Tucker: Political violence is an attack on America itself
Violence returns us to the most primitive of all systems, one in which might makes right. There’s no greater threat to civilization.
You can tell a lot about a society by what shocks its leaders. For generations, what shocked the people in charge of this country was political violence, hurting your neighbors for having different opinions. They were appalled by that and they were right to be.
Political violence isn't simply an assault on individual Americans, it's an attack on America itself. In this country, we govern by consent, not by force. People with guns don't make our laws, voters do.
You may have a Glock in your hand, but on Election Day, you have precisely as many votes as the little old lady who disagrees with you. That's our system. The weak are supposed to have as much power over the government as the strong, and that is the basis of our equality as Americans, something that we should cherish and protect.
Political violence immediately short circuits this. It ends democracy. Violence instead returns us to the most primitive of all systems, one in which might makes right. People who hurt others get to do exactly what they want. Everyone else has to obey them. There is no greater threat to civilization than this and we used to understand that because it's obvious.
But things have changed. The people who run this country are no longer shocked by political violence. They welcome it. They slyly encourage it. They are its beneficiaries.
They tell us the only real crimes are thought crimes. It's okay to set fires or smash strangers in the face with two by fours, so long as you are chanting the correct slogans. If you're on the right team, everything is allowed.
But if you dare to dissent from the orthodoxy, you will be swiftly punished. Go ahead and express the wrong opinion. Try it in a meeting, try it on Facebook, they will find you. You will lose your job, your reputation, possibly even your life.
The message they're sending you is very clear. Americans are not equal anymore. There are two standards in this country, one standard for them and a very different standard for you.
Over the weekend, we saw exactly what they will excuse from their own supporters. Armed mobs of Joe Biden voters torched, buildings, smashed cars, attacked police officers. They rioted. They hurt people, a lot of people -- and the media, watching closely lied about all of it. They pretended it didn't happen. They made excuses for it. They buried the truth in euphemism.
The liars of "The New York Times" described the riots as quote, "protests," as if the violence was justified or could be justified. Here's the truth about what happened. Here's what actually happened in Seattle over the weekend. Take a look.
[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS SHOWING VIOLENCE]
CARLSON: Protests? No, these were not protests. These were scenes from a war. The rioters threw rocks, bottles, wood, explosives at police. One explosion left an eight inch hole in a police precinct.
Because no lie is too absurd for CNN to tell, the network described violence against police as quote, "a demonstration against police violence." Got that? It's a perfect inversion of the truth worthy of 1984. Ignorance is strength. Freedom is slavery. War is peace.
They repeat it because they expect you to believe it and no doubt some do.
Meanwhile, Seattle Police Department gamely tried to push back by releasing actual body cam footage of the violence. It is not clear how many people saw it. So, we're going to show some of you -- we're going to show some of it to you right here.
[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS OF BODY CAM FOOTAGE]
CARLSON: A total of 59 police officers were injured in this demonstration against police violence. CNN would like you to believe they attacked themselves, they did not, not in Seattle, not anywhere.
In Oakland, the mobs with helmets and shields attacked a police station. They shot cops with fireworks. They set fire to a courthouse. Here are pictures of it.
[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS SHOWING RIOTERS SETTING FIRE TO COURTHOUSE]
CARLSON: According to NBC News, the rioters you just saw were quote, "protesters." They burned the courthouse quote, "after a peaceful demonstration intensified." Oh intensified, just like the World Trade Center collapsed when a commercial airline flight intensified.
It's remarkable. You've got to believe there are still normal people working at ABC News, maybe in the tape library or in the cafeteria. Are they watching their own coverage? How can they stand it? The apologies for violence, the relentless shameless lying?
It's hard to believe they haven't resigned. They probably have mortgages and kids who feel for them. Just as you feel for the cameraman who would flee the mob in Sacramento over the weekend.
They were surrounded and apparently assaulted by 150 Joe Biden voters dressed in black paramilitary gear, and had to run for their lives. You'd think other journalists would be sympathetic to this, they used to be? Not anymore.
The stakes are too high. We've got an election coming up and so instead they lie to provide cover for the rioters, the ones who threatened the cameraman.
The "Sacramento Bee" took pains to tell you that the protests are actually peaceful. The newspaper did its best to downplay the violence, including the fact that so-called protesters are trying to disarm police helicopters with laser pointers.
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One of the peaceful protesters ran through the streets with a chainsaw in order to block traffic, no problem. Nothing to see here.
Meanwhile, at mostly peaceful protests in Austin and Aurora, Colo., people were shot. In downtown Louisville, heavily armed militia and military outfits walked through the city threatening violence if police officers weren't sent to jail. No problem, just a protest. In Milwaukee, a Black Trump supporter named Bernell Trammell was executed in front of his office in broad daylight. He was killed.
In Portland, Ore., police seized a bag filled with rifle magazines and Molotov cocktails, not a big deal.
City leaders in Portland have ignored 60 straight days of rioting. It's fine, they say. Really? Here is how Portland looked over the weekend.
[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS SHOWING VIOLENCE IN PORTLAND]
CARLSON: This isn't fine. It's not normal. It's not a protest. These aren't children. These are adults, and they're destroying our country. They're completely out of control. They're violent.
Are they punished? No. Where's the Justice Department in this? Don't we have an Attorney General? Isn't he supposed to be conservative? Why are we allowing this?
Chad Wolf runs the Department of Homeland Security. Wolf, whatever you think of him has been one of the very few officials in Washington, who seems to notice that any of this is happening. He sent Federal law enforcement to Portland to keep the mob from burning down the Federal Courthouse there, which the mob does not own. It is Federal property. They have no right to torch it. It's not theirs. It's ours.
For doing that, for being one of the very few to actually push back a little bit, he was punished. The mob came to Chad Wolf's home yesterday, and they threatened him and his family and they didn't do it suddenly. It wasn't subtext. They said it out loud on camera. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We must make social consequences for these men and women.
GROUP: Yes, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We must make it uncomfortable for them. We will not be good Germans. We are angry neighbors. You can't live here quietly and is able to live just like us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Oh, she is trying to figure out why the Department of Justice isn't actually doing anything? Why they haven't frog marched the leaders of Antifa in front of the camera? Why they haven't stopped this stuff? While they're acting like they're powerless?
Maybe they don't want mobs like this in front of their houses. Maybe mob violence works. "We must make it uncomfortable for them," she says in a megaphone. What does that mean? Well, we don't need to guess because we just spent all weekend watching what it means.
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Here's the contrast that we should never forget. Things change so quickly. You imagine things have always been this way, but they haven't.
There's a presidential election a few months from now. If you disagree with what Chad Wolf has done, you get to vote against Chad Wolf's boss, and Chad Wolf will be out of a job. That's the way we used to do it, when this was a democracy. But not anymore. Now they just go and threaten Chad Wolf's children and the media applaud.
Last month, a radio show host in Seattle called Paul Gallant mocked reports that his city was descending into chaos. These were peaceful protests, he suggested. On Twitter, Gallant reported that he saw, quote, "no burning, pillaging or deaths." Of course those things were happening. They existed. We showed you tape of it at the time.
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But Gallant pretended otherwise. We don't know why we'd have to assume because he thought it would help his team. Then the rioters showed up in the building where he lives, in his apartment building and they destroyed the Starbucks downstairs and that scared him.
Now, Gallant says he is buying a gun. Ah, it turns out it's not so easy to lie about violence when it's aimed at you.
Adapted from Tucker Carlson’s monologue on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on July 27, 2020.
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