Tucker: These are the moral priorities of the Democrats

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Tucker: These are the moral priorities of the Democrats

'Tucker Carlson Tonight' host discusses how the left has weaponized public health

This is a rush transcript of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on September 29, 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.

So much going on in your government, it's very hard to keep track even if you're paid to do it as we are. Here is one interesting thing that nobody noticed.

On Saturday, some unnamed actor, some subterranean vermeil in the House of Representatives inserted what turned out to be a remarkable provision into the so-called Budget Reconciliation Bill. Almost nobody outside the Congress noticed it was there and that's really not surprising.

The bill is one of the biggest in all of human history. It is nearly 2,500 pages long. It spends $3.5 trillion. Where does that money come from? Well, it was just newly printed by the Federal Reserve for the occasion.

The provision in question was hidden on Page 168 of that bill, and here's what it says, going forward the Federal government will bankrupt any company that refuses to comply with Joe Biden's vaccine mandate. So do you have an unvaccinated worker in your office? The fine for that will be

$700,000.00 payable to the U.S. Treasury for each and every one of those workers.

Even by the standards of Washington, that is a lot of money. Here is a comparison.

In June, the Federal government penalized a chemical company in West Virginia after its plant exploded killing an employee and sending two others to the hospital. The fine in that case $12,288.00. So there you have it, written out in black and white, the moral priorities of the Democratic Party.

Killing people in chemical plants is bad, it's about $12,000.00 bad, but failing to get a Joe Biden mandated COVID vaccine, even if you've already recovered from COVID and have natural immunity that is more powerful than any shot, that's much, much worse. How much worse? It is 58 times worse than killing people in a chemical plant explosion.

Democrats did the math on that and they wrote it down.

This whole approach if you take three steps back to COVID, is a little weird when you think about it. If you really wanted to protect the public, the American people from this virus, the first thing you would do is encourage them to be healthy. Meaning get off your phone, get outside, spend some time in nature, maybe lose some weight. That's meaningful. That all works. We know it for a fact, it's science.

And then people with higher risk factors like older people, people with pre-existing medical problems would probably want to get the vaccine. 

Definitely worth it for them. They should.

Everyone else could look at the numbers and assess. They could choose for themselves as they do with every other medical decision.

The Federal government is not requiring you to get surgery for prostate cancer if you get it. No, you get to decide.

So that would be a reasonable response to COVID. It might actually improve the country rather than destroy it, but that's very far from what they're actually doing and the reason is politics.

From the beginning of the outbreak, politicians have turned what they told us was a public health response into something that very much looks like a political campaign and in a political campaign, the other side is your enemy.

So all of a sudden, the public has become an opponent that politicians must subdue and defeat. How do you feel about opponents who are working to subdue and defeat? Do you feel loathing and contempt? And that's how they do feel. They're not hiding it anymore.

Take a look at this video, which we just got. It's from yesterday.

It shows a Democratic Congresswoman from Iowa called Cindy Axne and she is explaining her party's response to COVID. She doesn't say anything that remarkable, it's how she says it. Listen to how she talks about her constituents. She so clearly hates them. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CINDY AXNE (D-IA):             So now all the schools are back wanting to put 

mass mandates in and all the anti-vaxxer crazies are out there with their, you know -- it's a hot mess.

I'll be honest, you know Christian right is, you know, everything under the guise while they hold a cross and you know for God or whatever and they use it like a weapon, and it's painful to watch because they've weaponized religion, they've weaponized politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Yes, the Christians are weaponizing it. Notice all the abortion clinics they closed. Oh no, it was Democratic politicians who closed the churches, actually, speaking of weaponizing public health.

But you just heard the congresswoman, "The anti-vaxxer crazies, the Christians holding a cross for God or whatever." It's hard to remember those are actually human beings she is talking about, some of the weakest human beings in our country, but you would never know they are real people because she clearly loathes them. She hates them.

You hear this tone a lot from politicians all of a sudden -- a lot. It is not sympathy. It's certainly not empathy. It's not even a sincere attempt to make people better or healthier. It's hate.

Here is the Mayor of New York threatening to hurt anyone who doesn't get the shot, whether they need it or not. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: Most people, the vast majority of people even those who say I didn't want to get vaccinated make a different decision when it becomes very, very practical. So now, someone is really looking at the possibility they won't have a paycheck for a prolonged period of time. They may even lose their job ultimately.

A lot of people don't look at that and say, hold up, okay, I'll get vaccinated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Oh, we'll take your paycheck away. Just punch you in the face or starve you to death, or beat up your kids. It turns out, if you hurt people enough, they will do exactly what you say. So that actually works.

Bill de Blasio is clearly a moron, but even he understands that, and it does work. United Airlines just announced it is firing nearly 600 people. 

Why are they doing that? Well, they don't want to pay tens of millions of dollars in fines.

So now, 600 people who last week worked at United Airlines are unemployed. 

Oh, by the way they have no health insurance. That's how we're making America healthier. Got it?

And it's not just happening in the airlines. In hospitals across the country, mass firings are now underway. Where's the Congress on this? Good question.

Meanwhile one hospital system in North Carolina just canned 175 people. 

Remember, this is a public health crisis we're living through, right? So maybe we shouldn't empty the hospitals of their seasoned employees. There was already nationwide, a severe shortage of nurses. Hospitals are closing wings because there's no one to staff them and now there are fewer people.

None of the people who have been fired will be able to collect unemployment, by the way. They're done, they're destroyed. They're not just punished, they're crushed.

And these aren't the CEOs of big companies. These aren't people who live in affluent neighborhoods. These are hourly workers. These are people the Democratic Party used to care about. These are people with no power whatsoever who worked around sick people for the duration of a deadly pandemic and rather than thank them, we're firing them with no unemployment benefits, and no health insurance, and a lot of them.

The State of New York for example, the deadline for healthcare workers to get vaccinated has already passed. According to the most recent figures, 16 percent of the state's hospital workers, that is 83,000 people remain unvaccinated. Eight percent of those workers have not gotten a single dose of the vaccine. That means they're going to be fired.

So the question is, once again, who is going to staff the hospitals in the middle of this public health crisis? Well, that's an easy answer according to the new Governor of New York, the one no one voted for. The State of New York is going to use the military to do it, and then hire temp workers from the Philippines. It's lunacy.

And by the way, once again, why exactly are all these healthcare workers, thousands of them nationwide refusing to get the COVID vaccine? That is an entirely fair question and no one is asking it. It might be worth finding out.

You can't say these are people who don't understand the science. In fact, they might know more about COVID and healthcare than your average Democratic governor considering that's what they do for a living, they treat people with COVID every single day. So, it's not like they're uninformed. What is this exactly?

It's not a few people, it's thousands of people. Why? No one cares. Punish them. The weakest now crushed.

Meanwhile as we're firing nurses and doctors, we're bringing thousands of illegal immigrants into this country right now, many of them infected with diseases including COVID. You're not supposed to say that because it's some sort of slur, but it's factually true. In fact not only is it true, the Secretary of Homeland Security just admitted it. He explained that 20 percent of the people coming across the border have an unidentified illness of some kind. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, SECRETARY OF U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: We are confronted with a population of people that as a general matter have a rate of illness of approximately 20 percent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Okay, so we're firing healthcare workers because they won't get the vaccine and then letting in thousands of people whose identities we can't verify who are sick with diseases we can't always identify, including COVID. None of them are required to get the vaccine in contrast to the nurses we just fired. That leaves our hospitals short staffed, many more sick people coming in who will need treatment at public expense. Who is doing this? And why? What is the point?

They are telling us that healthcare workers need to be fired immediately because they're a threat to the country. This is all happening very, very quickly and it's happening without any medical basis whatsoever. Remember, it was just last year that Joe Biden was telling us that healthcare workers are heroes and he was right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), THEN CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To all the doctors and nurses working in the ICU units, I hope you all know you're truly some of the greatest heroes this nation has seen.

Take Tracy in Massachusetts. She is a nurse who has been treating veterans with COVID-19. Every day she's had to put on a hazmat suit and go to work for 12 hours days on end. If it wasn't for folks like Tracy, our own families wouldn't have a chance to be reunited.

You want to find a hero in America? They're all around us and Tracy is one of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Don't often endorse Joe Biden videos, but that's a hundred percent right. Anyone who has ever been sick and have spent any time in the hospital knows that one good nurse makes all the difference. They really are some of the best people in the country. So why are we firing thousands of them? Why is Joe Biden doing this?

As a scientific matter, it doesn't make any sense. Unvaccinated healthcare workers do not pose a threat to their vaccinated patients or co-workers. 

Period. If you're vaccinated, you will likely be fine. That's what the data show. That's what they tell us day after day.

Vaccinated people have a greater chance of dying from a lightning strike than they do of dying from COVID. They're more likely to die of a bee sting or a dog attack or from choking to death on their food. Those are the numbers, we hear them very often.

So why are unvaccinated people a threat to them? Not one person has answered that question. No one is even asking it. Why are we firing them? 

Why are we blaming them? Why are we in their face attacking them? 

Demonizing them? But no one is pushing back, so it's accelerating.

This is coming to the Border Patrol, as well it's coming for the entire Federal government. Mass firings are likely to occur in the Border Patrol's ranks when the Federal government's vaccine mandate is enforced later this year.

It's crazy. But if there's one sad lesson, maybe the saddest lesson of this pandemic, it's that authoritarianism is very popular with certain parts of the population. And if you need evidence of that, take a look at the scene last night in a New Jersey gubernatorial debate.

Listen to the crowd's reaction as Phil Murphy equates not getting the COVID shot to drunk driving.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): Saying that it's your call and governments can't mandate a vaccine or no masking is akin to supporting drunk driving. It impacts both the person who is driving drunk, but all the rest of us.

[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]

MURPHY: That's not the way we beat this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: How is it like drunk driving? How do unvaccinated people hurt anybody? Hey, Phil Murphy, got a second? We've got some time. Why don't you explain that to us?

It was just a year ago or so that a politician who got on stage and said that would be laughed off the stage and a politician who endorsed firing thousands of healthcare workers during a pandemic calling them criminals, dehumanizing them, would be reviled. Now, it gets applause.

Not because the science has changed, the science is the same. It's because our leaders realized how to leverage fear to crush their political opponents and if that means fining people $700,000.00 for employing someone, throwing the weakest people in our society out on the street with no unemployment insurance and no health insurance, they'll do it.

Cassandra Radelich is one of the victims of this latest purge. She is an ICU nurse who just left her job at a hospital in Indiana because of vaccine mandates. Cassie Radelich joins us tonight. Cassie, thanks so much for coming on.

CASSANDRA RADELICH, ICU NURSE: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

CARLSON: Tell us why -- oh well, it's our honor to have you -- tell us why you left your job?

RADELICH: I left my job when policies were being rolled out at our hospital that would ultimately initiate the segregation of its staff on who was vaccinated versus who was unvaccinated. So mandates hadn't been rolled out yet. They weren't forcing us at this point to take the vaccine or be fired, but they were rolling out policies that gave different treatment to vaccinated people versus unvaccinated people.

And it was not only that I was uncomfortable with that and unwilling to cooperate with that kind of treatment, but unfortunately I had seen this treatment play out to my patients as well where doctors and unfortunately, some nurses that I worked with were bullying and harassing my patients for making a medical decision.

But as a nurse, I took an oath and you know, that oath was to practice and uphold the standards of my profession faithfully and number one, in the Nursing Code of Ethics is patient autonomy and the patient's right to self- determination. So when I felt like I could no longer work in this environment that would uphold and honor that commitment I made as a nurse, I knew I had a decision to make and it was time for me to walk away.

CARLSON: This is poisoning our society at the most basic level, I would say.

RADELICH: Yes.

CARLSON: I just -- I have to ask since you are an ICU nurse and you treat people with COVID every day, how do you feel when politicians tell you they know more about medical care than you do?

RADELICH: I feel infuriated. It's frustrating, it's disheartening because unfortunately so many people in the public would rather tune in to a politician and their ideas of COVID and how it should be handled rather than listening to a medical professional that's been on the frontlines through it all in the last year and a half.

It's maddening. I can't believe what's going on.

CARLSON: I can't either and no one is stepping up to protect people like you. It's really a distressing moment. Cassie, thank you and Godspeed. I really hope you wind up somewhere where you can use your talents.

RADELICH: Thank you.

CARLSON: Thank you.

RADELICH: Thank you, I appreciate it.

CARLSON: So everyone knows from watching television or read "The New York Times" that the only people who haven't gotten the vaccine are members of the QAnon army, right-wing crazies, but actually it turns out just 30 percent of African-Americans in New York between the ages of 18 and 44 are fully vaccinated. Hispanics are the second least vaccinated population in the country.

So those mostly are not Republicans, but you would never know that from reading the popular press. The coverage of COVID has taken an openly political caste. People who don't get the vaccine are considered criminals, thought criminals. They are right-wingers.

"Salon" just ran this headline quote: "It's time to start firing unvaccinated people. Trump fans are overdue for a lesson in consequences." 

Can you imagine? That's healthcare in America in 2021.

Glenn Greenwald is an independent journalist. He writes for "Substack." He joins us tonight. Glenn, what do you -- what do you make -- I mean, you've watched this whole thing from afar a year and a half into this and now virtually, every part of the government's response to COVID seems to have political overtones.

You know, where does that leave us?

GLENN GREENWALD, JOURNALIST: Yes, I mean it's hard for me even to endure listening to liberal discourse about COVID anymore. Usually when someone has a view that's different than mine, I can isolate the rationale that they are using to come to that conclusion even though I don't agree with it and I'm at a complete loss to understand what the argument even is.

On September 9th when President Biden went to the White House and gave a speech on COVID to announce his COVID mandate for large employers, he said

-- this is not me -- he said, Joe Biden said if you're fully vaccinated, the chances that you can get severely ill -- not even die, just get severely ill -- are very low and the statistic that he gave is, out of every 160,000 people who have been vaccinated, only one ends up going to the hospital with a serious illness.

So the risk if you're vaccinated is almost zero, which means what danger do unvaccinated people pose to people like me who listened to that and went and got the vaccine? I can't comprehend the argument and yet, when Joe Biden imposed the vaccine mandate, he said because he had to, to justify why he could do it legally, the bottom line is we need to protect vaccinated workers from the dangers posed by unvaccinated people.

What dangers do unvaccinated people pose to those who are vaccinated? None. 

It is purely punitive. It's a way of saying, if you don't obey us, if you don't defer to our superior wisdom, we are going to inflict pain and suffering on you and take vengeance on you for your defiance. That is all that this is about.

CARLSON: It's hurting my brain, too, and I just want to restate what you said. You are vaccinated. You know, you can be vaccinated. You could love the vaccine, you can have nine booster shots. That's not relevant to the debate here.

The question is, should people who don't want it be forced to get it, and if so, why? And no one has explained that, and I thank you for restating that. I'm baffled, all day long every day.

Glenn Greenwald, I appreciate it.

GREENWALD: Good to be with you, Tucker.

CARLSON: Lieutenant Colonel Stu Scheller is tonight, he remains the only member of the United States Military who has been punished following the disaster in Afghanistan. What did he do wrong? He asked his superiors to take accountability for what they did wrong, so they put him in jail.

Stu Scheller's parents will join us after the break to tell us what is going on with their son. That's straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: For nearly two decades, Lieutenant Colonel Stu Scheller served honorably in the United States Marine Corps through multiple combat deployments. He never did anything wrong that we're aware of, and yet, as we told you last night, he is now in prison.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: There is only one man in the entire U.S. government who is being punished for the failure, the catastrophic failure in Afghanistan, just one man. His name is Stu Scheller. He is a lieutenant colonel in the United States Marine Corps. He is an honorable and honest man.'

He is also blameless. Scheller had no role in any of these decisions. What was his crime? His crime was criticizing those decisions. There is a man who believed in his superiors, who is not cynical who is genuinely confused by his superiors' unwillingness to admit their own error.

His confusion comes from decency.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Meanwhile, The Pentagon just received new funding, $24 billion more than the White House asked for, a record number. So, today, at a House hearing, there were a couple of Republicans who want to know, why exactly is Stu Scheller in jail? What is this about?

Here is how it went.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): When people in the military like Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller stand up and demand accountability, when they say that you all screwed up, when they point out that General Milley's statement that the -- you know, that the government of Afghanistan is not going to get defeated by the Taliban, well, he ends up in the brig and you all end up in front of us and your former employer, Raytheon ends up with a lot of money and we have poured cash and blood and credibility into a Ghani government that was a mirage.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): The American people want and deserve accountability and we even have service members like Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller being thrown in the brig for suggesting that.

The public's faith in our institutions continues to erode precisely because everyone in the D.C. bubble appears to have some sort of immunity from the basic standards the rest of America is expected to live by.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: And yet, many other Republicans including some who were ostentatiously pro-military like Liz Cheney defended The Pentagon, of course.

Stu and Cathy Scheller are the parents of Lieutenant Colonel Stu Scheller. 

They join us tonight.

Thank you so much for coming on. This is one of the worst stories I've ever seen in 30 years of covering this stuff, and so our hearts go out to your family. Tell us first how your son is doing?

STU SCHELLER, SR., FATHER OF LT. COL STU SCHELLER: We don't know. He is in prison tonight, Tucker. He's been in prison since Monday. We talked to him for two minutes on Monday and he gave us two messages.

He said call my attorney and we did and he said, tell everyone, and so we appreciate you having us on. We appreciate you allowing us to reach out to your listeners because this story is outrageous and it needs to be told.

CARLSON: I can't remember being as offended by anything as I am by this. 

It's just -- it's so completely wrong. Have Members of Congress reached out to you? Congress, as you know approves promotions in the United States Military. They can shut that down tomorrow until your son is released from prison.

Have you heard from any Members of Congress?

S. SCHELLER: Yes, I've heard from a senator from Utah. I've heard from my local senator. I've heard our local representative, Brad Wenstrup has been unbelievable and very supportive.

We have heard from a number of them, but at the same time, we've heard more probably in the last 24 hours since we have asked Americans to find their voice and stand up and call their congressmen. So, I believe this is why we heard it on the Senate floor two days ago and this is why we heard it on the House floor today, Lieutenant Colonel Scheller's name is being discussed because Americans are demanding accountability and we appreciate that, America.

CARLSON: Amen.

CATHY SCHELLER, MOTHER OF LT. COL. STUART SCHELLER: We do. We really appreciate it and what you need to know also is that they announced to his lawyers this morning with less than 24 hours' notice that he will be in pre-trial tomorrow and they dumped a 640-page document on them with 24 hours.

They're trying to bury our son.

CARLSON: Yes, this is all for making a Facebook video that was entirely truthful. I see the pictures on the screen which are heartbreaking of your daughter-in-law and your grandchildren, little kids. How are they doing?

C. SCHELLER: Little kids.

S. SCHELLER: Yes.

C. SCHELLER: Well, mom is doing what she is supposed to be doing, she is protecting those kids and keeping them away from all of this. That's her job and our job is to come out here and tell the American people.

CARLSON: Do they know their dad is in jail?

S. SCHELLER: The children are small. No, the children right now are small and we're trying to protect them.

CARLSON: Good. I hope you're able to. Do you have any idea why he is being held in the brig? Did anyone explain to you what the charges are going to be?

C. SCHELLER: No one has told us. I don't believe he's been charged yet. No one has told us what the charges are. Before I go too much further down this, I do want to say thank you to the American people and I want to ask them to if possible to pray, to contact your congressman, to donate at pipehitterfoundation.org -- I'm sorry.

And there is a tab for who they represent and you can donate for Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Sheller, I'm just used to calling him "Stu" of course, but there is a tab there. So many people are saying, what can we do, and we just can't get the message out. It would not have been on the senate floor today if Americans had not spoken up.

CARLSON: Right.

S. SCHELLER: Tucker, you asked what did he do? Probably a week or two ago or maybe it was a week ago, they put him under a gag order. They took away his right to post, to talk on social media, to e-mail, to text. He shared it with America and he knew this weekend when he posted again --

C. SCHELLER: And broke silence.

S. SCHELLER: And he broke his silence that they were probably going to arrest him on Monday. So he is a very intelligent man. He understands what's going to happen to him. We have been -- so he broke chain of command and I said last night on a program, Tucker, his crime was speaking truth to power and power couldn't handle it.

CARLSON: No.

S. SCHELLER: I also said that while he broke chain of command, Austin, Milley, McKenzie, they broke the chain of trust and confidence in the American people. We're mad. We're mad as hell.

And I'm asking the American people to find your voice, stand up, demand accountability of your Congress people. Ask for Lieutenant Scheller to be freed, in my opinion, of course, I'm dad, so it is probably not fair. But I think he should receive his pension after 17 years of fighting for this country.

I think he and his family should have their health benefits and VA benefits for the rest of their lives for the sacrifices he's made.

C. SCHELLER: And he needs to be out of solitary confinement in prison where he is not allowed to call anyone or to have visitors.

S. SCHELLER: It's outrageous.

CARLSON: This whole thing is so crazy it's hard to believe.

C. SCHELLER: It is outrageous that when I called to today to ask if I could

-- go ahead.

CARLSON: No, I was just saying, I mean it's just -- it's hard to believe this is happening in the United States and I think our viewers agree with you a hundred percent. I'm sorry about your suffering and we're going to be covering this, wherever it leads, so I appreciate it.

Cathy and Stu Scheller joining us tonight. Thanks.

S. SCHELLER: Thank you, Tucker.

C. SCHELLER: Thank you.

CARLSON: So we've got internal documents to show you tonight from one of the biggest social media companies in the world. It turns out they knew the damage they were doing to children particularly to young girls and they did nothing about it. We'll show you those documents straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: So in March, Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress that Instagram, which he owns through Facebook is good for children under 13, and they know that because they do a lot of research, they are data guys.

It turns out that's not true. "The Wall Street Journal" has published internal Facebook documents that show Instagram degraded the mental health of fully one-third of teenage girls who used it, those are their own documents.

Jean Twenge is a psychology professor and author of the new book, "iGen," 

she joins us tonight.

Jean, thanks so much for coming on.

JEAN TWENGE, PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR AND AUTHOR, "IGEN": Thank you.

CARLSON: So, what are the chances that they didn't know this when Mark Zuckerberg told Congress the opposite?

TWENGE: Yes, they absolutely knew this. That research was done three years ago and we've known from academic research for many years that the longer a teen girl spends on social media, the more likely she is to be depressed and to engage in behaviors like self-harm say like cutting.

And we'd known that the suicide rate has doubled for 10 to 14-year-olds since 2007 and it's quadrupled for girls in that age group right as social media became popular.

CARLSON: If Philip Morris was making billions selling Marlboros to 13-year- old girls, we would have congressional hearings and we'd shut it down. In fact, I think that already happened.

But Mark Zuckerberg, Google, all these companies make billions from kids. 

It is wrecking them, they're killing themselves and nobody pays any attention. What do you think that is?

TWENGE: Well, one word, "money." They make billions off of the data that they get from users including from teens, plus there's lots of kids 12 and under who are on those platforms even though they're not supposed to be because Facebook doesn't enforce that age limit consistently, because no one makes them enforce that age limit.

So you're right, they are getting away without pretty much any regulation when other things that we know hurt children are very carefully regulated.

CARLSON: It's pretty obvious just to non-researchers that something went really wrong with American society right around the moment computers became pocket-sized and social media became the forum through which people communicated. Those are not coincidences, are they?

TWENGE: I don't think so. Pretty much every indicator of mental health among teens started to suffer right at the time smartphones were introduced and then when they became popular around 2012, so that's indicators of depression and anxiety and self-harm and suicide and it's not just they increased at the same time.

It is that teens' lives fundamentally shifted around that time because they stopped spending as much time with each other in person and started communicating online through platforms like Instagram, and that is a very poor recipe for mental health. Being in your bedroom all the time on your smartphone as opposed to actually being with other people.

CARLSON: Yes. Get a dog. Go outside. That is the recipe for happiness. Just in point of fact. Jean, thanks so much. It's great to see you tonight. 

Appreciate it.

TWENGE: Thank you.

CARLSON: So comedy died on late night, it's just not there anymore. The hosts are promoting pharmaceutical companies.

But there are a couple of comedians who have decided that they're going to continue to tell jokes because they have integrity. Jim Breuer is one of them. He joins us next.

Right now, by the way, on tuckercarlson.com, you can get the new book. You can cut out Big Tech if you like.

We'll be right back you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Jim Breuer was on "Saturday Night Live" for years, but unlike most comedians still working, he is still funny. We had a great conversation with him for a brand new episode of "Tucker Carlson Today." Here's part of it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BREUER, COMEDIAN:            Don't say you need to take this, you go talk to 

that person's parents. You go talk to that person. You say to their face with your blind emotions and your blind finger pointing and your soullessness and your thoughtlessness and your carelessness and pure dark agenda, because let's not kid ourselves, there's something deeper involved here, I'm sure. You think?

CARLSON: You mean it's not really about COVID?

BREUER: Send the thunder. Sire, the project is working just perfectly. I don't know, they are starting to have rebellion. Send out more fear. Shut down the universities as quick as possible and they shall never be educated unless they take the shot. I love it, sire.

Send out -- did you send out the word that needs to be said? Trust the science. Trust the science. Trust the science. Trust the science. It's almost -- trust the experts, trust the experts, trust the experts. Read all about it, trust the experts, trust the experts.

It's so comical, but yet the fact that nobody -- I shouldn't say nobody -- people who are dead doesn't exist, or they don't see it. It's mind- boggling, for me. Mind-boggling, mind-boggling.

CARLSON: You just summed it up better, I think. Our producer Alexi is sitting here just videotaping you because that was so -- that was just so good -- on her iPhone.

Last question, why is this so -- you've like laid -- I mean what you just said, which I completely defensible and true and hilarious is so far over the line that like what does this -- what does this mean for you?

BREUER: I'll tell you what it means. As long as I'm truthful in my vision.

CARLSON: Yes.

BREUER: It's worth every second.

CARLSON: Yes that's called art by the way. When you're totally focused on what you believe is true, that's art.

BREUER: Well then that -- because I will tell you this, I haven't looked -- I don't watch television.

CARLSON: Good.

BREUER: I don't read papers. Over the last week or whatever that I've been doing it, people say oh, they're killing you here -- I don't get that -- that means somebody is worried. When someone has got to go, the starver, he hasn't worked since -- you know what -- that's the discredit that's -- I know that tool.

As long as I walk the line, the thing that's most empowering is when I look at the messages and they don't stop. Thank you. God bless you. You don't know how I feel.

And I'm not only just getting messages, I'm getting powerful messages where people go, can I just tell you, I've been a nurse for years and I've seen this firsthand and they're basically warning us and they're telling us, I'm going to get fired and if I say anything, I'm -- this is full-blown fear.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARLSON: Smart guy, funny guy. Great conversation. You can watch the whole thing, the interview with Jim Breuer on "Tucker Carlson Today" right now on foxnation.com.

Texas is still a mess tonight. It is infecting the rest of the country. 

People continuing to pour across the southern border. The State of Texas isn't doing much about it. The border is still open. There are people running for governor who have ideas about how they would fix this national crisis. We're going to speak to one of them right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Greg Abbott is the Governor of Texas, a Republican, pretty conservative, good guy in a lot of ways, but for reasons that are not clear, he has refused to do anything meaningful about closing the Southern border and that is changing the United States, the rest of the country.

Now, several candidates are running to replace him as Governor. One of them is Don Huffines, a former State Senator. He joins us tonight with his plan to fix the border.

Don, thanks so much for coming on. So, if elected how will you handle what is a legitimate crisis at the Southern border?

DON HUFFINES (R), GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE FOR TEXAS: Well, Tucker, you and I both know that the Federal government is never going to secure the border. They never have.

CARLSON: Right.

HUFFINES: As clearly as an invasion and I can tell you, I will never ask permission from the Federal government to secure the Texas border. I'm going to use the United States Constitution that's Article I Section 10, which clearly gives states the authority to defend themselves from an invasion.

I'm going to engage all the Texas military, our National Guard, 20,000 or more and we're going to secure the whole river. And if anyone gets across, we're going to immediately take them back to the other side and send them back home.

And most people don't really -- we have 25 bridges, Tucker, over the river. 

I'm going to make sure we stop all inbound commercial traffic from Mexico and this is strategic to make sure we put the economic pressure on Mexico so they secure their side of the river.

I love Mexico, but let me tell you, they're being a very bad neighbor. We need to finish the wall. I don't care if you call it Trump Wall or Texas Wall, I'm going to build hundreds of miles of it. I'm going to spend billions of dollars doing it because we need to spend the money, that's a good trade. Texas taxpayers spend a lot more than that every year.

And look, this could have been done seven years ago or seven days ago. The only chance, like I said is if we have a courageous Governor and Lord knows we don't have one right now and we need to get a new one and I can tell you that I'm going to do in 30 days what no one has ever done in 30 years and that is to secure the border.

CARLSON: It's not -- I mean, it's not complicated. Countries around the world do it with no technology and tiny budgets. It just takes will. 

Unfortunately, at some point, I would love to get a straight answer for why Greg Abbott, who I think seems like a good guy. He is no liberal or anything, but he hasn't done this and he hasn't done it on purpose and I think it's very odd and it's kind of wrecking our country.

So, I hope you or someone else does do it and I appreciate your coming on tonight, Don Huffines, thank you very much.

HUFFINES: Oh thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: Thanks very much.

We are out of time bumping up against the next hour. We'll be back tomorrow.

In the meantime you can watch our interview with comedian, Jim Breuer who is really smart and still funny. I think pretty much everybody else who is practicing so-called comedy on television is just shilling for Big Pharma instead.

And of course, we'll be back tomorrow night 8:00 p.m., the show that is the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink.

In the meantime, a full 18 seconds early, Sean Hannity is going to take the wheel, step on the accelerator.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: Who is counting? You know.

CARLSON: Good point.

HANNITY: Thank you, Tucker.

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