Tucker: 'Impotent' leaders are threatening the 'Freedom Convoy' because they lost

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Tucker: 'Impotent' leaders are threatening the 'Freedom Convoy' because they lost

'Tucker Carlson Tonight' host analyzes Canada's trucker strike and what our leaders would do if the convoy came to America.

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," February 11, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (via phone): They do not belong in office. They are a danger to our country. They do not belong in office.

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: I have announced it. We are defunding the squad, you heard it here first.

Check out Tucker next and always remember, I'm Watters and this is my world.

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: Good evening and welcome to TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT.

After months of informing the rest of us that Ukraine's territorial integrity is more important than our own, it looks like the Biden ministration may finally be getting the conflict it has longed for.

Multiple outlets are reporting tonight that Russian military units may soon move across the border into Eastern Ukraine. There are a number of credible indications of this, including the fact that Russian ground forces appear to be heading from training areas to assembly points.

At the White House, officials have said they expect the Russians to move imminently within days. They have been saying that for quite some time, but this feels a little different, which is why we're bringing it to you tonight.

According to POLITICO, Joe Biden has told fellow NATO members that day could be February 16th. That's next Wednesday. We'll see.

In the meantime, at a briefing today, the National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan called for American citizens to leave Ukraine right away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE SULLIVAN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: We encourage all American citizens who remain in Ukraine to depart immediately. We want to be crystal clear on this point.

Any American in Ukraine should leave as soon as possible, and in any event in the next 24 to 48 hours. We obviously cannot predict the future. We don't know exactly what is going to happen, but the risk is now high enough, and the threat is now immediate enough that this is what prudence demands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So a good number of the Americans, Jake Sullivan, just referred to currently serve in the U.S. military, as well as in various intelligence agencies. FOX News reported that as of a few days ago, there are more than 300 American troops in Ukraine, including some unspecified number of Special Operations Forces.

If a hot war does indeed begin, all of these Americans will be in danger of being killed. So the question is, will our troops leave before the shooting starts? This show asked the DoD Spokesman John Kirby that question today.

Quote: "As of this moment," Kirby replied, "They are still there." So when will they get out? We asked. Kirby wouldn't say.

Whatever happens between Russia and Ukraine, the United States will be at the center of it and that is worrisome. It's not hard to imagine how the next few days could go very wrong, very fast. Russian troops kill American troops inadvertently or not, and suddenly, we're at war with Russia, a nuclear armed nation whose military is stronger than all the armies we fought over the past 50 years combined.

Fighting Russia is not the same as droning Muammar Gaddafi, it can quickly become a war we couldn't control. Our side of that war would be overseen by the same Generals who failed to beat the Taliban, guerrilla fighters in sandals who don't use toilet paper.

To be clear, the United States military is superb, but the people who run it are not. That's not some outlier opinion. It is demonstrably true.

Given that fact, you've got to wonder if the Biden administration's current wild posturing -- and it is wild. Is it worth the risk? We're open minded on that question. If it is worth fighting Russia, tell us how it's worth it.

Explain how joining a conflict in progress in Eastern Europe would benefit the United States, not just benefit Joe Biden who is obviously desperate for distraction from his domestic disasters. But how would war with Russia make us stronger and more prosperous? That's a fair question. It's the central question.

And while you're at it, tell us why if the Russians are such a grave threat to Europe, the Europeans seem a lot less concerned than we are. Biden keep suggesting that Vladimir Putin wants to swallow Western Europe. If you don't act now, they'll be speaking Russian in Dusseldorf.

But if that's true, why aren't the Western Europeans scrambling to defend themselves? They could certainly afford to. Germany is one of the richest countries in the world. In many ways, Germans have a higher standard of living than we do. Yet after 80 years, we are still paying for their defense.

Is there a good reason for that? Could it be that defending Western Europe from Russia is a pretext for other goals? Goals that remain largely hidden from the American public?

Again, it is worth asking those questions and then demanding clear and logical answers to them. In fact, it is essential to do that. A lot hangs in the balance.

In the current environment, however, it's not easy. Skepticism is immediately denounced as disloyalty. Ask why we ought to fight Putin and the hyenas on CNN will accuse you of working for Putin. Take it from us.

We're going to keep asking anyway.

For a rational conversation on this subject, we're honored tonight to be joined by a rational person, the former Democratic Congresswoman from Hawaii, Tulsi Gabbard. Congresswoman, thanks so much for coming on today.

TULSI GABBARD, FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Thank you.

CARLSON: So let's just -- and it is hard to know what to believe always and especially now, but let's just stipulate, agree to agree that it seems likely we could see some conflict between Russia and Ukraine soon. How should we view that?

GABBARD: Well, first of all, President Biden could end this crisis and prevent a war with Russia by doing something very simple, guaranteeing that Ukraine will not become a member of NATO. Because if Ukraine became a member of NATO, that would put us and NATO troops directly on the doorstep of Russia, which, as Putin has laid out, would undermine their national security interests.

The reality is that it is highly, highly unlikely that Ukraine will ever become a member of NATO anyway. So the question is, why doesn't President Biden and NATO leaders actually just say that and guarantee it, which begs the question of why are we in this position then if the answer to this and preventing this war from happening is very clear as day and really, it just points to one conclusion that I can see, which is they actually want Russia to invade Ukraine?

Why would they? Because number one, it gives the Biden administration a clear excuse to go and levy draconian sanctions, which are a modern day siege against Russia and the Russian people. And number two, it cements this Cold War in place.

You know, the military industrial complex is the one that benefits from this. They clearly control the Biden administration, warmongers on both sides in Washington have been drumming up these tensions. If they get Russia to invade Ukraine, then again, it locks in this new Cold War. The military industrial complex starts to make a ton of more money than they have been in fighting al-Qaeda or making weapons for al-Qaeda.

And who pays the price? The American people pay the price, the Ukrainian people pay the price. The Russian people pay the price. It undermines our own national security, but the military industrial complex that controls so many of our politicians wince and they run to the bank.

CARLSON: You've seen this from both sides as a lawmaker and a member of our Armed Forces. So I think you've got a credible view on this.

I just have to ask, they've been telling us with increasing hysteria, Wendy Sherman and Jake Sullivan and the President himself that the threat here is to Western Europe that Vladimir Putin has aims on our allies in Western Europe.

Why don't the Europeans seem as afraid as our leaders are, if that's true?

GABBARD: I think that is a legitimate question that no one in the Biden administration or the NATO leadership has responded to in any way. It seems they've forgotten that they are supposed to be accountable to the American people, that they answer to the American people, and yet they have failed to answer this very, very simple question in justifying why we are continuing to send more troops to Europe, why they are continuing to escalate tensions, why they are continuing to push for something and making Ukraine a member of NATO that, again, is highly unlikely to ever happen.

And if it did happen, it would undermine our own National Security and our own country's interests.

CARLSON: There doesn't seem an upside. I mean, no one has been able to explain why Americans should want Ukraine to join NATO. Is there something that we're missing here? Is there some benefit to the United States from having that happen?

GABBARD: I've looked at this carefully, Tucker, and I have yet to find any benefit that a political leader has used or could use to justify this to the American people. All you hear is like, well, we have to defend democracy. We have to defend this democratic country of Ukraine.

But as you know, very well, this current President shuts down -- arrests, political opposition, throws them in jail, shuts down TV stations that are critical to him. I have a hard time seeing how President Biden or anyone can say with an honest face, we are defending democracy.

And the reason is because our own government has publicly supported these authoritarian actions by the Ukrainian President in shutting down their own political opposition. And it begs the question, this sounds familiar to some of the things that unfortunately, we're seeing play out right here at home.

CARLSON: I was just about to say, it sounds like they're kind of democracy.

Tulsi Gabbard, that's about the smartest analysis I've heard, and I really appreciate you laying it out for us. Thank you.

GABBARD: Thanks.

CARLSON: So the standoff on the -- speaking of borders -- American and Canadian border continues. You're hearing a lot about how the truckers are racist. Why are they telling us that? Why are they hysterical about truck drivers? Because they feel deeply threatened by the disobedience. Very revealing. We'll tell you how, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: So we've been covering this truck strike in Canada all week and at the end of the week, there are a couple of different images that kind of float around your head, picture the cops stealing the fuel from the freezing truckers, you picture the smiling truckers talking about love and waving Canadian flags, totally nonthreatening.

But above all, you remember the hysteria of the people in charge as they look out on the sea of working class people who are really sick of being pushed around, told what to inject into their bodies.

The people in charge are extremely upset about this, hysterical and it is hilarious. You can just picture our Transportation Secretary, little Pete Buttigieg jumping up and down, shaking his little hands, screaming at the truck drivers, "Get off my bridge, you guys. Get off right now."

It's not just Mayor Pete. You remember those angry tweets of that CNN contributor lady who suggested we should slash their tires, siphon their diesel fuel, throw them in prison. They're all Torquemada now.

They're talking like they're scary, but keep in mind, these are not displays of power. This is not how confident people talk. These are squeaks of impotence.

Our leaders are furious at the truckers because they know there's not a lot they can do about the truckers. They don't know anything about trucks for one thing. How do you get a truck off a bridge, especially when it has no fuel or tires? They have no idea. You just order someone to do it. It's kind of like Uber Eats. Some guy trots out and removes the truck.

The problem is, the people who drive the trucks don't feel like following orders anymore. They're ignoring Pete Buttigieg. If you actually want to move a big rig, you need tow truck operators, and those tow truck operators know truckers. They know truckers aren't racist. They're not Nazis, no matter how many times Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau claim they are.

So some of them aren't inclined to help. David Allen, for example, is the President of Gary's Towing in Thunder Bay, Ontario. He told Canadian media quote: "We have all the capabilities on our tow trucks to do it, but I don't think anyone would want to."

Another tow truck operator called Randy Juan said that even if tow truck operators want to help, carry out Pete Buttigieg's orders, it will be very hard, quote, "In the end the truckers are going to say whether you're taking that truck away or not."

Now, there are technical reasons for this, which apparently they don't teach at McKinsey. It turns out that trucks are heavy. They have air brakes and steel belted tires. So, the truckers remove their tires completely. So what now? Now is when you start to panic, and they definitely are.

This afternoon, the Prime Minister of Canada who clearly is Fidel Castro's illegitimate son, came out from hiding to threaten the protesters directly. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: If you join the protests, because you're tired of COVID, you now need to understand you are breaking laws. The consequences are becoming more and more severe.

You don't end up losing your license, end up with a criminal record, which will impact your job, your livelihood, even your ability to travel internationally, including to the U.S.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: You could be breaking laws, that was the funniest part. These are people who literally don't care about the law at all. They believe they make the law.

This is the Prime Minister who ordered the cops to steal people's fuel. There's no law that says you can't have fuel in Ottawa. He just made that up. Now, he is lecturing them about the law. And Joe Biden who is violating Federal law on the grand scale every day by importing two million people illegally without your consent, he is upset about the law.

Justin Trudeau is so upset, he is threatening the truckers' children, quote: "It's time to go home, especially if you have your kids with you." Trudeau said, wouldn't want something to happen to them.

Trudeau also attacked the protesters for closing the border. Only Justin Trudeau is allowed to do that, which he has done for more than a year.

So what are we watching here? It's more than hypocrisy. What we're watching is panic.

Justin Trudeau knows nobody joined the protest because they're quote, "tired of COVID." They're tired of tyranny. They're tired of being told to inject something into their bodies they don't want, whose long term effects cannot be known, sold by companies that are protected, that have immunity from public recourse.

We also know that what they told us to do didn't work. The lockdowns didn't work. Johns Hopkins came out and said it the other day, pretty conclusive. That's what people are mad about. They want their freedom back. They're not tired of the virus. They're tired of the leaders who use the virus to give themselves more power, and they're still doing it.

Here is Ontario's premier Doug Ford. He announced today that instead of lifting his province's useless mandates, he's going to steal the truckers' money, find them, and then send them to jail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUG FORD, ONTARIO'S PREMIER: There will be consequences for these actions, and they will be severe. We've already started by going after the money funding the illegal occupation yesterday and Ontario Court granted our requests to freeze the funds from GiveSendGo for the convoy.

Fines for noncompliance will be severe with a maximum penalty of $100,000.00 and up to a year imprisonment. We will also provide additional authority to consider taking away the personal and commercial licenses of anyone who doesn't comply with these orders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: When you start making threats like that, you've already lost. What you're showing is that you're impotent and that is why you're unreasonable. That's why you're hysterical. That's why you're waving your arms around and telling people they are going to prison.

When you start stealing things from people, outside the laws, speaking of the law, everybody knows you're weak.

So keep in mind, the truckers raised $10 million on GoFundMe. That's a California company, but Canadian politicians had that effort shut down, then GiveSendGo, which is a Delaware company raised almost the same amount and Canadian politicians went after that money, too.

The Attorney General of Ontario successfully got a Court order to freeze access to the $8.4 million raised on GiveSendGo, those funds are going to an adopted trucker fundraising campaign. It was paying for quote, "... housing, water, food, accommodations and shuttle services for truck drivers in Ottawa." But all of that money has just been stolen by the Canadian government, it has been seized.

All of this is pushing people away from government issued currencies because they're in control of lunatics like the guy you just saw and they are moving toward cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

Just like 18-wheelers and bridges, blockchain is pretty tough for the authorities to control. Therefore, here is how you know it's a threat. The crypto guys must be White supremacist, and lo and behold, that's exactly what they're now telling us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's an avenue, not just to make a lot of money or lose a lot of money, but it's also an avenue for money laundering and it is also a place where White supremacists, apparently are taking options.

I mean, it's problematic, at best, in so many ways.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: It's problematic at best -- how do people like that get on television? There should be an IQ requirement. But by putting dumb people in the anchor chair, they're perfectly compliant to the people in charge. Crypto is White supremacy. But the hysteria gives them away.

As a trucker called Daniel Searsly (ph) explained in Ottawa last night, these people are terrified. They're afraid of losing control, the blockade at the Windsor Bridge panicked them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID SEARSLY, TRUCKER: They blocked the Ambassador Bridge. Yea, that's the busiest border crossing in between Canada and U.S.A. Most trade goes through that port. So it's ending up good, you know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So the downside of all of this is, it is turning Canada into a legitimate police state for real. Here's one of Doug's Ford's police officers harassing a woman at her home because something she wrote on Facebook in support of the truckers. It's one of the creepiest clips you're going to see today. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POLICE OFFICER: This is just some information about peaceful protests. That's all it is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Okay, so you saw something on my Facebook?

POLICE OFFICER: No, on the Facebook group.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, the Ontario Provincial Police are watching what people are doing on Facebook in different groups, whether or not they're commenting, participating, liking, and you guys are now doing service calls to give people information about peaceful protests.

POLICE OFFICER: It's just a proactive measure to make sure you understand your right to go to a peaceful protests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: It is so great. In 2020, the Stasi are chirpy. We are here as a proactive measure to inform you of your rights, not because we've been spying on your social media.

So to recap, donating to the truckers is criminals, saying anything positive about the truckers gets the police to show up at your house. That's why truckers are the new QAnon, Russia, White supremacist extremist threat.

Our leaders in this country agree.

In Michigan, dopy old Gretchen Whitmer is plotting to attack them with bulldozers. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR Do police need to begin arresting people in the blockade?

GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): I am not going to weigh into what -- how they proceed. I'm going to tell you right now, though, they have to get it done and using whatever tool it takes to safely and swiftly and this is what we're calling on them to do.

KEILAR: Trucker inspired protests in the U.S. potentially in your state. Would you forcibly clear people?

WHITMER: Brianna, if people are breaking the law, obviously we'll assess it at the time, but we are working very closely with our Federal partners and the State Police. The fact of the matter is we're going to do everything we can to prevent that from happening in the first place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Working closely with our Federal partners says the human mask lady. Keep in mind, they're not talking about ISIS. These are truck drivers. The people who bring you food.

They are unarmed. They're waving Canadian flags and talking about love, a lot of them brought their kids. Should CNN's National Security contributors and the neoliberal politicians who are attacking them really weigh into this fight? No, because they can't win it. One side is too sympathetic, and the other is too loathsome.

But they can't help themselves. They are so threatened by disobedience, they rush forward with swords drawn. They know if Canadian truckers can get away with this, the game is over. So they must crush anyone who questions the high priests of neoliberalism and that category includes plenty people on the right, obviously, but tellingly, it includes plenty of people who aren't on the right, but just feel like thinking for themselves.

It includes anyone who invests in Bitcoin, as we said. It includes Sikh truck drivers in Ottawa who now work for Putin and Joe Rogan is now a racist, and David Portnoy, he is now a sex offender and Tavis Smiley is now a serial harasser.

Those aren't right wingers. They're just people who dare to say what they think. That slander hasn't worked and it won't work here. You can't cancel a bridge full of 18 wheelers and shame them into driving away.

They're going to try it tomorrow. There is going to be a showdown in Windsor, Ontario. We'll see what happens. But the rest of the world has already learned the lesson, which is if you resist, if you say "I've had enough" peacefully, cheerfully, with love, they have to pay attention. The only thing they pay attention to.

Will Cain is the cohost of "FOX and Friends" Weekend. We are happy to have him join us tonight. They're hysterical, Will Cain.

WILL CAIN, FOX NEWS CHANNEL COHOST, "FOX & FRIENDS" WEEKEND: They are hysterical. But you uttered two words in that wonderful monologue that really caught my attention, "panic and impotence." And I want to handle those if I might, Tucker, one at a time.

You're absolutely right what you're seeing from these leaders is panic and it is resulting in a great unmasking. You know, if you simplify this and think about characters in a drama, characters in a play; on one hand, you've got a character who would censor everyone who disagrees with him, smear his opponents as Nazis and racists, use the power of law to arrest people, threaten their livelihoods, and call who anyone dares to stand up for their children, for that matter, a domestic terrorist.

On the other hand, the other character in this drama is almost universally a working class individual in western civilization, perhaps they're a podcaster or maybe they're an investor in crypto, but they are almost invariably small in every way, at least on the surface, small.

And I would just ask you, when you boil it down to those metrics, who is the good guy and who is inevitably the bad guy.

But here is the other word you used. You used the word impotent and this is the one that I find more fascinating, Tucker, because if you think about it, what you're suggesting is they are poking a bear, and the bear is the people.

And they are they're poking it relentlessly, maybe ignorantly, but they are exerting their will over and over on censorship, on Joe Rogan, on Canadian truckers, on parents at school board meetings. And wow, what happens if the bear wakes up? What happens if the people step up? And it leaves me with just this question? How long have we unnecessarily complied? And how long have we been following this corruption?

CARLSON: I think that's such a poignant and real question. When I was in college, this picture emerged from China, one of the most famous photographs ever taken of a lone protester standing in place in front of an advancing tank from Tiananmen Square. It was very obvious 1989 whose side Americans were on.

I wonder now, if that picture came out, if CNN contributors wouldn't be rooting for the tank?

CAIN: I don't think you have to wonder. I think that they would most certainly be rooting for the tank because they are rooting for the tank. Right now in every modern iteration of it, across international borders, across western civilization. They are rooting for the tank, they're rooting for the authoritarian, they're rooting for the apparatus and the system against the individual, the ultimate minority, Tucker, the ultimate minority, the individual.

CARLSON: I'm stealing that. Thank you, Will Cain, the ultimate minority, the individual. It's exactly right. I appreciate your coming on. Thank you.

CAIN: Thanks, Tucker.

CARLSON: So Kathy Hochul has never been elected Governor of New York, yet somehow she is pretending to be Governor of New York, and while the charade continues, she is working to expand her powers. She wants to be able to arrest and detain anyone with a particular disease or health condition.

Someone needs to stop Kathy Hochul, we've got details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Savvy politicians across the country started to roll back their corona mandates. The public doesn't like them. It's over. But not everyone got the memo.

The new Mayor of Boston, Michelle Wu seems to believe it is early spring of 2020. Wu is a more vapid version of Justin Trudeau, totally incompetent, yet utterly self-confident. That's a bad combination, so she continues with restrictions such as requiring vax documents to enter restaurants and gyms and masking little kids in Boston's public schools.

Now people are very sick of this, but Michelle Wu somehow had no idea. So earlier this week, she found out the truth. She hosted an Instagram Live event complete with comments. You'll notice those comments at the bottom of the screen we are about to show you.

Watch Michelle Wu see those comments. She was completely stunned to learn that people don't love her. It's beautiful.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MICHELLE WU, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Is there any questions anyone has? I see a lot of friends who have different -- oh, Happy New Year. Yes, year of the tiger.

What's my favorite thing about Boston winter? I love snow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: She is going through looking for a positive one. Happy New Year. She missed the one that said, "You're ruining Boston. Why do you hate kids, teachers, cops, and firemen? Stop the segregation. No vax pass." Didn't repeat those on the air or deign to answer them.

So when the 'rona pandemic began, our leaders assumed emergency authority to deal with it, and of course, they've been holding on to that authority ever since. Now, they're trying to make it permanent. Of course, you hand someone powers, pretty hard to get it back. Case in point, new guidelines proposed by the New York Health Department would allow the state to force COVID positive citizens into isolation.

The policy would essentially return emergency COVID powers to the Governor who has never been elected governor.

So in a moment when we are all fretting about democracy, is it real? Here you have someone who is not actually the governor pretending to be the governor?

Kieran Lalor is actually a New York State Assemblyman. He was elected. I mean, you were elected, correct?

KIERAN LALOR, NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLYMAN: Yes, sir.

CARLSON: Yes, okay, good. Okay, so you're legitimate. Your governor was not elected, so she all of a sudden wants quarantine powers for eternity? How does this work?

LALOR: Well, her disgraced predecessor, Governor Cuomo actually instituted these quarantine powers back in March of 2020, and they're temporary at the moment, they have to be extended every 90 days or every 60 days.

But this Governor, as COVID cases go down, seeks to make these powers in the executive branch with no checks and balances permanent, forever, without any legislative authority. So not only is she not elected, she is not asking the elected branch of government, the elected lawmakers in the state to help out with this. She is doing this unilaterally.

I wouldn't want this Governor to have these powers. I wouldn't want an elected Governor to have these massive powers, and it is not just COVID positive patients, it is anybody who has been exposed to COVID or a communicable disease. So what does that mean?

You were exposed, therefore, we're going to whisk you away and put you in some gulag and you have no due process rights. Maybe after you've been in the gulag for a little while you might be able to petition the Court if you can get a lawyer.

That's the kind of thing we're talking about. It may sound a little far- fetched, but think of where we've come in the last two years. I mean, it wasn't that long ago that we thought if you wanted to go to church, you'd be allowed to go to church, New York State for a period and said, you couldn't go to church in certain places.

New York State is crushing, free speech and First Amendment rights and this Governor in the past month, went ahead and fired union medical workers and replaced them with the military, replaced them with the National Guard.

So when you put it in that context, it doesn't sound that far- fetched.

CARLSON: Yes, what we used to call conspiracy theories are now just called breaking news. So of course, but again, I'm fixated on this question. Here's someone who no voter in the state of New York declared I want to be governor, who somehow through hitting the lotto, or something is posing as Governor.

Has any defender of democracy, all the self-appointed democracy defenders, Liz Cheney, for example, piped up and said: Hey, unelected fake Governor of the Empire State, pull back on your quarantine powers, you're not God. Has anybody noticed this?

LALOR: No, I haven't heard anyone say that. I haven't even heard members of her own party here in New York State say that. You know, this was actually proposed as a bill in the past and never got anywhere in the legislature. I think even if passed legislatively, this kind of power would be unconstitutional.

You know, they are basically throwing away habeas corpus in New York State if this would become law, but this is done in the executive branch with no checks and balances.

And actually, I was on your show about 13 months ago talking about that bill, Tucker, and afterwards, a reporter from "The Daily Caller" called the Cuomo administration. And they said: That's an insane -- that's an insane idea. There is no way we would ever pass that bill.

But at the time, we didn't know it, they had given themselves this power and all they have to do is ask themselves, can we extend it for another 90 days? Can we extend it for another 90 days? It is only Kathy Hochul now who's trying to make it permanent, as COVID starts to recede.

CARLSON: Yes, and if we're saying that anybody who has been exposed to COVID qualifies for involuntary quarantine, that would include about 345 million Americans, because there's not a person who hasn't been exposed to COVID. Like this is really ridiculous.

I appreciate you, Kieran, thanks so much for coming on tonight and congratulations on holding office legitimately as an elected official.

LALOR: It's a great honor. It's a great honor.

CARLSON: Thank you.

Well, for more than a year, the Biden administration repeatedly told Americans that if they want their freedoms back, they had to take the corona shot, and they kept making that demands even after it became clear that people who got the shot were still getting COVID. The question is why they never admitted this.

Now, we don't know the answer, we can only guess, but a new report from POLITICO's Alex Thompson offers up one possible motive. It turns out that the White House's top vaccine pitchman owned up to $1 million in -- wait for it -- vaccine stock.

His name is Eric Lander. He was confirmed by the Senate for his role as the top White House Science Adviser in late May. He subsequently divested from various stocks he owned in June as mandated by an ethics agreement.

However, Lander held on to up to $1 million worth of BioNTech stock. He didn't sell that until August fifth. Now, as you can see from the chart on your screen, that stock has been falling ever since that day.

Pretty amazing timing. So, what happened to the value of the stock during the time that Lander owned it? Well, he again led the Biden administration's efforts to promote use of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine. His ethics agreement suggests he should not have been doing that.

It stated that he cannot, quote, "... participate personally and substantially in any particular matter that to my knowledge has a direct and predictable effect in the financial interests of the entity until I have divested it."

Okay, so in other words, you can't promote a product that you're benefiting from, and what you really can't do is force people to take a product that you're profiting from. And you really, really can't do it, if that product is protected by immunity from lawsuits because that's totally corrupt. And if you do that, no one will ever believe anything again.

Well, with the Super Bowl coming up, we thought we'd sit down with an inspiring high school football coach. We don't interview a lot of high school football coaches, but Mac Stephens is an exception to that. He has used football to change the lives of his players in a way that we think is great, and we think you will think so. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: You may not remember this, but not too long ago, Beto O'Rourke ran for President, not of the School Board, but of the United States. He was on the cover of "Vanity Fair," you may have seen it. That's a magazine apparently, in grocery stores. He was dreaming big.

At a debate in September 2019, he made a promise to the people of this country. He promised that when he was elected, he'd clean out your gun closet because you don't need all that stuff, particularly your AR-15s and your AK-47. He will just take them from you.

Those the two rifles he mentioned. He didn't mentioned anything about handguns or knives, which are used in a lot more homicides, but whatever. It was just ARs and AKs and we saved the tape because that's what we do. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETO O'ROURKE (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hell yes, we're going to take your AR-15, your AK-47. We're not going to allow it to be used against a fellow American anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So that tape still exists. It has not been confiscated by the F.B.I. yet. Three years later, Beto O'Rourke is still looking for a job. Inherited money guy, doesn't work a ton. Now, he wants to be Governor of Texas and in Texas, people like AR-15s, and to some extent, AK-47.

So on Tuesday, Beto O'Rourke was asked again, are you going to take people's guns away? And here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'ROURKE: I'm not interested in taking anything from anyone. What I want to make sure that we do is defend the Second Amendment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Actually, I misspoke. What I meant when I said I'm going to seize your guns without compensation was I'm going to defend the Second Amendment. Okay? So if you like your Kalashnikov, you can keep your Kalashnikov.

It's just so great. Thank God for videotape.

So Super Bowl Sunday is coming up in just a few days. Young athletes and their parents all over the country going to be watching, everyone's going to be watching. We just spoke to a coach called Mac Stephens who we think is particularly impressive. He's the head football coach at Cleveland Heights High School in the state of Ohio.

He is very focused on football. The team does really well, but he is much more focused on the lives of his players and he means it and we thought for that reason you'd want to hear it.

Here's part of the conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: I mean, so you're a football coach -- you're the head coach.

MAC STEPHENS, HEAD FOOTBALL COACH AT CLEVELAND HEIGHTS HIGH SCHOOL, OHIO: That's correct.

CARLSON: So presumably your goal is to win. Why do you care what kind of grades they get or how they treat girls in their class?

STEPHENS: Well, I believe in order to do big things in life, you've got to do the small things right. And when I interviewed for the job, the one thing I told the committee that was interviewing me, if the idea is to hire me to win a state championship, I'm not the guy, but if you want to change lives, that's what I can do.

CARLSON: You said in the interview if the idea is to win --

STEPHENS: Absolutely. I said that to the committee. And then I had to interview with the head principal. I interviewed with the superintendent and the Human Resources Director of the Cleveland High School District, and that's something that I still emphasize to this very day.

Those kids still excel, and I like to believe that a big part of that is because of the expectations that we put on our kids. We don't allow them to come to us with excuses. And I think, unfortunately, in society today, we give young people too many excuses, and we just keep that expectation on them every day.

An example is when I was raising my sons, every single day, the questions they got from me were: How was school? How did you do on that test? Do you have a quiz coming up? You know, when's your next game? Things like that? Just basic questions that you would think all parents ask.

Well, with the kids that I coach, to be quite honest, most of them go home and they don't get that. So they get that from myself. They get that from my coaching staff. And that's one of the reasons why so many kids have been successful coming out of our football program.

I think in our first six years, we've had 75 kids on various football scholarships.

CARLSON: Amazing.

STEPHENS: Yes.

CARLSON: How many of the boys you coach have their dad at home?

STEPHENS: You know, a lot of them don't have very involved fathers to be quite honest, and it is not that myself or our coaching staff try to become the father, we just try to become good and decent men that give them a good example.

When I interviewed my coaching staff, I didn't ask them what they know about X's and O's and football schemes. I could care less about that. But what I do ask the coach is, are you able to coach these kids and love these kids as if they're your own son? And if you can't do that, then you can't coach on my staff?

CARLSON: Are they confused by the question?

STEPHENS: It's surprising to some people and to be quite honest, just with the philosophy of, you know, the ultimate goal is not to win a state championship, the ultimate goal is to change lives.

Some people struggle with that. But in my mind, we can't lose. There is no way we can lose at Cleveland Heights if you embrace that philosophy, because if a young man goes through four years of high school, and then goes on to college and gets a college degree, how can that be a failure?

And I just had a couple of young men, actually two that just graduated from Ohio State University. One will probably have an opportunity to play an NFL the other one has an opportunity to get a very good job. How can you fail?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: We interview a lot of people who explain how screwed up the country is, Mac Stephens is living proof that it's a great country.

That whole interview is on FOX Nation, we recommend you check it out.

So Hillary Clinton is back all of a sudden. She is speaking to the New York Democratic Party Convention next week. Why is she doing that? She's not retired in Chappaqua or hanging out with her grandkids? There could be a reason and we support that reason. We've got details just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: We're going to end our Friday night show with some good news, something for you to savor like a Werther's butterscotch over the weekend. Here it is.

Hillary Clinton set to speak the New York Democratic Party Convention next week. According to one source, her appearance is good because it will quote, "Galvanize the party," and quote, "Keep her relevant."

Whoa. If you thought Hillary Clinton was fun at 50, wait until you see her at almost at 80. All the mediocrity you remember so well, but an added layer of late life bitterness and creeping senility.

So before we go tonight, we'd like to say this on the record with total sincerity, please, Hillary Clinton run; not something because we've covered it so many times before we could do it on autopilot, but because that will be hilarious and edifying in a hard to describe way.

We'll be monitoring that speech next week. Don't miss it.

But in the meantime, have the best weekend, new episode of "Tucker Carlson Today" featuring the coach we just showed you Mac Stephens who is a great guy. It's worth watching.

And of course, more than anything, we hope you have a restful weekend away from the chaos and lunacy with the ones you love.

We'll be back 8:00 PM, Monday night, the show that is the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink.

Guess who is next? You know the answer. Sean Hannity.

See you Monday.

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