dead people with dementia in nursing homes. That was a big story in POLITICO and "The Washington Post" over the last 24 hours and no one seems to care, except those who are we wanting to resist this utilitarian way of thinking. 

CARLSON: How exactly has this worked? So, if the isolation has contributed to the progression of dementia and Alzheimer's? 

CAMOSY: That's right, so, it's not difficult to do the math. People who are already in this vulnerable situation become even more vulnerable if we say, hey, you're going to be by yourself for six months. Your family isn't going to be able to visit you, an overstressed working staff won't be able to help you out. Just chill for six months. 

Well, we've seen the results -- decay and mortal, mortal loneliness. 

CARLSON: This is what we do to violent prisoners. Why would we ever do this? I just wonder why there hasn't been some national effort to think through how you can help older people trapped alone in complete isolation in a holding tank, basically, which is what these places are. Why has nobody made an effort to do that, I wonder? 

CAMOSY: Tucker, the new -- and we've talked about this before. The new news is what we are doing in particular to those with dementia, and here is an important point I think that needs to be made. 

We have decided -- 40 years ago, we decided that not every human being matters the same. You have to have certain traits. Rationality, self- awareness, memory, language. 

Prenatal children abortion, don't count. Massive brain injury, don't count. 
I'm starting a new book that is going to argue the next shoe to drop is people with dementia and we have to be ready for it. 

I thought it would be a predictive book, it's turning out to be descriptive book based on these numbers.

CARLSON: You're one of the few people talking about this and we appreciate it. Charles Camosy, thanks so much. Good to see you. 

CAMOSY: Thank you. 

CARLSON: So last month, former Trump adviser, Steve Bannon who ran the 2016 campaign was indicted and charged with fraud. Tonight, he joins us for his first interview since that happened. We will be right back. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

CARLSON: So for about a year, we've been talking about the presidential election out there somewhere on the horizon. You wake up this morning and you realize, it's 47 days away. Less than a month from right now, it will be the first Tuesday in November and we are going to vote for a new President. 

This has been by far the most intense presidential election season in the lifetime of anyone watching it, but it feels like we are moving towards something even more intense. What's going to happen on Election Day and in the days following? 

The people who have been thinking most clearly about this on both sides are the people who have done it before, who have been involved at a high level on the presidential campaign. 

Steve Bannon has done that. He is one of the people who ran Donald Trump's
2016 effort. He was recently back in the news last month. He was indicted on fraud charges related to a nonprofit, a Build the Wall nonprofit he was running. 

He hasn't been on television since then. He hasn't given any interviews on advice of counsel. But we wanted to hear what he thinks is going to happen as we have toward November. We also wanted to ask him about the charges against him and he agreed to come on tonight and we are happy to have him. 

Steve Bannon, thanks a lot for coming. 

STEVE BANNON, FORMER CAMPAIGN ADVISER TO DONALD TRUMP: Hey, thanks, Tucker. 
Thanks for having me. 

CARLSON: So I want to ask you first, you reemerged in the national consciousness in a fairly big way in August when you were arrested on fraud charges. You haven't responded publicly that I'm aware of to those charges. 
So I want to give you a chance to sum up your views on it. 

BANNON: Well, you know, Bill Burck is my attorney. You know him, I think he is the best attorney in D.C. so he says, hey, you should lay off this. But look, I have got to come forward. 

Attorney General Barr said I think at Hillsdale the other night. This is head hunting of high-profile political targets that are associated with President Trump. It's not random that it was four years almost to the day that I took over the campaign that this indictment came out, right? 

What these guys want to do is criminalize political speech, make sure I didn't go back to the campaign. Well, I was never going back to the campaign. The campaign is in great shape. You've got Bill Stepien, Jason Miller, Steve Cortez, and others. They are doing a great job of delivering a victory on November 3rd for President Trump. 

So, I have been -- because of my work in War on Pandemic, we were the first guys to be on the pandemic in January, we understood what your opening segment was about, Tucker. 

The Democratic Party has traumatized their base. They are not going to come out to vote. And so somehow, they have to concoct some effort to steal this election because they are not going to get people to come out and vote on game day, the 3rd of November of this year and that's what I've been working on for the last couple of months. 

I was never going back to the campaign and that's where these guys messed up. My platform is bigger now. My voice is bigger. I have got more resources and all we are focused on is to make sure that the progressive left and the corporatists, they cannot steal the election of Donald Trump. 

CARLSON: I want to just drill down briefly because this is a complex topic and you're going to have an opportunity to respond in court. But the sort of macro charge is that you defrauded people who sent you money to build a wall. You said you wouldn't take any money, the charges claimed that you did. What is your response to that? 

BANNON: My C4 had a one million -- if you read the indictment, I had a $1 contract to kind of be the D.C. office and oversee the wall construction and to do seminars and conferences. 

If you want to see it, go to "Vice News." Go to BBC. Go to the opening season of Showtime's "The Circus," the opening episode in the 19th season. 
They are traveling around the country following us on these Town Halls. 

We have Town Halls and conferences. We built a wall -- two-thirds of a mile wall up a mountain in El Paso within a hundred days of starting. I was a contractor and ran an Advisory Board that brought together the best and brightest of all the wall people, so they are not going to criminalize, they are not going to shut me down by talking about the wall. They are not going to criminalize us talking about the wall. 

CARLSON: OK. 

BANNON: We've brought in Kobach and Sheriff Clark and all of these guys. So that is what the indictment failed to say, but look, all of that will come out in court over time. 

The key thing is -- 

CARLSON: It will, it will and I don't -- 

BANNON: ... is that they are going to -- yes, the key thing is they are not going to shut me -- they want to criminalize political speech and they are not going to shut me down. 

I'm more focused than ever. We are kicking off a national tour on Monday called the Plot to Steal 2020. They are not going to stop my voice in assisting President Trump in making sure that this election that he is going to win on the third is not stolen from him. 

CARLSON: Big Tech is clearly taking a side in this election. They have unprecedented levels of power over what people know and, I'm wondering how you think they will use that power as they approach the election specifically. 

BANNON: You saw the other night. You had Dr. Yan on from China who is a fact witness on those weapons labs over there and also wrote this amazing paper. What Twitter did is rip her Twitter account down right away. They took her off Facebook when they had to replay your show that was on fire throughout the world. 

But they allowed the Chinese Communist Party to beat down on her every second with all of their running dogs. 

That's what you are going to see. That's a preamble to what is going to happen on November 3rd. They are talking about it. They are already saying both Facebook and Twitter that they are not going to announce a winner. 

Here is what is going to happen, Donald J. Trump is going to win the vote on the only day that matters. That's November 3rd. He is going to win the real election in the way we've done it with secret ballots with people going in to a booth and voting for the President of the United States, OK. 

By that end evening, he will be the winner and what they are going to do is that between the Lawfare they've got with 800 attorneys under Eric Holder, the mob they've got with Antifa and the radical elements of Black Lives Matters, but most importantly, the digital muscle of Facebook and Twitter, they are going to sit there and they are going to not declare Trump the winner. 

CARLSON: You were right there running the campaign four years ago today, looking at it the poll numbers now as objectively as you can, as compared to the numbers you were looking at four years ago today, how do you think the President's re-elect looks. 

BANNON: I think the President -- I think the team has done a great job. 
When I look at these numbers in the cross tabs, when I drill down on them, I think the President has not just a great shot, I think he will be the winner on November 3rd. I think the campaign is totally focused and I think Biden is a cypher. He can't draw a crowd. 

So I think right now, I think the campaign is doing great. The President is doing great. I see a victory on November 3rd and I was the first guy to tell him he was going to win back in August 16. 

CARLSON: And then maybe then the real contest begins. Steve Bannon, I am glad that you came on. Thank you very much. 

BANNON: That's when the war starts. 

CARLSON: I am beginning to think that's true. I appreciate it. Thank you. 

BANNON: Thank you, sir. 

CARLSON: So you may have the sense particularly if you've got kids in school that things are completely out of control in schools. They are teaching things that are flat out propaganda, BLM propaganda and it turns out, you are right. 

We have lesson plans that will shock you, right after the break. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

CARLSON: The President today announced the creation of something called the Patriotic Education Commission. It will be designed to combat something called Critical Race Theory which is the lunatic lie that teaches our children some people are inherently worse than others. Some are morally tainted because of their skin color. 

That is the definition of racist propaganda. It is hard to believe that exists in our country, but it's flourishing. 

And the President said that explicitly. Watch. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Critical Race Theory, the
1619 Project and the crusade against American history is toxic propaganda. 

Ideological poison that if not removed will dissolve the civic bonds that tie us together. It will destroy our country, that is why I recently banned trainings in this prejudiced ideology from the Federal government and banned it in the strongest manner possible. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: Well, the usual partisans were outraged by this, needless to say. 
Dan Beyer, a car dealer who somehow became a member of Congress said it was fascism, but the geniuses were silent in June when the people behind "The New York Times" 1619 Project effectively the Bible of critical race theorists encouraged rioters to destroy private property in the name of racial justice. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

NIKOLE HANNAH JONES, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: Violence is when an agent of the state kneels on man's neck until all of the life is leeched out of his body. 

Destroying property which can be replaced is not violence and to put those things to use the exact same language to describe those two things, I think, really -- it's not moral. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: When did dumb violent people get so much power in this country? By the way, if that woman's private property was destroyed, I bet she would be saying something very different. 

So the President's decision to ban Critical Race Theory indoctrinations at the Federal agencies earlier this month was an important step, but you'd be wrong if you thought this poison is confined only to the U.S. government. 
Just about every single K-12 school in America has ramped up their propaganda efforts this year to teach children that this is a fundamentally bad country that some people are fundamentally flawed because of the way they look and that the whole American experiment is basically essentially racist and therefore, immoral. 

Even though the 1619 Project contains fundamental and verifiable historical falsehoods, it is garbage, it is not real history, teachers in Chicago, New York and New Jersey and Washington are already using it in their classrooms. No one stopped them, so they are. We are going to look back on this in shame and horror. 

Even schools that haven't specifically adopted the 1619 Project are taking a similar approach. Sometimes, they are even more radical. This show has obtained a lesson plan from the Buffalo Public School System. It goes far beyond teaching bad history and deliberately advances the agenda of Black Lives Matter, of a political organization. 

For example, one lesson plan teaches fourth and fifth graders to question the importance of their parents, of their own mothers and fathers. The lesson plan instructs teachers to discuss various quote, "guiding principles" with students including so-called black villages that assist in the -- and we're quoting now -- "disruption of Western nuclear family dynamics and return to the collective village that takes care of each other." 

They are teaching this to your kids that your family should be destroyed. 
Why are we allowing this? You know what this is, it is an all-out war on the most important thing we have, which is the American family. The one thing that can help bring back some of our corroding cities. 

Nothing else has worked and we spent over a trillion dollars, it hasn't worked. That's demonstrable.

Families do work and anyone who has emerged from a place like that, of any background or color can tell you, families are essential and yet, they are teaching children that families, their families are the problem. 

Another lesson plan explains to second, third and fourth graders that quote, "the need for the BLM Movement." Oh, OK. Now, you might think a Marxist organization that destroys private property and wants to replace parents is a bad thing. But that's not what your children are learning. 

Other lesson plans actually teach students the specifics of the BLM platform, which rejects Western family structures. Another lesson plan for grades two through four explains why all lives matter is a problematic phrase, yes, all lives don't matter. 

This is insane and it doesn't stop in elementary school. The goal is to redefine education at all levels and turn it into a shell for propaganda. 

At the Thomas Jefferson School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, probably the best public school in the United States, officials are eliminating their merit based admission system. Why? In the name of diversity. 

They have replaced a rigorous application process with a random lottery system. Will the school survive? No, of course not. It will not be the best school in the country. They just wrecked it. 

In a few years, there might not be any top schools left in this country. 
Critical Race Theory though will probably flourish and that's the whole point. Why are we letting this happen to our children? 

Max Eden is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He joins us tonight. 

Max, thanks so much for coming on. How widespread is this poison and it is poison? 

MAX EDEN, SENIOR FELLOW, MANHATTAN INSTITUTE: Yes, you know, Tucker it is hard to get a good grasp at exactly how widespread it is. You know, you see things on social media. You would like to think they are anecdotes. 

When you see a school district like Buffalo just put that out there as though they are proud of it, it is cause for deep alarm. I mean, that came from the school district's Department of Culturally Responsive Education, right? 

And New York State adopted statewide standards in culturally responsive education, the architect of which was an Education Professor who has literally said that it is white supremacism to expect black students to read and speak American Standard English. 

Just the other week, another Superintendent in New York said that we shouldn't teach the success stories of black Americans because doing so somehow denies or undercuts their ideas of systemic racism. 

I think we can expect this is a full-on states have committed to it, individual teachers who have a sense of social justice defined by Critical Race Theory are going to take it into their own hands even if it is not necessarily on the school district's website. 

CARLSON: So let's get to the core idea that I think we should work to fight and that is the idea of blood guilt. In it, some people are born with guilt, some people are born inferior and some people are born superior. 

We rejected that as a nation a long time ago. We have a monument on The Mall as a testament to fact we reject it. How common is that lie in our schools? 

EDEN: Yes, well, I think this really ties into the 1619 Project, which you discussed the falsehoods of it, but I think the audience needs to realize this isn't just being adopted in major school districts. Teachers are taking it into their own hands and the true purpose of this according to Nikole Hannah-Jones is to advance reparations. 

And she has said further than that, that's her goal because she decided that it was more realistic than and I quote, "How can we stop white Americans from being white?" Now, curriculum can't affect skin color. What this is about is what you're saying, it is about blood guilt. 

It is about this critical ideology that takes things that you and I and most Americans think are virtues, things like the nuclear family, things like a sense of urgency, delayed gratification, it defines them as whiteness and tells your kids that it is your job to dismantle white supremacism. 

CARLSON: They have no right to do this. They have no right to destroy our children. They have no right to destroy our schools and soon, we are going to put an e-mail address on our screen, starting tomorrow and going forward, for any parent who have seen examples of this. Please send them to us. 

I agree with you, Max that this is likely ubiquitous and until we know its extent, we really can't fight against it which we should do. 

Max Eden, I hope you'll come back. Thank you. 

EDEN: Sure, I would love to. Thank you. 

CARLSON: Well, just a few months ago, and you'll remember this story, the City Council of Minneapolis decided to defund the police. What could happen next? 

Crime went up, it turned out in Minneapolis and guess who is upset about it? The people who defunded the police. And guess who they are blaming? The police. 

One of the greatest stories ever. Stay tuned. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

CARLSON: June is a month redlines with possibilities. The flowers have opened, and the birds are singing, anything is possible. It was back in June that the Minneapolis City Council decided to defund the police. 

They were pretty excited about it at the time. The City Council's President went on CNN and said anyone who disagreed with defunding the police -- and this seemed plausible in June -- is probably a racist. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Do you understand that the word dismantles or police free also make some people nervous? For instance, what if in the middle of the night, my home was broken into, who do I call? 

LISA BENDER, MINNEAPOLIS CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT: Yes, I mean, I hear that loud and clear from a lot of my neighbors and I know -- and myself, too, and I know that that comes from a place of privilege because for those of us for whom the system is working, I think we need to step out and imagine what it would feel like to already live in that reality where calling the police may mean more harm is done. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: Yes, calling the police needs more harm done. Yes, that seemed possible in June. That same month, another City Council member from Minneapolis, a guy called Phillipe Cunningham lamented that money was flowing to the cops instead of say people with Sociology degrees or Masters in Post Modern Feminist Dance. Watch. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

PHILLIPE CUNNINGHAM, CITY COUNCIL MEMBER, MINNEAPOLIS: Al of that money that has been going into the Police Department and have we gotten in return? Pain, trauma and hurt. It is time for us to get behind community and get behind the strategies that we know work. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: Yes, it's time to get behind the community. And so with that in mind, the City Council of the City of Minneapolis voted to defund the police. Then something happened that nobody could have expected. 

All the cameras, all the CNN crews, all the activists, they all went home. 
But for those who were stuck in Minneapolis, they noticed it was getting dangerous, really dangerous. 

So you know what happened? You can guess. At a meeting this week, the same City Council who had voted to defund the police demanded answers from the Police Chief, why weren't the police doing more to stop criminals? Watch. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would appreciate some more information on how addressing the carjacking -- I know that there has been a number of them in the community and it really terrorized residents. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gun violence, drug dealing, intimidation, extortion. 
People are having to pay to get out of their alleys. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last night, I had yet another 17-year-old murdered in my ward. I would say that I don't have an exact number, but it has been at least five 17-year-olds who have been murdered in my ward. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: Well, the City Council President, Lisa Bender was at the meeting. 
In June, she admitted she had privilege. Does she still have that privilege? She didn't address that this week. 

But she didn't seem to think that calling the cops was quite as racist as she used to think it was. In fact, this week, she asked the police, how do we get this under control? 

It's too good. 

Ryan Cleckner is a former Army Ranger sniper. He has some ideas for how we might get this under control in Minneapolis. Ryan, great to see you. Now, I should stipulate that most of these City Council members have been immune from the effect of their own policies, of course, because they have taxpayers who they bill for private security. 

But for everyone else in Minneapolis wondering why did the city go to hell, what do you think happened in Minneapolis? Any ideas? 

RYAN CLECKNER, FORMER ARMY RANGER SNIPER: Shocking, Tucker that this could happen. I mean, defunding the police empowers criminals. I honestly don't know what is worse that they thought of the idea to defund the police or that they are surprised by the results. 

I can't keep up. I mean, this happening in blue states with blue governors and blue cities with blue mayors with blue DAs, many of whom by the way have had their campaigns funded by George Soros and other left-wing activists that just want to watch America burn. They are getting what they paid for. 

It is so laughable, but they are shocked at this result and it is so sad that these are real people being affected by this. 

CARLSON: Yes, you're absolutely right. Soros did pay for a lot of this and he is definitely getting a return for his money. He usually does. 

But I wonder all of the kind of normal sweet people in Minneapolis, a lot of whom are liberal, they didn't notice until Memorial Day weekend that their police department was systemically racist and that they possessed privilege. I mean, this all seems to kind of come out of nowhere. How did that happen exactly? And is it gone yet? Have they been awakened to reality yet do you think? 

CLECKNER: I think we have good signs that people are being awakened to reality. I really do. The fact that they are calling out here and trying to figure out what's wrong, a little too late, but at least maybe they are getting the signal now. 

I mean, I am in the firearms industry. When I look at our gun sales, we have had record gun sales more than any other months we have ever had in recorded history and that's not because of gun owners like me. That's because of some of these liberals that maybe weren't gun owners before that are realizing their safety is their responsibility. 

I mean, I have been told by anti-gunners all the time, I don't need a gun because we have the police. Well, I think that's absurd on its face. I mean, I still have a fire extinguisher even though I have a fire department, but I think police are majority heroes, great people, but you're stuck facing the problem before the police even get called and having a firearm, people are realizing that not only can they not rely on the police to stop some of these attacks, but when you defund the police, they are not there anymore, you're responsible for your own safety. 

CARLSON: I think that is exactly right. It is all very obvious now. Biden has pledged to take your guns. They are going to go after the ammo. You watch and we're going to do a segment on that just as soon as we can find a guest to explain it. 

I hope you'll come back, Ryan. Great to see you. 

CLECKNER: Sure. Thanks, Tucker. 

CARLSON: The show is not over yet. Donald Trump about to take the stage at a rally in the State of Wisconsin. Stay with FOX News for more reality. We will be right back. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

CARLSON: Welcome back. The President is in Wisconsin tonight for a rally. 
As news breaks, FOX News will cover it. 

We will be back tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m., every night at that time, the show that it is your sworn and totally sincere enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness and groupthink. There is Air Force One on the screen. 

I hope you have the best night with the ones you love. We are going to hand it off to the Great Sean Hannity about 11 seconds early, but generosity kind of runs rampant. 

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: You can either fill the time or just throw it to Hannity. No big deal. What the hell. 

CARLSON: You caught me. 

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