Tucker gives his take on Australia's strict COVID regulations

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Tucker gives his take on Australia's strict COVID regulations

Fox News host gives his take on Australian government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the protests that have ensued because of it on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight'

This is a rush transcript of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on September 30, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: Good evening and welcome to TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT. One thing about Americans, they love Australia.

Most Americans have never been there, it's an awful long way away, but when Americans think of Australians, they imagine a freer, tougher version of themselves. Steve Irwin, Crocodile Dundee -- that kind of thing.

So there is a huge reserve of affection in the United States for Australia, its culture and its people. It's also possible that most Americans, us, included have not updated our assumptions about Australia in a while and the modern reality is a little different from what we imagine, case in point.

Two years ago, June 2019, the Federal Police in Sydney raided the offices of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, that's a state broadcaster, ABC. They weren't at all unclear about why they were raiding the offices. They said it out loud.

Just days before the raid, ABC broadcast allegations from a whistleblower that embarrassed the government of Australia. This whistleblower said that Australia's military leaders had killed civilians in Afghanistan including children and had lied about it.

The ABC broadcast that story. It wasn't a crime to broadcast the story and Australia's Federal Police didn't pretend it was. Instead, they served the broadcaster with the warrant that authorized them -- the police -- to cover up any evidence of the Australian military's misconduct. Think about that for a minute.

The warrant -- and we're quoting it -- allowed police to quote "add, copy, delete or alter" any material they wanted to alter on the broadcaster's computer. That's not the kind of thing that happens in a free country, to put it mildly, and yet Australia's military and police forces never suffered any consequences for doing it. In fact many Australians the polls show supported it.

They rewarded their military with hundreds of millions of dollars in new spending. Most of that money was intended to keep Australians safe from the malign influence of Chinese authoritarianism, even though that seemed a lot like Chinese authoritarianism itself.

Two years later, what does Australia look like? Well, it looks a lot like China did at the beginning of the pandemic, that's the sad truth. We showed you those pictures from China at the time. People being welded inside their apartments to starve, the guys in hazmat suits forcing people into quarantine boxes and then driving away to some unknown destination.

At the time, our public health officials including Tony Fauci told us that nothing like that could ever happen in our country or in the West, but that was wrong, because those things are now happening in Australia.

This is what happens in Australia, for example, if you try to leave your apartment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): Anthony Karam knows he is COVID positive when he steps into this public lift. Already breaking so many rules, he doesn't bother to cover his mouth as he sneezes and splutters.

The 27-year-old is still infectious, but has gone missing from his Wentworth Point apartment, a warrant now issued for his arrest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This 27-year-old chap who apparently has expressed the view that he doesn't care less, whether he spreads the virus is one example of the worst of the worst.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So a national manhunt for a man who sneezed in an elevator, that's the state of play in modern day Australia. Not everyone in the country is on board with this, but since Australians were completely disarmed by their government several years ago, there is precisely nothing they can do about it, so it has accelerated.

Look at what's happening now? They're being crushed. This was the scene in Melbourne, the second most populous city in the country in the past month. Watch.

[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS]

CARLSON: The government cracking down on Islamic extremists, dangerous revolutionaries in their midst, no, just ordinary Australians complaining, demonstrating peacefully against the lockdowns, beaten by police. There is a lot of footage like this from Australia and in a moment, we'll show you more.

But something that is not immediately obvious from the American vantage is that this isn't all of Australia, the whole country is not locked down. In Australia, most of the lockdowns are in the eastern part of the country, that's where the capital of the country is, that's where the Federal government has the most control.

The western part, the less populated part of Australia, meanwhile, which is home to most of the country's national resources isn't locked down at all. Fifty thousand fans just crowded inside a stadium for a rugby match in Perth, the capital of Western Australia. No one was beaten with night sticks or hosed by the police.

The rugby match was not a super spreader event. Western Australia has had virtually no cases of COVID. How does that happen? How does Western Australia not lock down, but remain virtually COVID free? Simple. By controlling its borders.

Western Australia did not let thousands of people stream in from anywhere they wanted to in the world, they're not Texas. They didn't care about protecting their borders, they weren't worried about being called racist, it seemed commonsense, and it worked.

And here is the revealing thing, in Australia the Federal government is angry that Western Australia has closed its borders. They want that part of the country to open those borders. Really? Why would that be?

Well according to ABC News, Australia's government is quote, "arguing that Western Australia's internal border restrictions are a drag on the national economy," end quote. Well, that's kind of interesting because the problem with Australia's economy right now does not come from Western Australia closing its borders, it comes from the lockdowns. Those are the biggest drag on the national economy ever conceived in Australia, so are those police SWAT teams beating people for going outside.

COVID mandates are a far greater threat to Australia's economy and its social fabric than COVID itself. Here is the Health Minister of Queensland in Eastern Australia explaining that outdoor mask mandates are absolutely necessary because of two new COVID cases. That's two, not 200,000 or 2,000, but two. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What these two new cases mean is that we will be extending immediately the directive in relation to mask wearing to the Gold Coast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Okay, so we want to pause for a minute to give you a sense of the scope of the pandemic in Australia. To date, COVID has caused 1,300 quote "recorded deaths" in the entire country. Australia has 25 million people. Now, that 1,300 figure includes people who quote, "died with probable COVID." What does that mean? We have no idea. No one has ever defined it.

In Alberta, Canada -- and this might tell you something -- the Health Minister just announced that anyone who stays home from any illness will be counted by the Canadian government as a COVID patient, then she pretended she didn't say that because it's obviously insane, but it's on video so we know that she did.

In Australia, the government has adopted a similar standard, anyone who leaves home apparently is also being counted as a COVID patient. Here's a man in Melbourne this Sunday who made the mistake of walking a block from his house.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He lives a block away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, but he has no reason --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you mean --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But he has no reason to be here. He doesn't have a valid reason to be out today. He wasn't wearing a facemask.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hold on, he has a face mask in his pocket, he was just smoking a cigarette. He just came to get lunch with me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the reason I didn't mask myself, is I was having a cigarette. I've got two masks in my pocket. Like what else do you want me to do?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Here is the interesting thing apart -- that's obvious authoritarianism, it's terrifying that that could happen in a civilized English-speaking country, in Australia of all places -- but you'll notice the police never ask the man if he has been vaccinated. You'd think that would be the first question you'd ask because vaccination works, doesn't it? That's why it's mandatory, right?

That's an important point because publicly, Australia's leaders are still pretending that vaccination status matters. In New South Wales, again in Eastern Australia, one official promised that the unvaccinated will be allowed to retain their freedoms.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The message to the unvaccinated is that you will not achieve any further freedom unless you get vaccinated and a further and final message to regional New South Wales, there will be individuals in regional New South Wales who choose not to be vaccinated who will lose their freedoms on the 11th of October.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: No more freedom if you don't get the vax, but they will arrest you for being outside smoking a cigarette a block from your home without a mask and not even ask you whether you've been vaccinated.

So if vaccination status is that important as a health matter, wouldn't that be the first question you ask? But they didn't even bother.

Meanwhile in the same Australian state, New South Wales, officials are telling people that whether they are vaccinated or not, they are not allowed to go to church.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the name of Jesus, lockdowns are over in the cities of New South Wales.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's unclear what this pastor is preaching from, but it's not the public health order. His church, the Christ Embassy in Black Town is in lockdown, hard lockdown. There was no QR code on the door costing the organization $5,000.00. Each of these 30 adult worshippers fined $1,000.00.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whether it's a soccer match, whether it's a church service, it doesn't matter. You cannot -- you cannot gather uh as they did at Black Town.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Oh, so you have to get vaccinated to have any of your freedoms, but even if you are vaccinated, you're not allowed to go to church. So, what is the point of vaccination? Why did the Federal government in Australia lock everybody down if there is no actual way to stop the lockdowns?

And more to the point, why do they want open borders in Western Australia if closing the borders actually has kept the population safe? Well, they want to open borders there for the same reason they want it here.

In New South Wales, one official, the state's health officer explained it out loud. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will be looking at what contact training looks like in the new world order and yes, it will be pubs and clubs and other things if we have a positive case there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: "The new world order." She said it out loud. This is a really interesting story what's happening in Australia and what it means for the rest of the Anglosphere, very much including us and maybe that's why globally, most media organizations have refused to cover it.

That comment, the one you just saw about the new world order got barely any coverage at all. In fact, all the footage we showed you today is mostly being ignored in the United States. Why? Because it's possible what's happening in Australia might be instructive to us in the United States.

In just two years, the Australian Police went from raiding newsrooms to beating people in the streets, so maybe the lesson is, things can change very quickly.

One moment, the English-speaking world is mocking China for being dystopian and autocratic; the next moment, they are aping China and hunting people down who are two blocks from their own homes and smoking a cigarette.

Gideon Rozner has been watching very closely what's happening in Australia. He is the Director of Policy at the Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne. He joins us tonight. Gideon, thanks so much for coming.

GIDEON ROZNER, DIRECTOR OF POLICY, INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS - MELBOURNE: Well, glad to be here, Tucker.

CARLSON: These images are shocking to Americans, most of whom as you know have great affection for Australia and think of Australians as kind of our cousins. I know a lot of Australians don't like us, but we do like them. But mostly, they are shocking because this is not the behavior of a free country. What happened?

ROZNER: No, it's not the behavior of a free country, Tucker, and I don't think it's possible to say that Australia right now is a functioning liberal democracy in many ways. The fact of the matter is, the coronavirus has completely changed the relationship between government and citizen in this country. It has overwhelmed every check and balance in our system. It has upended every single norm almost of democratic governance.

This is a radically new era that we've seen in Australia. As you have said, we have seen images of police lunging at unarmed protesters in counterterrorism equipment. We've seen during Melbourne protests that the police in my home state of Victoria asked the Civil Aviation Authorities to declare a no-fly zone over Melbourne so that commercial media outlets couldn't film the protesters in case people saw how big they were and went down and joined in the protests and started marching as well.

That is an extraordinary step for any government to take. The police censoring the broadcast media and it has been in the main accepted. Opinion is changing now 18 months later, but in the main, it has not raised the kind of protest that we should have seen because of the way in which our authorities here in Australia have instilled such fear into the population about this virus.

CARLSON: I wish we had more time, but quickly, are there any nationally known political leaders who are fighting back against this?

ROZNER: There are a small number of libertarians in the state. There's one, David Limbrick in my State Parliament of Victoria, but in the main -- in the main, no. There is essentially a bipartisan consensus on this -- between both major parties, so we remain in this holding pattern for some time. There doesn't seem to be any political will to end the situation quickly.

And in the meantime, as you said we are continually being given this -- we're becoming used to this idea that freedoms are not an inherent right, they are a gift from the government or a privilege that we get back in exchange for staying at home, following the rules as they say in Australia or as you said, getting vaccinated.

It is a very, very bad precedent because even after corona, Tucker, we have to ask ourselves what the next emergency will be and the next one after that.

CARLSON: That's exactly right.

ROZNER: And if it happened in Australia, it can happen anywhere.

CARLSON: That is all demonstrably true. They will never relinquish this power voluntarily, ever. I appreciate your clear and honest voice in this, Gideon. Thank you very much.

ROZNER: Thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: Remember the Florida grim reaper who sauntered around beaches last year telling people not to go outside. His name -- and he has one -- is Daniel Uhlfelder. He is a lawyer in Florida, he is somehow still around. He has launched a left-wing PAC called "Remove Ron" as in the Governor Ron DeSantis.

And that PAC just released this ad, which is hilarious. Keep in mind as you watch, it was intended to be critical of Ron DeSantis. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ladies and gentlemen on behalf of your cabin crew, we'd like to inform you that we have officially entered Florida airspace.

Now that we're making our final descent, please watch this short message from Governor Ron DeSantis on COVID-19. Thereafter, everyone on board will be required to comply with the state's forever purge.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): We are not doing any vaccine passports in the State of Florida. We trust people to make their own decisions in this state. We are not going to be bludgeoning people with restrictions and mandates and lockdowns or any of that stuff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This fall, don't breathe in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: I guess it's like a Rorschach blot, maybe there are some people who watched that and thought, oh, I don't want to go to Florida. Most normal people who watched that and said, that seems like good governance to me.

Jesse Kelly is the host of "The Jesse Kelly Show." He joins us now, interested in your reaction to that hit piece on Ron DeSantis.

JESSE KELLY, HOST, "THE JESSE KELLY SHOW": Well obviously, it only made me love heavy D even more, Tucker, but I will actually disagree with you on something. I don't think most people looked at that video and thought, I want to go to Florida. I think, maybe half the country looked at that video and thought they wanted to go to Florida. I think people looked at those videos you were just playing from Australia and I think half the country wants that here.

I do not think we are one nation anymore, we are at least two separate nations and that they are putting out attack pieces that look like puff pieces to people like you and me, it tells you all you need to know.

CARLSON: Boy, I hope you're wrong. Part of me senses you're not wrong. You really are wrong, I've noticed. So, I wonder if people who looked at that Ron DeSantis ad or looked at the Australia footage and said oh, I'm really glad the cops are beating unarmed protesters with batons for not wearing masks. Maybe those people will be deterred from going to Florida or other free states.

KELLY: Well, that's why I think we're already separating as a nation because I think they are, Tucker. I think it shows that when you look at the people leaving California and going to a place like Texas, we have numbers now, they are mostly Republican. It's mostly Republicans leaving New York and going to Florida. The nation is separating because we are such different people.

Tucker, what do we have in common anymore? Well, one side believes babies should be protected, the other openly brags about slaughtering them. One side believes basic biology things, a man born a man remains a man; the other side believes that could be taken care of with a scalpel and some lipstick.

We don't have things in common. Even our foreign adversaries. China is our enemy. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, he is inside China. The only person deeper inside China than him is Eric Swalwell. Half the country knows China is an enemy, we just don't share things in common.

CARLSON: I'm sorry, the Swalwell stuff just always gets me. Remember the House Intelligence Committee? Sex with a Chinese spy. Thank you for reminding us of that, Jesse Kelly. There was a silver lining to the dark cloud of your analysis. Great to see you.

KELLY: You, too, bud.

CARLSON: Some things don't change, like the fact our Southern border is wide open, no one has closed it, and a new caravan and more than 85,000 people from around the world has been spotted heading toward this country. We're learning tonight who is in that caravan and when they will arrive. That's straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: A new human wave coming our way, a caravan of roughly 85,000 migrants currently in Panama heading toward the United States. At least 60,000 of those migrants reportedly are Haitian.

Panama's Foreign Minister has expressed surprise that the Biden administration isn't doing anything to stop these caravans from forming. She just told AXIOS quote, "We sounded the alarm when we should have," and yet the border remains open.

FOX's Griff Jenkins just demonstrated how thousands of migrants make that journey every day of the year.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFF JENKINS, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: Well before any migrant crosses into the U.S., they first have to step foot into Mexico, which requires little effort and only a few pesos.

This is the Suchiate River separating Mexico and Guatemala. In the distance, the International Bridge that is the legal way to cross, this is the illegal way. Thousands do it every day, more than 13,000 Haitians applying for refugee status at this very moment in Tapachula just on the other side of those banks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARLSON: Todd Bensman is a Senior National Security Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies. He is the author of America's "Covert Border War," which is a perfect description for what is happening now. He joins us tonight.

Todd, thanks so much for coming on.

TODD BENSMAN, SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY FELLOW, CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES: Thanks for having me.

CARLSON: So another 60,000 Haitians. Describe what this is about exactly? I don't think if you told the average person a year ago that we would be facing migration of tens of thousands of Haitians through Mexico, anyone would believe you.

BENSMAN: Well, there is a major route, a human smuggling route that comes out of South America through Colombia into Panama, and then on up through Costa Rica and on up to Texas. Normally, there are maybe 7,000 to 8,000 a year that come through, but since the Biden administration entered office and put into place its policies, it has acted as a clarion call to the entire world, the entire world, 120 countries plus are heading through what they call the Darien Gap out of Colombia into Panama and on up.

That's how most of these Haitians got here in the first place to the Texas border. That's how a whole bunch more are going to be coming through and way more besides Haitians. I'm talking from the Middle East, from China, from all the nations of Africa. They're all headed to the border to take advantage.

CARLSON: I don't understand the American response. I mean, if a group of people you didn't know who looked threatening showed up at your house, you wouldn't let them in. You just say, you can't come in, it's my house. Why are we letting anybody cross the border? Why not just say, let Mexico deal with them.

BENSMAN: Well, there's a better solution, which is to have Panama and Costa Rica deal with this. I've been advocating for quite a while that because Panama is the smuggler, the government of Panama is the smuggler, they provide food, shelter, hospitality camps, and they arrange all the busing and everything to Costa Rica and the Costa Ricans have been doing the same, it's called controlled flow.

And I've been advocating for a long time because this is a National Security threat. When you have people coming from Afghanistan, which they do through that border, that's an issue that could be stopped much earlier than Mexico with repatriation flights and into controlled flow.

I was just in Costa Rica a couple of months ago on this very trail and I saw very, very heavy traffic. I met Mauritanians, Senegalese. I've met Eritreans, I mean you name it, they are coming through there in very large heavy numbers.

Costa Rica does nothing. They allow it to happen and the Panamanians are the smuggler.

CARLSON: Yes, end of America. That's not an overstatement. We're watching it happen in real time. I appreciate, Todd, the facts you just brought there. Thank you.

BENSMAN: Thank you.

CARLSON: So the Federal government doesn't run on tax revenue anymore, the Fed just prints the money, as much as they want. So taxation is merely designed to hurt you and the Biden administration has just found a new way to do that. The Treasury Secretary proposes taxing people on money they don't have, she said it on tape. We'll show it to you.

Right now, by the way on tuckercarlson.com, you can get the new book. Cut out Big Tech and order it directly. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATT FINN, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to "FOX News Live." I'm Matt Finn in Los Angeles.

President Biden signing legislation tonight to avert a partial government shutdown. Only hours ahead of a midnight deadline, Congress passed the bill to fund the government through December 3rd.

Democrats and Republicans are still at odds about how to raise the government's borrowing cap. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has cautioned that failure to raise the debt limit will lead to a financial crisis and economic recession.

California enacting a law to strip the badges of police officers who act criminally or with bias. California was one of just four states without such a system, alongside Hawaii, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.

The state's new sweeping police reforms were driven in part by last year's killing of George Floyd at the hands of former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin.

I'm Matt Finn. Now back to TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT. For all of your headline, log on to foxnews.com.

CARLSON: Janet Yellen was the Fed Chairman, now, she is the Secretary of the Treasury under Joe Biden. Shortly before taking office this year, she proposed taxing unrealized capital gains as income. So if you own something that has become more valuable over time, including your house, Janet Yellen believes you should be taxed on the rise in value.

She said that again this week on Capitol Hill when she proposed taxing the unrealized gains of inherited assets. Again, that would include real estate. What would that mean? That would mean millions of Americans would owe taxes, they'd be forced to pay money they don't have.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (D-AL): Do you support eliminating stepped-up basis for state beneficiaries? And if you do, why?

JANET YELLEN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: I do support eliminating stepped-up basis. The reason is that a very large share of the income of wealthy individuals is simply never taxed. Individuals hold on to these assets during their lifetime. That income is never taxed and we know that for some of the wealthiest individuals in the country, they pay very low taxes overall because most of their income takes the form of unrealized capital gains.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: To be clear, Janet Yellen is one of the wealthiest Americans. She made millions and millions and millions in payoffs from the banks after leaving the Federal Reserve. Okay, so there's that.

But what she is really saying is that any asset you own, again, including your house, if you've had your house for 30 years, real estate prices go up partly because of speculation by big real estate holding companies and all of a sudden the increase in value in your house means you have to pay tax to the Federal government money that you don't have. This would bankrupt a lot of people who are not rich.

By the way, Yellen also conceded that Democrats could raise the debt ceiling right now without the support of Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): Senator Schumer, who is a Democrat and my friend controls the Senate floor and he can raise the debt ceiling by just amending the budget resolution, can he?

YELLEN: It's possible that that could be done.

KENNEDY: Yes, ma'am. So why don't he do it? Why don't you all do it because --

YELLEN: This is --

KENNEDY: Let me just finish -- why don't you all just do it and we don't have this fight?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: That was Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana. He was of course at that hearing. He joins us tonight.

Senator, thanks so much for coming on. So first to Secretary Yellen's suggestion that we tax the increase in value in assets that people own and I think for average people, literally average people, this means real estate. So what would that mean for people who make 300 grand a year, but whose house has doubled in value? That's a lot of people. Where would they be if this became law?

KENNEDY: Tucker, it is really pretty extraordinary. For the first time in the history of ever, President Biden and Secretary Yellen want to tax unrealized gains on inherited property. Let me explain what that means. Let's suppose you've got a young widow with three children, she never remarries. She goes and buys a $150,000.00 home to raise her kids and she raises her kids in the home.

She is not rich. She works, but her main asset, her only asset is her home. Fifty years later, she dies. As a result of inflation and appreciation over 50 years, her $150,000.00 home is now worth $1.75 million.

She leaves her home to her kids. Under current law, her kids would not have to pay any income tax on that home if they didn't sell the property. They wouldn't have to pay any inheritance tax, either, but that's a separate issue.

But under the Biden-Yellen rule, those kids would automatically be taxed on the full value of the home whether they sold it or not.

Now, it's a little more complex than that, but the point is, those kids are not going to have the money to pay the taxes. So, they are going to be forced to do a fire sale on the home their mom worked for just to pay the taxes.

And this -- the United States has never done this, never.

This is going to affect millions and millions of middle-class Americans. It is going to maul the real estate market and the market for other long-term assets, and I guess the moral of the story is, this is what happens -- this is what happens when you have a President and a Treasury Secretary who are on a mission from God to please pink-haired workers who carry around Ziploc bags of kale.

This is what happens when you have a President and a Secretary who want to tax, spend, and regulate America into neo-socialism.

CARLSON: Yes, well especially since we're not funding the government with tax revenue anyway because thanks to Janet Yellen, we've been funding the whole thing with fake money printed by the Federal Reserve, so why tax anybody anything at this point? The whole thing is punitive, honestly, as you know.

Anyway, Senator Kennedy, I appreciate your coming on tonight. Thank you.

KENNEDY: Thank you.

CARLSON: So, Taylor Lorenz works for "The New York Times." She is a reporter, but in fact she is an enforcer working on behalf of our ruling class, defaming and bullying people who step out of line.

Most people don't fight back because she's at "The New York Times." What can you do? And if you do fight back against Taylor Lorenz, she tells you you're committing violence against her because she's got mental problems or something, but one person is fighting back. She has filed a lawsuit against her for six million bucks. She joins us straight ahead to explain what that's about. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: You may have heard the City of Chicago has stopped enforcing the law, but that's not entirely true. The city has announced it is cracking down on businesses that won't enforce indoor mask mandates and they're serious about it.

In just one week, last month, the City of Chicago issued dozens of citations to retail stores they said violated their order.

Meanwhile in other news, criminals are free to loot and destroy these stores with total impunity. Don't believe us, watch this. This was the scene on Saturday in the Ulta Beauty Shop in Chicago.

[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS]

CARLSON: Notice nobody does anything to stop them, and all the customers have their little obedience mask on the entire time, an emasculated country.

A few weeks ago, a security guard in Chicago though, you'll be glad to know, shot someone three times for not wearing a mask, but no security guard or police officer will bother a shoplifter in the city because they're not allowed to. And that's true all over the country.

For example, this was the scene recently at a jewelry store in Daly City, California in the bay area. Watch.

[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS]

CARLSON: The thieves took advantage of the indoor mask policy to hide their identities and of course, it worked. Several of them remain at large tonight.

Well, Taylor Lorenz works at "The New York Times" defending the interest of the ruling class by force. She defames people.

One person is fighting back, however. Her name is Ariadna Jacob. She has recently filed a six $6 million defamation suit against Taylor Lorenz.

Ariadna Jacob is an entrepreneur and influencer marketing expert, founder of influences.com. She joins us to explain her lawsuit. Thanks so much for joining us tonight. We appreciate it.

So, Taylor Lorenz stalks the landscape hurting people and if you say something about it, she claims you're attacking her because she's got all kinds of neuroses or whatever. You're the aggressor.

You're the only person I've seen fight back. Tell us why you're doing this and what your claim against her is?

ARIADNA JACOB, ENTREPRENEUR AND INFLUENCER MARKETING EXPERT, FOUNDER, INFLUENCES.COM: Thanks, Tucker.

Well, to give you some background, I dedicated my career to the influencer marketing industry for almost 20 years before influencer was even a term and my company, influences.com was disrupting the entertainment space as we discovered and developed some of the biggest internet stars in the world including Charli D'amelio and Addison Rae.

And it was devastating when Taylor Lorenz came along with the megaphone of "The New York Times" and decided to write a scathing article full of lies about us and she had to know it was lies because we answered all her questions factually before she published the story.

I lost my business, my personal reputation, and my income.

In Spanish we say, "hay leyes pero no justicia," there are laws, but no justice, and in this case, Tucker, I really pray for justice because Taylor Lorenz has a pattern of lying and destroying innocent people and manipulating young people and she needs to be held accountable.

I came to this country legally from Mexico when I was a little girl and my father died and it was my dream to build a company, and for a privileged bully like Taylor Lorenz, to take it away from somebody like me, is just wrong.

CARLSON: Yes, but very common, you know her MO though, even using her name in public will elicit some self-pitying stream on Twitter about how you're committing violence against her and endangering her. She can totally crush your life or the lives of kids, which she has done, but you're not allowed to fight back.

Are you ready for the further attacks on you?

JACOB: Well, I am -- I am ready, but honestly, I'm here because I'm telling the truth and I don't care what attacks come from her. In fact, Taylor Lorenz had a conflict of interest when she came after me. She had a financial partnership with Hollywood giant's United Talent Agency and UTA were also my direct business rivals.

Taylor wrote a glowing article about UTA in "The New York Times" without disclosing that they represented her and soon after, it was announced that UTA got Taylor Lorenz a book deal. It's no surprise that when Taylor's article left me blacklisted and penniless, that many of my clients ended up at UTA.

And there is no recourse for someone like me, a non-celebrity to get the truth out there. In fact, many primetime news anchors are represented also by UTA, and so -- but that's not all, eight months after her defamatory article, she continued to attack me when she heard that I was raising capital for a new venture, she went behind the scenes calling prominent people in the media ranting that I'm a literal abuser who doesn't deserve positive press, I guess to cripple my career and silence me forever.

And this is an abuse of power. "The New York Times" even after I filed a lawsuit against them, which isn't easy by the way, they continue to stand behind Taylor's disgusting and sinister behavior.

How does Taylor Lorenz still have a job?

CARLSON: Because she has intimidated people into silence. She is the bully, but she is calling you an abuser. I hope you end this, I really do.

Ariadna Jacob, thank you.

JACOB: Thank you so much.

CARLSON: All of us who've watched this was jaws open. How is this woman terrorizing the country and nobody has the stones to fight back? So thanks.

So, the deadline in New York City for public school teachers to get vaccinated or get fired is tomorrow. No one is fighting back. One person is though. We're going to talk to that person after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: So Bill de Blasio is still technically the Mayor of New York City. He is a lame duck, but he has decided to wreck as much stuff as he can on his way out. He has now announced that public school staff, teachers and everyone who works there has until tomorrow, Friday at 5:00 p.m. to get vaccinated or they'll be fired.

The courts by the way have now said the city can enforce that mandate. Rachel Maniscalco is one of those New York City teachers working to block that mandate in court. She joins us tonight and we're grateful that she is.

Rachel, thanks so much for coming on. What will be the effect of this -- if this is allowed, if you fail in your efforts and anybody who works in New York City Public Schools who has chosen not to take this medicine is fired, what's going to happen to the schools?

RACHEL MANISCALCO, FORMER NEW YORK CITY TEACHER: Oh, Tucker, it's a multi- tiered disaster. I want to clarify something that you just said though, which is very interesting and very poignant to the conversation.

CARLSON: Yes.

MANISCALCO: Mayor de Blasio has said that people have until Friday at 5:00 p.m. The Chancellor has then said 11 59 p.m. There was an e-mail put out that said Monday and Mayor de Blasio came out yesterday and said that if we decide to see the light, these are his exact words, if we decide to see the light over the weekend, they would still accept us back into our jobs.

And I think this is a really interesting take because they are -- they keep moving the goal post and this really speaks to the fact that they know that next week is going to be absolutely atrocious.

CARLSON: I mean, I thought you guys had the most powerful union in the world that controls the U.S. government and that's true to some extent. Why aren't they protecting you? I don't get that.

MANISCALCO: I don't either. I really do not understand that at all. The UFT and President Mulgrew, they pretended to fight for us, they pretended to go to arbitration. The agreement that they came out with did not help anyone. Thousands of teachers and DoE employees filed for exemptions, both medical and religious, and the agreement that they came out with basically said that if you are accepted, which only a handful were, you would be removed from your school building and placed in an office to be tested twice a week.

And President Mulgrew was very proud of himself and very proud of that arrangement. Meanwhile, it left thousands of people unable to get exemptions and also the handful who did get accepted, they don't want to be out of their classrooms. They want to be teaching. They want to be with the students they love.

CARLSON: Of course.

MANISCALCO: So, this is nothing to be proud of.

CARLSON: No. The whole thing is grotesque, really forcing some of the best people to leave.

MANISCALCO: Yes, it really is.

CARLSON: We are rooting for you. Rachel, thanks for coming on tonight. I appreciate it.

MANISCALCO: Thank you.

CARLSON: We're out of time. We'll be back tomorrow and every weeknight at 8:00 p.m., the show that is the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink.

Have a great evening with the ones who love.

Sean Hannity now.

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