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Death toll of American tourists in Dominican Republic rises

Dan Bongino wraps up a wild week in news with News Explosion on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," June 14, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

TUCKER CARLSON, HOST: Good evening and welcome to “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” How much more can America take from the activist left? Is there a limit to the abuse ordinary people are willing to endure from the social justice mob? How long before normal people start pushing back a little bit? Ever wondered? We'll look closer tonight to answering those questions.

A jury in Ohio has ordered left-wing Oberlin College to pay $44 million in damages to a family that the college defamed in a hate hoax. The school also pay the victims legal fees. It was a rare, but totally unequivocal victory for reason and decency against the forces of lunacy and chaos, and we'd like to celebrate it tonight as we head into the weekend.

The story begins back in 2016, when an underage Oberlin student used a fake ID to buy alcohol from a store called Gibson's Food Mart and Grocery. The man behind the counter, Allyn Gibson refused the sale.

The student then tried to steal the bottle so Gibson called the police. When the cops arrived they found the student and two of his accomplices beating Gibson on the ground. Those are the facts of this case. No one has disputed them. The students in fact pled guilty. The case should have ended there.

But because the student who shoplifted from the store is black, Oberlin attempted to manufacture a hate crime out of it. Swarms of entitled young progressives descended on Gibson's Bakery and accused the family of racism. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are here today because yesterday, three students from the African community were assaulted and arrested as a result of a history of racial profiling and racial discrimination by Gibson's.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: All of this was slander. None of it was true. But Oberlin's Dean of Students, Meredith Raimondo continued to provoke the mob. She distributed pamphlets defaming the Gibson family calling them racist.

In e-mails that were released during the trial, Raimondo attacked her own colleagues who defended the Gibson's and discussed quote, "unleashing the students on Gibson's bakery."

College administrators tried to put the bakery out of business. They canceled its longstanding contracts with the college. It nearly worked by the way. The Gibson's took no salary for two years. They laid off most of their staff. They almost shut down the business.

Oberlin then use their suffering for leverage in negotiations. The college offered to reinstate the lucrative contracts if Gibson would drop charges against the shoplifter. The Gibson's refused. Instead, they fought back and in the end they won.

Before the jury awarded the damages, Oberlin's lawyers whined that the $70,000.00 a year school couldn't afford the judgment. That turned out to be yet another ludicrous lie. Tax documents revealed the school has more than a billion dollars in assets.

Bill Jacobson is Professor at Cornell Law School. He is the publisher of the Legal Insurrection blog. He covered this case from beginning to end, virtually the only person to do so. And he joins us tonight. Mr. Jacobson, thanks a lot for coming on.

BILL JACOBSON, PROFESSOR, CORNELL LAW SCHOOL: Thank you for having me on.

CARLSON: What do you think having watched this from the first day to the last, what do you think the message the jury was sending was?

JACOBSON: Well, I think the message of the jury was sending is that all lives matter, frankly, that the lives of this bakery, the lives of people who get up at three in the morning to cook the baked goods that the students eat in the dining halls matter just as much as anybody else, and that truth matters.

Because these are people as you've pointed out, who did nothing wrong. They literally were just minding their business that morning, when they called the police on some shoplifters. And because of the crazed social justice, so-called social justice movement on our campuses, they were immediately designated oppressor, in part because of their skin color, in part because they're the owner of a business. And they were put into a pigeon hole of someone who must be racist, who must have engaged in racial profiling.

And nobody seemed to actually care about the facts that these are students who actually did shoplift. And I think that's what's so outrageous about it, that I think you noted it in your opening, that these are just ordinary people.

These are not people who are engaged in the political process. They didn't put themselves out into the arena. This is not like the other social media mobs we've heard about where someone sends out a tweet or posts something on Facebook, and all of a sudden there's a mob against them. That's bad enough.

These are literally people who got up probably at three in the morning that morning and did absolutely nothing wrong. But that campus fervor and that campus zeal to express some sort of outrage at the system visited them and I think that's the thing that's so chilling here.

CARLSON: Children of privilege attacking the working class. What's going to happen to the fascist Dean of Students Raimondo, who would try to whip the mob into hurting the Gibson's? Will she keep her job, do you think?

JACOBSON: I don't know. But there's this phenomenon in academia of failing up. The President of Oberlin College at the time that this all happened, essentially got a promotion. He is now the President of Pace University, a much bigger institution. So I don't expect anything to happen.

And the important thing here is that I don't think Oberlin College got the message. In their closing statement to the jury as to why they shouldn't get punitive damages, the Oberlin College attorney said, "We've gotten the message. You sent a message loud and clear." I don't think for a second Oberlin College has gotten the message.

Just today, the President sent out an all campus e-mail saying they're going to continue to fight this, and they believe they did nothing wrong. So I think this is really an outrageous circumstance.

And I think, let's remember, this is a fifth generation bakery. These are the people who get up at three and four in the morning, when Oberlin students are just getting home. And I think that that's the outrageous thing about this that this can happen to anybody. It's not just a campus phenomenon.

CARLSON: Maybe if they shut the school down, they get the message. One can hope. Bill Jacobson, great to see you tonight. Thank you for your reporting on this.

JACOBSON: Thank you.

CARLSON: Well, the Democratic presidential contenders are doing their best Oberlin impressions on the campaign trail. The candidate's sort of perpetual contest to take the most radical positions they can on -- well, you name the issue --

They can win the nomination by winning over the mob. Here's, for example, half a dozen of them coming out in favor of race reparations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AL SHARPTON, MSNBC HOST: Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee has proposed a bill to form a commission to study how to do reparations?

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When I am elected President, I am signing that.

SHARPTON: Would you sign that bill?

BETO O'ROURKE, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes.

SHARPTON: Would you sign it?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, I-VT, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If Congress and Senate passes that bill, of course, I would sign it.

SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, D-N.Y., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I firmly support Congresswoman Jackson-Lee's bill to create a commission to study reparations.

SHARPTON: Would you sign the bill for reparations?

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, D-MASS., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, I would. I already support that bill.

JULIAN CASTRO, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There are things that we need to do in this country that had been a long time in coming. One of those is to move forward with reparations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Robert Woodson is a seasoned veteran in the Civil Rights Movement for the 1960s. He is President and founder of the Woodson Institute, and we're always honored to have him on the show. Mr. Woodson, thanks a lot for coming on.

ROBERT WOODSON, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, WOODSON INSTITUTE: Pleased to be here, Tucker.

CARLSON: So the question of reparations has been floating around American politics at the edges for many, many decades. But it's reemerged in kind of a mainstream position, which is to say most Democrats running for President seem to support it. What do you make of the idea of reparations for slavery?

WOODSON: I think as fool's gold. It demeans both whites and blacks. To black Americans, you can monetize oppression. Also what it does -- the message to black America is somehow your destiny is determined by what white people do, what white people give you and not what you were able to do for yourself.

And so it's undermining blacks -- and also, Tucker, it's really something that's banded around by people with six figure incomes living in gated communities with their children in private schools.

When you go into St. Louis and I was there this weekend, where there are 19 people shot and killed over the weekend. They're not talking about reparations as an answer to that challenge all over the country.

So I just think that it's virtue signaling for white candidates, and for some white guilty people. It's an easy fix. But it's very crippling to the nation. Very crippling.

CARLSON: So you -- hypothetically, if we were to get it tomorrow, some reparation scheme, do you think that there would be fewer shootings in St. Louis or Chicago or Baltimore?

WOODSON: No, I don't think so. The very fact that the NFL with the average salary is like, $2 million or $3 million five years after they retire, 70 percent of them are bankrupt. So, I'm not so sure. If it doesn't work for rich people, what it's going to do for poor people?

But again, Tucker, it's a distraction. There's study after study on the black communities conducted by the Joint Center for Political Economics, a liberal black think tank.

When black Americans rank and file ask, what are the issues most important to you is jobs and security. Base only shows up eight percent in those communities. And those are three separate polls, but these people on television, the candidates pander to the black community and assume that they don't have to speak to the legitimate needs of black America for jobs, for better healthcare, for neighborhoods that not being gentrified.

But instead, they can just pander and walk through the Civil Rights door. It is pandering. It is insulting to black America. And as I have said, I have suffered my last rich, angry black and my last guilty white person. That's it.

CARLSON: I don't think I've heard it as powerfully expressed as you just did, Mr. Woodson, and thank you very much for joining us tonight.

WOODSON: Thank you.

CARLSON: Well, there's a serious self-awareness crisis in American journalism, in case you haven't noticed, probably they haven't noticed, but you, doubtless have. Reporters spend their days griping about Trump on Twitter and attacking the President on MSNBC.

Amazingly, they don't think they're biased. It is amazing actually. We will break that down after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Well, the Justice Department is trying to get to the bottom of how exactly the Russia hoax -- the collusion hoax -- took off, and what role our Intelligence agencies played in promoting it.

That investigation is underway now and it's terrifying to many in Washington. Intel officials aren't used to answering questions from anyone, they don't like it.

The national media meanwhile exists to serve the interests of the powerful and in particular, to protect the Intel agencies and they, of course, rush to their defense.

NBC for example gives former CIA Director John Brennan, virtually unlimited air time to spew propaganda. His latest, a conspiracy theory about how the President can quote, "turn off law enforcement and the C.I.A."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER C.I.A. DIRECTOR: I am very concerned about the upcoming presidential election. It's clear that the Russians interfered to help Mr. Trump in 2016. Is Mr. Trump turning a blind eye to that because he doesn't mind if the Russians involve themselves again to try to enhance his prospects for reelection?

It's really quite unnerving to think that this President, Mr. Trump, can in fact turn off law enforcement and Intelligence capabilities if they pose a threat to him personally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: It's a ridiculous thing to allege. Of course, it's got no pushback whatsoever from the MSNBC anchor, sitting on the set at the time.

Meanwhile, on the other propaganda channel, a CNN reporter explained to viewers with a completely straight face that any oversight of the Intelligence agencies is, quote, "troubling." Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: You know, this report in "The New York Times" that he mentioned, that the Justice Department is now questioning C.I.A. officers as they review this Russia investigation, which is --

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: It is troubling because, you know, it's not -- you don't do this. The C.I.A. kind of operates in their own world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Yes, you just don't do it. They operate on their own. They're not in the chain of command. It's no longer a democracy. It's troubling when you ask questions in the C.I.A. That's not allowed. That's the word from former news network, CNN, unbelievable.

Well, Americans faith in the news media has collapsed over the past decade. And as you just saw, there are good reasons for that. Nothing is more unjustified than people's loathing for the press.

The media have repeatedly botched reporting and missed big stories. They do it every single day. They no longer hide their bias. Amazingly, though, in the face of all of this, many of the journalists responsible for destroying their own business are blissfully unaware of what they've done.

Here, for example, is CNN's, Don Lemon speaking with Jim Acosta, complementing one another for a job well done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: ... of anyone, a Democrat or a Republican, regardless of who it is, if you hold a position of power, we, the journalists at CNN are going to question you about it, whether you like it or not.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, we're here to hold their feet to the fire. And just because we are pro-truth doesn't mean that we are anti-Trump. And you know, as I write throughout this book, and I try to close it out on a hopeful note, we are not the enemy of the people. We are defenders of the people.

We're not here to spin things or, you know, color things a certain way, we're here to give the people reliable, accurate information on a daily basis. That's why we all come in to work every day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: No one has ever accused Jim Acosta of being a genius. But even by our estimate, it's pretty shocking that he is so proud of himself. Here's an example of the hard-hitting, fair-minded reporting he was just talking about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Let me just ask you this. What do you say to your critics who say that you are creating a national emergency? That you're concocting a national emergency in order to get your wall?

TRUMP: I'll ask the angel moms. What do you think? Do you think I'm creating something? Ask these incredible women who lost their daughters and their sons?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Yes, so the border crisis isn't real. It was just concocted by the President for political reasons. That's Jim Acosta's position.

Meanwhile, over at the other channels, you are watching MSNBC anchors use airtime to lobby members of Congress literally live. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC HOST: Do you think that Trump has obstructed justice by what you've seen?

REP. ERIC SWALWELL, D-CALIF., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes.

MATTHEWS: Well, what's holding you up from impeachment then if he obstructed justice and he committed a crime? Will you make me a gentleman's bet that Trump will be impeached?

SWALWELL: He is not going to be President on January 20th, 2021. I think he will be impeached. But I want to get it right before I say that's what we need to do right now.

MATTHEWS: So you bet he would be impeached?

SWALWELL: Yes.

MATTHEWS: Okay, thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Robby Soave writes for "Reason" magazine. He is the author of the book, "Panic Attack: Young Radicals in the Age of Trump." And he joins us tonight. So Robby, the reason I want to talk to you about this is because you are, I would say, great at puncturing obvious myths.

And so the press -- it is what it is. They've taken a highly partisan, very aggressive position against the sitting President. Fine. But why don't just admit it? Why lecture the rest of us about how their objective?

ROBBY SOAVE, AUTHOR: That's exactly the issue. I mean, look, a lot of people in media are biased, but you can just be straightforward about it. I'm an opinion journalist. And my ideology informs what I write about, and you should take that with a grain of salt when you listen to me and when you read me.

But they -- the people you are referring to, I mean, their smugness is just so consuming. I mean, maybe they really believe that they're just, you know, holding the powerful to account when it's clear, it's an anti-Trump entertainment news network, right?

Like, this isn't news at some point. It's literally just providing entertainment fodder for people who already hate the President, and they're not going to ask critical questions on naturally, the subject you were just talking about, we're not going to ask any of these Intelligence officials about the mistakes that led to us invading Iraq, or turning Libya into an ISIS training ground, having us intervene in Syria even more than we already have.

You know, if we were going to hold the powerful to account, right, we wouldn't just be parading these people on TV and letting them talk about how much they hate Trump and how he is a monster.

CARLSON: Well, in fact, they assiduously suck up to power. I mean, how else do you explain John Brennan's continued presence on cable TV? You know, the former head of the CIA, who is -- I mean, if you were holding the powerful to account, you'd have a series of questions for John Brennan, real questions about things that he has done things, things that he has lied about, and there are many, but they just let him spew his talking points.

SOAVE: I know. I remember not so long ago, right, when progressives, liberals, were skeptical of military authorities, of Intelligence authorities, of authority in general, and you know, I wanted to call those people out; now, but because those are anti-Trump figures, we're going to just let them talk about, you know, how Trump is bad and how we can't question the C.I.A. -- all things of that nature.

Because it's, again, it's entertainment, and they have this just insistence that they're right and if you're saying there's something wrong about their approach, you must just be a shield for Trump, even though you know, tons of the American people have turned against them. Their confidence in the press -- their lack of confidence in the press is that an all-time high.

And you'd think that would prompt some self-reflection. It clearly has not. I think the Acosta book is as powerful evidence as you could ever have for the position that this has prompted no self-reflection on their part whatsoever.

CARLSON: Yes, desperately unhappy, unhappy people. Really quickly, I don't want to put you in a position where you have to play shrink, but I can't resist. Do you think that they believe it? When they sort of tell us it's all about the facts? Really, we're just here to give you the facts. Do they know they're lying? They know they're lying. Right?

SOAVE: Well, I think people can convince themselves that they are not lying, even when maybe deep down they know they are right. If the incentives are that powerful. If you know if there -- everyone is going over -- their viewers or someone is going to tell them, "No, you're so great. We love what you're doing." There's a temptation there to believe the best myth about yourself that you can come up with. That's what I suspect they're doing.

Seep down, they probably know, "Okay, we've taken this far beyond what any reasonable person would assert," it is actually talking truth to power.

CARLSON: Never believe the myths about yourself. That's rule one. Robby, great to see you tonight. Thank you.

SOAVE: My pleasure. Thank you.

CARLSON: New developments tonight out of the Dominican Republic. We now know more about why Americans could be dying there. That's next. Also a mysterious object spotted in the skies in Nevada. A UFO -- we have video straight ahead. Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: There's new information tonight on what might be causing that spate of tourist deaths in the Dominican Republic. Fox's Trace Gallagher has that story for us -- Trace.

TRACE GALLAGHER, CORRESPONDENT: Tucker, our corporate cousin, "The New York Post" is reporting that investigators are looking into whether the tourists who died in the Dominican were poisoned by bootleg booze.

Police are now focusing on who supplied the alcohol and whether it contained any dangerous chemicals. That's important because we know three of the eight Americans did drink from their hotel minibars.

Here's video of our own Griff Jenkins on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” touring a minibar in a hotel where one of the Americans died. We don't know if the other five also drank from minibars, but it appears most of them drank alcohol and Dominican tourism officials say the F.B.I. and other federal agencies have now taken an active role in the overall investigation and that the F.B.I. in particular is going back and re-analyzing toxicology results to see if there are more common links.

The latest American tourists to die is Leyla Cox who turned 53 last weekend. Her son says he is getting very little information. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILL COX, LEYLA COX'S SON: I still don't know the exact details of my mother's death, and that's where I'm hitting a roadblock.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: Consider this. The American College of Cardiology says one in four Americans will die of heart problems yet seven of the eight Americans who died in the Dominican had a heart attack and/or pulmonary edema -- water in the lungs most commonly caused by heart problems.

We don't yet know the last person's cause of death, but all of the terrorists we do know about who were generally healthy, died of very similar causes and two of them died from the same thing at the same time, all of which is exceptionally unusual -- Tucker.

CARLSON: Fascinating. Trace Gallagher. Thank you for that. So if you listen to the morons on cable news, the Trump administration is the most right-wing regime to hit this hemisphere since Pinochet.

It's an evangelical theocracy, they tell us, a living "Handmaid's Tale" where sexual minorities cower in fear in the shadows. It's all like Nazi Germany actually.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GAYLE KING, CBS HOST: After talking to the people, watching the people, listening to the people, that the Statue of Liberty I think is weeping right now.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, D-CALIF.: This is the United States of -- the United States of America, it isn't Nazi Germany.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bottom line, Donald Trump increasingly looks like Hitler in Nazi Germany. These look like concentration camps.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This is a policy that is inhumane. They are the tactics that have been used through history by the worst purveyors of pure evil including slave traders, including Nazis including terrorists.

BARBARA BOXER, FORMER UNITED STATES SENATOR: What is happening here is a sin against God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Barbara Boxer, ladies and gentlemen, lecturing the rest of us about God and sin, because you can't make it up. Of course, they're lying in the most cynical possible way. They almost always are.

In real life, there's nothing right-wing about this administration's social policy; maybe unfortunately. For example, did you know that I.C.E. right now maintains a special housing unit for transgender illegal aliens? Hard to believe, but it's true. We know it's true because I.C.E. has been bragging about it recently.

The agency even sponsors classes to help transgender migrants appear more feminine. Here's the government video to prove it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is this self-grooming class and the self- presentation class. We're going to learn about hair and makeup and how to present yourself to the public so that your femininity is more apparent than just someone looking at you and questioning what your gender is, okay?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Giving fashion tips to men who dress like women who snuck into our country illegally is a priority for the Federal bureaucracy. They're happy to spend your money, a lot of your money doing it.

Meanwhile, for American citizens, things get steadily worse. Life expectancy declines. Half a million people sleep on the streets every night. Heroin addicts line the sidewalks of our once great cities. But at least, the Federal government can pay for a specialized detention center for transgender migrants in New Mexico. And that's not all.

Thirty million Americans don't have health insurance and millions more pay way more than they can afford for health insurance. But transgender migrants don't have to worry about that at all.

According to I.C.E.'s latest press release, they get all the free healthcare they want. That includes mental health services and dental. Can you afford dental insurance? If not, you might want to seek asylum. It could be worth it for the amenities alone.

Transgender migrants in New Mexico have televisions and microwaves. There's an indoor basketball court and a library. In their free time, they sing opera. For real, there's still more video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Singing opera).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: When the migrants aren't listening to opera or singing opera or learning how to be more feminine, they're getting free legal aid from the left-wing activists that the government invites to visit the detention center. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're here from the Program for Access to Legal Services, which is part of a New Mexico based legal aid organization. We are not affiliated with the government. But we come here every Tuesday and Thursday to give you information about this asylum process and help you prepare for your cases.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Just to be totally clear, this isn't some kind of sting that we did or reporting that we did. These are videos that I.C.E. is bragging about. They're on Twitter. We know about this because the Federal government, the bureaucracy wants us to know about it. They're proud of this.

Is it Nazi Germany? Yes, it's not. Hardly. Life for transgender illegal aliens is actually much better than it is for many American citizens. It's not really surprising. You can tell who are government really cares about and it's not you.

The Department of Homeland Security says that Chinese-made drones could be spying on you and then sending the information back to the Chinese government. Michael Pillsbury is author of the fantastic book, "The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower," and we're happy to have him on with us again tonight. Mr. Pillsbury, thanks a lot for joining us.

MICHAEL PILLSBURY, AUTHOR: Thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: So is this a credible concern?

PILLSBURY: Yes, I think it is. What Homeland Security is pointing out is that these drones, and there's, by the way, there's up to two million now operating in the United States, 80 percent of which are made in China by basically one company.

These drones all have hookups to the Internet, and they go to servers in China. So every time you operate a drone, whether it's to look around pipeline, or check your ranch and see where the cattle are, all that feed is going back to China.

And with artificial intelligence, if the Chinese want to, they can assemble a picture of large parts of America, what's happening with airline flights or crops or nuclear power reactors, anything they want. And Homeland Security is warning about this.

Part of the problem, Tucker, is this whole thing began with the U.S. government. Our Army bought drones from China. The Army doesn't do that anymore. They put out a memo to stop it two years ago.

But the surveillance of the United States is really quite extraordinary. Back when we thought China was going to be a democracy and a free market, just like us, nobody really cared about this sort of thing. But now that China is more in a hostile category, I think people are very concerned correctly with this massive surveillance of our country.

CARLSON: If China can control the data coming off of these drones, it could control the drones themselves presumably, if it wanted.

PILLSBURY: They can hijack the drones, yes, that's technically possible.

CARLSON: So why isn't this something that we should be really concerned about?

PILLSBURY: Well, three Congressman, including Mark Meadows, and Jim Jordan have written to Homeland Security already asking for more details and how widespread this has gone. It's not clear to me that we actually know how China is using this data.

A bit of humor from China, the company is called DJI. By the way, it's right down the street from Huawei in a town called Shenzhen near Hong Kong.

DJI has announced well, anybody who doesn't want to participate in this program can just turn off the internet connection, and not send the data to China. So that's the first Chinese response.

CARLSON: Just like you can do it on your iPhone, except oh, wait, you can't.

PILLSBURY: That's right.

CARLSON: The controls are fake. So the data is going back to HQ, whether you like it or not. And of course, that's going to be true with the drones as well. So how -- just quickly -- overview here. Drones are a concern, I mean how much technology in this country is made by and therefore controlled by China?

PILLSBURY: Well, no one seems to have an exact count. As I say, nobody cared in the era of peaceful, wishful thinking about China. But Huawei, if they get control of our 5G, they've already got a very extensive share of our rural network in Wi-Fi connections, a lot of rural America is put together by one single Chinese company. They also can take that data to China, and analyze it.

So this whole problem of the surveillance of people, I think, first began to come to everybody's attention when the Chinese were doing it to their own people, the Muslims out in Xinjiang, two million of them in sort of concentration camps.

And this facial recognition feature, then you can analyze anybody anywhere in a city in China, let's say by a camera looking down. You can see that face, get its background, get its social -- what they call a social credit score and combine that with drone pictures, other things that happen elsewhere in the world.

So if someone just types in Tucker Carlson in China, a massive amount of information about you can come out and what they do with that maybe they want to send you a Christmas card and be friendly, and maybe they --

CARLSON: Maybe not, right. I think the message, it's impossible to be too paranoid. Dr. Pillsbury, thank you for making us more paranoid. Just -- exactly.

PILLSBURY: Not my intention. Thanks, Tucker.

CARLSON: We appreciate it though. Chinese drones are not the only thing spying on you. It turns out your Amazon Alexa device is, too, obviously. A new lawsuit against Amazon says that Alexa is illegally recording children. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: New lawsuits allege that Amazon is using its Alexa device to record children illegally without their consent. Of course, Alexa is doing exactly that. That's the point. It's always listening.

The Federal Trade Commission meanwhile, is investigating a separate complaint about another Amazon product. It's a device called the Echo Dot Kids edition. That complaint accuses Amazon of using its devices to collect sensitive information about children that parents don't have the ability to delete. Should any of this worry you?

Not at all says Amazon. You can trust Jeff Bezos with your children. Relax. Everything is fine. Now count backwards with me from a hundred. You're getting very sleepy.

Well, the Department of Defense exists to protect America from foreign threats and does a great job with that. Thank God. But it's also a massive consumer of tax dollars. The biggest really and for that reason, concerns about corruption are always there.

There's reason to believe that over the past couple of years, some of the Pentagon have worked to enrich Amazon, already the world's richest company.

In 2017, the Pentagon announced a $10 billion Cloud computing contract. According to critics, the contract wasn't actually competitive. It was designed from the very start to be fulfilled by Amazon, and only by Amazon.

Several of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis's aides had prior professional ties to Amazon, a key official working on the Pentagon's Cloud computing program was carrying out secret job negotiations with Amazon even as he worked on the Pentagon's program.

And we can report exclusively tonight on this program that in March 2017, before the Cloud computing contract was announced, Secretary Mattis had a secret dinner in London with Amazon's top Cloud sales executive, Theresa Carlson.

We spoke to Congressman Mark Meadows about the Amazon deal recently.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: We should say that this contract is not yet in place. I don't believe with Amazon.

REP. MARK MEADOWS, R-N.C.: Right, that's correct.

CARLSON: But I think it's the largest -- it's the largest government contract of its kind ever.

MEADOWS: Well, it is. I mean, when you're --

CARLSON: It is worth finding out.

MEADOWS: Right, when you're looking at $10 billion, you know, we spend more on Defense than any other nation by multiples of 10. And when we look at this $10 billion in one contract that was designed to be given to one particular vendor, with perhaps inside negotiations, at least someone who was, is now employed with Amazon, the allegations are incredible.

And I can tell you what bothers me and bothers most American people. It's the kind of inside baseball that enriches certain individuals, whether it's Amazon or any other company. This is a critical component, Tucker. And it's something that needs to be looked into. And I appreciate you highlighting it for the American people.

CARLSON: So a detail that bothered me, and I think, correct me if I'm getting this wrong, Secretary Mattis met with this Amazon official, but then the Pentagon tried to keep that that meeting secret as if it were some national security secret? Which of course it's not, why wouldn't they be open about that?

MEADOWS: Well, when you look at a procurement process, they should be open and transparent and competitive. And when you look at keeping -- you know, somebody as high as General Mattis meeting with a potential bidder of a contract of $10 billion and even beyond that, there are some suggestions the Department of Defense Inspector General is looking at this in terms of possible conflict of interest, whether it be with General Mattis or with other individuals.

What we want to make sure of is that the American people get the best value for their dollar. And you can't do that if you're designing a contract to go just to one bidder.

CARLSON: Do we trust Amazon to provide this service to keep the Pentagon's data? It's not an American company, it's a publicly held multinational with ties to China. We're comfortable with that?

MEADOWS: Well, I think it's not a matter of the company, because we've got obviously national security protocols that we put in place. But Tucker, you know, better than most people that if you're trusting in in Washington, D.C. to get it right, oftentimes, they don't.

You mentioned at the top of this hour, you know, what you have is basically a Department of Defense that does a great job of defending our national interest. And yet it is so bloated across the Potomac here, that we've got hundreds of thousands of people that that candidly are not necessarily investing the American taxpayers dollars in the most wise and efficient way.

CARLSON: Yes, a $10 billion non-competitive contract. That rings a few bells I would say. Congressman, thanks very much for staying on this. We appreciate it.

MEADOWS: Thank you, Tucker.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARLSON: Take a look at this. It's video of a mysterious white object hovering over the fabled Area 51 in the State of Nevada. Hikers scaled in nearby mountain in order to capture video of the secretive U.S. Air Force facility.

The video also appears to show an enormous new aircraft hangar. Nobody's quite sure what that's for. Former U.S. Senator Harry Reid, who represented the area in Nevada known as Area 51 says he wants Congress to hold hearings at how much exactly the military knows about UFOs.

The Pentagon has been studying the subject secretly for decades. Probably no responsible person in the west knows more about the subject than Nick Pope. And we're always happy to have him on the show. He joins us tonight. Nick, thanks a lot for coming on. Any sense of what this object might be hovering over Area 51?

NICK POPE, UFO EXPERT: No, it's a fascinating piece of footage. But it's -- unfortunately, it's just too indistinct for us to really reach a definitive view on it. I hope that we will be able to get further enhancements and analysis over the next few days and weeks, and maybe it'll give some answers.

I mean, of course, UFO aficionados say that maybe it's the real thing. Others will be saying no, it's probably our own secret next generation aircraft or drone.

CARLSON: One of the explanations for the many sightings by US military aircraft of these unidentified objects is that they are experimental aircraft, either Russian or Chinese, is it possible? I just want to take this off the table, that they're American, that they are some part of the military that is testing aircraft that other parts of the military don't know about?

POPE: Yes, absolutely. And when you deal with highly classified, sensitive compartmentalized programs like this, everyone works in silos, very often in government, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

Having said that some of the things going on in our skies at the moment, give me cause for concern. Someone or something is flying these things against our fleet. This is a time of international tension that's going to involve the Navy, whether it's the East China Sea, or the Straits of Hormuz, and we need to find out.

Look, if it's American, Russian, Chinese or something else, Congress needs to be taking a grip if this isn't an issue for the Armed Services Committee and the Intelligence Committee, I don't know what is.

CARLSON: Why isn't it an issue for you committees in Congress? That's a great point.

POPE: Well, the good news is that, yes, the Senate Armed Services Committee have been looking at this. They've interviewed some of the pilots and radar operators who've been involved in these close encounters.

But Harry Reid has obviously now called for more than this. Public hearings, I'd support that, heck, I'd turn up and testify myself. Let's get it out there.

CARLSON: Well, I fervently hope that you're invited to do that. Nick Pope, great to see you as always. Thank you.

POPE: Thanks.

CARLSON: What do Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jim Acosta at CNN have in common? A lot probably. But one thing, they're both feature in this week's edition of "Dan Bongino's News Explosion" after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Hear that noise in the distance? It's Friday, that means it's time for "Dan Bongino's News Explosion." Our favorite former Secret Service agent and New York City cop is here with his top stories of the week. Dan Bongino, ladies and gentlemen. Good to see you, Dan.

DAN BONGINO, CONTRIBUTOR: Tucker, always good to see you. We have a bonus four stories this week. Let's get right to it.

Story number four is a really sad one here. What is going on in the Dominican Republic? Upwards of seven dead American tourists. A really horrible incident of course with Big Papi David Ortiz, a really fantastic baseball player I admire. The F.B.I. is down there. Let's hope they get to the bottom of it. They see what's going on. It's in the Dominican Republic's obviously their best interest to get to the bottom of this as well. So really tough story. That's story number four for the week.

Alright, moving on. From the humor file here. Let's lighten this up a little bit. Every Americans favorite Congresswoman and I say that with a wink and a nod, AOC wants a raise. But she has a very interesting explanation for this. We have video of this right? Play the video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ, D-N.Y.: Members of Congress, retail workers, everybody should get cost of living increases to accommodate for the changes in our economy. You know, it may not be politically popular to say but honestly, this is why there's so much pressure to turn to lobbying firms and to cash in on member service after people leave. It's not even like a raise. It's a cost of living adjustment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BONGINO: Hey, it ain't even like a raise, Tucker. It's crumbs, buddy. $4,500.00 a year. It's just crumbs. It's not even like -- remember, Tucker.

CARLSON: She votes herself for a raise, so she is a civil rights hero now? I love it.

BONGINO: Socialism is never good for the socialist. Remember that. All right, story number two, Jim Acosta writes a book about -- wait for it -- Jim Acosta.

This is -- we are living in Peak Acosta right now. This is Jim Acosta. He has a book. It's not about "The New York Times" failure to cover the Soviet Union in the 50s and 60s and the like. The book is literally about Jim Acosta and his experiences with Donald Trump.

And Tucker, I hear you make an appearance in there. He is upset you didn't go summer slam with him on a bus when you saw him. I guess he wanted some kind of physical confrontation, which is just again, totally Peak Acosta. Everything has got to be personal.

CARLSON: I don't yell at people I disagree with politically because I'm not a liberal.

BONGINO: Me either. It's not personal, buddy. Get over it. Right? All right, story number one. Collusion-confusion. What is going on? We were told pre-Trump interview that getting any information from the Russians was a bad thing.

Post-Trump interview, George Stephanopoulos, everything is a-okay if you get information from the Russians, Tucker, as long as Hillary Clinton paid for it. No worries. New rules, Tucker, if you pay for the information from Russians, it's okay. There you go.

CARLSON: Right, as long as useless, it's fine. If they come to you, it's treason.

BONGINO: Thank you.

CARLSON: Thanks for explaining that.

BONGINO: Well, I have two thumbs that agrees with you and this guy.

CARLSON: Dan Bongino, have a great weekend.

BONGINO: See you buddy.

CARLSON: We'll be back Monday, 8:00 p.m. The show that's the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink.

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