Tucker Carlson: Military suicide is a crisis the Pentagon should address

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Tucker Carlson: Military suicide is a crisis the Pentagon should address

Fox News host addresses the 'dangerous consequences' of the military vaccine mandates on service members

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight" September 20, 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. Happy Monday. 

Just for fun sometime, give a little Civics test to people in your neighborhood. Ask them: if you wanted to take over a country, how would you do it? And here's the answer you are likely to get from all of them. They would say, well, first you've got to get the most votes. They're Americans. That's what they believe and they believe it because that's how things have worked in this country for hundreds of years. It's called Representative Democracy. 

But we should remember that that is not at all how things work in most other places or ever have. They don't have Representative Democracy. 

In most places at most times, if you wanted to take over a country, first you had to control its military. The guys with guns as Mark Milley once memorably put it. 

The Army is essential for political control. Government dictates have no meaning without the credible threat of force to back them up. Guns are to laws what gold is to paper currency. It gives it value and strength. 

In a democratic system, the military serves and protects the entire population, no matter who they voted for. That's what democracy is. In an authoritarian system by contrast, the Army is the enforcement apparatus of a specific political party. That's the difference between the two systems. 

It is worth remembering that given what we're seeing happen all around the world right now. The German Defense Ministry for example, recently announced it is dismantling its best trained special operations unit. That's called the KSK. 

Dozens of KSK operators have recently been fired and none of them have committed any kind of crime, the ruling party in Germany simply determined that they were not loyal enough. They had the wrong political views, so they got canned. 

As the German Defense Minister put it, the KSK has quote "come under the influence of an unhealthy understanding of elites." 

An unhealthy understanding of elites, says the elite. Has there ever been a more revealing quote than that? In other words, anyone who doesn't think we're impressive must be fired immediately. Does that sound familiar to you? It should because it's not just happening in Germany. 

In Australia, which until recently was a pretty free country, politicians just called in the military to enforce their totalitarian COVID restrictions using violence if necessary, and it is sometimes necessary. Sydney is under martial law. 

Now that is a shocking attack on the western understanding of civil liberties, the most basic civil liberties and yet the Australian government, most of its media and its intellectual class refuse even to acknowledge that. Instead they insist that the real threat to Australia is -- are you ready for this -- white supremacy. 

Ah. Once again, sound familiar? 

It goes without saying that none of this has anything to do with COVID or racism, obviously. It's about power. That's all it's about. 

In this country, the slide from democracy began earlier this year, just after Joe Biden's inauguration. The new Secretary of Defense, the Defense industry shill called Lloyd Austin explained that his very first and single most pressing job was to root out what he referred to as extremism in the U.S. military. He put the entire military on hold to do this. 

So the question is, what is this extremism? What does it consist of? But Lloyd Austin never told us, and yet if you want to know the answer, you will notice how very excited, how thrilled members of one specific political party were when they heard this news. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-IL): We absolutely need to look at any type of white supremacists that are still members of the military and how they are being targeted for recruitment by white supremacist groups and we need to weed this out. 

This whole idea of a police officer on police officer violence with those officers who have been turned by white extremists is really scary to me and I know it's got to be scary for the other police officers. 

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D-HI): I am considering legislation to create a standalone, a punitive article in the uniform court of military justice to address violent extremism in the ranks and to send a message of deterrence that this kind of conduct will not be tolerated in the military. 

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL): We've seen a lot of reports highlighting how many of the attackers were veterans and there's been really a growing recognition that the military has to do more to address extremism in its ranks. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: White supremacy in the military is a crisis said the most unscrupulous people in Washington, but that's not what it was about. What you just saw on tape was in fact a power grab. The message, no one who does not support our political party is allowed to bear arms. That's what they're saying very clearly. 

And because it's the Democratic Party doing the talking here, there was also, needless to say a vicious racial angle, too, because there always is. 

Watch Congressman Steve Cohen of Tennessee explain. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

REP. STEVE COHEN (D-TN): The Guard is 90 some odd percent, I believe male, only about 20 percent of white males voted for Biden. You've got to figure that in the Guard, which is predominantly more conservative and I see that on my social media and we know it, they're probably not more than 25 percent of the people that are there protecting those who voted for Biden, the other 75 are in the class that would be the large class of folks who might want to do something. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: So if you're white, you're dangerous says a sitting Member of Congress. That clip was from January, of course, that was the same month that Lloyd Austin announced he was cracking down on this extremism. Then a few months later, reading from the same song sheet, Mark Milley told the U.S. Congress he was working to root out white rage in the military. Okay. 

And yet after all of this, because we're keeping score, as of today, we're not aware of a single white supremacist on active duty who has been discovered by The Pentagon and fired -- not one. So that threat didn't exist at all. It was fake. That was all a lie. 

Several National Guard troops were relieved of duty around the Inauguration, though no one has ever explained why they were fired. Then a senior Commander in the Space Force, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Lohmeier lost his job, and we know why. His crime was criticizing Marxism. That's a firing offense now. 

Then in august, Lloyd Austin came up with a new political purity test. This one was specifically designed to separate the obedient from the free. Can't have any of the latter category. 

Austin said he planned to fire anyone in the entire Armed Services who would not submit to the COVID-19 vaccination shot. It didn't matter whether they had natural immunity or not, as many in the military do, their personal moral or religious objections were totally irrelevant. 

The point was to bow before his authority and the authority of the Democratic Party, no excuses, no exceptions, quote: "I have determined," Austin said, " ... that mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 is necessary to protect the force and defend the American people." Period. No debate. 

So what's the scientific justification for this? Well, of course, there isn't any. There is zero scientific basis for any of this. The fighting strength of the military is young healthy people, virtually all of them at extremely low risk of dying from COVID. 

In fact, to this day, only 46 members of the entire U.S. military have died from the coronavirus over the last year and a half. Suicides by contrast kill many, many times more. In just a few months last year, 156 servicemen killed themselves. 

So military suicide is an actual crisis that The Pentagon might want to address. Lloyd Austin might want to look into that, but no. That would get the Democratic Party nothing. 

The point of mandatory vaccination is to identify the sincere Christians in the ranks, the free thinkers, the men with high testosterone levels, and anyone else who does not love Joe Biden and make them leave immediately. It's a takeover of the U.S. military. 

Here is how they're doing it. 

This show has just obtained a PowerPoint that the Army is using to justify mandatory vaccines to the troops. This is an actual slide from it on your screen. 

You will notice there the sympathetic portrayal of Satanism. How many children were sacrificed to Satan because of the vaccine? The slide reads, apparently sarcastically. Then the presentation proceeds to list the so- called tenets of Satanism which are taken straight from the Temple of Satanism website. 

So here you have the United States Army doing PR for Satanism. 

The rest of the presentation is less shocking than that, but it's utterly shoddy and dishonest. For example, it falsely claims that only three people have died from taking the COVID vaccine. Reports collected by the Biden administration itself indicate that number is actually in the thousands. 

So we called the Army about this today and they conceded that the PowerPoint you just saw is absolutely real. Troops saw it. But it was somehow not approved by Army leadership, they did not explain how that works or what they're going to do about it. 

We do know the vaccine mandate is taking a terrible toll on the U.S. military and on this country's ability to defend itself at a very volatile time in the world. Already, three members of the C.I.A. paramilitary teams that first entered Afghanistan after 9/11, remember them? They got there before the military. 

Three members of that team have been suspended for not getting vaccinated. They're being told to await disciplinary proceedings. 

Meanwhile, an Army officer, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Douglas Hague just announced that he is resigning from the military rather than take medicine that he does not want or need. 

In a statement Hague said he was quote: "Incapable of subjecting myself to the unlawful, unethical, immoral, and tyrannical order to sit still and allow the serum to be injected into my flesh against my will and better judgment," end quote. 

There are many like him in the U.S. military. 

The Navy just informed the most famous unit in the entire services, the Navy SEALs that members will be forced to leave if they don't take the shot. It does not matter if they have natural immunity and many do. It doesn't matter if they have a valid religious or medical exemption. 

If they don't submit to the order, they cannot deploy and they'll have to leave the SEALs. The deadline for this is almost immediately. 

Now to be clear, just in case you're wondering if this is in response to some kind of crisis, we don't believe a single Navy SEAL has died of COVID and that makes sense. These are some of the healthiest people not just in America, but in the world. They're the Olympic athletes of the military. 

Many of them have had the virus, they live in close quarters and they've recovered. That means they have more natural immunity than the vaccine could ever provide, and yet, as of tonight, we're hearing that hundreds of Navy SEALs face being fired imminently for refusing to take the shot. 

Now keep in mind, there are only about 2,500-ish active duty Navy SEALs. Each one of them costs at least a half a million dollars for the U.S. government to train, so imagine the effect on our country's military readiness of this. 

It's horrifying. If you love the country, you would not do this. You would also not disable our hospitals by forcing nurses to resign because they don't want to take the shot. 

You'll notice by the way in the case of the Navy SEALs, and more broadly the U.S. military that none of the Members of Congress who claim to care so much about the military, they talk about it all the time, defense hawks like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, and so many others -- none of these people have said a single word about any of this. They have not risen to defend these guys because they don't care. 

So it's left to men like Davis Younts to fight for these Navy SEALs. Younts is an Air Force reserve officer. He is a lawyer. He is representing a number of the Navy SEALs in question. He joins us tonight. 

Davis, thanks so much for coming on tonight. 

So did we misstate any of that? You have hundreds, apparently of Navy SEALs who will leave a force that's only about 2,500 men very soon over these COVID vaccine mandates, correct? 

DAVIS YOUNTS, MILITARY DEFENSE LAWYER: That's absolutely right, and I want to say thank you on behalf of my clients for bringing this to the attention of the American people. We need their help. 

My clients are Christian men, they're men of faith. Their faith informs every decision that they make and really what they need is more time. The way this is being rolled out to my clients and many other members in the military is arbitrary. They are being given these really tight deadlines, they just don't have time to explore all the options and their rights. 

And the worst of it is, they are being told, you're going to go into a non- deployable status if you don't do this, and I think and my clients strongly believe that is going to impact military readiness. 

CARLSON: I don't think it should surprise any of us that the Navy SEALs are first on the list to be targeted. It's an all-male force. You know, I don't know anything about their voting records or even if they vote, but they're exactly the kind of people if you were planning to control the military for political purposes, you would want gone. 

Do they feel singled out? I know, this is military-wide, but it seems like they're being pressed especially hard especially early. 

YOUNTS: I think that's accurate. I think my clients in particular, some of my clients are Navy SEALs, they are a very small part of a much larger group of Navy SEALs that feel that way. 

I also have clients that are fighter pilots that feel like they've been forced into the same situation. To my clients, these are arbitrary deadlines. They don't make sense and they are being given conflicting guidance across the military. 

And these men are not alone. My clients want the American people to know there are thousands of military members across the formation that feel the same way, and my clients as Christian men informed by their faith, love their neighbor, they dedicate their lives, they sacrifice their lives to protect innocent life. That's what they're about and they want this story brought to attention. 

They want help for the rest of the military. This isn't about them. They are quiet professionals, Tucker. That's what they do. 

My clients don't want to be famous, they don't want to have books written about them. They want to be able to do their job and serve this country and they're willing to step out in front because of all the other military members that are out there that don't have a platform like this. 

CARLSON: This has nothing with Medicine or Science or COVID and anyone who says otherwise is a moron or a liar. This is about changing the nature of the force. Period. And I hope that you can stop it and I hope that Members of Congress wake up immediately and join you in that. 

Davis Younts, appreciate it. 

YOUNTS: Thank you. 

CARLSON: How open is our southern border? Remember when people said, oh Biden will open the border. No, we won't. That's crazy. 

How open is it? A caravan of Haitians -- Haiti by the way is an island in the Caribbean. It is nowhere near Mexico or Texas, and yet a caravan of thousands of Haitians has flooded into Del Rio, Texas. 

How exactly are they getting there? They are not walking. Lara Logan joins us straight ahead to tell us. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

CARLSON: We have been saying for months that our southern border is out of control. That is completely open. Just in case you think we've been overstating that, here's this. 

More than 13,000 Haitians have now crossed into Del Rio, Texas. Our own Bill Melugin has been on the story like nobody else. He was there on Saturday. Here's part of what he saw. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

BILL MELUGIN, FOX NEWS CHANNEL NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What you're looking at right now is that is the U.S. side of the Rio Grande. That is a mass of several hundred illegal immigrants who have just crossed the Rio Grande and look at this, several hundred more streaming across as we speak. 

We're on a boat in the Rio Grande. This is the Mexican side of the river right now. You can see, it's a never-ending stream. Hundreds of people crossing the Rio Grande basically every hour and they're heading over to the International Bridge, which you can see in the background. 

Look at that mass of people. 

This is why the situation under the bridge continues to deteriorate. This is insane. 

The Federal government has to wake up. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: So, a lot of questions here. Where did these Haitians come from? How did they get here? How did they afford it? 

But most pressing of all for Americans is where are these Haitians going? 

U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz just told Melugin that of the 12,000 migrants under the bridge in Del Rio, only adult men will be deported. Yes, right. The rest will be processed and released into what you thought was your country, but it turns out isn't. 

Today, FOX News's Peter Doocy asked the White House what our border czar thinks about all of this. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Where is the Vice President on any of this? Isn't she supposed to be addressing the root causes of migration? 

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Absolutely, and she has been addressing the root causes of migration by working with countries in the region, to ensure they have the assistance they need, to reduce the number of people who are coming and trying to make those journeys across the border. We've actually seen some reductions in some of those numbers. 

That doesn't change the fact that this is a very challenging situation in Del Rio. We're working to implement our policies and we're working to ensure we are also addressing root causes. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: So why does our guy have to wear the obedience mask and that woman doesn't? So many questions. 

Somebody who can answer a lot of those questions is Lara Logan, host of the "Lara Logan has No Agenda" show on FOX Nation, which is excellent. She joins us tonight. 

Lara, thanks so much for coming on. So how do these people get here? Where are they going, do you know? 

LARA LOGAN, FOX NATION HOST, "LARA LOGAN HAS NO AGENDA":    Well, you know, what's interesting about these people, Tucker, is that based on what they are telling border patrol agents when they're interviewed, many of them in fact, if not most of them have come from Chile and Brazil and countries like that. They're not actually coming from Haiti because they've been living in Latin American countries ever since the earthquake. So that's years now. 

And what they are saying is that the border is wide open. Everybody knows it is wide open. The message is loud and clear. They've seen people crossing there for months. The Biden administration doesn't do anything and this is their chance. 

So they said their lives are pretty good. I've seen many of them in the airports here as they're cycled through and distributed all over this country and they're well dressed and you know very lovely people from what I can tell. You know, well-behaved, great families, but what they don't look like is desperate. 

They don't look like for example, Christians fleeing persecution from Nigeria who are actually in the midst of a genocide who cannot even get asylum in this country, but the asylum laws are actually written for them. 

And what you're seeing happen here is, you know those thousands of people under the bridge, Tucker, you know what the agents tell me? They've got like 24 porta-johns for those people, several hundred of them like around 300 escaped on Sunday morning. They just ran away. 

The conditions are miserable. They don't have enough food. They don't have any real facilities or security. It is an absolute unmitigated disaster and what you're seeing happen here is all those people in the Biden administration that came from the Open Society Foundation that we're not allowed to talk about because that'll be the end of us, right? They'll come for all of us. 

Well, you know what? Those people, those advisers, they don't want a border. What does open society mean? It means no borders, which means no America, right? No countries. That's why patriotism and the flag and all of those things are so evil today, right? 

They're automatically white supremacy and nationalism. Never mind that you can be, you know an African country and be proud of your flag and your borders or you can come from Kosovo or wherever. 

So what you're seeing is part of a much bigger political picture. It's not just about the border and it's the same strategy as Afghanistan. Ignore, ignore, ignore. Pretend it's not there and not happening. 

And the biggest thing here, Tucker, is that people keep using words like failure. They say, oh they failed to act. No they chose not to act. They chose not to act because they have the outcome that they want. 

CARLSON: That is such a good point, and bless you for making it. 

Lara Logan, thank you. 

So polls show that a lot of people in this country want universal free healthcare, certainly, the left wants it. Everybody in America should spend an afternoon in an emergency room in a big city sometime and ask yourself, are open borders consistent with free healthcare for all? And the answer is -- go see for yourself. 

Up next, the mayor of one big American city has just been caught on video mocking her own indoor mask mandate. It doesn't apply to her. It is not hypocrisy, it is hierarchy, obviously. We have that video next. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

CARLSON: So in San Francisco, homeless junkies shoot heroin in the open on Market Street, but if you're a taxpayer, you've got to deal with an indoor mask mandate, thanks to the Mayor of San Francisco, London Breed who is a moron. 

Children as young as two are required to cover their faces at all times, just to wreck our kids even more, and yet, this is a story you could have predicted -- London Breed herself was spotted dancing indoors at a nightclub -- gasp -- without a mask on. Again, it's not hypocrisy, it's hierarchy. 

She makes the rules, she doesn't have to follow them. That's the country this is becoming, but she was asked about it anyway today and here's how she explained what she did. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

MAYOR LONDON BREED, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: Make sure you are vaccinated because of the requirements, but don't feel as though you have to be micromanaged about mask wearing, like we don't need the fun police to come in and try and micromanage and tell us what we should or shouldn't be doing. We know what we need to do to protect ourselves. 

I don't care where you're sitting, you're going to get up and start dancing. My drink was sitting at the table, I got up and started dancing because I was feeling the spirit and I wasn't thinking about a mask. 

(END VIDEO CLIP) 

CARLSON: Who would elect someone like that? I guess, we get the leaders we deserve. The rest of us don't deserve it though. Just to follow her reasoning here, you don't need to micromanage people on masks except everyone else is micromanaged on masks and everyone is forced to get a COVID shot, in many cases they don't need, but that's not micromanaging that's just public health, except we're not going to -- the logic thread disappears. 

Anyway, the rules don't apply to the people who make the rules, bottom line. 

At the Emmy Awards last night, we also learned that the rules don't apply to celebrities, of course, they don't. According to the LA Department of Public Health, celebrities are exempt from mask mandates because they're famous, technically quote, "exceptions are made for film, television and music productions." Of course, they are. 

Candace Owens is a really smart person and a nice person, too. She is the host of "Candace." She joins us tonight. 

Candace, I'm sorry, I don't know how else to respond to this. How do you respond to this? 

CANDACE OWENS, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well look, I didn't think that I'd have to take a break from what I was doing to explain science to you tonight, Tucker, but I'm willing to do that. 

And in case you forgot, COVID-19 is a very, very smart virus. It knows whether or not you're sitting, whether or not you're standing, whether or not a good song comes on and you're just feeling the spirit, COVID-19 goes, okay I'm going to leave her alone. 

And most importantly, Tucker, you forgot that COVID-19 knows if you're sophisticated, as Barack Obama's birthday party taught us. 

This virus knows that if you want to go to say the Met Gala, if you want to go to the Emmys, it's okay because you're a sophisticated person. The rest of us are not so sophisticated, so we have to adhere to stricter mask policies because we lack that certain sophistication that's required to keep ourselves safe. 

So you know, on the one hand, you see what she says and I appreciate the honesty. She is saying the mask mandates don't make any sense, right? She is talking like a regular individual. The problem is that, they don't practice that when they're legislating. They don't care because there is this feeling that they sit above us. 

There is this social hierarchy. They are the politicians. They know they stand above the law and unfortunately, they never seem to face any consequences for it. 

CARLSON: What if you want to live in the country we lived in 30 years ago, which was a pretty egalitarian country where everyone was equal under the law. That was the promise and it was mostly true. I was here for that. 

What do you do? Is there anywhere to go where everyone is treated equally under the law? 

OWENS: You know, it is feeling more and more -- I know people are feeling really upset about the way that COVID-19 is making our country look because it feels like we don't recognize this country anymore. It does feel like there are a bunch of people that are making decisions and ruling over us every single day. 

Unconstitutional mandates, they don't even care. Look at the Biden administration. They're making up rules as they go along. They're thinking the C.D.C. and the OSHA represent the Constitution of the United States, right? They're going through these bodies that are not meant to legislate and they're enforcing these mandates that make no sense and they're going, oh well, what are you going to do? We're in power right now. 

So unfortunately, the only place that we -- the only thing we can do is go to the polls and I do think that there will be a referendum on these sorts of actions in 2022. 

CARLSON: And COVID mandates have got to be at the top, I think of voter concerns, because it's just totalitarian. 

Candace Owens, I appreciate your coming on tonight. 

OWENS: Especially with the kids. 

CARLSON: Exactly. 

OWENS: Thank you. 

CARLSON: Just talking by the way to a Member of Congress, a semi-sane Member of Congress, a Republican, and asked like where are the Republican Members of Congress standing up against vaccine mandates because that's like a pretty basic thing? And this person responded, never. They'd be happy if they put COVID vaccines in the water supply that's how they feel, and apparently it is how they feel. 

So our military leaders just admitted that they screwed up completely. They droned kids in a strike in Kabul and then lied about it. What is interesting is that no one in the military has faced any consequences for that mistake. 

Tulsi Gabbard has thought a lot about this. She is still in the military, she joins us next. 

By the way, you can still order the book. You don't have to go to Amazon. You can cut out Big Tech, which is a good thing. 

We'll be right back. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

CARLSON: So for weeks, the Biden administration told us that a drone strike had killed a group of ISIS-K terrorists -- whatever that is -- in Kabul, and there were secondary explosions that proved they were suicide bombers, but they were lying, forced by "The New York Times" to admit it, they've now conceded they killed a number of innocent people including children. 

Here is the interesting part, mistakes happen, but in this case, no one in The Pentagon has been punished for this mistake or for lying about it. We thought it would be interesting to see what Tulsi Gabbard thinks about this. 

She is a former Member of Congress from Hawaii. She served in Iraq as a member of the Hawaii Army National Guard. She is still serving the country in the military. She joins us tonight. 

Congresswoman, thanks so much for coming on. So you get to lie, I mean, this may not shock you because you've seen it so much, but you get to lie about the loss of human life, you get caught and nothing happens to you. What kind of system is that? 

TULSI GABBARD, FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: I mean this kind of accountability is critical. I want to point out first that anytime there are civilian casualties in war, it is tragic and terrible. 

War is a terrible thing and I think it's important for the American people to understand that Islamist jihadists are continuing to wage war against us, and the Islamist ideology not the same as the religion of Islam, but this Islamist ideology, which is a political ideology that inspired the terrorist attacks on our country on 9/11 is the greatest threat that we're facing right now in this country and the world. 

It is the foundation of governance of so-called Islamic countries like Turkey and Iran and Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and it's what's behind the discriminatory policies that they have in these countries against Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, and others. 

So as long as these Islamist jihadists are waging war against us, we have to work to defeat them, militarily and ideologically, and militarily we have two choices in how we do that. Number one, we can continue to invade and occupy and nation build in countries around the world just as we did in Afghanistan at great cost. Number two, we can take a targeted approach using airstrikes, using our Special Forces to go in and go after these terror cells. 

The reality is that the cost to the American people, the cost to our troops, the cost to civilians will be far less if we take this very targeted approach to go after these jihadist terrorist cells than if we continue making the very same mistakes that we saw in Afghanistan and other parts of the world of invasion, occupation, and nation building. 

CARLSON: So in order to do that or to affect any successful military strategy, you have to have competent people running things and doesn't competence require honesty and accountability and that's what I see missing here. It's like, you can't -- you're not allowed to lie to the public, which employs you, are you? 

GABBARD: The American people deserve honesty. They deserve leaders who lead with integrity and not those who shy away from their own responsibilities to the American people or look for a lower ranking fall guy to take the hit. 

The American people deserve strong leadership that looks out for their best interests and the best interests of our country. 

CARLSON: When was the last time a General or officer or someone, you know, Pentagon level Commander in the U.S. military was punished for a mistake? Or is it -- it's always the corporals, lieutenants, the captains? 

GABBARD: That's a really good question, Tucker, and I can tell you from having just come off of active duty, having just come back from a deployment to Africa, there is a common frustration among service members when it is someone of a lower rank who takes the hit for decisions and policies that were made far above their level. 

CARLSON: It's so dishonorable. That whole way of governing anything, not just the military. 

GABBARD: It's not leadership. It's not leadership at all. 

CARLSON: No, it is not. It is cowardice. Tulsi Gabbard, welcome back. Thanks so much. 

GABBARD: Thanks. 

CARLSON: So, Doug Macgregor served in the U.S. Army for nearly three decades before he retired at the rank of Colonel. For a brand new episode of "Tucker Carlson Today," we spoke to him at length about what we just saw in Afghanistan and how that happened. Fascinating conversation. 

Here's part of it. 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 

COL. DOUGLAS MACGREGOR (RET), U.S. ARMY: The four stars, generations of them have been steadfastly opposed to any change. You've got to remember that the people that built the Army in the Second World War are completely disconnected from the people that you see today and the people that are here today don't even understand the origins of what was done then and why.

But what they wanted to do is keep it going and to the extent they could expand it. You remember, the force supports General officer positions. 

CARLSON: Of course. 

MACGREGOR: And we have more General officers, more Admirals.

CARLSON: Meaning, the bigger the force is, the more four stars you get. 

MACGREGOR: Well, it's not just big because it's really not very big, I mean, if you look at the numbers of troops that fight, the numbers of ships at sea, the numbers of pilots and aircraft, we don't have that many. 

In other words, the force that actually does something has gotten progressively smaller, but the overhead has gotten bigger and bigger and bigger. 

CARLSON: Just like the schools, the Federal government, and everything else. 

MACGREGOR: Yes, absolutely and -- 

CARLSON: More administrators, less doers. 

MACGREGOR: And remember that this is part of the effort on the part of the Generals to feed the appetite on the Hill. The Hill loves more headquarters. Headquarters in states and places overseas create more positions, cost more money, more opportunities to spend. 

Never forget that Congress exists to spend. 

CARLSON: Right. 

MACGREGOR: People don't understand that. That's what they do. So, you feed the beast if you're a General officer. I mean, today, we have 43 or 44 four stars for a force of 1.18 million. 

During World War II, at the height of the war in 1943, we had seven for a force of 12.2 million and Marshall was approached several times on the Hill and said, why don't you promote so-and-so to four stars? Why don't you promote him to four stars? 

And Marshall said, look Congressman, look Senator, I've got to win the war. I don't want to argue with anybody. The more four stars you've got, the more arguments you have. We've got to get this thing done, so he kept the numbers down until the war was almost over and then the promotions to four and five stars were really honorifics. 

CARLSON: Right. 

MACGREGOR: They were not tied to bureaucracy, to bureaucratic headquarters, bureaucratic structures. So now we have this highly bureaucratized military establishment with innumerable General officers and it is corrupted everything we do, because it's tied to the Defense industries, it's tied to the Congress and congressional oversight is ultimately damaging in most cases because it pushes you to spend where you might otherwise not spend and invest where you would otherwise not invest. 

And this has just exacerbated the problems in the Armed Forces that have been building up over 50 years. 

And now what's really bad is that it has infected the senior ranks in ways that are disastrous, so that you have a very corrupt senior leadership and it's not competent and that was evident pulling out of Afghanistan. 

CARLSON: Yes. 

MACGREGOR: It was absurd what went on there. It should never have happened. I mean, we would have had a 3,000-meter perimeter. No one would have entered that perimeter or gotten even close to the airport. 

You would have very different set of circumstances. The military would have been the last to leave, not in the first order. It was just chaos and it was treated as though this was some sort of administrative movement as though there was no threat out there. 

It is hard to fathom in retrospect, but at least the American people have now had a glimpse of something that's been a problem for a while. This is not a new development, it's just gotten worse than it's been certainly in the last 30 years that I can remember. 

CARLSON: Doug Macgregor, one of the smartest people in the Armed Forces. That conversation went on for more than an hour. You can watch that interview on "Tucker Carlson Today." 

Did Jeffrey Epstein really kill himself? Really? 

That's not what our next segment is about. All of this week, we're doing at least one segment everyday on therapeutics for COVID. They tell us the vaccine is the only answer, but why aren't there more treatments? 

It turns out, there are a number of promising drugs and drug combinations emerging that could treat COVID, including ivermectin. The media hate this, they call ivermectin a horse medication. Pharmacies in some places are refusing to fill the drug. 

Why? What's the actual science? 

We'll tell you next. 

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) 

CARLSON: Every night this week, we're going to do a segment on treatments for COVID. So you get COVID, what are your options exactly? You should know much more about it than you likely do, all of us should. 

So earlier this year, a review published in the "American Journal of Therapeutics" found that an anti-parasitic drug called ivermectin may in fact be a very effective treatment for COVID. After looking at data from randomized controlled trials, researchers concluded that ivermectin led to quote, "Large statistically significant reductions in mortality, time to clinical recovery, and time to viral clearance." Other trials and meta analyses have suggested similar benefits. The problem is you can't get ivermectin in this country, even if a doctor prescribes it. 

Pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens, they're not scary or anything, reportedly are refusing to fill the prescriptions because, why? We reached out to both of those companies and neither one denied it. 

CVS said that their quote, "Pharmacists are empowered to use their professional judgment when reviewing a prescription and a prescriber's diagnosis." Walgreens had a similar statement. It was totally cool to give like opioids to drug addicts, but ivermectin, we can't have that. CNN doesn't want it. 

Mark McDonald is a physician. He's a clinical psychiatrist. He joins us tonight. Doctor, thanks so much for coming on. Before we get into why people are being denied ivermectin, do you think there's hope in ivermectin? Is it potentially an effective therapeutic for COVID? 

MARK MCDONALD, PSYCHIATRIST: It could be a lifesaver. This medication which has been shown to be safe, incredibly safe, and amazingly effective for parasitic infections and children. In fact, it was so effective that the inventor won a Nobel Prize just a few years ago, has, in many ways cured this viral pandemic in the countries where it's been instituted more recently, or most recently in Uttar Pradesh in India. 

This drug is safe. It is effective, and it needs to be available widely to all patients in consultation with their doctor. 

CARLSON: CNN is against it for reasons that really baffle me. But as a result of that, apparently CVS and Walgreens which really dominate pharmacies in this country, or in some places are refusing to prescribe it, we are hearing, why would that be? 

MCDONALD: Well, this has happened to my patients. It's happened to patients of my colleagues. It is happening all over the country. Pharmacists are getting in between doctors and patients. They're denying life-saving medication and they are complicit in hospitalizations, and deaths from those patients. 

But as you just asked, the real question is, why? Aren't we all supposed to be here to save lives? To improve health outcomes? And yet, the only story we're hearing is mass universal coerced vaccination. 

So early treatment, not just with ivermectin, but with all of the therapeutics that have been used in the past year is amazingly and mysteriously attacked, denied, ignored. Anybody who touches it, it is like touching the third rail. 

And I discussed it a few months ago, and they came after me. My Twitter account was suspended. It's still suspended, even after I appealed, but the Twitter courts are apparently not in session now and they haven't responded to my e-mails in the last three weeks. Perhaps this segment will help unlock it. 

Other physicians have been similarly attacked. They've had their prescriptions denied. 

So why is it happening? Why is early, safe, effective treatment not being talked about? I think that's a very, very important question. 

CARLSON: But you can buy Xanax by the pound, which kills an untold number of Americans every year. Really quick, as a doctor, can you -- just between us -- can you actually get ivermectin if you really want it? Can you -- is it available? Or is it just totally shut down? 

MCDONALD: It depends on where you go. Chain pharmacies very, very difficult. Small pharmacies, independents, compounding pharmacies, and a small pharmacy here in Los Angeles, where I send my patients have supplies, so you can get it if you look for it. But you often have to make many, many phone calls. 

CARLSON: Okay, so I'm sure you see a theme here. Big companies that control everything bad; small, independent companies that can use independent judgment, good. 

Doctor, I appreciate your coming on. I really hope that what you're saying finds a wide audience because I think it's interesting, at the very least, and potentially amazing at the best. Thank you so much. 

MCDONALD: Thank you. 

CARLSON: That's it for us tonight. We're out of time, sadly. We could go on, but they won't let us. 

You can watch our full interview with Colonel Doug Macgregor, which is great.

We'll be back tomorrow night and every night, 8:00 p.m. The show that's the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink. 

We'll see you tomorrow. 

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