Tucker Carlson: The cult of coronavirus has become its own religion
‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ host reveals how American leaders have become obsessed with worshipping Dr. Fauci.
This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," September 27, 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.
"Is God dead?" That's the question that "Time" Magazine famously asked way back in 1966 when "Time" Magazine mattered. The answer then and now is, "No, God is not dead." But a lot of the people who believed in Him are dead, it turns out.
Not so long ago, this was an enthusiastically Christian country. As recently as 2009, seventy seven percent of Americans told pollsters they considered themselves to be believing Christians. Then in just 10 years, over the course of the Obama administration, that number dropped by 12 points. Over the same period, the number of atheists and self-identified non-religious people in America dropped dramatically. That was before COVID.
Politicians used the pandemic across the country to close thousands of churches and throw Christians in prison for practicing their faith. Here was the scene for example last fall in Idaho, police arresting a congregation for singing hymns outdoors.
[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS]
CARLSON: Socially distanced hymn singing outside, so what exactly was these people's crimes? That tape will be studied by future generations of historians trying to figure out what was going on. What did these people do wrong?
Well, they publicly affirmed their belief in a power higher than government, not allowed
Fewer and fewer Americans do that or even think to, but that does not mean -- and this is the critical point -- that does not mean this has become a secular country. There are no secular countries, just as there are no secular people. Everybody believes in something. All of us are born with the need to worship. The question is, what?
So, no, America has not lost its religion, it just replaced its religion. What's dying is the faith that created Western Civilization -- Christianity. In its place is a new creed and like all religions, it has its own sacraments, its own sacred texts. It's the cult of coronavirus.
Kathy Hochul is one of the high priestesses of this new faith. She is the Governor of New York. Now, no one voted for her as Governor and that seems odd for a politician, but it's typical for a faith leader. No one voted for Jim Jones either.
Yesterday, Kathy Hochul held her first service as the leader of the New York diocese of the corona cult. Around her neck, she wore, not a cross, that's yesterday's symbol, but instead a vaccination necklace. That necklace signified to the faithful gathered that Hochul has ascended to the select priesthood of those who have taken full intravenous communion.
Listen to Bishop Hochul preach.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): And I wear my vaccinated necklace all the time to say I'm vaccinated, all of you, yes, I know you're vaccinated. You're the smart ones, but you know there are people out there who aren't listening to God and what God wants. You know this.
You know who they are. I need you to be my apostles. I need you to go out and talk about it and say we owe this to each other. We love each other. Jesus taught us to love one another and how do you show that love, but to care about each other enough to say, "Please, get vaccinated because I love you. I want you to live."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: How do you show your love to one another? The old way was to visit people say in the hospital, as they died. That's no longer allowed. The new way to show your love is to get the vax. God himself wants you to take the vaccine. "I need you to be my apostles," Hochul thundered.
No one comes to the Father except through the shot. Sinners in =the hands of an angry healthcare worker.
At the pulpit, Kathy Hochul, not super bright as you may have noticed seemed suddenly transformed, a transfiguration if you will. Standing there, she wasn't merely a mediocre unelected Governor of a dying state with bad weather, no, Hochul was the vaccine messiah preaching the undying word of Saint Anthony Fauci. Can I get an, amen, ladies and gentlemen?
Now it may sound unlikely to those of you used to the older faiths, but many are joining this new church and for $39.00 right now on amazon, you too can buy a sterling silver necklace that declares that you have been vaccinated, literally declares it. Just spells it out in cursive, "vaccinated."
There is no mistaking what incredibly good person you are. Everyone will see it. You can also buy vaccination bracelets and vaccination pins and vaccination earrings, vaccination shirts, vaccination socks. It's all at Kathy Hochul's church gift shop. Go there today.
And while you're shopping, be certain to pick up a Tony Fauci prayer candle. In fact, get two.
All good decent people have more than one. For just 15 bucks on Etsy, you can buy a Patron Saint of staying home prayer candle. That's a real thing. We read the reviews today. Here is one of them: "Love it." (Exclamation point). "I think I may have to set up a little altar to place it on." (Another exclamation point). There's a new convert.
Here's another review from a woman called Kelly Hannon, quote: "I put this in my office. I work in public health and this makes me smile every time I look at it." Of course, it makes you smile, Kathy Hannon. Virtue is its own reward.
Now for those still making the tough transition from a traditional western religion, a religion about God to this new religion which is not about God, it's really about you and only you and more of you and you, you, you, you, you can pick up this masked nativity scene online. It looks conventional, but look closely.
It features Mary, Joseph, and the Baby Jesus all with their faces covered as they should be even in a manger. They're masked just like you are.
In this religion of narcissism, the holiest figures look exactly like you do. That's the point. We'll reach back 2,000 years and change the appearance of historical figures to look exactly like the people in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. That's what this religion is about.
And speaking of babies, you want to celebrate your children's baptism by vax, by purchasing a sacred text to memorialize this moment. We recommend this age-appropriate Tony Fauci coloring book. This book promises, quote: "Hand illustrated coloring pages starring your quarantine dreamboat." Not surprisingly, the reviews online are glowing. Everyone loves it with one exception. Of course, there's always an apostate, the kind of person burning stakes were created for.
Here's what that nasty non-believer said in the snarkiest possible way, quote: "There's a section at the back of the book where kids color numerous pages solid black to help Dr. Fauci cover up his involvement in the pandemic." Yes, I guess we know who to report to the religious police.
For the rest of us though, there are Tony Fauci pins, Tony Fauci mugs, Tony Fauci Christmas ornaments. There's a cornucopia of Fauciana. It's all part of the practice of this young, but growing faith.
Soon the especially devout will set out on pilgrimages to Wuhan, China where the very first miracle of pangolin to human transmission occurred. Some believe a visit to the wet market will heal them, and who are we to say that it won't?
You're not going to hear Joe Biden doubting this new religion, Joe Biden is its chief apostle. He knows that the kingdom of corona can exist right here on Earth and that it will endure forever, but first, everyone must convert, every last person.
This is an evangelical faith. It will be spread by the sword if necessary.
Here was Joe Biden be vaccinated today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: How many Americans need to be vaccinated for us to get back to normal? What is the percentage? Total vaccinations that have to be deployed?
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think -- look, I think we get the vast majority like what's going on in some of the -- some industries and some schools 97 to 98 percent. I think we've got awful close and -- but I'm not the scientist, I think -- but one thing for sure, a quarter of the country can't go unvaccinated, and if not, we are going to continue to have a problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: There he is getting another shot, another. Why not? It's not just once a year, no, not for the devout. Some people take communion every day. Joe Biden would like to see everybody on board with this program, everyone believing wholeheartedly in this new faith. He has called for 98 percent of the United States of America to convert, to get those shots.
One, two, three, maybe every Sunday. That's a lot. That's a big percentage of people.
For context, according to the C.D.C. -- and we looked it up today -- just 92 percent of American two-year-olds are vaccinated against polio and some say polio is almost as bad as corona, but here is the difference, fighting polio was never a religion, it was just science.
The whole project was overseen by a logical little man called Jonas Salk. Jonas Salk did not wear a vaccine necklace, he created the vaccine, but it never occurred to him to make jewelry out of the cause. No one lit candles in Jonas Salk's name.
Jonas Salk's job was to stamp out a disease, and he did that. It never occurred to him to start a cult.
Candace Owens is the host of "Candace." She joins us tonight. Candace, thank so much for coming on.
Now, I've heard people say -- and I think it's understandable that the resurrection is ridiculous. Science shows that no one can rise from the dead. Compared to what we're seeing now, vaccination jewelry, candles in the image of Tony Fauci. How ridiculous is the resurrection, would you say?
CANDACE OWENS, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Wait, you're telling me you weren't converted by Kathy? You weren't converted by Governor Kathy when you were watching her speak? I was converted. I'm an apostle now.
And let me tell you, everything she is saying is true.
It's very clear, Tucker, in the Bible for those of you who read -- what did Joe Biden call it? Psalm -- yes, the Book of Psalm -- our dedicated Catholic President. It tells you right there what Jesus Christ wanted was for us to get vaccinated. He also by the way wanted medical segregation, open borders, Hillary Clinton to win the 2016 election.
I know it sounds like it's just exactly what the Democrats want and they pretend that it's what God wants because that's exactly what it is, and it's so foolish by the way, we're talking about the Democratic Party.
For her to invoke God, it is just such a joke, right? This is the party at their D.N.C. Convention, you will recall, they stripped the words "Under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance because they said that that was too triggering, right? This is that party.
This is the party that spent the last four years mocking Vice President Pence because of his Christian faith. This is the party that refers to people in the south as Bible Belt Christians, as a pejorative.
You know, so it's just -- it's so foolish, I think, that the American people are going to fall for this obvious scam. But you are correct, I have said, this has moved from a public health crisis to a mental health crisis, an obsession occult with COVID-19.
CARLSON: And of course, it's narcissism, pure narcissism. It's just interesting though, this is the party that lectured us for decades about science, believe the science, and here you have this low IQ shaman telling you that you have to get the shot because God wants you to. That sounds a lot like superstition, no?
OWENS: I mean, it does sound superstition, but also, if you want to be superstitious, can you explain to me, Tucker, can somebody explain to me how right now in New York we're being told that just the unvaccinated are in the hospital, but also they have to let go of 70,000 unvaccinated healthcare employees because apparently, the unvaccinated are a risk to the unvaccinated.
I mean, I can't figure any of this stuff out, but you're not supposed to understand a cult. You just do what they say.
CARLSON: That's exactly right and somehow you just -- if I could -- I probably shouldn't even say this, but the last Governor of New York was horrible. He's just a bad person, I would say, but you knew they were going to get someone worse.
I mean, Cuomo for all his many manifold faults, you cannot imagine him telling you that God demands you get the vax. I think he would choke on those words, but maybe he would say it.
OWENS: Honestly, I hate to say this, but I found that sermon to be even creepier than Governor Cuomo was. Like it's just incredibly creepy to invoke God and to pretend that you've had some awakening and that Christ is going through you and telling you to get the vaccine.
Yes, Christ wants you to make Pfizer a few more billion dollars and then you can be converted.
CARLSON: Exactly, and when they fire his brother from CNN, he'll be replaced by somebody worse. You watch. I see a theme here.
Candace Owens, great to see you. Thank you.
OWENS: Thank you.
CARLSON: You can watch Candace this Wednesday at 9 00 pm on FOX Business Network's new primetime show called "The Pursuit with John Rich." I hope you will.
Well, today is the deadline for thousands of healthcare workers to take the COVID shot in New York. It turns out that politicians know more about healthcare than nurses, right? So if they don't comply with this, the nurses will be fired. They will get no unemployment benefits unlike everybody else in America including the mentally ill homeless junkie on the end of your block.
The Governor of New York, Kathy Hochul -- we just saw her in action -- has announced that quote, "Medically trained National Guard troops will replace the fired nurses." All right, so out with the nurses, in with the army. You're going to be getting the vax from the army.
Okay, it's not creepy or anything. No, it's totally normal. This happens all the time.
New York State by the way is also planning -- and we're quoting here -- "to recruit medical workers from the Philippines and other countries." Oh so, this pandemic is so serious we're firing the nurses and bringing in foreign nationals to give you your healthcare. Anyone notice that we're destroying the American healthcare system in the process? It didn't need to happen, it's being done on purpose by the Biden administration and its minions in the states.
Well, thousands of protesters gathered in New York today to oppose this grotesque mandate. Unfortunately, it was not millions, but it was thousands. CNN promptly accused them of being conspiracy theorists.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Some of the people here who kind of just live in their own reality and really feel that the government is trying to control them by using these vaccines, all believing that this is some kind of conspiracy by the government to try and control people, and so it's presenting a real problem for officials here in New York.
And that is why, they say we need these mandates.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Oh, they're crazy because those nurses know less about healthcare than the politicians and the midget with the microphone on CNN, and they're crazy because they think a COVID mandate is an attempt by the government to control you, but it's not. The government just fires you from your job if you don't do what they tell you to do, because they know more about science than nurses.
This is peak insanity.
At least one lawyer though is fighting back. Lou Gelormino is filing suit against these vaccine mandates in the State of New York. He represents teachers who now have an injunction against the mandates. We're told he's got an update for us on that case tonight. He joins us now.
Lou, thanks so much for coming on and for what you're doing. So tell us the status of this suit by teachers against the state.
LOU GELORMINO, ATTORNEY: Well, Tucker, thanks for having us, as always. Today, just a few hours ago, we got some disturbing news. The Court of Appeals in the Second Circuit, which is one of the most prestigious courts in the country, we had a temporary stay, a TRO granted until Wednesday.
In a very surprising unprecedented move, at least that I know of, the city came in and asked for an expedited review of that TRO and the Court granted it, and unbeknownst to us, and a panel of three judges that ruled against and dissolved the TRO and canceled our hearing Wednesday, which in effect means Mayor de Blasio's vaccine mandate is now in effect and might cost over 28,000 teachers and Department of Education their jobs by Friday.
CARLSON: Just to be clear, I mean de Blasio is a lame duck at this point he's probably not simply the dumbest politician in America, but maybe the dumbest human being with a driver's license. Is there evidence of any kind that unvaccinated teachers have posed a risk to anybody ever? Is there any evidence?
GELORMINO: Absolutely not, Tucker. You know, the unvaccinated teachers, they are not conspiracy theorists. They don't think the government is out to get them. There is a lot of different reasons why unvaccinated teachers don't want to take the vaccine. If I told you the amount of pregnant women crying on the phone to me in the last week, the amount of women nursing, the amount of single mothers that are going to lose their job because they don't want to take the vaccine, it would be shocking.
I'm telling you, Tucker, I'm not exaggerating. The numbers are in the thousands that have called me in the last two weeks and this mandate affects 28,000 people.
CARLSON: Good people with no power whatsoever in our society and almost nobody in elected office is defending them, including the nurses. If a nurse decides not to take a medicine, I think you've got to assume she knows what she's doing, right? She's a nurse, yet, no one is defending them.
You are, and I appreciate that. Lou, thanks so much for coming on tonight.
GELORMINO: Tucker, thanks for having us, as always.
CARLSON: Thank you.
So the military has come up with maternity flight suits so that women can fight our wars, right, pregnant women fight our wars. Now, the House of Representatives with massive Republican support passed a Defense Bill requiring women to register for the draft. There seems to be only one person who is really offended by this, he is in Congress. He joins us next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARLSON: So it's been pretty clear over the last month that the leadership of The Pentagon is not serving the country and not serving the faithful and honorable people who fight our wars. They've done a terrible job.
Now really the only recourse is the United States Congress, which has oversight of our military. So, the House Representatives just voted for a new Defense Bill. Did they hold anyone accountable? No, they didn't. They just spent a whole lot more money and it passed by a massive margin 316 to 113.
One hundred thirty four Republicans approved this. $700 billion for The Pentagon, no punishment whatsoever for the Generals and the leaders like Mark Milley who generationally have failed to win a single war.
But it also does something brand new. This bill forces women to register for the draft. Meaning, women will now be forced to fight our wars. The Senate Armed Services Committee has already approved a version of the Defense Bill with the same requirement.
This has gotten very little attention, but it's a massive change, really unprecedented in American history.
Chip Roy of Texas is one of the very few Republicans in the Congress who has opposed it. He joins us tonight to explain why. Congressman, thanks so much for coming on.
So, this is one of those things most people aren't aware happened. You've been focused on it. Tell us why.
REP. CHIP ROY (R-TEXAS): Well, it matters a lot and one reason why is that my wife told me that if I supported it, she'd go out and campaign against me. She believes pretty strongly about this as I do and look, five years ago, your Department of Defense, our Department of Defense spent $36 million for a study. That study was to study combat effectiveness. What did they find? You're going to be blown away by this piece of information, Tucker.
They found with that $36 million that all male units were more effective 70 of the time than mixed sex units. Yet, now, we have your Congress voting for national Defense Authorization Act with 135 Republicans, two-thirds of your Republicans voting in favor of it that would put women into combat.
Now, we're not talking about volunteering for service. We're saying that we're going to have -- women have to register for selective service. In that same bill, they had red flag laws saying they can take guns away from active service duty. They have Green New Deal garbage. They had all sorts of stuff in there about critical race theory, woke stuff. But Republicans voted for it dutifully.
And you have to ask yourself, why? And I would tell you, it is because of power and it is the defense industrial complex, just like it's the big health industrial complex that's sticking it to us on vaccines and the big unions in education telling our kids that America is evil, and nobody in Washington, Republicans want to fight these big institutions. But that's what we need to do if we want to actually change this town.
CARLSON: Once this passes, how long until the Navy SEALs are singled out and other special operations units within the military as unacceptably male? I mean, why wouldn't this require the SEALs to bring women into the teams?
ROY: Well, these are the important questions, right? And I've got so many of my colleagues who go on and they give these excuses, lip service, and they say, oh, don't worry, women will never be drafted. Then they come back and say, well, you know what, but a draft would only be necessary if we have to combat China because they'd have 30 million men that we'd have to go fight against. I said, well which is it? And then they'll say, don't worry, they'll never be in combat.
But Tucker, do you trust the Federal government? Do you trust the same Federal government that just abandoned Afghanistan? That leaves our border wide open? That just left $85 billion in the hands of the Taliban? That is now trying to force vaccines into the arms of our children?
Where you've got people as you pointed out in your opening monologue, you've got people running around with vaxxed necklaces like some sort of new cult. This is the government that says, oh don't worry, trust us. I'm sorry, Tucker, I don't trust the government, I don't.
CARLSON: Yes.
ROY: And in Congress, I'm going to fight it, I'm going to try to highlight it. I want every person to call your Member of Congress and demand that they stand up for the women and the girls out there who will never have an organization defending and fighting for them like gun rights groups or other organizations.
We need to stand up for our wives, our daughters, our sisters, and our mothers.
CARLSON: The military cannot be a social experiment, it has to exist purely to defend the country. Period. And anyone who is effective at doing that should be serving in a combat unit, and anyone who is not, should not be. It has nothing to do with any other factors and so, I agree with you completely.
Congressman Chip Roy of Texas, thanks so much for coming on.
ROY: Thanks, Tucker. God bless.
CARLSON: So this summer, we went over to Central Europe to Hungary to take a look at a country whose government makes all decisions based on what's good for the country. The Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban told us when we were over there that Poland was another place that had a similar attitude about governing. Go ahead and govern on behalf of the people who live there. Why not? There's a novel idea.
So we decided to talk to the President of Poland and we did. That interview is next.
By the way, you can go to tuckercarlson.com for a copy of the new book, if you like.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARLSON: As we look around the United States, we often think has a better country ever been led by worse people? Probably not. So in our spare time, we've looked around the world. We try from time to time to bring leaders on this show from other countries who actually care about their people. That's why we went to Hungary this summer to talk to Viktor Orban, but he's not the only one.
When we spoke to Orban, he mentioned other countries in Central Europe that have defended their populations against international interference, and one of the countries he mentioned was Poland.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: In the last few nights in Budapest, I've run into a number of Americans who have come here because they want to be around people who agree with them, who agree with you, do you see Budapest as a kind of capital of this kind of thinking.
VIKTOR ORBAN, HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER: The capital of that kind of thinking or one of the capitals because the other Central European countries are also very competitive and producing very nice ideas and organizing that kind of communities of conservative and Christian Democrats thinkers as we do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Andrzej Duda is the President of Poland and we're honored to be joined by him right now.
Mr. President, thank you so much for joining us. We know that you're watching what's happening in the United States and you're watching this massive flow of migrants over our border. It will total over a million just this year.
Something very similar happened to Europe in 2015. The E.U. pressured Poland and other nations in Central Europe to accept, and Poland fought back. Tell us why you did that?
ANDRZEJ DUDA POLISH PRESIDENT (through translator): The answer is very simple, we did not agree back then in 2015 to the so-called quota system, which was proposed by some of the E.U. member states, which means that every single country would have to accept a given number of migrants.
And we give a very clear answer to that, whoever wants to come to Poland, whoever is looking for help, assistance, especially refugees who are looking for shelter because they are threatened by war, persecuted in their home countries, if they want to come to Poland, we want them to stay in Poland, live in Poland.
Well, to accept such a person and to help them, we did not agree to relocate Poland people by force. We do not agree to keep these people in prison, if these people did not want to stay in Poland, they would want to leave and we're not going to make anybody stay. We're not going to keep anybody against their will.
CARLSON: The American President Joe Biden before he became President described Poland as unfree, as an authoritarian place. How have your dealings with the Biden administration been since he's become President?
DUDA (through translator): What you just said is indeed very a regrettable thing, because there are a lot of lies spread about Poland, and the first and foremost, what some representatives of the Polish opposition are saying about the current Polish government is totally untrue, and the best proof of that is in the fact that the incumbent government has won the election.
They won the election back in 2019. I simply said, people are happy with their government right now. They think that this government cares for their interests, that this government keeps electoral promises and this is why they were re-elected.
But of course some representatives of the opposition are really furious because they are not able to win elections. As I said, they lost twice in a row. They also lost the presidential election, so because of that they are slandering the current political camp.
Let me reiterate, fortunately, it is the people who choose.
CARLSON: Finally, let me ask you about Poland's family policy. So Poland from the outside appears to have decided to help encourage Polish couples to have children. Please tell us what you're doing and why you've done it?
DUDA (through translator): The Constitution stipulates that marriage, it says a union of a man and a woman and family are protected by the government in a special way. So the first time since 1989, we have embarked upon a very resolute and vast pro-family action and when I was running for President back in 2015, I also made a pledge and I said that we would start a pro-family policy. We offered -- we actually announced, myself, during the campaign and later I was joined by my colleagues who were also running for the Parliamentary election.
So we pledged that we would introduce a program by the name of 500 Plus. It is a welfare program for families in its initial version. We were testing actually. We decided that starting from the second child in a family, parents of every child monthly to receive 500 zlotys, a sum of $130.00, a kind of welfare for many from the state in raising children.
This program was revolutionized in Poland. I think nobody can imagine not to have the 500 Plus Program in Poland. That was the best thing. Definitely the best social program that we have been able to introduce.
But to me, a politician speaking openly, I consider myself to be rather conservative and I actually was always frank about my views.
I'm a Christian. I'm a practicing Christian. I pray, I'm not ashamed of that whatsoever, and to me the value of family is priceless. I do support families. I'm pro-life, I defend life. I believe that life is sacred.
I believe it should be guarded and families have to be supported as strong as they can because family is the foundation of every nation. Everything is based on family, therefore, the support with which we offer families for the political perspective from my personal perspective is of key importance.
We also have used other programs supporting families. We support parents with their child starting schools with programs dubbed 300 Zlotys, so we pay 300 zlotys to the parents of every child going to school, to buy a set of books, a rucksack and pens, pencils, stationary whatever the child needs starting school.
That is a very difficult moment when the school year begins. We know that families have to spend more money, so it turned out that 300 Zlotys is important for the families and it also contributes quite a big support on top of the 500 Plus which every family gets per child.
CARLSON: It's inspiring to hear that. I wish we had it. Mr. President, thank you for sitting down and talking to us tonight. We appreciate it. It's good to see you.
DUDA (through translator): Thank you very much and my best greetings to you.
CARLSON: So not every country in the world is run by reckless lunatics who hate their own people, nice to be reminded of that. The full version of that interview with the President of Poland will be posted tonight on foxnews.com.
From that video last week of the racist lunatic screaming at students at Arizona State University for sitting in seats and being the wrong color, well, a follow-up tonight. We just learned the identity of one of those students who isn't exactly a student. We will tell you who she was and who was funding her. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARLSON: Now an update to that pretty shocking story we brought you Friday night from Arizona State University. To tell us what is happening in the world, as always, the great Trace Gallagher joins us now. Hey, Trace.
TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: And Tucker, a lot of animosity in this story is now being directed at the administration of Arizona State for calling this a quote, "difference of opinion," when it appears to be a one-sided attack. Now, here's the context.
Two white male undergrads were studying in a campus facility. One had a "Police Lives Matter" sticker on his laptop and that prompted two women of color to accuse the males of being offensive and making them uncomfortable in what they called a multicultural center meant for the marginalized and oppressed.
Well, it turns out one of the women, Zarra Teacola is a PhD student, a member of Black Lives Matter and the Ford Foundation, which tries to push social justice on college campuses. "The Arizona Daily Independence" says last year Teacola was arrested for assault on a police officer and the so- called multicultural space is reportedly a study hall that has not been designated as a place for the marginalized.
We should know one of the most common opinions is that if two white males went aggressively after a black female student to get out of their racial space, we'd hear a whole lot more about this story -- Tucker.
CARLSON: The D.O.J. would be there in about eight minutes. That's true. Trace Gallagher, great to see you. Thank you.
GALLAGHER: You, too.
CARLSON: So what does defund the police look like in practice? Well, it's not just about funding, it's about things like this. This is an amazing story.
October 2020, so about 11 months ago, police in Washington, D.C. spot a man driving a moped on the sidewalk. He's not wearing a helmet. D.C. law says you have to.
The suspect is a known gang member. He sees the cops and he flees. In the course of fleeing, he is hit and killed by an SUV. Now, the Feds have just filed charges against the officers who chased this man. One of the officers has been indicted federally for second degree murder. Another officer is indicted for obstruction of justice.
Shocking. It got almost no attention.
Michael Hannon is a lawyer representing the officer accused of murder. He joins us tonight. Mr. Hannon, thanks so much for coming on. Now, for the non-lawyers watching, this seems like a stretch to the point where like has this ever happened before? Have you ever seen a case like this, ever?
MICHAEL HANNON, ATTORNEY: I was a Federal prosecutor myself for eight years in the 80s and very proud of it, and since then I've been representing police officers, law enforcement officers all over the country and I haven't seen anything like this.
CARLSON: So the argument is what -- that they committed murder by chasing this man?
HANNON: Well, I have to uh remind your listeners that indictments are written by the prosecutors.
CARLSON: Right.
HANNON: And so, they're the ones that structured the scenario that you've just described and I can't do any more justice to the description than you have done.
CARLSON: The man who was struck and killed by the SUV, not by a police car, we should just be really clear about that. Was he wanted for a crime?
HANNON: At the time, no.
CARLSON: Okay, but he was driving -- he was driving on the sidewalk.
HANNON: Correct.
CARLSON: Is it the position of the Federal prosecutors who are bringing this case that police should not stop people from driving motorized vehicles on the sidewalk in the city?
HANNON: I can't tell you that even from reading the indictment myself. What I can say is that law enforcement officers are trained to abide by the constitutional rights of everybody they come in contact with, including those that are behaving in a criminal manner. That is their training and my experience in the District of Columbia is they're very well trained. They are incredibly professional.
And so long as police officers engage in recognizing the constitutional rights of those people even those people they arrest, then they're doing their job. There's no allegation here that any of these officers was doing anything in violation of the United States Constitution.
CARLSON: Right or wanted to hurt this guy, obviously. Michael Hannon, I appreciate it. I hope second degree murder, this is -- no decent person will ever want to be a cop again. That's for sure. We appreciate you coming on tonight and good luck with your defense of this man.
HANNON: My pleasure.
CARLSON: Thank you. So, we've lost our civil liberties. Are we ever going to get them back? People on the right are asking that question, but at least one very prominent voice on the left has asked it, too, and is under savage attack for doing that.
You'll meet that person, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARLSON: Naomi Wolf has been an intellectual leader on the American left for decades and for decades she was loved by the American media, which promoted her. But then came the coronavirus lockdowns and Naomi Wolf, unlike so many on the left, noticed that they were a direct attack on American civil liberties and she said so out loud. And for saying that, she was attacked in a way she never had been before.
We sat down with Naomi Wolf for an hour for a new episode of "Tucker Carlson Today" and had one of the most interesting conversations we've ever had on that show or anywhere else. Absolutely worth listening to. Here's part of it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NAOMI WOLF, AUTHOR: When it became clear they were not going to let us out and have our normal civil liberties back, and that was by July, I think of 2020, I realized they're not -- you know, I was living in New York State and we weren't allowed to congregate in groups of more than six.
And so it sort of occurred to me very clearly that, you know, we were not going to have our freedoms back without a fight and then having read history so deeply especially 1932, 1933, 1934 in Germany and of course the rise of Mussolini in Italy, many of the things that were being put in place and it was very systematic if you look at history were very familiar to me from my reading.
And we can go into detail, but that was why I was able to predict, will they want to bring in vaccine passports? You know I talked about this months ago. In April, I did a video and you know again, I create digital products with developers as CEO of a tech company. I was like, well they're going to use this to restrict all your freedoms, to geo-locate you, to keep you from going -- from traveling and it sounded like I was, you know insane at that time.
But here we are, mere months later and people in France, people in Lithuania, people in Israel are saying, I can't go to a supermarket. I can't get on a bus. I can't take a train without this vaccine passport. It's geo-locating me, and so on.
So, it was clear from a number of indicators that were right out of the history pages that something was happening globally, which was a war against the West and a war against Western liberties, and you can see exactly where it's going and we're past being there, like there's an active fight and I've been part of it I'm glad to say, state by state by state to retain our liberties, to defend our rights.
But it is a battle, it's a war. There is a war on American citizens and on the Constitution.
CARLSON: Of course, my heart is beating faster listening to what you're saying because I so vehemently agree with every word of it, and I should have known that you were over the target because I watched it from the other end. I watched the media response to you and my view is just, as someone who didn't know you, but just as an observer in the media of you and your very long career, 30 years of being famous you had this from my perspective an enormous reserve of goodwill in the American media like, Naomi Wolf, yes.
You're smart, you're taken seriously, all of a sudden, man, they went after you. And I read a piece in some, "The Daily Beast" or "The Atlantic" or some kind of ruling class defense organ, you're crazy. I should have known that you were telling the truth.
So when you said it's very recognizable as a scholar of the interwar period in Europe, you recognize similarities like thematically what are those?
WOLF: Oh, there are so many. I mean, one of them is declaring a public emergency. That's step one of my 10 steps to fascism from "The End of America." A crisis, right, and there are real crises and this was no doubt a real crisis.
But you know, it's the same tactic that other administrations have used with the global war on terror, right? We have to be afraid all the time and in exchange for security, give up your liberty.
CARLSON: Yes.
WOLF: People make this case to us all the time, but with the COVID development, it opened the door for an unending public emergency and something, which I think is the biggest story that no media outlet has told like the biggest story of our time is that 47 states are still under emergency law, and governors enacted powers to use emergency law in ways that restricted the rights of legislatures in state after state after state.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARLSON: That interview will blow your mind. It's on FOX Nation now.
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