Tucker: Biden’s COVID policies are a measurable failure

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Tucker: Biden’s COVID policies are a measurable failure

‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ host calls out the administration’s ‘divisive’ language.

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," December 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 Christmas week. It's coming.

So you may not have noticed because the people in charge of diverting your attention are working overtime right now and honestly, they're pretty good at their jobs, but if you look around and pay a little closer attention, you will notice that Joe Biden's political support is in the process of collapsing completely.

The new Marist poll is out, it shows that only 29 percent of Independents support Joe Biden. That is a very bad number. How bad is it? For perspective, in the last election, Donald Trump took 41 percent of Independent voters and lost, so if you're a political consultant, a poll that shows 29 Independent support sends you immediately to the liquor cabinet for more vodka. It means your candidate is going to lose along with everyone who is connected to your candidate.

You're looking at a tsunami forming on the horizon aimed at you. It's terrifying.

But for Joe Biden, that's just the beginning of the bad news. That same Marist poll shows Biden at 33 percent among Hispanic voters. In other words, 67 percent of the so-called Latino community does not support Joe Biden.

It's hard even to process a number like that, it's just too far from the conventional view of American politics. Is there a single political analyst in this country who would have predicted that even last week? And no there is not.

The one thing we have always known about Latino voters is they are Democrats and they are Democrats because they understand that Republicans are racist. Period.

Upon that assumption hang all the Democratic Party's hopes for the future.

Now, we learn it isn't true. It's not even close to true. In fact, it is approaching the opposite of the truth.

So how are Democrats going to respond to this new reality? Look for CNN contributors to start attacking Hispanics just as they've been attacking whites for the past several years. They've got a new enemy now and it speaks Spanish.

In the meantime, you really cannot overstate because it is literally impossible to overstate the level of panic a poll like that must be inducing at the Democratic National Committee. If the Democrats aren't the party of non-white voters, which is what they've said they were, probably even what they thought they were, then what are they?

It turns out Democrats are exactly what they appear to be. They are the party of neurotic personally unsatisfied white ladies who live in the suburbs. You know those preachy little signs you see in the lawns of affluent neighborhoods telling you how the people who live inside love BLM and support Tony Fauci? That's the real Democratic Party.

It's not a national political party, it is a professional class cultural movement that is highly unappealing to normal people. In a functioning democratic system, people with those little signs on their lawns would never be allowed to run anything because nobody likes them.

The advisers around Joe Biden understand this perfectly well. If these new polling numbers are right, even if they're just sort of right, this is the end of the Democratic Party as a governing majority. It's bewildering to think that, but political parties like markets often seem strongest right before they collapse.

The problem is, at this moment, the Democratic Party is still in power and that is a very bad combination for the rest of us. Regimes in decline tend to become dangerous. As they weaken, they get increasingly desperate and ruthless.

They've been rejected by voters. Democracy doesn't work for them anymore. That means they can no longer operate within democratic boundaries and hope to stay in power. So inevitably, they swerve outside those boundaries. Instead of trying to convince the public to support them, that's democracy, they invent domestic enemies and national panics to keep themselves in charge, and that's exactly what we're watching happen right now.

As of tonight in this country of 334 million people, there are no confirmed deaths of the omicron variant of COVID At the same time, just this month, many thousands of Americans have passed away from heart disease and cancer, suicide, diabetes, murder, drug ODs, not to mention car accidents, Parkinson's, emphysema, Alzheimer's, asthma attacks, choking to death on lobster in crowded restaurants -- just to name a few causes.

Lots of people still die in America, but they are not dying of omicron. No one in this country is, and yet, it is omicron that our leaders and their vassals are suddenly hysterical about. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH AND POLICY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA And I think we're really just about to experience a viral blizzard.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, ANDERSON COOPER 360: You heard infectious disease expert, Michael Osterholm say that we're about to experience a viral blizzard.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: One expert now warns a viral blizzard --

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: As the country braces for a viral blizzard --

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: There will be a viral blizzard of COVID cases - -

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The country is facing a viral blizzard --

COOPER: A COVID viral blizzard --

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: A viral blizzard is about to hit the U.S.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR AND NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: One infectious disease expert saying a quote, "viral blizzard," is about to hit this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: What is this stuff? Well, it's a viral blizzard. Is viral blizzard a scientific term? Well, as you just heard it was coined by someone who calls himself a scientist, but actually this is not the way scientists talk.

Scientists don't make up phrases for political effect, they don't design language to be as frightening and imprecise as possible. That's not science, that's politics. That's what politicians do.

In case there is any remaining doubt that what you were actually watching is a coordinated political campaign, consider for a moment who is getting infected with this new viral blizzard?

Ground zero for new COVID cases right now is New York City. That happens to be the most vaxxed city in the country. In New York, you can't have dinner without proving you've had a shot, if you want to leave your house.

At this point, most New Yorkers have. They've taken it, both because they're required to take it in order to live a normal life in their hometown and also because they were told endlessly by CNN and this country's health authorities that if they got vaccinated, they wouldn't get COVID.

Now, they learn, sorry, just kidding. Thousands of them just got COVID anyway.

For what it's worth, we're not attacking New York when we tell you this, we're not even attacking the vaccines. We're just telling you the facts. This is real, it is happening, and it's interesting.

So what rational conclusions can we draw from what we're seeing?

At this point, none. CNN doesn't want to talk about the COVID outbreak among vaccinated people in New York, they'd have to correct too many lies that they told. In any case, there are more Democratic voters in New York City than anywhere else in America, so there is no reason to embarrass the base of their own party.

Instead CNN and its masters in the Democratic Party have identified the real villain to blame for this outbreak and you will know even before we tell you that it's not Pfizer, it's not the government of China, it's America's working class, a group now known as quote, "the unvaccinated."

On Thursday, Joe Biden informed us that these people will die for what they've done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's here now and it's spreading and it's going to increase. For unvaccinated, we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death for unvaccinated, for themselves, their families and the hospital they'll soon overwhelm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: It's hard to remember ever in our history an American President saying something more dishonest, crueler or more divisive than what you just heard.

In a functioning system with an effective opposition, which we do not have, Biden would be impeached for that. Everything about that statement, which is essential, it is about this global pandemic, everything about it is a lie.

The unvaccinated pose no greater threat to the vaccinated than the vaccinated posed to them, and if they do, Joe Biden, why don't you tell us how they do. But he can't. No one can. That's why they never explain it.

In fact, there is quite a bit of evidence that the millions of Americans who have recovered from COVID and have natural immunity are safer than most people. They've relied on their own immune systems and they've been rewarded for it.

Joe Biden has never once acknowledged that these millions of people exist.

As for Biden's claim that the unvaccinated are overrunning hospitals, it's hard to believe he would even say that. First and most obviously, these are American citizens. They have every right to use American hospitals, they pay for those hospitals. This is their country.

And as of tonight, they are not overwhelming those hospitals, in point of fact, and by the way since we're on the topic, here is a question: Do the unvaccinated quote "overwhelm" emergency rooms more than they say millions of illegal immigrants that Joe Biden has just admitted into our country? Do they overwhelm the hospitals more than the drug addicts and the mentally ill living on our streets that the Democratic Party so faithfully subsidizes? No, they don't.

This is a lie. This is all a lie and it is a very scary thing for the leader of the United States of America to be saying out loud, but you can see why he is saying it. You know what's happening here.

Biden's COVID policies are a measurable failure. More Americans have died from COVID under Joe Biden than died under Donald Trump. That's not some Republican talking point, it's the truth, and you can look it up on the C.D.C. website. That's the bottom line. It's a very hard number to ignore.

So Biden's advisers want you looking elsewhere, and to get you looking elsewhere, they are working to create a kulak class, a group of reviled sub-humans that the rest of us are free to hate and mock and whose deaths we are allowed to root for. That's the unvaccinated.

When David Frum tells you, we should let the unvaccinated just die, he is not alone. That is now the official position of the Democratic Party. If you get COVID and you're unvaccinated, it is immoral for you to go to the hospital, you're overcrowding it, and we need that space for the many people who've taken the COVID vaccine and are now sick from COVID.

That's what the President of the United States just said on Thursday.

It's at this point that if it all wasn't so dark, you'd probably pause and laugh because it's all so genuinely hilarious.

Take the vax, so that when you get the disease that is designed to prevent you have a right to go to the hospital? It's insane.

Senators Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren announced the other day that they have COVID, they are now in quarantine, and of course we wish them the best, sincerely. But you can't help but notice that between them, Booker and Warren, have had at least six vaccine injections and now they're sick.

So what is the lesson here exactly? Well, the lesson that Eric Swalwell is drawing from all of this is that unvaccinated Americans should be banned by law from flying on airplanes in their own country. He announced that last night on Twitter. Now, the airlines disagree with this, they thought a lot about it, so does any sane physician they have, too. But Eric Swalwell, who is probably the most physically unclean Member of Congress, now imagines himself a public health official with the power to make these decisions.

So before we go any further and grant Eric Swalwell of that power, we probably ought to see his medical records. It would be kind of ironic if a guy with multiple chlamydia infections was lecturing the rest of us about how to keep safe from a virus, we await that data.

In the meantime, whatever personal decisions about the vaccine or COVID or how many masks you wear, if any, know what you're watching here. This is not a public health campaign designed to save you from a variant that has not killed a single confirmed American, sorry it's not. No.

What is this? These are the muscle spasms of a dying political party. The people in charge are on their way out, unfortunately, they can still hurt you.

Dr. Scott Atlas is a former coronavirus adviser at the Trump White House. He is the author of an amazing new book called, "The Plague Upon Our House." He joins us tonight.

Doctor, thanks so much for coming on. There is something about the hysteria over a variant that as of right now has had no death toll in the United States especially when combined with no guidance whatsoever on how you might get treated for this, were you to get it. You know, when you get sick, what do you do next? They won't tell you.

It makes me so uncomfortable I can barely stand to watch it. What do you make of this?

DR. SCOTT ATLAS, FORMER CORONAVIRUS ADVISER AT THE TRUMP WHITE HOUSE: Well, you're right, Tucker.

This is an extension of everything I saw and wrote about in my book and that is a complete lack of critical thinking, a shocking lack of critical thinking when we have a variant as you've -- you've mentioned this here.

The omicron variant, there is a disconnect between the cases and the serious illness or death. That's good.

CARLSON: Right.

ATLAS: There are a lot of cases, there is projected to be more cases, but there is not going to be -- so far, we have not seen the deaths. If you look at South Africa, they've had it for over a month and they're seeing that this is very mild. Okay, this is good news. In fact this is how pandemics end.

What is stunning is that there is no word of this expected good thing happening at the end of a pandemic from Dr. Fauci. The leaders of public health here, instead keep repeating what they've said before, which is keep locking down, keep issuing restrictions, and mandates and those policies by the way were implemented widely across the entire country and they failed to stop the infection, they obviously don't eradicate the virus, they also failed to stop people from dying as they were implemented throughout the entire country in 2020.

CARLSON: Yes.

ATLAS: And they don't admit it, but they even worse, destroyed millions of people. So what we're seeing is again a repeat of everything we had before a lack of logic, a lack -- really a total denial of science here. This is stunning and in fact, cannot be tolerated.

CARLSON: May I ask you just to unpack something -- well it's scary as hell, but really quick, will you explain something that you mentioned a second ago. You said what we're seeing widespread infection, low cost, no deaths very few serious illness, that's the end of a pandemic. What does that mean exactly?

ATLAS: Well everyone who is a competent doctor knows that as a pandemic evolves, the viruses mutate. The mutations allow the virus or the ones that that keep being contagious are the ones that survive, but they're less lethal and as we get to a stage, it's called endemic where there is a relatively constant or little ebb and flows of infections, but very few deaths, that is when there's no more pandemic.

The pandemic is not about infections that are not harmful, okay. The pandemic only matters if the diseases are very serious or cause death. If you don't have that, and you just have a lot of people getting a very mild infection, that shouldn't panic anyone. That is in fact showing that there is either a very, very mild virus which isn't a big problem or there's enough immunity and protection against the severe consequences that we're good.

And so that's how the pandemic ends, the destruction of the pandemic if it's not lethal and not causing serious illness really should make people feel good. It shouldn't be a cause for panic. It is the opposite.

CARLSON: Thank you for explaining that.

I haven't heard anybody say it is as clearly as you just did and I'm grateful for that and it should give us all hope as you just said. Appreciate it.

Dr. Scott Atlas, thanks.

ATLAS: Okay. Thank you.

CARLSON: So you've been wondering for maybe all year as literally millions of people sweep across the border, all unvaxxed by the way, no one knows who they are, maybe a terrorist or two could get across it. Maybe we wouldn't know.

Well it turns out, Border Patrol just caught a potential terrorist coming into the country.

FOX's Matt Finn has that story for us tonight. Hey, Matt.

MATT FINN, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Tucker.

A Saudi Arabian man described by Border Patrol as a potential terrorist was arrested in Arizona after illegally crossing the border. The 21-year-old migrant is linked to several Yemeni subjects of interest Border Patrol announced today.

The potential theorist was apprehended Thursday night coming from Mexico into the U.S. through Yuma, Arizona. The man was wearing what appeared to be a Central Oneida County volunteer ambulance jacket. FOX's Bill Melugin reports the Chief of that New York Ambulance Group says the man has no affiliation with them and it's not clear how he acquired one of those jackets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS HOMAN, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CONTRIBUTOR: Look, I'm not surprised. I mean, I've been saying all year long, when you open the border to illegal immigration as what the Biden administration does, half the Border Patrol is no longer patrolling the line, they're processing family groups in facilities.

That's when criminals and gang members come across and certainly, I've said all along that is vulnerable to terrorists coming across that country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FINN: The most recent stats from Customs and Border Protection reveals illegal migration is not slowing down at the border. Agents stopped more than 172,000 illegal immigrants in November. That's more than double the 72,000 apprehension numbers reported in November of last year, and four times higher than 42,000 arrests in November of 2019.

The White House has not immediately responded to our requests for comment - - Tucker.

CARLSON: Matt Finn, what a story. Thank you for that.

FINN: Thank you.

CARLSON: So if you're the president of a democracy, you can't treat Federal law enforcement like your personal police department. You can't tell them to go find who took your daughter's diary, the diary with the creepy stuff about you. That's not the crime of the century and you can't act like it is, otherwise, it's not really a democracy.

That's what's going on right now. We've got details just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Alvaro Bedoya, a name you probably haven't heard, he is the guy who has been nominated by Biden to serve on the Federal Trade Commission. Now, we don't talk about the F.T.C. a lot. There are a lot of Federal agencies out there. This is a pretty important one.

The F.T.C. has the responsibility of preventing or breaking up monopolies and protecting consumers' privacy. Now because of those duties, of course, it has investigated Google in recent years, both of those are problems Google causes and so far, we believe it's been far too lenient.

So, we're a little shocked to find out that a former Google lobbyist and current Google consultant is helping shepherd Bedoya through the confirmation process in the Senate to get to the F.T.C. Well, that doesn't seem non-corrupt, it seems actually the definition of corruption.

Robert Raben is the man's name. He is a prominent Democratic lobbyist in Washington. His firm called The Raben Group represents dozens of clients. Raben himself was a registered lobbyist for Google as recently as two years ago. His firm still consults for Google, the world's most powerful company.

This show has been told by multiple sources that Raben is acting as a quote "sherpa" for Bedoya and arranging meetings between Bedoya and various Senate offices. Again, if that's true, that's corruption.

We reached out to Raben who confirmed that his firm is assisting Bedoya, obviously, a massive conflict of interest here.

The guy who works for Google helping to install the guy who regulates Google.

Now, you've heard a few Democrats talk a big game about breaking up Big Tech and giving the power back to the public, they don't mean it. How do you know that? If Bedoya gets confirmed as an F.T.C. Commissioner, do you think he's going to forget who helped him get the job?

Probably not, and Google is the company that did it, the Google that he is supposed to be regulating.

Well, in another installment of our annals of corruption series, the Department of Justice is now investigating -- and this is the crime of the century -- whether there was a criminal conspiracy behind Ashley Biden's diary, the one that contains creepy personal details about her father, the President of the United States.

Apparently the existence and possession of that diary is now a crime. Really? How'd that work? A lot of crimes going on, but having or having read Ashley Biden's diary is now a felony? What world is this?

Just a few weeks ago, the F.B.I. raided the home of journalists including the home of Project Veritas founder, James O'Keefe because they thought he was in possession of the diary. So what is this?

This is a country in which the F.B.I. is acting as Joe Biden's personal family police department.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES O'KEEFE, FOUNDER, PROJECT VERITAS: Miss Biden's father's Department of Justice specifically the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York appears to be investigating the situation, claiming the diary was stolen.

We don't know if it was, but it begs the question, in what world is the alleged theft of a diary investigated by the President's F.B.I. and his Department of Justice -- a diary? This Federal investigation smacks of politics, Project Veritas never threatened or engaged in any illegal conduct.

Should the Southern District of New York try to take away our First Amendment rights and uncover and publish newsworthy stories without government intimidation, be assured, Project Veritas will not back down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Harmeet Dhillon is the founder and CEO of the Center for American Liberty, the famed Civil Rights attorney joins us now.

Harmeet Dhillon, thanks so much for coming on.

So are we missing something here? It seems like a personal vendetta of the President that he is using the F.B.I., our Federal law enforcement to satisfy, but is there another way to read this?

HARMEET DHILLON, LAWYER, CENTER FOR AMERICAN LIBERTY: Well, there really isn't, Tucker. This is an absolutely breathtaking situation where the United States Department of Justice supposedly because of this diary, but I'll tell you why I don't think it is really about the diary -- has ignored the First Amendment, which protects the rights of journalists and the press and of course also donors and is also ignoring a Federal statute, the Privacy Protection Act that protects journalists and confidentiality and is also ignoring D.O.J. guidelines passed as recently as the summer by the current Attorney General Merrick Garland, all of which are designed to protect journalists from exactly this type of rage.

So how are they getting around that? They are claiming that Project Veritas in Court filings are not in fact journalists, and that's one of their reasons. But, Tucker, this diary was published not by my client, Project Veritas, but by some other outfit over a year ago.

The D.O.J. well knew that our client didn't have the diary. What were they really after?

I think they were really after Project Veritas's telephones with contacts of lawyers and legal communications, contacts of many, many sources in the Biden administration, which is riddled with corruption as you've pointed out and contacts of conservative donors who they'd like to harass and we have the playbook from the Obama years.

That's what this is about, and so now you see different stories being spun in the media. You see Rachel Maddow coming out and claiming that Project Veritas asking for a comment from the Biden Campaign or they'll run the story without the comment is a form of extortion. I mean, this is extraordinary and then you have stage journalists nodding along from POLITICO, saying oh yes, yes, this could be extortion.

I mean, Tucker. I was a journalist before I became a lawyer and I committed those acts of extortion on a daily basis and now that I'm a person who the press calls, I get extorted every day by publications including "The New York Times" and POLITICO and others.

So, this is nothing more than a political witch hunt that is targeted at conservative donors, conservative journalists, people exposing corruption. The diary is simply the hook to get into this.

CARLSON: May I ask you really quick, has the White House Correspondents Association or all the various well-funded groups that exist to protect press freedom in this country weighed in against this?

DHILLON: The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press indeed did file a motion seeking the disclosure of the underlying information and the ACLU made a statement, so other than that, the White House Press Corps has not been sympathetic and the performance artist, Rachel Maddow, of course is on the opposite side of this.

So, it has not been a shining day for journalism, Tucker.

CARLSON: POLITICO is all for it, needless to say.

Harmeet Dhillon, great to see you. Thank you.

DHILLON: Thank you.

CARLSON: So no one at CNN has died of omicron, thank heaven, but we're sad to tell you there has been an outbreak of pedophilia there. In just the past few days, two producers of that network are busted for allegedly molesting children, but the real headline is that FOX News is bad.

We've got breaking news on that coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: We are sad to tell you, there is something very strange going on at CNN right now. In just the past week or two, two separate CNN producers have been accused of child molestation. One of them is a man called John Griffin. He was just indicted by a Federal grand jury for attempting to quote, "induce minors to engage in unlawful sexual activity." We're not going to get into details, they're horrifying, he's been fired.

Griffin used to work for Chris Cuomo. He bragged about working shoulder to shoulder with him. We'll leave it there.

Then just days after that story, Project Veritas exposed another creep at CNN. They published graphic text messages in a video of a CNN producer -- apparently a CNN producer fantasizing about molesting a child. Project Veritas said the producer also illicitly -- allegedly sought explicit photographs of that child.

So we called over to CNN to ask, is this one of your employees? We have the name, we're not going to air it because none of this has gone to trial, but does he still work there? They didn't get back to us.

But this seems like a real story, so to put it into context, as of today, there are more accused pedophiles at CNN than Americans who have died of the so-called omicron variant that's supposed to be so deadly.

Now that seems like news to us, you'd think CNN would be covering it, like what the hell. How many companies can say that? But that's not what they're covering.

If you were watching the eunuch's show over the weekend, you'll learn that it's actually FOX News that suffered a week of quote, "embarrassing headlines." Paging Dr. Freud, we point up lots of examples of transference, that's when you take the things, the sins you've committed and accuse others of them. Nothing better than this example -- ever.

So over the weekend, we got on the road, a bunch of us went out to Phoenix in Arizona and spoke to Turning Point U.S.A. which is run by a guy called Charlie Kirk.

Now, there are a lot of people on the right raising money telling you they are conservative. Charlie Kirk is one of the only ones who appears to be paying attention to how the country is changing and thinking through his ideas accordingly. We think that's worth supporting.

Anyway here's part of the speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: You can't have wise leadership from people with unbalanced lives, you just can't. You can't.

[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]

CARLSON: And it's not -- it's not a matter of knowledge and what the data are, okay, got Google? I was saying we could find the data, but of course they've all been hidden. It's called duck-duck-go.

[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]

CARLSON: Anyway, but the point is the facts are ascertainable. The question is, what do they mean? That's the question.

So that's not a matter of knowledge, that's a matter of wisdom. So any intern can gather like the data, but it takes someone who understands what's important, understands people, understands life in its full scope, understands we're going to be here next week, so let's think ahead to that point at the very least.

Understands that we're all going to go away and be replaced by other people, well, maybe we should care about them. It takes someone like that to make decisions based on that information and that's exactly what we don't have.

We've got a ton of people who are totally cut off because they live in a hermetically sealed airless world where they're really, really worried about getting super sick, which you know, I'm sympathetic to that, but that doesn't mean that people who are 25 and at no risk at all should pay the cost for that.

[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]

CARLSON: I get that you're concerned and I respect that and I have relatives in that position, I can't overstate how much I'm not mocking and how seriously I'm taking those fears because I think they're grounded, I'm not making fun of anybody, we all have to decide, you know what we're afraid of and how we're going to respond to it.

What I think is completely unacceptable is destroying the next generation of Americans because you're afraid. I think, it is cowardly, I think it's disgusting, I think it's one of the great crimes ever committed.

I do think that.

[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]

CARLSON: It's totally cowardly, it's totally -- I'm 52, so you know like I'm more than halfway there and I'd rather leave tonight than see my kids destroyed. Any normal person would. Any normal person won't to hesitate for one second, not one second.

[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]

CARLSON: Well, I could live another 30 years and play more golf or my kids could thrive. You know what, I'm going to have to take the weekend to think about it.

[LAUGHTER]

CARLSON: No normal person thinks that way, and if you're in charge of a country, you have to think of the country first. It's actually not about you. You, narcissistic creep.

[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]

CARLSON: It's not about you. Oh, I'm so afraid. Okay, you're so afraid like I don't judge you. We all have irrational fears. We all have actually some rational fears. There are things to be afraid of, that's all right.

But you can't lead if you're afraid. That is totally disqualifying.

Terrified people shouldn't be in charge of anything.

[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]

CARLSON: Terrified people should -- who -- so this is like the most obvious thing in the world's history. No country puts terrified people in charge.

It's like there's no animal species that does that.

Oh the whimpering dog is going to lead the pack. That's a good idea.

[LAUGHTER]

CARLSON: No. Whimpering dog gets to the back. He follows the big brave dog like that's how life is. How far are you from nature that you'd think it's a good idea to put a terrified old guy in charge of corona?

[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]

CARLSON: What? No, I mean it.

So here's the upside, this can't continue. Nature writes the rules, we don't, and Joe Biden certainly doesn't. Nature writes the rules. Period. We're not in charge of those rules that are immutable. They applied to the Romans. They apply to us.

These are the laws of nature. We are subject to them whether we want to be or we can't change them. We can't transition out of them. We can't identify as being exempt from them, because they don't change, they don't care what we think.

Nature, God is outside of our control. We can only respond. That's it.

And we can respond wisely or we can respond foolishly, but we can't pretend we're in charge of it. You spend the night in a snowstorm in your boxers, you're going to die. You can't identify as warm, it will kill you.

[LAUGHTER]

CARLSON: No, it's true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Lost control there for a moment. Sorry about that.

Well, in New York State, one Nassau County Executive says he is not going to enforce the new mask mandate. He is one of the only elected officials standing up to the unelected Governor in the State of New York, so we thought it would be worth talking to him. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: So the new unelected Governor of New York whose name we can't pronounce and don't care to learn, recently ordered all indoor spaces in that declining state that would include restaurants, offices, and shops to require individuals to either show proof of the vaccination, which isn't working at all right now or wear a mask before entering, because it's not insane or anything. Who is this person?

Owners of businesses that fail to enforce this lunacy can face a thousand dollar fine for every incident and face civil and criminal penalties, too. The governor who literally wears a vaxxed piece of jewelry, said she wouldn't have done this if people just obey and get the injection.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): If people had gotten vaccinated when we asked them to, and got the booster shots, I wouldn't have had to put in place a mask mandate, but it is a mask or vaccine option, give maximum flexibility. And I go to a gym when I can, I wear my mask. People in the gym wear a mask.

So, I think the media could do a tremendous service to helping people save lives if they remind people that this is a simple act, to wear a mask.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: What kind of society puts people like that in charge of anything? Knows nothing about science, has no achievements whatsoever, has no idea what she is talking about. Wasn't even elected to the office and has the gall to lecture you about your obedience mask? Hmm? But everyone's obeying except one man.

One local official says he's not going to enforce this new mandate. His name is Bruce Blakeman. He's the Nassau County Executive-elect. Elect -- the man was elected unlike the Governor and joins us tonight.

Mr. Blakeman, thanks so much for coming on.

BRUCE BLAKEMAN, NASSAU COUNTY EXECUTIVE-ELECT: Thank you. Thank you for having me, Tucker.

CARLSON: Oh, we're grateful to you. Tell us why you're not going to enforce this mandate.

BLAKEMAN: Well, Nassau County has a population of about 1.5 million people. Over 90 percent of our adult population is vaccinated. There is no crisis in our hospitals. We have plenty of hospital bed capacity. We have plenty of capacity in our ICU units.

And using good commonsense and discussing it with our health care professionals, I have determined that I am not going to enforce the mask mandate because it is not necessary. We are not in crisis in Nassau County. People want to get back to normal. This coming week is the Super Bowl for retail for stores, and I don't want to do anything that would interrupt our ability to get back to normal, to get people shopping, to get people going to restaurants.

And quite frankly, with respect to our children, the mask mandate for the school aged kids, I feel is wrong. We are stealing their childhood.

And I've asked the Governor to allow local control for local School Boards so they can determine in each individual School District whether or not masks are necessary because talking with parents, they've had enough of it.

CARLSON: Do you think that your unelected Governor will in her wisdom grant you the right to control your own life or is she going to be in charge at the end of the day?

BLAKEMAN: Well, so far, she has indicated that everything she does is painted with a broad brush statewide. For instance, in Buffalo, there was a hospital crisis and Buffalo is 300 miles away from Nassau County. It's closer to Cleveland, Ohio than it is to Long Island. So because they had a problem there, she said the whole state now has to have a mask mandate.

So that is not in my view, taking what I would say a measured look at things and realizing that it's a large state, and that what's happening in Buffalo necessarily doesn't reflect what's happening in other parts of the state, but that's what she wants to do and I will not enforce it in Nassau County.

CARLSON: Well bless you. And for your reasonable measured response to this, you're clearly not making an ideological point and some of us are grateful for that. So Bruce Blakeman, thanks for coming on. Appreciate it.

BLAKEMAN: Thank you, Tucker. Thanks.

CARLSON: So addiction, though no one ever says it is one of the biggest problems the country has because it destroys individuals and then whole families. An amazing interview with a woman who started taking drugs as a young child, was destroyed by it until the age of 40, became a crackhead went to prison three times. But amazingly turned it completely around for real, one of the great interviews we've ever done. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Ginny Burton is like an awful lot of Americans, unfortunately, she started taking drugs at a very young age in Tacoma, Washington. Her drug use continued into adulthood until she was 40. She was a crack addict.

She was in and out of prison three times. Twice, she was there with her mother.

And then at the age of 40, she turned her life completely around, for real, not in a fake way, in a real way and we learned that we sat down with Ginny Burton for a full hour. One of the most amazing interviews we've ever done. It is on "Tucker Carlson Today."

Here is part of that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So your second release from prison, what was your plan then?

GINNY BURTON, FROM HEROIN ADDICT TO SCHOLAR: Yes, so well, when I went into prison the second time, I had only been out seven months. I had been shot, I shot someone else. I got into a massive --

CARLSON: Wait, wait. You've been shot with a gun?

BURTON: Yes. Nine millimeter.

CARLSON: Where'd you get hit?

BURTON: Femoral artery. I'm surprised I lived. They were surprised I lived, I have scars that go from the top of my bikini area down halfway down both of my calves because it blew out a piece of my femoral artery. I'm not kidding.

CARLSON: I am sorry, I didn't even know that. I don't think that's in my package.

BURTON: Most people don't know that. Most people don't know that.

CARLSON: So what were the circumstances of the shooting?

BURTON: So, I was in a house and I was arguing with someone and I had just shot at a house earlier that day. So, there was a question of whether I shot myself or somebody shot me. My gun fell down my pants and the bullet went this way out my leg. But I was told that somebody else shot me. So I don't really know exactly what happened.

CARLSON: Why did you have a gun on you?

BURTON: Oh, because I had been raped multiple times. And you know, I was living from house to house and I did a lot of dangerous stuff and I was somewhat vigilante-ish. And I was a woman and I was by myself.

And you know, I had to protect myself in that environment. It's not a very savory environment.

CARLSON: No, it doesn't sound it at all.

BURTON: So I carried a gun to protect myself, and I tried to not sleep because of a lot of the things that have happened, not to make myself sound like a victim because I was also a perpetrator. So I definitely robbed a fair amount of drug dealers and things like that while I was in my addiction, and then definitely victimized society.

But typically, the gun was used to, you know, protect myself within my own subculture of other addicts then.

CARLSON: That seems fair.

BURTON: Yes.

CARLSON: You are a very balanced person. Holy smokes.

BURTON: You mean now?

CARLSON: Yes.

BURTON: Oh, well, thank you so much.

CARLSON: No, but your perspective is just very balanced. You're like floating above it and seeing it clearly.

BURTON: Well, that's the only way things that we can overcome things, is to be able to be completely aware and to be accountable, right, because what I happen to know for a fact is that in order for me to move forward, I have to recognize that everything that happens in this little circle right here is a result of the decisions that I've made.

CARLSON: Amen. I believe that.

BURTON: And for a really long time, I blamed other people.

CARLSON: Yes/

BURTON: It was my mom's fault. It was my first husband's fault. That's not to say that the things that occurred in my life as a result of their behavior did not affect me. But ultimately, I was the one that was making the choice to destroy my life, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Ginny Burton is the most extreme possible example of once was lost, now is found, but if you look around your own life and ask how many people do I know who are addicted to something who are being destroyed by their addictions? It's a lot for all of us.

This interview is worth watching at tuckercarlson.com.

We are out of time tonight. We will be back, 8:00 PM. See you tomorrow.

END

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