Tucker: You're either 'sophisticated' or a 'superspreader'

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Tucker: You're either 'sophisticated' or a 'superspreader'

'Tucker Carlson Tonight' host discusses difference in media coverage between Obama's birthday party and Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," August 9, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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

You thought you had a great weekend. Did you see what Barack Obama did? It was way more fun than anything that happened at your house on Saturday night. For his 60th birthday, Barack Obama threw himself a party at his estate on Martha's Vineyard right off the coast of Massachusetts.

Now, Obama's place is on the ocean naturally, but unlike your oceanfront property in say Destine, Obama's property has been declared eternally exempt from the devastating rise in sea levels that will never be at company of the existential crisis of climate change, which, by the way you caused.

So, no matter what happens to the global climate, Obama will be safe on Martha's Vineyard even if you continue to eat steak and use air conditioning, both of which will soon be banned.

Ever sensitive to the feelings of his subjects, Obama did his best to downplay the size and the opulence of Saturday's event. His PR team did not mention the hundreds of servants who would be there. The party, they assured us would be nothing at all like something King Farouk might have hosted in his later years, no resemblance.

BARACK OBAMA'S party was merely an intimate gathering of quote, "family and friends." And in the end, that's exactly what it was. The thing is, as you can see from the photographs, Barack Obama has an awful lot of very close friends.

What's interesting is who they are and who they're not. Joe Biden was not at the party and that's weird considering that Joe Biden and Barack Obama are like brothers, as close as two straight men can be, as Joe Biden has told us himself many times.

Though if you've been watching carefully through the years, you may have noticed that Barack Obama has never made that claim. He has never said a lot about liking Joe Biden. Now, we know he doesn't, so who does Barack Obama like?

Well in a word, "celebrities." Obama likes celebrities, lots and lots of celebrities. It was like the red carpet scene outside a lesser award show on Saturday night. There was Oprah, and Jay-Z, Gayle King, Tom Hanks, George Clooney, as well as a whole bunch of other people who you wouldn't recognize if you're over 30 and don't live on social media.

There were a ton of them, and it was kind of a surprise to see it because Barack Obama is a genius. We know that we can be certain of it because we have heard that claimed as fact for almost 15 years now, and yet we now know that when Barack Obama relaxes at his own house, it's not with intellectuals or even with people who can read books, it's with the kids he watches on TikTok.

Obama passes around some high fives, throws on a pair of beige slip-on shoes, and the world's only gray Hawaiian shirt and hits the dance floor. It's party time. But wait a second you ask, a gray Hawaiian shirt? Is that even legal? When you're Barack Obama it is. The normal rules don't apply to you.

Remember that this is the man whose staff referred to him as "Black Jesus," totally without sarcasm. So, when you're parting the waters and healing the sick, you don't get too hung up on the usual fashion regulations or for that matter, on public health regulations.

There's a global pandemic out there. You may have heard about it, and I tis getting worse. The C.D.C. tells us that the so-called delta variant is so dangerous that we could no longer have civil liberties in America. Private property rights have been suspended. It happened last week.

Our children must wear masks at school, again. We should not be allowed to go to dinner, fly on airplanes, have a job without first displaying our new vaccine passports and Barack Obama supports all of that. He is for all the restrictions, but that does not mean he wants to live under those restrictions.

So, on Saturday, Obama's guests did not have to show their papers to get into the party, unlike CNN employees, they didn't have to prove they were vaccinated, unlike your kids, they didn't have to wear masks. It was like 2019 at Barack Obama's house, like the whole pandemic thing never happened.

The question is: Does Tony Fauci know this? And if so, is he okay with it? That's a pressing public health question, so today, we called Tony Fauci to find out. Unfortunately, he was not free to do the show, he was too busy. He is a scientist, he doesn't need the publicity. He was tied up doing another photo shoot for "Teen Vogue" so he can't come. Our loss.

So to determine what the new rules are, we are just going to have to go with Tony Fauci's previous statements, and here is what we learned.

When large groups of maskless people without vaccine passports gather in one place, it is a grave danger to America, but only when those people ride Harley-Davidsons.

On Sunday, Fauci once again scolded bikers who were gathering for their annual event in Sturgis, South Dakota. Now these people are dangerous, Tony Fauci told us. Some of them went to Community College, literally, and there are some who didn't go at all. You should be worried.

It's pretty much exactly what he told us last year about the Sturgis Rally, that many would die, so we checked because numbers are important on a news show, did that happen? Whatever happened to last year's Sturgis? Well, it turned out almost half a million people went, about 450,000.

In the end, fewer than 0.1 percent of them got COVID, so no, millions did not die. Actually, it was fine.

But Tony Fauci did not change his guidance. He is not deterred by his own bigotry and stupid predictions you may have noticed, so here he was the other day, warning us once again about the perils of Sturgis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Well, I am very concerned, Chuck, that we are going to see another surge related to that rally. I mean, to me, it is understandable that people want to do the kinds of things that they want to do, they want their freedom to do that, but there comes a time when you're dealing with a public health crisis that could involve you, your family, and everyone else.

That something supersedes that need to do exactly what you want to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: "Well, I'm very concerned, Chuck," BOHICA. So, as Tony Fauci just explained, given how dangerous to public health those bikers at Sturgis are, you've got to wonder what the risk the rest of us face might be from Barack Obama's Martha's Vineyard birthday party.

Here you have hundreds of people indoors without masks who haven't proven their vaccination status, and if the numbers tell us anything, quite a few of them were not vaccinated. Is that acceptable or not? Sincerely, that's an urgent public health question, the kind you'd think Tony Fauci exists to answer, as the highest paid public sector employee.

But he didn't answer the question, and as we told you, we tried and he won't answer it.

So, as an epidemiological matter, where do you think Barack Obama got the idea that it's a good idea to hold huge indoor events with people who haven't proven they've gotten the shot and aren't wearing masks? How could he have determined that?

Well, maybe he watched his friend, Muriel Bowser, who is the Mayor of D.C. She just did the very same thing. Bowser, you will recall forced a new mask mandate on her city, but she delayed it within hours just long enough to hold a birthday party for herself and that's fine. It's cool. It's not like she rides a Harley. She's a democratic office holder.

Now, if you still believe in science and are becoming slightly confused by this public health guidance, you didn't watch CNN this weekend because they laid it out in the clearest possible terms.

Listen to this reporter from "The New York Times" explain why Barack Obama and his friends from TikTok can have maskless parties indoors without vaccine passports at the very same moment you are not allowed to visit your dying parents in the hospital.

It's not arbitrary, it's not capricious. There is a reason, a medical reason. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNIE KARNI, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Other people said, you know, this is really being overblown. They are following all the safety precautions. People are going to sporting events that are bigger than this. This is going to be safe. This is a sophisticated vaccinated crowd.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Oh okay, now we're talking science. So when it happens at Barack Obama's 12 -- by the way, that was the purchase price, we're talking over $20 million house on the ocean that's immune from climate change, what happens there, it is not a problem because the crowd, and we are quoting "The New York Times" as we say this is quote, "sophisticated and vaccinated."

Now, we don't know about the vaccinated because they didn't have to prove it, and again, if the numbers are right, a lot of them weren't vaccinated. Maybe more than half. But that's not what she was saying. The emphasis here, the medically significant word is "sophisticated."

Right now, the Biden administration is forcing unvaccinated people to obey every requirement that vaccinated have to follow. It is the sophisticated crowds that are exempt from the rules. Vaccines have nothing to do with it. The question is one of sophistication.

You should also -- the sophisticated in this country, the King Farouk's who walk among us, towering above the rest, are also exempt from having to pay their taxes, exempt from having their police defunded, exempt from having say Catholic Charities move penniless immigrants into their neighborhoods in the new Section 8 housing they're building on your street.

They don't have to deal with any of that because they are sophisticated. It's nice to be sophisticated.

You know what though? It's definitely bad to be unsophisticated because if you're unsophisticated, CNN will not come to your defense. Its anchors will not defend you when you ignore the rules, instead when you're unsophisticated, they will devote hours of coverage to mocking and deriding you, as they did here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Do you think this is going to be a super spreader event?

BRIAN CASTRUCCI, PRESIDENT AND CEO, DEBEAUMONT FOUNDATION: Yes, I'm very concerned. The slogan this year for Sturgis is, "We're spreading our wings," but I'm concerned they're going to be spreading a lot more than just their wings.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Few attendees were masked last year, and that's likely to be the case again this year.

ALI VELSHI, MSNBC HOST: Well this year, Sturgis Rally attendees are proving they didn't learn anything from last year, drawing an even bigger crowd amid a major surge in cases caused by the delta variant and the unvaccinated.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The annual event kicked off over the weekend with packed bars, rock concerts and barely any masks.

LEMON: You think they'd learn, but nope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: "You'd think they'd learned." Can you imagine? Riding a motorcycle outside with no mask on, reckless freaks, killing the rest of us. "You'd think they'd learn, but nope." That's the judgment of Dr. Don Lemon.

But again, since, in the end, this is a news program, we should remind you that there was actually no COVID outbreak at Sturgis last year, but somehow no one has told cable news. They are completely convinced it was a super spreader event.

Go to CNN's website right now and you will find a very lengthy piece with this headline and we're quoting, "South Dakota's Sturgis Motorcycle Rally: A Cautionary Tale in the Age of COVID-19." A cautionary tale.

Cautioning against what? Believing the dummies at CNN?

In the piece, CNN reports with horror that there are virtually no TikTok stars this year at Sturgis, they are all in Martha's Vineyard. Oprah has never even been to Sturgis, instead according to CNN, Sturgis involves -- and we're quoting now, "Drag races, rock concerts, pub crawls, tattoo contests, and processions of Harley-Davidson's through the Black Hills Mountain range." Whoa. Whoa. You know what that means, right? Public health disaster, or again in the words of CNN, the Sturgis Rally had many characteristics of a super spreading event. Large crowds, high intensity of contact between people, " ... potential for highly infectious individuals traveling from hot spots and events in poorly ventilated indoor environments." Not at all like what they're doing under the tent in Martha's Vineyard with the TikTok kids.

It turns out they're not sophisticated, they are super spreaders, and in this country, really you're one or the other. That's your choice.

Candace Owens is the host of "Candace," she joins us tonight to unravel the mystery of sophistication and public health.

Candace Owens, it is so great to see you tonight. So, you know, a lot of us have been thinking, how do we protect ourselves against this global pandemic? And it turns out, sophistication is the most reliable prophylactic against COVID infection. CNN just told us.

CANDACE OWENS, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That's exactly right. That's right. Hydroxychloroquine does not work, but sophistication most certainly does. So, if you have a little bit of dose of sophistication, you can do whatever you want in this country actually.

CARLSON: Oh, that's true.

OWENS: You don't have to mask. You can see your relatives. I mean, it is - - it is funny, it is laughable, and it is also just so frustrating and people are right to be angry. I mean, we spent an entire -- two years now, we're almost two years now where people looked at people and said: Are you a person that wants to go see your loved one who passed away? Do you want to attend their funeral? Do you want to attend their funeral?

You're a selfish human being.

Do you want to watch your daughter get married? You're a selfish human being if you don't shut this down. Or were you like I was, pregnant during lockdowns. Did you want your husband to attend your first ultrasound? You're a selfish backwards human being. You're not listening to science. You're ignoring the science, right?

We heard this over and over again being reinforced by the academia, by the media, by the elitist snobs who genuinely look over their balcony and they say whatever they want because they don't live like us, Tucker. They don't live like us. They don't care.

Obama just had his media friends run cover, say I'm going to scale it down massively. I don't care because at the end of the day, I'm going to set -- I'm going to celebrate my 60th birthday party. This is essentially what they said to the people. This is a story of the haves and the have-nots.

The haves are laughing at the have-nots as they continue to make these "Simon says" rules that everybody has to follow, absent any meaningful scientific dialogue or discussion. It's just trust the science blanket. Don't question it or you're a horrible backwards selfish human being.

CARLSON: Yes, class war posing as public health. I wonder since it's gotten to the point where it's just totally transparent, it's just open. You know -- you can you can torch Minneapolis, but that's not a super spreader event. You can have a party in Martha's Vineyard, totally cool. Sturgis is a danger to the nation.

How long do people keep participating in their own humiliation, do you think?

OWENS: I think they have to stop. You know, I have been very vocal. I have said in every single one of my regards across social media that now especially following this birthday party, this is like just adding insult to injury here. It is really the time for civil disobedience.

I want to be clear here so people don't misinterpret my words. When I say civil disobedience, I mean, live your life. Yes, go to the birthday party. Have your husband where you want him to be. Yes, have your daughter's wedding.

Stop listening to these people who don't care about you, who tell you, you need to wear a mask on the plane while they fly around private, and don't know what it's like to have to go through an airport and be treated like you're a diseased individual.

It's time to stop listening to those individuals because they do not have to go through what you go through and they enjoy it by the way. They enjoy. They don't care, they're laughing at you and mocking you behind closed doors.

They enjoy watching you suffer while they continue to live their lives.

CARLSON: I think it's my favorite line ever uttered on the show, "Civil disobedience like having your daughter's wedding." The option is to get really upset, I'm trying -- Candace Owens, you're the best. Thank you so much for that.

OWENS: Thank you.

CARLSON: So, we're back in our country and grateful to be here. We spent the last week in Hungary, learned a lot there. It's worth leaving once in a while, just to get a little bit of perspective. We're grateful that we did.

It turns out we don't have to live like this. You can have a country that's orderly and clean and pretty that has real borders, all you need is leaders who care about you. We will show you a part of what we learned after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Welcome back. Still can't get over the fact that Barack Obama was wearing a gray Hawaiian shirt. Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of a Hawaiian shirt if it's gray? It's a Hawaiian shirt funeral version? Sorry, sidetracked.

We just got back to the United States and kind of shocked by how things are going here with Barack Obama, anyway.

We were in Hungary all of last week. We interviewed the Prime Minister of Hungary for a documentary series we're doing. We took a look at their border policies, which seem to be working much better than ours. Didn't expect it to be too big a deal, but while we were gone, we were denounced as fascists, suspected of -- I don't know, assessing the air defenses around Paris or something, up to something really bad.

So, my producers decided today maybe we should admit what we were up to, a speech at a college in Hungary about no, not invading anybody or fascism. Honestly, mostly about architecture.

So, we're going to play you a clip from it, just to prove it. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: And I just can't resist saying this since we're standing in the middle of Central Europe looking at this vista, which really moves me looking at these buildings, which move me, not simply because they're old and some have bullet holes which in my view are a very useful reminder.

I wish I lived in a city full of bullet holes in the building because every morning you look at them and you think to yourself it could be really bad, because it's been really bad. There's a lot at stake. Make wise, sober, long-term decisions or else you could wind up with more bullet holes.

[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]

CARLSON: it's true. It's true. And if I would level -- and I could spend all day leveling very accurate accusations against the American foreign policy establishment, but the main one would be, that they have no sense of how bad things can get and it's -- this is the bad side of the upside of America, America is an optimistic country always has been, came from all around the world, showed up in this mostly untouched continent with the most fertile farmland in the world and an ocean to separate us from the lunatics.

[LAUGHTER]

CARLSON: And it gave us the feeling that anything is possible and everything has been possible, and I will never stop being grateful for that or proud of it, but the downside to that, the flip side, the obverse, the other side of the coin as you say in Hungary, is that Americans have no sense of how bad things can get. That it actually could be a lot worse.

Our physical isolation cuts us off from the history of the rest of the world. There is not a passion to study what happened before in a place that you're building anew, right? Right. So, we don't have a sense of that.

So, I love your bullet holes, let me just say, I'm probably the only visitor to your nation who has complimented your small arms and artillery scars, because here's what I like more about the landscape of Hungary, a few Soviet remnants notwithstanding, it's pretty.

It is pretty. The buildings are pretty. The architecture uplifts.

[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]

CARLSON: So, this is another -- this is another third rail in American politics. You're not allowed to note that our buildings are grotesque and dehumanizing. Why are they bad? Because they're ugly, and ugly dehumanizes us, and let me be more precise about what I mean when I say dehumanizing -- dehumanizing is the act of convincing people that they don't matter, that they are less significant than the larger whole, that they are not distinct souls, that they are not unique, that they are not created by God, that they are merely putty in the hands of some larger force that they must obey.

This is what all authoritarian movements do. You don't matter. Wear a mask, you're all the same. Ugly architecture, brutalist architecture, glass and steel architecture. Mies Van Der Rohe architecture was designed to send that message, not to uplift, but to oppress, and it is very noticeable and this is never noted in the United States, which unfortunately over time has had its aesthetic sense dulled.

We've been told it's not important. What matters is GDP, really. You know, get the new microwave or whatever, the new car, the new place in Aspen. Yes. I'm not against any of that. I'm not against wealth for sure.

But I would trade it to live in a pretty place, a place that uplifts your spirit by looking at it, but here's the point. You behave this way if you care. If you care. If you think of your country like your home, you don't want it to look crappy. It's really that simple.

If it's your house, you want to be in charge of who sleeps there. That's not a complex principle. It's the most basic human principle.

So, as I'm standing at the border, literally at the border fence, thinking about this, watching the German Shepherd amble past, I was trying to talk to a Border guard who by the way like, as noted, like every Hungarian I have met, every -- from the driver, to the waiter, to the Border guard had better English than their own President.

[LAUGHTER]

[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]

CARLSON: I said, how often do people come to the border? How often do you see migrants putting ladders atop the concertina wire? Is this like every hour? Every day? Is it at night? During the -- you know, I'm trying to ask the dumb journalist questions, and he said, well, and then he stopped and he looked down like very intensely like something bad had happened, and I'm from the U.S. where we have poisonous snakes, so I immediately thought --

[LAUGHTER]

CARLSON: You know, I don't know if they have cobras in Hungary. Again, I don't speak the language, so I step back and there is a plastic sandwich bag about that big on the ground stuck at the bottom of the chain-link fence and this guard reaches down, grabs the bag and puts it in his own pocket.

And I don't think I've -- I have seen in my life very few displays more powerful than that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Bottom line, we don't have to live this way. Walk through Midtown Manhattan, which the people in charge right now did not build, previous generations built it, and watch what the people now in charge have let happen to it. We don't have to live like that.

If we have people who care, we'll live in a great country. It's that simple.

That was the MCC Festival in Hungary, by the way.

As we said, we were there for a new episode of our long-form documentary series "Tucker Carlson Originals." It will be out soon on foxnation.com.

So, we're about to do something after the break, we've never done before. We are going to defend Chris Cuomo. We can promise you, not a single picture of his sweaty workouts. No kidding. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Of 8:33 Eastern Time on August 9, 2021, Andrew Cuomo is still the Governor of New York. I can't promise that's going to last much longer. We are not sure, but FOX's Matt Finn has been on this story and brings us the very latest now. Hey, Matt.

MATT FINN, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: Tucker, Brittany Commisso is one of 11 women that have accused Governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment. Commisso is named as Executive Assistant #1 in the Attorney General's report and she says while taking a selfie, the Governor inappropriately touched her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRITTANY COMMISSO, GOV. ANDREW CUOMO ACCUSER: I then felt while taking the selfie, his hand go down my back, onto my butt, and he started rubbing it. Not sliding it, not you know, quickly brushing over it, rubbing my butt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FINN: Commisso also alleges the Governor gave her hugs that she says were not the type he would give his mother or brother, rather the type seeking sexual satisfaction. She says those hugs were not normal or welcome.

The Governor has denied inappropriately touching anyone. Cuomo even released a reel of himself kissing and hugging people suggesting it's his normal behavior.

There are growing calls tonight for the Governor to resign, even the President says Cuomo should step down. The New York State Assembly right now is conducting an impeachment investigation, its findings could be released as early as the end of this month. The New York State Assembly only needs a simple majority vote to move forward with that impeachment trial -- Tucker.

CARLSON: Matt Finn, thanks so much for that.

FINN: Thank you.

CARLSON: So, Andrew Cuomo is a weirdo. He is a butt rubber, a terrible Governor actually. But tonight, we want to pause from piling on Andrew Cuomo, which we will be happy to resume tomorrow and take a moment to defend the chief bodybuilding correspondent over at CNN who is his brother.

We are not going to show any pictures of Chris Cuomo flexing on camera, we've done that before. We are just going to note that in the middle of this scandal that may remove his brother from office, Chris Cuomo decided he is going to go on a vacation.

Now, we know what you are thinking could this really be a vacation? But CNN broke into its extended coverage of Sturgis to answer that question, yes. It is a real vacation.

Here is their position on his vacation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Tell a well off host to hang out by the pool for a couple of weeks is not a real punishment. It is BS when FOX sends a host off on a vacation during a scandal. Scolding a host in public, saying what they did was inappropriate, that is an actual punishment.

Chris is going to have a surreal birthday on Monday. He always takes his birth week off. He always takes it off work, but this year he's going to be absent while his brother is fighting for his political life trying to stop this impeachment train.

And bad faith actors are going to say Chris has been canceled or something when they don't see him on air on Monday. Don't believe it. I checked with sources on his staff and they confirmed that he booked this time off months ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: That could be real? He has got to be a plant from MSNBC. There is no chance that he is actually acting on behalf of CNN. He is too discrediting. But anyway, we're just playing you the tape and you can evaluate it for yourself. So, this is CNN's position.

When one of our anchors takes a vacation, it's totally real, but if you work at FOX News, all vacations are Potemkin vacations. That was Don Lemon's position when we went fishing a couple of years ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Tucker Carlson is on vacation as of tonight due back on the 19th. FOX News has a long history of their hosts heading out on vacation after they become engulfed in controversy over inflammatory comments.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Oh yes, Don Lemon, the plane probably flew into a black hole. Yes, for sure. To paraphrase Sigmund Freud, sometimes a vacation is just a vacation and we're willing to believe that Chris Cuomo's vacation is just a vacation.

Two other quick things about Chris Cuomo, in total sincerity. One, you're not responsible for the misbehavior of your relatives, sorry, you didn't choose them. In fact, you're not responsible for anyone else's misbehavior, only your own. That's just true. It's the basis of American justice and it's the basis of human decency. Don't blame people for things they didn't do.

And the other point to make is Chris Cuomo is coming under a lot of fire for helping his brother in the middle of this crisis. Now, we can't evaluate how true that is, but if it is true, let's be real for a second. It's understandable. It's his brother.

Your loyalty should be to your family above all else, not joking at all. Maybe even above your job, maybe even above Jeff Zucker. If your brother calls and says I need help, if you don't give him help because you're pretending to be a news anchor on some stupid cable channel nobody watches, you're betraying your brother, and that's a greater sin than any of the dumb politics they espouse on that channel. Totally true.

So, we're not going to criticize him for that.

One more piece of advice, Chris Cuomo, take a break from the girls on vacation. You'll enjoy it better.

So, several Republicans in the Senate, a number of them appear to be supporting the Biden administration's new infrastructure bill. A lot of which has nothing to do with infrastructure. The billet among other things force people to have monitoring devices in their car, so you would need permission from your Federal overlords before starting your vehicle in the morning.

The bill would also legalize yet more racial discrimination in the name of equity, which is the opposite of what America is about or should ever be about. Not many republicans have said much about this. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana in fact just tweeted -- he is a good guy, most of the time, but he just tweeted this defense of the bill's equity provisions, quote: "Critical race theory is not in this bill, never has been. Equity is not a catchphrase for critical race theory." Of course equity is the whole justification for critical race theory.

It's important to know what you're talking about before you weigh in on social media.

One of the only Republican senators we can find who is doing anything to stop this bill is Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, and we're happy to have him join us tonight.

Senator, thanks so much for coming on.

SEN. BILL HAGERTY (R-TN): Welcome home, Tucker.

CARLSON: So, so many of your colleagues who you work with closely and lots of other things who I'm sure that you like personally are not only supporting this bill, but actively defending it in public, but you are doing exactly the opposite. Why?

HAGERTY: Well, this bill has become rather obvious what it really is. It has been shielded with a veneer of bipartisanship, but what it really has become is the open gateway to lead right into this 3.5 trillion package, the Bernie Sanders transformation of America package that they're trying to set up.

And they gave us a 2,700-page bill and only a few days to look at it, and then the very afternoon that we got the CBO score that tells what the bill actually cost, it fell short by a quarter of a trillion dollars.

What's the response of the leadership? What's Chuck Schumer's response? Let's go ahead and accelerate it, rush it through tonight. Let's put this in our rearview mirror so we can get on to the bigger part of this transformation of America.

I said, no, we're not going to accelerate it. We're going to expose it to the light of day and the more we're able to talk about it, I mean that's the reason we're having this conversation right now. We've had the opportunity to let the American public understand what's in this bill.

We let them understand what it cost and now, what we're seeing is real positive movement in our direction. A couple of senators have already changed their positions and are not going to vote for this bill, now even though they were going to support it before.

I think we're putting a lot of pressure on the House of Representatives. I think, it'll be very difficult for Democrats in these swing districts there to continue to support this as the light of day comes to bear, and as their taxpayers, as their citizens understand exactly what's in this bill.

CARLSON: Yes, so if it's an infrastructure build that suggests it's for everybody regardless of what you look like, regardless of how you were born. What is equity? What does your race have to do with say fixing the George Washington Bridge, which is swaying? Or making our airports less grotesque? Like why add that?

HAGERTY: It has absolutely nothing to do with it, yet, this is going to empower the Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to determine how racist the system is and how he is going to fix it. Equity again is the code word for redistribution. It's not equality, which is what the foundation of this nation is.

CARLSON: Of course.

HAGERTY: It is the absolute opposite of that.

CARLSON: I mean, no offense, but like if you're a Republican voter and you're desperate for somebody to defend you, to stand up and say this is totally anti-American what you're doing, how should you feel when all these Republicans, some of whom are pretty good guys. I know a bunch of them, but they're on board with this stuff? Like what -- do they understand the message that they're sending to their voters by getting on board with this?

HAGERTY: Well, again this is a massive power grab by the Democrats. I think we've been lectured for four years about the fact that Republicans under Trump didn't respect our institutions, but as soon as the Democrats take control, they moved to federalize our elections to basically pack the court, and now they've taken the attempt to basically give us zero time to evaluate a 2,700-page bill that's fallen a quarter of a trillion dollars short in terms of it being funded and paid for as advertised.

So the time is now to push back on this and that's exactly what I've done and I think that my colleagues need to take this time to really look hard at this bill and what's in it and I hope that it will affect their decision when it comes time to vote.

CARLSON: Yes, you're probably not going to win Lindsey Graham who is just like actively working for the Democratic Party, but I bet there are others who you can convince by your example. We appreciate your coming on tonight, Senator Bill Hagerty, thank you.

HAGERTY: Thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: So, you probably have the feeling there's some weird stuff going on in Hollywood, Anthony Pellicano knows exactly what's going on in Hollywood. He was by far the most famous fixer in all of Los Angeles. He went to prison for a very long time for things that happened.

He is out. He is highly informed. He is a great guy and we talked to him at some length, after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: For decades, Anthony Pellicano was the best known private detective and fixer in Hollywood. His methods were unconventional and according to the Federal government, sometimes illegal.

In 2002, Federal agents raided his office and found practice grenades and C4 explosives. He served a decade and a half in the end in jail, a little more on wiretapping and racketeering charges.

He never ratted out anyone and he learned an awful lot in the meantime. What an interesting person. He got out of jail in 2019. We spoke to him at great length about what he learned in Hollywood and in prison for a brand new episode of "Tucker Carlson Today." Here is part of the conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So without betraying the confidence of the people for whom you worked, give us your assessment of Hollywood. You were at the very center of it.

ANTHONY PELLICANO, FORMER PRIVATE DETECTIVE AND FIXER IN HOLLYWOOD: Well you're talking about Hollywood then or Hollywood now?

CARLSON: The Hollywood that you knew, that you lived in.

PELLICANO: Hollywood, it was decadent. I mean everything that you could imagine going on went on, you know, and the reason I made so much money is because people got themselves into trouble and needed to get out and they couldn't go to law enforcement, you know so they would go to their agents or they would go to their managers or their lawyers and lawyers would hire me.

CARLSON: So, give us a hypothetical problem that they will want you to solve. No names, but just like what do you -- the kind of thing you are talking about.

PELLICANO: Well you have the #MeToo movement now.

CARLSON: Yes.

PELLICANO: There was no such thing as a #MeToo movement then. You understand? So, you know there were women who would do whatever they could to get you know, next to a movie star or to make money and/or athletes especially athletes, you know and sleep with them, become pregnant so they get an annuity.

Or you know, try to extort them for large sums of money or you know you've done something with a woman your wife doesn't know about it, you're a celebrity. You could you know -- it could cost you a lot of money should somebody disclose this. You know, and I'd come in and take care of it.

CARLSON: Can you be slightly more specific?

PELLICANO: Well --

CARLSON: How would you fix that problem? You've got a professional athlete or an actor, a pregnant woman not his wife.

PELLICANO: You have to give that person who is trying to do those things a reason not to do it and I gave him them the -- I mean, it's just as simple as that. I mean, you fix the problem. That's what I did.

I was -- they called me a fixer, that's what I did, you know.

CARLSON: How hard is it to make that case to the person?

PELLICANO: Being me? Not too hard at all, but you know, but you -- I mean, you have to -- they have to look at you, they have to know that you're serious. I mean you could do this the easy way or you could do it the hard way. I don't give a [bleep] which way you choose because you're going to do what I want you to do at the end of the day, just that simple.

CARLSON: How forcefully did you have to make that case or did people believe you?

PELLICANO: Well, sometimes very forceful. I mean, you know -- and a lot of times, people would go run to other people to try to intercede, you know, and then I have to face those people, too.

But you know, at the end of the day, I took care of it. And by the way, I always started out as a gentleman. Always, always with reason. I always tried to reason with people.

I didn't get to the point where I had to use other means unless reasoning didn't work, you know, so you just think about that.

CARLSON: What percentage would you say responded to reason?

PELLICANO: Not more than 25 percent.

CARLSON: You had to go to Plan B quite a bit.

PELLICANO: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: This is an amazing conversation with an amazing man. He comes out of prison after 17 years-ish, loving America and wiser. It sounds improbable, but it's true, and if you watch it, it goes on for about an hour.

It's a brand new episode of "Tucker Carlson Today." You will agree. Anthony Pellicano, quite a person. It's on foxnation.com.

So, we've got some news to share with you next, and we will.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: So, in January, Simon & Schuster announced -- the book publisher announced it was canceling a book by Senator Josh Hawley because he had voted in a way that offended them. They denounced him as a terrorist. By the way, the vote he cast was almost identical to votes that Democrats had cast at the end of previous elections, but it didn't matter. They canceled his book.

At that exact moment, I was under contract with Simon & Schuster to publish a collection of magazine journals, going back 30 years, so I felt a moral obligation to find out what happened, and I did.

I reported out the story. I called Jon Karp who runs Simon & Schuster, and I reported out why exactly they cancelled Hawley's book, how many other authors have been cancelled for political reason and explained how American publishing which for generations defended the right of free speech and free expression has become the vanguard of censorship in this country.

Anyway, the book is called "The Long Slide: 30 Years in American Journalism." You can order right now at tuckercarlson.com. It has got a lot of magazine pieces that held up fairly well, and again, it is published by Simon & Schuster.

We're going to be going to be at a bunch of different shows this week, going out at Laura's show tonight at 10:00, on "The Five" tomorrow at 5:00, and on Wednesday getting up very early by our standards for "FOX and Friends." And I can't wait to do that.

Anyway, it's called "The Long Slide." And if you want to know, this is a snapshot of the spread of censorship in this country, but it is pretty interesting actually. It is filled with details.

Anyway, it is on tuckercarlson.com.

That's it for uas tonight. We will be back tomorrow and every week night, 8:00 p.m., the show that is the sworn totally sincere enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness and group think.

Anthony Pellicano on FOX Nation.

We will see you tomorrow. Sean Hannity next.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: All right, Tucker and as always, thank you. Welcome to HANNITY. Tonight, the hypocrisy in the Democratic Party, it has actually never ever been worse.

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