Updated

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," September 14, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

TUCKER CARLSON, HOST: This is a Fox News Alert: Tropical Storm Florence is driving inland and sowing destruction in its path. What was once a hurricane a short time ago has already claimed several lives.

Good evening and welcome to "Tucker Carlson Tonight." We've got a lot of news ahead. But we want to start with this storm. We've got a team of reporters spread across the Carolinas right in the middle of this storm. Deadly storm surge and flooding are major concerns right now.

We're going to start with Leland Vittert who's in Morehead City, North Carolina. Leland, what's it like?

LELAND VITTERT, FOX NEWS: Tucker, it's unbelievable. Still now 24 hours since the really bad stuff started in Morehead City you can still at times lean against these gusts of winds, if nothing else just to demonstrate how long this storm is taking to move on.

And it's really an expediential (ph) effect of damage between the amount of rain we are seeing, the amount of storm surge we're seeing and the duration of it that we are seeing.

And it's very easy in the first couple of hours of these hurricanes after they pass a little bit to go oh well, you don't really see that much destruction. It's going to take days before people can get out and survey what's happening.

There's still a lot of areas that we can't get to. As we drove around just a little bit today, we saw entire marinas decimated. That means people's livelihoods taken away in addition to their homes, most likely, taken away. The boat captains around here won't be able to make a living for a very long time, Tucker.

CARLSON: It's a good point. Takes a long time even to know what happened. Leland Vittert, thank you. Move now to Rick Leventhal who is live for us tonight at Wilmington, North Carolina. Rick?

RICK LEVENTHAL, FOX NEWS: Tucker, we just moved from Wrightsville Beach. We're on the west side of the Intracoastal in a private community where there are dozens, if not hundreds, of trees that have fallen.

One - two of the four fatalities reported so far was a mother and her infant who were killed by a falling tree on their house. Well there are trees all over this town and this state that are coming down.

You can probably see the - the branch right here. There's some next to us. It's very dark here. The power is still off, so it's difficult to show you but some of these trees that came down, not this one, but others that we've seen that are blocking the roads here, are at least 50 years old. There (ph).

It's not safe to be out here. And we're not going to stay out here for very long because we fully expect more of these trees to come down. But this threat, Tucker, is true across the state.

The grounds been saturated. They had record rainfall already this summer. And now, with all of this additional rain up to three inches an hour in some spots, it's going to create a lot of hazards for trees and powerlines to come down.

And - and authorities are very nervous about people being out on the roads and being victims of - of stuff like this.

CARLSON: Exactly. It's cumulative. Be careful. Thanks Rick.

We'll go now to one of the largest cities affected in the Carolinas. Fox Charlotte's Brett Baldeck is in Charlotte for us tonight. Brett?

BRETT BALDECK, MULTIMEDIA JOURNALIST: Yes, we just had one of those outer bay - rainbands move through the Charlotte area. But winds have been strong all day.

Take a look at this car right here. A tree fell on it earlier this afternoon. Luckily, there were no injuries. The man parked here, unfortunately, because he thought some of the trees were going to fall down and it fell right on his car.

We're expecting at least a foot of rain in Charlotte over the next couple of days, which is something that many places - places in these areas have not seen before. This is just the start of the storm in Charlotte.

We've already had trees down but officials are expecting even more power outages, trees down, and devastating flooding over the weekend.

CARLSON: A foot of rain, unbelievable. Brett Baldeck in Charlotte, North Carolina for us. Thank you.

We're going to go now to Steve Harrigan. He is where he was last night in North Topsail Beach. Steve, how is it?

STEVE HARRIGAN, FOX NEWS: Tucker, we had to pull back a little bit from the beach because the water was simply rising too high. For the past 30 hours, it's been raining steadily more than 20 inches in this area and moving around on the roads has simply gotten too dicey.

Some police over here are blocking that traffic. The wind, today, was strong enough to cause some serious damage to a lot of houses on the beach. We saw some roofs taken off and some other problems as well.

The one thing that's been clear in this storm, the message has gotten out to the people of North Carolina. Almost all the homes we saw, even the damaged ones, boarded up no one inside and help is coming from around the country. At least 19 different states sending Swift Boat rescue teams to help people with the flooding ahead. Tucker, back to you.

CARLSON: Steve Harrigan, North Topsail Beach, if there's a storm he's there.

Well we go now (ph) to our Ellison Barber. She's in Florence, South Carolina and she joins us live. Ellison, what's it like there?

ELLISON BARBER, FOX NEWS: Hey, Tucker. So, we really weren't feeling any effects of this storm until a few hours ago. You can see the wind and the rain are starting to pick up the winds. The strongest winds were recorded about an hour away from here closer to Myrtle Beach near Conway, South Carolina.

Experts say wind gusts there hit about 63 miles per hour. But the story here, the story there across the state of South Carolina is not and has not been about the wind. Officials, federal and state officials, say their focus is in the rain - is the rainfall and potential flash flooding in South Carolina.

There's a lot of concern about the development over the next couple days for river flooding. There's a basin, the Pee Dee River Basin. Water flows into that from North Carolina and South Carolina.

Officials here in South Carolina say across the state that that basin is one of their highest priorities over the next couple days. The Governor is telling everyone whether they're inland or in (ph) another part of the state to hunker down, stay put for the next two days because they say this storm is going to be slow and long.

They're saying it won't be like Hurricane Hugo. It won't come through here quickly. And they want to make sure people stay put because they're really worried about all the rain and potential flooding. Tucker?

CARLSON: I bet they are. Ellison Barber, Florence, South Carolina. Thank you very much for that.

So, Florence and towns like it are on the leading edge to this storm. The question is what's ahead for them. How much water is on the ground right now? And what will that mean for the destruction that this storm can wreak?

Chief Meteorologist Rick Reichmuth has been following this since the very beginning and he joins us now. Rick, what's - what happens next?

RICK REICHMUTH, CHIEF METEOROLOGIST, FOX NEWS: It's really interesting storm. Because it moves so slow that just makes all these different kinds of impacts come over probably about the next five to six days, maybe even a little bit longer.

Just want (ph) to show you this is the last 24 hours of the storm. Started there just off of Morehead City, which by the way is almost at 24 inches of rain, officially, which if it gets just over 24 that would be the wettest tropical system North Carolina has ever had. And I guarantee you they'll get far over that.

It has moved about a 145 miles is all in this time. We have some flooding going on. Obviously, you are seeing all of the flooding. But these are only river gauges where we are seeing either moderate or major flooding going on right now.

Go to five days from now, Tucker, and take a look at this. We've got river gauges all over the place that are going to be probably at record levels and that's because of the rain that's about to come and the rain that is going to move it move off of the mountain areas and inland areas and just all piles up.

So, we have a very long event here. We probably have rain until Tuesday or Wednesday. And we are going to have those rivers at record levels, in some cases, maybe six to seven feet higher than records and that will stay at that level for probably five to six days.

CARLSON: Ooph! Harsh. Rick Reichmuth, thanks a lot for that.

REICHMUTH: Yes.

CARLSON: We'll continue to update, of course, on this storm all hour and all evening right here on Fox, so stay tuned for that.

Well there's lot going on in the political world tonight. Democrats, so desperate to stop the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings they're digging into his high school years with anonymous accusations of sexual assault. We'll tell you what they're saying, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Democrats would like to stop the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in the worst way. And they're going about it in the worst way.

They have produced or talked about the existence of a letter that no civilian has seen from a woman whose identity nobody knows that accuses Kavanaugh of unspecified sexual conduct apparently 35 years ago.

We don't know the year. He was in high school at the time. He's denied the allegations to the extent he's even heard them. Democrats passed this letter to the FBI for reasons they've never explained. The FBI said "We're not investigating this."

And yet despite all of that the transparent attempt to wreck a man's life because he's in the way of their acquisition of power, some Democrats are saying this letter is enough that Kavanaugh ought to withdraw.

Chris Hahn is an attorney, a radio host, a former aide to Senator Chuck Schumer and he joins us tonight. So let's get the facts of this first in line.

Why would Senator Feinstein pass this on to the FBI, which is a federal law enforcement agency which would seem to have no jurisdiction in the State of Maryland 35 years ago? Why the FBI?

CHRISTOPHER HAHN, FORMER AIDE TO SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER: Well the FBI does the background checks of all candidates for judicial offices and I think they needed to put this into his file.

Look, she got this letter a - a couple of weeks ago. The - the person who wrote the letter did not want to come forward, probably wanted to avoid the same fate Anita Hill faced when in 1991 during the Clarence Thomas hearings.

And Dianne Feinstein decided not to make this an issue during the confirmation hearings. There have been many Democrats pushing on her since then to make this an issue and she has refused to do that.

I think she's behaved responsibly. If the witness doesn't want to come forward it's hard for them to - to - to have this conversation. That said, I believe that all victims or - or people who claim to be victims of - of sexual abuse should be heard.

And I know that Ronan Farrow has written about this in The New Yorker today and--

CARLSON: Wait, wait, but - but hold on, wait, wait she doesn't want to wait but hold on--

HAHN: --and I'm sure he'll be investigating it and we'll see what happens.

CARLSON: --she - OK, so you just said that Senator Feinstein did the responsible thing.

HAHN: Yes.

CARLSON: What about the Democrats who pushed her, Anna Eshoo, for example, from California and the many Democrats who are coming out today (ph) saying he'll resign, withdraw--

HAHN: Right.

CARLSON: --because of this story about which we know basically nothing, are they being responsible too? They're being irresponsible, of course, by your definition.

HAHN: Well Eshoo from - Eshoo from California was the original recipient of the complaint. The - the constituent of his call - her, called the office and - and made this complaint. And she forwarded it to - to Dianne Feinstein. So, - so, here we are, right, doing the responsible thing--

CARLSON: But what is it - wait, wait, hold on, wait, wait, what do mean it's - what's do you mean it's--

HAHN: --not putting somebody out there who (ph) doesn't want to be put out there--

CARLSON: --there's nothing responsible about this. You're destroying a man's reputation on the basis of no evidence, leveling charges against him he cannot refute.

How would you feel if I said "You know what, Chris? I heard from someone, actually a friend of someone else, whose name I will not tell you that you will never know that you did something 35 years ago in high school. I can't tell you the year because I don't know it but it was a very bad thing, a sexual thing, and I just want to tell your wife and kids about it."

What's your response to that?

HAHN: You know, I'm - I'm not a candidate--

CARLSON: It's - it's character assassination.

HAHN: --but I'm not a - I'm not a candidate for the highest judicial post--

CARLSON: Doesn't matter.

HAHN: --in the land (ph). He is.

CARLSON: This is a question of fairness.

HAHN: So, his life is a bit more--

CARLSON: How would you feel if I did that to you?

HAHN: --he deserves a bit more - he deserves a bit more scrutiny. And I do not think that this has been overdone. I do not believe that this has been- -

CARLSON: What do you mean it's overdone? Well--

HAHN: --this has not (ph) been part of the hearing. It does--

CARLSON: --well wait a second. Hold on--

HAHN: I don't believe it has and--

CARLSON: --I'm - I'm not - wait, wait, hold on. I'm not arguing - just to be totally clear, I'm not arguing that we shouldn't know all we can about his life. I - I think we should. I'm for transparency.

HAHN: Right.

CARLSON: But the Democrats didn't find anything out. They didn't interview this woman. And by the way, if you're going to make a charge against somebody, you have a moral obligation to show your face and make the charge. You can't make an anonymous charge. We shouldn't be complicit in this. Do you want to live in a world, a Star Chamber world where somebody--

HAHN: No (ph)--

CARLSON: --you don't even know who it is accuses you of a sex crime--

HAHN: Well, again, look--

CARLSON: --and you can't respond to it--

HAHN: The--

CARLSON: --like what is this?

HAHN: Again - again, she didn't bring this up during the hearings. She sent the letter on to the FBI who is responsible for the background checks and vettings of judges. They have decided not to pursue it.

CARLSON: No, they sent it as a criminal referral (ph)--

HAHN: I'm sure reporters are looking into it.

CARLSON: What do you mean pursue it?

HAHN: And--

CARLSON: You're - you're not making, no offense, you're not making any sense.

HAHN: They decided - they have decided--

CARLSON: Pursue it?

HAHN: --they have decided not to pursue it.

CARLSON: Well that means they'll (ph) pursue it.

HAHN: They gave it to (ph) the FBI has said very clearly they're not going to pursue it. Well they're not pursuing it, Tucker.

CARLSON: OK. Well then well - well but hold on. Then why does--

HAHN: I mean what is she (ph) supposed to do? Is she - is she--

CARLSON: I'll tell you what she's supposed to do.

HAHN: --supposed to just brush it under the rug?

CARLSON: I'll tell you what she's - no, she's supposed to find out if it's true. And if it is, make it public.

HAHN: Right.

CARLSON: But if she can't determine that it's true don't impugn a man's reputation with charges of a sex crime if you don't know that it's true. That's the most reckless thing you can do.

HAHN: I - I--

CARLSON: Why hasn't she apologized yet?

HAHN: I don't think--

CARLSON: What the hell is going on here?

HAHN: I don't think - I don't think that a senator has the resources to investigate something that happened 35 years ago.

CARLSON: Then don't bring it up. The FBI does.

HAHN: And quite frankly I'm not sure that the FBI does.

CARLSON: And they won't.

HAHN: But - well look we'll see--

CARLSON: Well then don't bring it up. I mean what is this?

HAHN: --we'll see what happens by then (ph). Look, she didn't start it.

CARLSON: You don't see this as McCarthyism?

HAHN: It came to her from a constituent - it came to her from - no, I don't. I - I - it came to her from a constituent. I think she behaved responsibly here. This was not part of the hearings--

CARLSON: This is sick.

HAHN: She decided to have the hearings--

CARLSON: Really?

HAHN: --Senator Feinstein decided to have the hearings be--

CARLSON: You know what I would do if - if--

HAHN: --based on the law and his interpretation of law--

CARLSON: It's - this isn't the law.

HAHN: --and not on this story--

CARLSON: This isn't. No.

HAHN: --which it could have been.

CARLSON: You know what I would do?

If - if I were a senator and there was someone whose politics I hated, if Michael Moore was up for the Supreme Court and I got a letter saying "Michael Moore committed a sex crime 35 years ago, you should know about it," I would say, "Tell me the details. Come forward. And if you don't, I'm burning the letter" because I don't like Michael Moore. I don't agree with him. But I'm not going to wreck his life on the basis of an anonymous accusation.

HAHN: I--

CARLSON: That's totally immoral.

HAHN: --I think this is why I - I think this is why Senator Feinstein held on to the letter--

CARLSON: OK.

HAHN: --and did not make it--

CARLSON: Yes, OK. So they leaked it just--

HAHN: --part of the hearing record again (ph)--

CARLSON: --just to - just to make sure his kids were ashamed. It's well--

HAHN: Well--

CARLSON: I don't even know the guy I'm upset (ph).

HAHN: --we're not even sure they're saying--

CARLSON: Chris, thank you.

HAHN: --we're not even sure that they leaked it so thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: Yes. Yes, we are.

Well the Left is making its final pitch to Americans before the mid-terms. You may have heard this before. "Vote for us or else you're a bad person." How'd that work last time?

We'll discuss that next. Plus, we'll continue to watch the effect of what was once Hurricane Florence is now a tropical storm but it's still hurting people and it's still in our country. So, of course, we'll tell you the latest. Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: As the 2018 mid-terms approach, the Democratic Party's trying to do something pretty amazing. The party of single parenthood is repositioning itself as America's moral authority. Some, even attempting to portray the Democrats as champions of Christianity but with a brand new catechism, where abortion is a holy sacrament because that's not a cult or anything.

Here's Chelsea Clinton, a self-described, deeply religious person, explaining how it works.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

CHELSEA VICTORIA CLINTON, CLINTON FOUNDATION AND CLINTON GLOBAL INITIATIVE: How many women died, and how many more women were maimed because of unsafe abortion practices, we just can't go back to that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

CLINTON: But as a deeply religious person it's also un-Christian to me.

FORMER DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE HILLARY CLINTON: Jesus said, "Suffer the little children unto me." He did not say, "Let the children suffer."

HOUSE MINORITY LEADER NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF.: And while we're doing the Lord's work, by ministering to the needs of God's creation, they are ignoring those needs which is to dishonor the God who made them.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

CARLSON: Bible quoters all of a sudden. Meanwhile, Barack Obama, maybe the most morally self-righteous person ever, returned to the campaign trail, his favorite venue and is back to his favorite hobby, lecturing America on its bigotry. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORMER PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Politicians try to keep us angry, and keep us cynical. And they appeal to our tribal instincts and appeal to fear. And they try to pit one group against the other.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, yes.

OBAMA: And they tell us, oh, order and security will be restored if it weren't for those folks who don't look like us or sound like us or pray like we do.

When we don't vote, when we take our basic rights for granted--

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

OBAMA: --other voices fill the void and demagogues get out there and they promise simple fixes to complicated problems.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So, Obama is condemning demagoguery, huh? That's a little much given that for years he's been its chief practitioner in this country. The entire premise of Obama's speech, like countless other speeches he has given, is that his opponents are racist and, therefore, unreasonable and worth ignoring.

The idea that if he calls Americans racist enough times they will obey, that's how he ran the country for eight years. This is not a policy argument he's making. It's a theological one.

The question is, as a political matter, does it still work? What if people aren't intimidated by this anymore? What if Obama is no longer a credible moral voice? And by the way, why exactly would he be a credible moral voice?

Democrats tried this very same approach in 2016. Vote for us or you're a bad person. How'd that work out for them? People resented it so much that they voted for a former casino owner so they wouldn't have to hear it anymore.

Trump may have affairs with porn stars but at least he doesn't go on about how he's so much better than you. Democrats don't understand this. They'll never understand this because it will never occur to them that they're not better than you.

Their belief in their own moral superiority is at the heart of why there are liberals in the first place. But for millions of others though, normal people, Obama speeches are simply a reminder of why they voted for Trump.

Dan Bongino was a former Secret Service Agent and the author of Spygate: The Attempted Sabotage of Donald J. Trump. And he joins us tonight.

Dan, I'm not sure this helps the Democrats.

DANIEL JOHN BONGINO, FORMER SECRET SERVICE AGENT: No, it doesn't Tucker.

And this is all when you listen to those - those speeches, those absurd speeches by the way in the interview with Chelsea Clinton, these are all based on assumptions that the Democrats assume are dispositive and they're not.

And it's an assumption, I wish, Republicans, more of them would come out and fight on a higher principle. And the assumption is this--

CARLSON: Right.

BONGINO: --that government is some kind of a net philanthropic good in your life. Tucker, there's very little evidence that any of that is actually true. So just to be clear what I'm saying, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Chelsea take this faux moral high ground saying we support a bigger government based on the assumption that this is somehow good for you outside of the basic roles of the republic, a military and a court system, Tucker.

As I said, there's almost no evidence this is true. Look at the places around America, frankly, around the world, where the government's expansive and all-powerful over your life, what do you see?

You see despair. You see crime. You see poverty. You see the absence of liberty. Government is not a force for net good in your life. And I wish more Republicans would stop accepting that 30,000 foot argument as - as a dispositive one.

CARLSON: So, I wonder though if the country's changed a little bit. Obama's pitch always was the same. Do what I tell you to do or else I'll call you a bad person or else you are a bad person.

BONGINO: Yes.

CARLSON: You're a bigot if you don't like Obamacare. They literally told us that. But I wonder if a lot of people have come to conclusion like I don't really care what Obama thinks. I'm not a bad person. You have contempt for me. I don't care. You no longer have power over me. It's certainly how I feel. I wonder if there are others who'd feel that way.

BONGINO: Well - well, Tucker, Barack Obama's very tactical here. And what he's doing is - is not - it's not right. It's - it's - it's morally wrong but it's a - it's a very slick tactical strategy. Removing people and separating them from their liberty, Tucker, has never been easy throughout human history. And when I say liberty--

CARLSON: Yes.

BONGINO: --I mean real touchable tangible things. Taking their money, taking their kids' education, their healthcare away, the way you do that is doing exactly what Barack Obama does. It's not by lobbying on a platform yourself. "Hey, give us all your money. Let's expand government." You don't hear Democrats really--

CARLSON: No.

BONGINO: --saying and pitching that stuff.

What you hear them saying is "Don't vote for those guys. They're the racists. They are evil. We're going to protect you against them. It's not what we can do for you. It's we'll protect you against those other guys who are really bad." That's the genesis of identity politics in this new post- JFK liberal movement. That party of JFK those Democrats that they're long gone. Those are now moderate Republicans.

CARLSON: But it's all more (ph) blackmail because their pitch really is American history is so disgusting and indefensible that you have no right to disobey us. And like--

BONGINO: Well it's--

CARLSON: --that takes our complicity.

BONGINO: Yes.

CARLSON: We have to agree with that for it to work. And I just don't agree with it.

BONGINO: Tucker, I think it worked for a while but I think the - the - the - the genesis of social media and - and the prevalence now of (ph) the internet and alternative stories for news and sources for news, you know, they don't have a monopoly the big three anymore. So that message that we're all evil and we're all bad and, you know, we should absolve ourselves of sin--

CARLSON: Yes.

BONGINO: --by voting for Democrats it's not working anymore because you have other people countering that to average Americans who can read it on their smartphones--

CARLSON: Exactly.

BONGINO: --right here.

CARLSON: And that's why they want to shut down social media. Ah, Dan Bongino, so smart always. Thank you.

BONGINO: Thank you, sir.

CARLSON: And now to another storm, not a metaphorical one, a literal one. Tropical Storm Florence in our country, some of the Left are blaming the storm on Donald Trump, climate change. We'll talk to an actual meteorologist, not just a cable news yapper about whether or not that's true. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: This is a Fox News Alert. Hurricane Florence pummeled the coast. And now, Tropical Storm Florence have (ph) made it inland. Parts of it are ugly. WTTG's Marina Marraco is live in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

Marina, what's it look like there?

MARINA MARRACO, REPORTER: Hey, Tucker. You can never underestimate these storms even as a Cat 1. For now, things are OK. We get one of these feeder band - bands that come through and you can feel the wind gusts and the rain but so far so good.

However, the destruction seems like this, probably very similar, throughout the State of North Carolina especially here along the eastern shore.

And you can see these gas stations here, especially all these that are made out of aluminum. For the most part, they're probably the ones that have been the worst hit. A lot of structural damage here in North Carolina. And this is just the beginning as the storm continues to pummel the state and sit (ph) just above and moving at only three miles per hour.

That death toll has now risen to five. And it's incredible the damage that such a small storm can create and you'll see throughout the state, no power here. Billboards just like this one as you drive along these major thoroughfares.

Now, what's incredible is the infrastructure in counties like where we are here in Jacksonville, Onslow County, there's not a single building in this county that can withstand a Category 4 hurricane.

And that is why they asked for those mandatory evacuations so early into the week so that people could get out because there was simply nowhere else to go and that was probably the best call because with that storm surge we saw water rise down by the beach up to 5 feet and a lot of those homes along the beach and the coastline they're taking a total beating. And it'll be incredible to see in daylight just exactly how bad the damage is, Tucker.

CARLSON: Yes, we'll have to wait to know. Marina, thanks a lot for that report.

Washington Post, which used to be just kind of a Liberal newspaper and now is just pure propaganda and unreadably stupid, managed to somehow blame the President for Hurricane Florence. They said he was "Complicit in the storm because of his positions on climate change."

It's pretty big claim to make. Is it true? We thought we'd talk to an actual meteorologist on the question, not just a New York Times - Washington Post propagandist.

Dr. Roy Spencer is a meteorologist. He's the Principal Research Scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. And he's the author of Inevitable Disasters: Why Hurricanes Cannot Be Blamed On Global Warming.

Doctor, thank you very much for coming on tonight. I know that--

ROY WARREN SPENCER, METEOROLOGIST: Well thanks for having me, Tucker.

CARLSON: --I know that you acknowledge the earth is getting warmer and there's a debate about why. But there's also this second debate that plays out in the popular press about whether the warming trend is causing more severe weather events like hurricanes. Is it?

SPENCER: Well it has gotten warmer, as you said. Since the 1950s there has been a warming trend. But what we haven't seen in terms of any long-term weather measurements is whether there's been any change in severe weather.

There hasn't been any increase in hurricanes. That's on a global basis. In the United States, the - the frequency of hits of the United States by major hurricanes has gone down by 50 percent since the 1930s and 1940s.

There's been no increase in droughts, no increase in floods. Tornadoes are down. But still, weather varies a lot, especially hurricanes, year to year, decade to decade, so there's a huge amount of variability, OK?

Some of them stall, produce a bunch of rain. Certainly, North Carolina is going to have a major flooding disaster. But this is what Mother Nature does naturally. And if there's a human influence in there--

CARLSON: Sure (ph).

SPENCER: --you wouldn't know it because there's so much natural variability.

CARLSON: So, I'm confused now we keep (ph) - I know that we keep pretty good records on hurricanes going back more than a 100 years, so the data are available to anybody with Google.

We know whether or not there's been a dramatic increase and you just stated the numbers for us. So given that there hasn't been how can people claim there has been and that global warming is to blame?

SPENCER: I don't know why do people like the Washington Post say such stupid things? It's because the people that are informing us in the media about global warming are people like Al Gore, Bill Nye, the Science Guy, Neil deGrasse Tyson, people that don't know anything about atmospheric science. You - you just have to look at the history--

CARLSON: Well wait, wait, I'm sorry. Let me - let me just interrupt you. Bill Nye is a Science Guy. It's in his title so that that doesn't mean he knows a lot about atmospheric science?

SPENCER: Well no, he doesn't. He's - he's not a trained scientist. I believe he's an engineer--

CARLSON: Oh.

SPENCER: --of some sort. Plus, he has a widely viewed YouTube video called Climate 101 where he faked an experiment. He put CO2 into a jar and shone a bright light on it and tried to show that it caused the jar to warm up inside because of the extra CO2 but a TV meteorologist--

CARLSON: Yes.

SPENCER: --Anthony Watts cleverly showed that the whole thing was faked. It's - it's ridiculous.

CARLSON: What? You know what I believed in Bill Nye, the Science Guy till tonight. Doctor, thank you. It's nice to have someone who actually knows what he's talking about on the show. I appreciate it.

SPENCER: Thank - thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: American immigration levels are the highest they have been in more than a century. One in seven residents was born in a foreign country. The people who run the country want that number to go higher. The population of the country does not.

Univision's Enrique Acevedo joins us next to discuss what this means for democracy. Plus, we'll continue to monitor the deadly path and impact of Tropical Storm Florence. Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Immigration levels of the United States continue to reach new highs. A new report by the Center for Immigration Studies estimates that the current immigrant population in America, legal and illegal, now numbers about 44.5 million.

That adds up to almost 14 percent of the entire country as the highest percentage since 1910. In other words, the highest percentage that any living American has ever seen.

One in seven U.S. residents was born in a foreign country. Well polls show consistently that Americans are not for this. Most, when asked, want less immigration than we currently have.

A century ago, the last time immigration levels were this high the public felt the same way. The public always feels that way in every country that has mass immigration at these levels.

Since we had a strong democracy at the time the public got its wish. Immigration levels were slashed dramatically and they stayed low for about half a century. But America, unfortunately, isn't nearly the (ph) democracy it once was, so we can't count on the same thing happening this time. In fact, something very different is happening.

Economic and cultural elites demand more and more immigration regardless of what the public says it wants. Just this week in Oregon, for one example, the CEO of Nike, Mark Parker, announced that his company is opposing a proposal to eliminate Oregon's sanctuary city law.

If illegal immigrants don't have a right to settle in Oregon in total defiance of existing U.S. law, Parker says, the state will not be able to attract "Diverse talent."

Parker knows what's going on. He's a businessman. As long as you fight to drive down wages in the United States and sponsor athletes who protest the flag, the Left will give you a pass for running sweatshops overseas, which it does.

The public wants its immigration laws enforced. It said so, clearly. They elected Donald Trump to do exactly that. But the stranglehold of our elites, a small percentage of our population, is so strong that the opposite has happened since Trump's election.

America is closer to having open borders now than ever. Consider this. From October 2016 through September of 2017, more than 94,000 people were caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and claim to be part of a family unit coming from Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras.

Now, you'd think that illegally entering the United States would be an automatic ticket home and quickly but you'd be wrong. These people were not sent home. They were allowed to settle in the United States while their cases were resolved, which in practical terms means forever.

Of those 94,000 illegal border crossers, only 1,500 have been sent back. In other words, 98 percent are still here. During the same period, 31,000 unaccompanied minors were detained at the border. And again, 98 percent of them are still here, which means that America effectively, no matter what they're telling you, has no borders.

This is not a secret. Word has got out to the rest of the world and hundreds of thousands of people are taking advantage of this. This is a crisis. It's one created by years of deliberate neglect by those in power.

Instead of acknowledging it though, the Left denies there is a crisis and then works to exacerbate the crisis. Virtually, everyone on the Left now opposes the Wall on the grounds that it would be too effective. Many oppose any sort of border enforcement too.

The New York City Council just endorsed abolishing ICE on the grounds that too many people get deported when in fact, as you just heard, almost nobody gets deported. It's a lie. It makes you think maybe there's another agenda here, one has - that has nothing to do with what voters want.

Enrique Acevedo is an anchor at Univision and a frequent guest on this show. He joins us tonight. Enrique, thanks very much for coming on.

ENRIQUE ACEVEDO, NOTICIERO UNIVISION: Thanks for having me, Tucker.

CARLSON: So - so when I was born in this country, the percentage of people living here who were foreign-born was under 5 percent. It's now about 14 percent, so that's a three-fold increase. That's a huge change, huge change in less than 50 years. Is the country better or worse for that would you say?

ACEVEDO: I think the country is better and the economy is better. But still, those levels, 14 percent is actually lower than what we had 60, 70 years ago even before that where it was--

CARLSON: That's - that's wait, wait, so I'm--

ACEVEDO: --closer to 20 percent.

CARLSON: --I'm sorry. You're allowed to your opinions not to your facts (ph) that that's untrue. And as I just said in the open that is the, first of all, the largest total number in American history. It is the highest--

ACEVEDO: 14 percent, the largest number?

CARLSON: --no, no, no, the aggregate number, the actual number, the millions of--

ACEVEDO: Oh.

CARLSON: --foreign-born in this country is the biggest number ever. But the percentage of population is the highest since 1910.

ACEVEDO: Right.

CARLSON: So that's what, you know, a 108 years. So, OK, so you think the country is better for more than tripling the percentage of foreign-born in its borders, what would be the limit? How could we get to the best possible country? What's the ideal? What percentage of Americans, do you think, should be foreign-born?

ACEVEDO: So this is the thing. Two-thirds of the GDP expansion since 2011 came from immigrants. And this is not me saying it. It's Citigroup, not exactly a bastion of open borders or socialism. Immigration is helping the largest economy in the world--

CARLSON: Citi - Citigroup is an - I mean--

ACEVEDO: --our economy--

CARLSON: Citigroup is an advocate for the open borders. Just for the record just - just so you know but OK. So - so, economic growth comes directly from low-wage immigration. That's your contention that's what bring (ph) business--

ACEVEDO: Not only low-wage immigration, I think--

CARLSON: --together (ph).

ACEVEDO: --you know, what we're seeing in terms of innovation, in terms of economic growth in the country, not only in sectors like agriculture or construction or the service sector, we're seeing this too in places like Silicon Valley, in places where innovation and - and technology are driving the economy--

CARLSON: Yes.

ACEVEDO: --and immigrants are becoming a key factor, an engine of growth in - in those places. So, I - I agree with you though that there is a crisis.

CARLSON: Well wait, wait but hold on, so part of what you said is true. That's absolutely right. A lot of immigrants have been very successful and innovative and impressive, I think, and great people, by the way--

ACEVEDO: Good.

CARLSON: --and a lot of them are in Silicon Valley. But the overwhelming majority, the people we let in have very limited skills and very low education level and no money. They're the poor of the world. That's the overwhelming (ph) majority of the people we let in.

Why not decide that we want to let in every software engineer around the world or every physician or every physicist? What - why in a post- industrial country we're letting in majority people with low skills?

ACEVEDO: Well because like we've said in the past like we've discussed in the past help is wanted in this country.

These jobs are being offered to these people so that's why they're coming to - to the U.S. You can build a wall, a beautiful big wall throughout that 2,000 mile war - border and then a 100 feet after that wall, you'll have a big sign that says "Help wanted." So, people are going to still come and - and try to do those jobs--

CARLSON: Well right, no, I know you're making--

ACEVEDO: --as long as--

CARLSON: --you're making the case for big business again that they shouldn't have to pay American level wages--

ACEVEDO: Not only big business. You'll see some and medium companies--

CARLSON: --so just terrible (ph) wages not well--

ACEVEDO: --hiring these people and then--

CARLSON: --right, no, but you're - you're - you're--

ACEVEDO: --taking from (ph) sometimes exploiting their work--

CARLSON: --right. No, you're flacking for corporate America. I get it. But let me just get right back to my original question which was if 14 percent foreign-born is good, what's the limit? So, if we were 90 percent foreign- born there were a much smaller percentage of Americans living here, would it be even better?

ACEVEDO: So, you said in the past that you're against undocumented immigration but also for limiting legal immigration. And I think that's - that's a real issue here. I don't think we should be addressing undocumented immigration from a border enforcement standpoint, only from a border enforcement standpoint--

CARLSON: Oh, I bet you don't.

ACEVEDO: No, of course not. And, you know, you just said that we have a crisis right now and the policies, the current policies, even the Trump Administration policies are not working. That's why we should be working on the push factors on the root causes of immigration.

But on the other hand, you said you want to limit legal immigration. So, that's the thing. You don't want people to come here and request asylum legally. You don't want them to come here and - and try to look for a job--

CARLSON: Well actually what I - what I want - no, no, wait hold on - you're telling me hold on--

ACEVEDO: --and then don't want them to - to get visas or anything else (ph)--

CARLSON: --so, so you're telling me what I want. Let me tell you what I want because I'm here. I want a democracy where the majority of voters get to decide what their country does. The big policies come from what people who live here want.

And every poll of immigration shows Americans think the numbers are too high. But a small number of activists, like you, who apparently have all the power are saying "We don't care what you want. This is what you're getting." That's not democracy, is it? That's - that's a kind of government familiar in Latin America where an oligarchy is in control.

ACEVEDO: Well first--

CARLSON: What am I missing here?

ACEVEDO: Well first of all, I don't know exactly what polls you're referring to because all the polls that I've seen actually have the majority of Americans in favor of comprehensive immigration reform against the Wall, against massive deportation, against finally separation--

CARLSON: That phrase--

ACEVEDO: --so, you know, and - and most Americans understand--

CARLSON: --but they think their - the immigration levels are too high--

ACEVEDO: --the value of immigration too.

CARLSON: OK. But they - but shouldn't they be in charge? Look, very simple, I'll end with this.

ACEVEDO: Sure (ph).

CARLSON: If the majority of Americans think that our immigration levels are too high and the polls show they do think that then shouldn't we reduce those levels?

ACEVEDO: To what, exactly? To - to - to - to what percentage would you say- -

CARLSON: Why don't we follow the lead of the public?

ACEVEDO: --would be acceptable for - for you and for--

CARLSON: I don't know. How about when I was born it was fine. It was--

ACEVEDO: --what you say that you're imposing (ph)--

CARLSON: --was a nice, it was a better country than it is now in a lot of ways. It's not just about--

ACEVEDO: You think so?

CARLSON: --immigration.

ACEVEDO: In what sense was it a better country? What metric?

CARLSON: It was a more cohesive country.

ACEVEDO: It was a less diverse country--

CARLSON: And the middle class would--

ACEVEDO: --maybe?

CARLSON: --no, it's not about race, actually. The middle class was vibrant when I was born. It's dying now. And that's the difference. It's not about race. Don't make it that way.

ACEVEDO: Well (ph)--

CARLSON: Anyway, we're out of time. Great to see you.

ACEVEDO: Good to see you too (ph) Tucker.

CARLSON: Thanks.

ACEVEDO: Bye.

CARLSON: Peter Kirsanow is a lawyer and serves on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and he joins us tonight. Peter, thanks for coming on.

PETER N. KIRSANOW, ATTORNEY, UNITED STATES COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS MEMBER: Thanks for having me.

CARLSON: If the argument is and I think the - the argument that the Left is making is the more foreigners you have living here the better the country is. What does that say about their view of Americans?

KIRSANOW: Well one of the principal reasons people come to this country is because of our fidelity to the rule of law. But when we abrogate and derogate the rule of one in the manner which we've been doing with respect to illegal immigration that what we're doing is turning our country into the country, the type of country from which they fled. Your previous guest- -

CARLSON: Right.

KIRSANOW: --talked about the purported benefits to this uncontrollable level of immigration that we currently have. Certain elites may be insulated from some of the deleterious effects but those effects are profound.

We've talked in the past about the increase in crime rates and they are increasing. At a time when the crime rates were falling the crime rates among illegal immigrants went up 44 percent.

In addition to that, we've got the public FISC (ph). We've got the burden on the Treasury because of this. Infrastructure, educational institutions, hospitals and so on and so forth are burdened by it.

But the most important aspect of it is the preservation of our sovereignty. If we don't have borders, if we don't have the ability to control who comes here, we're no longer a nation.

And again, the rule of law is important. And we seem to take a Cavalier approach to the protection of the Constitutional order that we've - we've got constructed, which makes us unique in terms of history, in terms of our current statute within the - the world.

And if we just let that go, simply don't care about our borders, don't care about the level of immigration so that it satisfies the needs and wants of elites and also of certain political imperatives so progressives can gather (ph) more people who eventually vote for them, we're going to suffer as a result.

CARLSON: I don't even know how they would respond to that. Every time you come on, I always think I wish we had an open borders person to respond to you because I don't know what the answer would be. It's - it's such a tight argument, thank you. Peter Kirsanow, it's always great to see you.

KIRSANOW: Thanks, Tucker.

CARLSON: Live update on Tropical Storm Florence after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: This is a Fox News Alert. Hurricane Florence has been downgraded to a tropical storm but the threat persists. Fox's Ray Bogan joins us live tonight from Wilmington, North Carolina. Ray, what's it like?

RAY BOGAN, MULTIMEDIA REPORTER, FOX NEWS: Tucker, good evening. You know, the conditions have calmed down here in Wilmington quite a bit. The rain and the wind have slowed down. Although, just an hour ago was a very different story and we were getting absolutely pounded by non-stop rains.

The thing we're thinking about right now as it goes into the night is the power outages. Across the state, there are 780,000. And Duke Energy says there's a chance it might not come back on for weeks.

We - this afternoon, one of the most extraordinary things we saw was when the Cape Fear River overflowed. It hit a new all-time record high of just over 8.2 feet and it's gone back down now. And as the winds pickup (ph) back up it's gone back down now. But there's still potential for flooding, Tucker.

CARLSON: Thanks a lot, Ray. Ray Bogan for us, tonight.

Keep watching Fox tonight and throughout the weekend. We have this storm covered all the way up and down the coasts. And we will, until it ends.

That's it for us tonight. Be sure to tune in Monday. We'll delve into the mysterious shutdown of the Sunspot Solar Observatory in New Mexico. Officials just announced that Observatory is being closed indefinitely. They won't say why. We'll investigate. See you then.

Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.