Donald Trump Jr.: It was them colluding, not us

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Donald Trump Jr.: It was them colluding, not us

Donald Trump Jr. shares his thoughts on the Mueller report on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," March 25, 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." For the first time in a moment, the President's son will talk about being a central target in the Mueller probe. Donald Trump, Jr. is here with his first interview since we learned what is inside that report.

Also, give you a remarkable update on the creepy porn lawyer, a lot has happened in his life. But first to the Mueller probe. The Special Counsel's investigation, "Did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. Presidential election," end quote. That is Robert Mueller's conclusion after nearly two years of investigating the matter.

The Attorney General repeated versions of that sentence four times in his summary of Mueller's report released yesterday. Whatever you think of Donald Trump, it's not factually established that he did not collude with Vladimir Putin to steal the Presidential election, period. That case is now closed.

This is the point in the story where applause breaks out. Not just cheers from Trump and his family and campaign staff and all of those many people who were told they were going to be indicted, but weren't, but gratitude from the country itself, from all Americans of all political parties.

For years we've all been told that our government was being controlled by a foreign power. There were spies in our midst. The President of the United States was one of them. He was disloyal, a quisling, an agent of a nation a hates us and seeks our destruction. That man was at the helm of our country, destroying democracy, undermining our values, poisoning this nation from within.

He was terrifying and millions of Americans were terrified. Some wept as they talked about their fear and helplessness. Now we know that none of that was true. You would think the relief at learning this would be overpowering like finding out a terminal illness was just a cold. The long and bitter war has ended. We are safe. But that is not how most on the left are responding tonight. They are not celebrating for their country.  They are not grateful. They are angrier than ever.

To them, the Mueller investigation has proved nothing and exonerated no one. Russian collusion is as real to them is it was the day first Hillary Clinton alleged it. Progressives have not surrendered the vast robot army of the Democratic Party fights on as if nothing has changed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOY REID, HOST, MSNBC: The fact that this investigation takes place within the Justice Department, which Donald Trump essentially controls and that he got rid of the one problem, Jeff Sessions who the one decent thing that he did was just recuse himself, this guy has not recused, it feels like the seeds of a cover-up are here.

CARLSON: Oh, a cover-up, and not just a cover up, but a cover up being perpetuated with the help of Mr. Robert S. Mueller, the very man you loved and trusted, the one whose report you looked forward to like it was Christmas. The grey-haired angel of truth who was going to deliver you from the orange scourge, our friend, Robert Mueller.

It turns out Mueller was part of this conspiracy, too. It was a conspiracy so brilliant, so complex that he and 18 other Federal prosecutors conducted a two-year Potemkin investigation in order to shield their plot from discovery. Diabolical. Why would Mueller do that? Come on, you know the answer because it's always the same answer. Robert Mueller is a racist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIE MYSTAL, EDITOR, ABOVETHELAW.COM: Look, if I'm the Trump children, I'm having a party tonight, right, like they won the white privilege regatta.  You cannot -- there's not an African-American person in this country that could have been investigated for 22 months, had their family investigated for 22 months and come away scot-free.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: A racist plot. That's what NBC is telling you. If that sounds like a far-fetched claim, keep in mind that you're the wacko. They're always telling you that. You're a conspiracy nut, they'll say. You believe in crazy things on the basis of zero evidence, you and Alex Jones.  You think the left is coming for your guns. You think mass immigration is hurting this country. You think illegal aliens are voting in elections.  You imagine the tech companies are censoring political speech. You don't trust the media.

And by the way, you don't believe in science and that's why you're hesitant to give a 29-year-old freshman Member of Congress complete control of the U.S. economy. You're a lunatic. You should be ignored. And so should Trump by the way. Go ahead and ignore his complaints about being persecuted. He's just whining.

Here is NBC suggesting that it's actually Donald Trump, the guy who has been falsely denounced for betraying his country as a Russian agent who owes the apology. An apology to the prosecutors who hounded him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, HOST, NBC: Did Robert Mueller deserve better from the President with this kind of language and behavior? He trashed him for two years, and in the end, Mueller just did an investigation that ultimately the President considers a total exoneration of him. Does he owe Robert Mueller an apology for that kind of rhetoric?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: It goes without saying that Democratic Members of Congress echoed these sentiments or maybe it was the other way around, the media aping the Democratic Party, suddenly it's hard to tell who is taking cues from whom?  Any remaining distinctions between journalists and the country' ruling class have long since disappeared.

Reporters used to boast about holding the powerful to account. Now, they scramble to do their bidding. "The Washington Post" is owned by the richest progressive in the world. They're one interest group now. You can't tell one from another. Politicians and prosecutors and intel agency heads told us implausible lies about Russian collusion.

Reporters are paid to push back, but they didn't. Instead, they welcomed those lies and then amplified them. They're proud to do that, but they are not apologizing for it now. In their first statement after the Mueller report's summary became public, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, the two leaders of the Democratic Party in Congress didn't mention the fact that Trump had been cleared of collusion. Neither did any Democratic politician appearing on cable news.

Virginia Congressman Don Bayern insisted this morning that quote, "There was a lot of collusion within the Trump campaign, even though Robert Mueller whom Democrats have t old us many times is the final word on the question had already told us otherwise. So nobody was fooled by any of this.

Mueller's summary is on the internet. You can read it yourself if you want and reach your own conclusions. So by lying about the obvious, and doing it so obviously, Democrats merely revealed themselves to be everything they claim Donald Trump is -- stupid, irresponsible, reckless, corrupt, buffoonish. They had to know their talking points wouldn't work. They repeated them anyway. Why? Because they didn't know what else to say.

Over on CNN, Jeff Zucker dispatched his eunuch to address the channel's viewership, meaning those Americans trapped at the airport waiting for flights, you may think CNN has been lying to you relentlessly for the last two years, the eunuch explained. Not at all. CNN has done a fantastic job. None of this was our fault. We're amazing. Listen to him squeak.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN STELTER, CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Reporting is what adds the most value. Finding out something new, putting out new information into the world is the best feeling in journalism. It's the greatest value add.  That's what hundreds of journalists have been doing, trying to solve pieces of this Trump-Russia puzzle.

So don't be fooled by the partisans who cherry pick the worst mistakes of individual journalists or the craziest ideas from commentators and claim that's the entire media. It's not.

We're waiting for the facts because here is what I know. I mean, you're going to hear this from the right for the next days and weeks to come that the press has basically made all of this up to take down President Trump.  But the press is just following a trail that Trump created.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: The greatest value add. That's how CNN sums up its role in the Russia story. Does a single person believe that? Of course not. Not one person. Jeff Zucker himself doesn't believe that, and that's why he sent his marionette out to lie as you just saw. Jeff Zucker is an anxious man tonight. He's been caught doing the one thing journalists are not allowed to do. He intentionally misled his audience.

In a fair world, Jeff Zucker would be running a car wash or he would be selling time shares in Cancun. He would not be in the news business.  Zucker himself knows that very well. He knows he's an imposter.

In a fair world, CNN wouldn't call itself a news network at all. It's far less than that, and it has been for a long time.

In 1996, CNN blamed the Olympic bombings in Atlanta on an entirely innocent security guard name, Richard Jewell. In the end, CNN paid Jewell a settlement for slandering him, but Jewell never recovered his life. Just two years later, CNN falsely the United States Military of murdering American defectors during the Vietnam War with sarin gas.

It was a ludicrous story based on obvious lies. CNN ran it anyway because it confirmed their world view. Three years after that, CNN implied again on the basis of zero evidence that a California Congressman called Gary Condit had murdered one of his interns. CNN's relentless coverage helped drive Condit from office. Condit turned out to be innocent. Too late.  His life and family were destroyed.

Now, you'd think a news network might learn from debacles like this. And yet, under the leadership of Jeff Zucker, CNN's recklessness and its dishonesty have only accelerated.

Just this past September, CNN told us that Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh was a gang rapist alcoholic who targeted underage girls. Then in January, they told us that a group of boys from a Catholic School in Kentucky were dangerous bigots who threatened to a revered tribal elder Vietnam veteran purely because they hated American Indians.

Every part of that claim was a lie. And CNN is now facing a $275 million lawsuit for repeating that lie, yet CNN kept going. Just days after its Covington Catholic fraud, CNN decided to amplify yet another racially divisive hoax, Jussie Smollett manufactured hate crime.

And now this. Exactly two weeks after Smollett was indicted for telling the same lies that CNN uncritically repeated, we learned that the Russian collusion narrative, which by the way, has formed the backbone of CNN's entire programming schedule for two years is fake. It's a hoax. It never happened. CNN responded by congratulating itself. Jeff Zucker still runs the network, his job apparently is safe. CNN's anchors wonder aloud why Americans don't trust the news media. It must be that propaganda from Fox News. Yes, must be.

It has absolutely nothing to do with coverage like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, ANCHOR, CNN: Potentially big new questions in the Russia investigation and the corresponding lack of answers from the White House.

JIM SCIUTTO, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, CNN: And any kind of collusion with the Russians.

DON LEMON, ANCHOR, CNN: And then there's the Russia investigation.

PHILIP MUDD, FORMER FBI SENIOR INTELLIGENCE ADVISER: We know the Russians were involved in interfering with the election.

CHRIS CUOMO, ANCHOR, CNN: How do you explain the Manafort allegations as anything but collusion?

CARL BERNSTEIN, POLITICAL ANALYST, CNN: And it's on the question of collusion - possible collusion with Russia.

LEMON: Fact. It's Russia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Fact, it's Russia. Okay, thanks for that, Mr. Lemon. So what are these voices of authority you just saw on CNN saying now that the facts have arrived? Have they apologized or corrected themselves or even acknowledge their role in perpetuating this hoax? Hey, let's see. Here's Carl Bernstein whose sloppy Watergate reporting from half a century ago, somehow keeps him on TV to this day.

Carl has thought a lot about this question. He's decided that in his august and seasoned opinion as a celebrated newsman, CNN did a remarkable job here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNSTEIN: And I think we've done the media, the press has done one of the great reporting jobs in the history of especially of covering a presidency by the most news organizations. And look, let's look at where the disinformation and mistakes and lying have come from. It hasn't come from the press. It's come from the President of the United States and those around him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Okay, in case you're wondering, and you may be why Donald Trump got elected President of the United States, you just saw it. Trump may be flawed, but the people in charge are just absurd. "The Washington Post" and "The New York Times" have no idea. They still don't know why Trump won the election. They wholeheartedly agree with their friend, Carl Bernstein.

Both of those newspapers won Pulitzer Prizes for their Russia coverage. In its citation, the Pulitzer Committee commended the reporters for their quote, "deeply sourced relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically further the nation's understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and its connections to the Trump campaign, the President-elects transition team and his eventual administration," end quote.

We need that run on sentence again, if you dare. You might want to keep those words somewhere as a keepsake memento like that, Dewey defeats Truman headline from the "Chicago Tribune" so many years ago. A monument to human absurdity. Your grandkids can read it and snicker. "The Times" and "The Post" though don't get the joke. They have no plans to return their prices. They think they did a great job.

The rest of us can keep laughing, but there's an ominous lesson here, too.  Our leaders are not fit to lead. They have no idea what they're doing and they won't admit it. They are hysterical children, cruel and stupid and vain. They care only about themselves. They learn nothing from their mistakes.

And so their self-regard undiminished. They march on to the next disaster full of self-righteous confidence. The next battle they tell us is over obstruction of justice. It doesn't seem to occur to them that justice is precisely what we got yesterday. Nineteen Federal prosecutor spent nearly two years investigating the Democratic Party's claim that Donald Trump stole the presidential election.

Investigators in the case had a limitless budget and essentially no restrictions of any kind. They hired dozens of FBI agents, intelligence analysts and forensic accountants to help them investigate. They issued nearly 3,000 subpoenas. They received hundreds of search warrants and hundreds more surveillance orders. They showed up at people's homes with automatic weapons pointed in their faces. They spied on American citizens.  They read their texts, downloaded their e-mails. They interviewed at least 500 separate witnesses.

Not since September 11th have Federal investigators dug more deeply into a case. And in the end, they proved the charges false. Democrats have decided to ignore the findings. Instead they say they want justice by which of course they mean revenge, punishment, power. That's what they've always wanted. The rest of this, the Mueller investigation included, was staged purely for show. Shame on the rest of us for falling for it yet again.

You'd like to believe that people who did this will be held accountable.  They heard our country, they poisoned our public sphere, they distorted our foreign policy, they completely terrified the population. They should be punished. It's not like we don't punish people here. We live in a society where people lose their job for believing in biology, in a place where college students risk having their lives destroyed for telling the wrong joke.

America is suddenly a very punitive place. But these people will escape what they deserve. You know, they will because they so often have before.  The very same people who push the Russian collusion conspiracy are the ones who told us Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction in 2003.

A few years after that, they had assured us that the housing market was absolutely solid, no problem. Go ahead and invest. Just the other day, they informed us that will have to stay in Syria and Afghanistan forever because of threats that only they understand. Tomorrow, they'll be telling you to take the bus to work because of global warming. They will never take the bus.

They won't have to. They will never face the consequences of the disasters they created. Instead, they'll keep getting rich from failure, another TV contract, other committee chairmanship, other fat grant from a Soros-funded foundation. And as they prosper, they will continue to lecture you from Twitter about your imaginary moral failings. Shut up, racist. Obey.  That's what's likely to happen in the aftermath of this hoax. That's what's always happened. How long do they think this can continue?

Donald Trump, Jr. was recently labeled a traitor to his country by a press that could not accept this father's victory. Tonight, he's here to respond. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: For two years, Donald Trump, Jr. has lived at the very heart of the Russia story, which we now know was a conspiracy theory for attending a meeting with a Russian lawyer nobody's ever heard of. He has been accused of betraying his country. Many suggested he would die in prison. We now know that none of that was real. They were lying. Or they were being hysterical. Either way, it was not true. It looks like he's not going to prison.

Donald Trump, Jr. instead joins us tonight. Donald Trump, thanks very much for coming on. So I can't recall the number of times I heard people predict that you would be indicted, you have not been indicted, you're not going to be indicted.

DONALD TRUMP, JR., SON OF PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I have not, but it's thousands, if not much more than that, Tucker. It's been about two years.

CARLSON: So what's the experience like? What's it like to be you right now?

TRUMP, JR.: Listen, it feels great. I mean, because I was a big part of all of this going on. I'm the one that took the daily incoming and the nonsense. Now at the same time, I'm also the person that was actually there, that was actually in the room. So I understand everything that went into it. I realized we didn't do anything wrong.

Certainly, when you look at what the other side was doing, you realize that it was them in fact, colluding, not us. We were doing a campaign. We were functioning like any campaign would and that's what we did. So it was difficult to watch. It was difficult to watch what they're trying to and have been trying to do to my father for two years. And it's really the Democrats, with their media lackeys, creating a narrative that they want to be true because they couldn't explain the outcome of the last election. My father won. He was able to speak to the American people.

He's been able to move the needle for them in a way that Barack Obama couldn't come close to doing. But by the way, it's not just a partisan issue. Bush couldn't have done it either. My father has done incredible things. He has done things for working class Americans. You have all time low African-American unemployment, all-time low Hispanic unemployment, all- time low female unemployment, and he's doing that with this bubble around him for two years. Think of what he could do without that noise.

CARLSON: So what I never understood is why not, if you don't agree with the policies of the administration or the campaign before it on trade, or immigration pick a topic, why not debate them? The Russia stories seem to subsume all of that. No one was talking about the details of any policy, some policies weren't even being affected as results of it, they weren't getting done. Why not have like a conventional political debate?

TRUMP, JR.: Because the Democrats can't win with their ideas, with the issues and the things that they want to push. They don't work. They tried that under Obama. They're trying that with the Green New Deal.

The only problem is we don't exactly have $93 trillion to spend to say you're going to take a bus to Hawaii. That doesn't work. Their ideas do not work. And they recognize that, so the way to try to combat that is to demonize a guy who's getting it done with ideas that they can't stand. And that's what my father has been doing, Tucker, he's been doing this day in and day out.

CARLSON: But this wasn't -- but the Russia story wasn't simply about your father, it was about the people around him very much, including you. I mean, you were a major figure in this narrative, as they say.

TRUMP, JR.: Yes, because I was the needle in the haystack, Tucker. We handed over our e-mails. I did 27 something hours of testimony in front of congressional committees. And you know what happens? You go in the meeting. At the end of a seven-hour testimony. Guys, do you have any more questions? Ask them go look at the records. Do you have any more questions? No, we have none.

Guys like Da Nang Dick Blumenthal go outside on the steps of Congress 30 seconds later hold a press conference saying, "There are many questions that were not answered." It's nonsense, Tucker. It's all a game. And you've got the leader of the tin foil hat brigade, Adam Schiff out there every day talking about the evidence of collusion that he's seen.

He is flagrantly lying to the American people. He's doing it every day on national television. He's gotten more airtime amazingly enough, than Michael Avenatti, but they're about of the same level of credibility. And there's no accountability for that, Tucker, because when you're on that side, and you have the media carrying your water for you, you can say whatever you want.

When you're on our side, even when you're right, even when you're proven so, there's a level of culpability. There are repercussions for being a conservative that you don't face if you're on the other side.

CARLSON: So what of those repercussion have been like for you? I mean, how is -- since there are millions of people who believe that you are a Russian agent or abetting other Russian agents, the most serious charge you could level against anybody betraying your country? Well, how has that affected -- I mean, what's it like when you go to the grocery store?

TRUMP, JR.: Well, listen, in New York City, it's a little bit different than the rest of the country, obviously, you know, the reality is this.  I'm a patriot true and true. I love this country. I love everything that it stands for and the difference between me, amazingly, enough as the son of a billionaire from New York City, is that unlike the Democrats, I actually spend a lot of time in Middle America, whether it be my hobbies in the outdoors, or shooting and fishing. I know those people. Guess how many of them have even asked about Russia? Zero, because they know that it nonsense.

And this is the media's classic move. They take the narrative that they understand in their little New York and DC bubbles, and they try to sell that to the rest of the country. But the rest of the country gets it. You know what they see? They see manufacturing jobs coming back to this country. They see their wages rising for the first time in decades. They see the stock market and their 401k is at all-time highs. They see all time low unemployment.

What is -- the Democratic platform is do the opposite of anything that Donald Trump has done. If Donald Trump came out today in favor of oxygen, the left would be against it? Do they really want to reverse the successes that we have seen? Do they really want to reverse all-time low unemployment numbers for all the minorities listed? It doesn't make sense to me.

CARLSON: So can that conversation -- I mean, can we begin the conversation about policy now and what happens -- since, I mean, presumably, at some point, they're going to acknowledge reality, which is Mueller cleared the administration of collusion charges, so what happens now?

TRUMP, JR.: I doubt they'd do that. I doubt they ever do that because it's not their style. And again, there's no accountability on their side.  There's two things that have to happen. I think we have to look into how this all started. Okay, this didn't start with some FBI agent, the door kicker. This started with the lawyer bureaucrats at the top of the FBI working with Hillary Clinton, Fusion GPS, Christopher Steele, Peter Strzok, those people need to be looked into.

This was the greatest farce ever perpetrated on our democracy. It's a disgrace and it's a stain on our Constitution. We have to fix that. Then what I'd like -- I'd like us all to get together. Let's start working.  How about we pass some bills for infrastructure? Why don't the Democrats get together with the Republicans and my father, and actually start doing and continuing the amazing things that my father has been doing for the American people?

That's what I'd like to say, you know. I'd like to see that kind of unity.  I'd like to see the Democrats focusing on what's good for the American people, not just for screaming on TV, trying to perpetuate a hoax and a myth that they themselves have created. Because the media and the Democrats have no credibility right now.

The Adam Schiffs of the world have no credibility right now. And it's going to take years for them to gain that back if they don't try to actually do something to effectuate change, and to get things moving for the American people. Again, my father did amazing things with all of this stuff going on with this cloud over his head. Imagine what he could do if you let him do his thing. They may want to sit this one out. Maybe -- jump on the Trump train. Let's get this thing going and let's keep the winning because we can do it. Look at what's going on. We can do it.

CARLSON: Maybe they'll wake up and realize. We'll see. Donald Trump, Jr.  Thanks very much for that.

TRUMP, JR.: Thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: Well, you just turned a mention of creepy porn lawyer. There is news in his life and we will be addressing that little bit later in the show. But first, the Russian collusion conspiracy has got to be one of the most shameful moments in the history of the press. They'll pretend it never happened, but it did. Trace Gallagher joins us with a reminder of what it looked like -- Trace.

TRACE GALLAGHER, CORRESPONDENT, FOX NEWS: And we should remind that Lindsey Graham, the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Tucker, says by any reasonable standard, Robert Miller thoroughly investigated the Trump campaign adding that the same cannot be said about the other side of the story, meaning the origin of the Russian probe specifically how the FBI, DOJ and Democrats were able to use Christopher Steele's debunked dossier to obtain a FISA warrant to surveil a Trump campaign adviser.

Graham says, imagine if Republicans used a dossier to go after Hillary Clinton associate, what the media would do then? Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC), CHAIRMAN OF SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: And the underlying information and the dossier proved to be garbage. Everybody in the world would have it on the front page. It would be endless chatter on the cable networks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: But the analysts believe the mainstream media had already chosen sides in the Trump-Russia investigation and instead of facts, they opted for information that fit the narrative. Fox News chief political analyst, Brit Hume says along with looking into the FBI and Justice Department behavior, leading up to the Mueller probe, the media also needs a very hard look, watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIT HUME, CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST, FOX NEWS: The worst journalistic debacle of my lifetime and I've been in this business about 50 years, I've never seen anything quite this bad last this long. It was a terrible thing, it needs to be investigated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: "Rolling Stone" writer Matt Taibbi argued that Russiagate is this generation's WMD referring to not finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq writing, quote, "The sheer scale of the errors and exaggerations this time around dwarfs the last mess." The "National Review's" Rich Lowry said the three biggest losers from the Mueller report -- the media, the media, and the media, Tucker.

CARLSON: Trace Gallagher, thanks very much for that. Well, it was a rare person who didn't accept the underlying assumptions of the Russia story at face value here in the Washington press corps. Internet founder, Glenn Greenwald was one of those who did not.

From the very beginning he questioned the theory, he ultimately concluded it was a sham investigation with no evidence to support it. For that, he was roundly attacked. By the way, we should say that Glenn Greenwald was when last we checked, the liberal party wouldn't vote for Trump at gunpoint, but he was still attacked roundly, by virtually everyone on the left.

Howard Dean called him a possible Russian agent, but he did not seem to care and persisted. And of course, he has just been vindicated.

Glenn Greenwald joins us tonight. So I think before it slips from collective memory, we should just restate once again, that you a liberal, were denounced as a Russian agent by other liberals. What was that like?

GLENN GREENWALD, CO-FOUNDING EDITOR, THE INTERCEPT: I mean, it was exactly what you would expect it to be. And I mean, it wasn't just Howard Dean, it was continuously on MSNBC which, let me just say, should have their top posts on primetime, go before the cameras and hang their head in shame, and apologize for lying to people for three straight years exploiting their fears to great profit. These are people who are on the verge of losing their jobs. That whole network was about to collapse, this whole scam saved them.

And not only did they constantly feed people for three straight years, total disinformation, they did it on purpose, Tucker. And the proof of that is that unlike you, who has been criticized and a lot of different ways by the left, some of which I agree with, and we talked about before, the first time I ever watched your show, you had on Adam Schiff, the leading Democrat to talk about on your set for 12 straight minutes collusion so that your audience could hear the other side of the story.

MSNBC did the exact opposite. There was a whole slew not just me of left wing journalist with very high journalistic credentials far more than anyone on that network like Matt Taibbi and Jeremy Scahill and many others, including myself who were banned from the network because they wanted their audience not to know that anybody was questioning or expressing skepticism about the lies and the scam they were selling because it was so profitable.  They did it on purpose.

It was a total fraud that they perpetrated on their audience. And to the extent that they talked about this at all, it was to call us agents of the Russian government to defame us as traders and to lie about us continuously to their audience. And there is still no accountability. They still won't put us on their airwaves. They still won't apologize and they're still lying to their audience. They don't want their audience to know what they did to them for three straight years on purpose.

It's just -- it's unbelievable when you when you put it that way. One of the things that you've been, I think particularly, acute on and virtually nobody else has said this is those channel, both MSNBC and CNN, have hired and promoted a seat series of retired Intel officials -- Jim Comey, John Brennan -- and they come on and they basically parrot a certain set of talking points but with the imprimatur of the agencies, they once ran.  What effect does this have would you say an American society?

GREENWALD: It is completely corrupted journalism. The whole point of what we were supposed to learn from the debacle of WMDs and the Iraq War, which by the way, this network that we're on was one of the leaders of, was the fact that we were not supposed to trust intelligence agencies, when they say things without evidence.

And not only did MSNBC and CNN use those people as their sources, they hired them as their news analyst. So if you turn on CNN or MSNBC, it was basically state TV. It was CIA TV. Three weeks ago, Tucker, three weeks ago, John Brennan was on MSNBC, and he said that he strongly believes that Robert Miller is going to indict members of the Trump family, either before or after March 15 because he's too noble to use the Ides of March for having conspired with Russia.

They kept all dissent off the air. They turned themselves only into the spokes people of the people they are supposed to be investigating and scrutinizing which is the intelligence community and the military officials, who now are their colleagues, who now report the news. You have government officials who spent their whole careers in the Pentagon and in the CIA, they are disinformation agents, who now work at CNN and MSNBC, shaping what their news is. And that's why these channels turned into disinformation campaigns, because those are the people that they hire, the people they're supposed to be serving as watchdogs over the people who are neo-cons, the people who glide the country into war through WDMs, not only did they have no accountability, they got rewarded by becoming the stewards of these networks, and they lie to millions of people for three straight years and huge amounts of accountability is needed.

CARLSON: So in the last minute, we have make me feel better, I'm thinking that there will be no repercussions and that this cycle of deceit and disaster will continue. Do you disagree? Do you think anyone will be held accountable for this hoax?

GREENWALD: I mean, in one way, they can't have accountability because Rachel Maddow who gets $10 million a year. She's a huge corporate brand and she's a big celebrity among liberals. So they're going to keep her on the air. But I think that that they went so far overboard in deceiving and lying to people for so long.

I watched Ken Delaney and the NBC reporter who is basically the CIA spokesman on Twitter say, "Look, this is the end of the game Trump won.  There's no collusion," and huge numbers of people on Twitter that follow NBC were genuinely confused. They were saying, "Wait a minute, you were telling us for three years all of this was a given that it was a slam dunk that it was just a matter of time when it would happen." I think they've completely lost credibility and faith, even among their own followers who are now confused and disoriented. And they deserve all the scorn and all the loss of faith and credibility that they're going to get. They are the reason why people don't trust journalism,

CARLSON: Exactly. Glenn Greenwald, you are one of the people who was vindicated by this. So congratulations for doing your job as you're supposed to be doing it. I appreciate it. Good to see you.

GREENWALD: Thanks, Tucker.

CARLSON: For years, Democrats stick their entire political agenda on calling the President a traitor -- that failed. What's next for the party?  We will tell you after the break. Also, there is breaking news tonight about the creepy porn lawyer even creepier than we thought, that's also ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Well, you'd think the Democratic Party would be thrilled to learn that the press of the United States is not a traitor to the United States.  But they're not. They're in denial. Nobody will dare admit that it wasn't true. Senator Mazie Hirono says it doesn't matter what the fact say, collusion is real anyway.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D), HAWAII: So just because there was not enough evidence for a criminal charge, conspiracy, does not mean that this very cozy relationship that Donald Trump has with Vladimir Putin, who by the way, must be really happy that this came about that this kind of cozy relationship that is not good for our country, in that it's not transparent will continue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Yes, she's a United States Senator. Even other less, I would say more impressive Democrats are refusing to abandon the conspiracy theory.  Many are spinning new conspiracies to explain what the first has not been proved.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JERROLD NADLER (D-NY), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: President Trump is wrong. This report is not amount to a so-called total exoneration.

REP. KATIE HILL (D-CA), VICE CHAIR OF OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: Now we have we have evidence over the over the last two years that the Mueller investigation was not covering, that it is highly, highly suspicious.

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D), WASHINGTON: Remember, a big piece of this report does not exonerate the president. So yes, we've got to make that determination for ourselves.

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D), CALIFORNIA: But we cannot allow them to get away with this. He does this all the time. This is not the end of anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Now, that was Maxine Waters, and you could write it off and say, "It's Maxine Waters, cares what she says." But it's not just her.  Yesterday, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, the most powerful Democrats in America released a letter that did not mention the fact that the Mueller report found the President innocent of Russian collusion.

So the question is, after two years of obsession, collusion can't be at the very center of the Democratic agenda, because there wasn't any. So what is the Democratic agenda going forward? Richard Goodstein might know, he is an attorney and former adviser to both Bill and Hillary Clinton and he joins us tonight. So do you think it's a little weird that the Mueller report on the central question, and I mean, I know you agree this because you've said it a thousand times, the central question of collusion concluded the President was not guilty of it, and the Democratic Party doesn't mention that.

RICHARD GOODSTEIN, FORMER ADVISER TO HILLARY AND BILL CLINTON: Well, again, there were like two sentences that Barr quoted in full, actually, even not even full, neither of which said what you just said.

He said, we couldn't establish -- which is a different standard legally -- that the Trump campaign had conspired with the Russian government. It didn't say about WikiLeaks. It doesn't say anything about Russian oligarchs, it just says what they can do about what the Russian government because that was the Mueller charge, right?

And as to obstruction, you have everybody saying, "Oh, we were exonerated when Mueller ..." wouldn't you think that the Trump White House would do this, said exactly the opposite. Exactly the opposite. That's a bit much.

CARLSON: Okay. So obstruction, and we're going to find out more when the report comes out. Obstruction of justice in an investigation into the question of collusion. That was one of the two things that Mueller was charged with finding out. How did the Russians interfere in the election?  And was Trump involved?

GOODSTEIN: Correct.

CARLSON: So on the second point, he determined, no, Trump was not involved.

GOODSTEIN: No, he didn't. He just said we couldn't establish which is a different standard than saying he wasn't involved and when the facts -- look, Congress had 420 to zero voted to get the report out.

CARLSON: Are you saying that the most extensive investigation in the history of the country since 9/11, couldn't get to the truth? But there's some other truth that someone else is going to find? Who would that person be and how will it be found?

GOODSTEIN: I think what we're saying is not that. It sounds like -- well, it seems like -- first of all, can we comment on the comedy of the fact that before this report, there were 13 angry Democrats and everything, and now those same people are saying, "Oh, Mueller did such a thorough job," and Democrats are frankly --

CARLSON: I am not saying -- well, I would say two things. First of all, I never doubted that Mueller would you know, lift up every rock, okay?

GOODSTEIN: Right.

CARLSON: I think what Mueller did was disgusting. I think he should be ashamed of himself. What they did to the innocent -- Roger Stone, Carter Page, George --

GOODSTEIN: We'll find out if they are innocent.

CARLSON: Okay, they were innocent. They didn't collude with Russia. The whole thing was insane and then he wrecked their lives. So I think Mueller should be ashamed of himself. I think what he did was appalling. I'll never stop thinking that.

My only point is, look, let's be completely real. Democrats charge collusion. Collusion didn't happen. No one was ever charged for collusion. At what point you admit, you know, we were wrong. Do you ever admit that or do you keep lying?

GOODSTEIN: What we know, not from Mueller, not from the mainstream media, but from Manafort's own lawyers that he met with a Russian spy to give them the most top secret polling data, which presumably the Russians could have used to target key voters and in key states.

CARLSON: So why do you think no one was charged for that?

GOODSTEIN: I think let's see what the report says.

CARLSON: We know no one was charged for it. And so what do you think that is?

GOODSTEIN: I think we should see what the report says.

CARLSON: Do you think Mueller was in on it?

GOODSTEIN:  Would you agree that the report should come out? Would you - -

CARLSON: Of course, it goes without saying, I think.

GOODSTEIN: Of course, thanks. So we're speculating on the broad --

CARLSON: No, no, we're not actually speculating because you made a charge, and you said this criminal thing happened, but no one was charged for it.  And I'm asking you, why do you think that is?

GOODSTEIN: I didn't say --

CARLSON: Robert Mueller is part of this conspiracy.

GOODSTEIN: I think Robert Mueller had a standard of what can I prove beyond a reasonable doubt? And right -- so we had two people, we had Manafort, who was lying to him, and we had a Russian spy who we couldn't get access to. So it's kind of hard to prove that.

CARLSON: Do really think you guys can keep this -- I mean, honestly, like no joke, do you really think you can keep this up and after all of this -- you know what? The problem is collusion.

GOODSTEIN: You're correct to think if we could keep up. I think Adam Schiff should have hearings and Donald Trump Jr. now can plead the Fifth, right? So he should be called in under oath and say, "What did happen in that Trump Tower meeting?"

CARLSON: Are you serious? You're still worried at the Trump Tower meeting?

GOODSTEIN: Absolutely.

CARLSON: After the Mueller report comes out?

GOODSTEIN: Because what the White House should have done, you think it's a joke --

CARLSON: I do.

GOODSTEIN: After the report comes out, they should have said, "Here's how we're going to stop it." And instead, they're just thumping their chest about, "Oh, aren't we great?" No, the Russian says, Dick Cheney said it was an act of war by attacking our elections.

CARLSON: Well, I think that's a very silly characterization with all respect.

GOODSTEIN: We'll take it up with him the next we talk.

CARLSON:  ... Cheney and everyone else who said that. I just don't agree with it. But really quickly, one sentence, the Russia investigations continue is what you're saying?

GOODSTEIN: Because we don't know exactly who did what, why and when and how to stop it from happening in 2020.

CARLSON: Okay, it continues. It continues.

GOODSTEIN: And you think it's a joke, most people don't.

CARLSON: Not only do I think it's a joke. I think it's a sad joke. I think it's hurt the country. I think it will cause the Democrats to lose in 2020. We'll see.

GOODSTEIN: That might happen, but what hurt the country was what the Russians did.

CARLSON: Yes, I don't think it really hurt the country actually. I really don't. I think it's a total lie.

GOODSTEIN: Or Intelligence Agencies --

CARLSON: You know what -- no, they didn't and I don't -- it didn't hurt the country, actually. It's like it's one of these lies we all have to go along with. What is hurting the country is what China is doing, what our own tech companies are doing, what the opiate crisis is doing.

GOODSTEIN: Yes, there are problems.

CARLSON: Russia did not hurt the country by comparison. It's just a lie.

GOODSTEIN: Yes, Mueller found that the Russians did what we --

CARLSON: Yes, whatever, the Russians.

GOODSTEIN: And if Trump's going to buy into what Mueller said, is he going to buy into that? Is he going to keep trying this with Putin.

CARLSON: I don't buy into it. That's my position. Richard Goodstein, great to see you.

GOODSTEIN: Thank you.

CARLSON: The President responds to the Mueller report just a short time ago. We'll hear directly what he said in a minute. Plus, you probably noticed that today is a particularly bad day for CNN. Not only was the Russia hoax exposed, what are they going to talk about for the next decade, assuming they still exist? But two of their legal analysts were indicted and arrested today, two of them. One of them was the creepy porn lawyer busted for extortion, fraud and tax evasion. Marc Steyn responding too late -- breaking creepy porn lawyer news after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: The President responded from the Oval Office today about the Mueller report. One of our favorite Fox correspondents, David Spunt has been following the story from the beginning and joins us tonight. David?

DAVID SPUNT, CORRESPONDENT, FOX NEWS: Tucker, well, thank you. Well, President Trump had a lot to say about this Mueller report. He's been saying what he wants to say for the past two years that he and his campaign did not collude with Russia. Now, he has the backing of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

In that statement, the President went on the offensive yesterday after the Attorney General released his summary report. The first world leader the President met with following the Mueller news, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was at the White House today. I want to play from some sound from President Trump when asked about the Mueller report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, so did this turn out to not be a witch hunt after all? Do you think Robert Mueller did a --

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's lasted a long time.  We're glad it's over. It's 100% the way it should have been. I wish it could have gone a lot sooner, a lot quicker. There are a lot of people out there that have done some very, very evil things, very bad things, I would say treasonous things against our country. I say it very strongly. Very few people I know could have handled it. We can never ever let this happen to another President again. Thank you all very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SPUNT: And here is the President when asked about releasing the report for all Americans to see.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Up to the Attorney General, but it wouldn't bother me at all. Up to the Attorney General, wouldn't bother me at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SPUNT: Attorney General William Barr said he would release as much of the report as soon as possible. Tucker, the House voted 420 to zero last month to make the report public. Now, we will see if the Attorney General delivers on his promise -- Tucker.

CARLSON: David Spunt, thanks a lot for that.

SPUNT: Sure.

CARLSON: Well, if you've watched this show in the past year, you know, we've done our best to keep you up to date on the doings of a man called the creepy porn lawyer. Six months ago, we welcomed him to the set of the show. Here's part of what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Why are you rich and your client is working in seedy strip clubs?

MICHAEL AVENATTI, LAWYER: Sir, I am not -- sir, you have any idea how much money I've earned?

CARLSON: You're on every cable show. You're running for President now.

AVENATTI: You have no idea.

CARLSON: Well, I know that you haven't paid your taxes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Well, it looks like we called that one. The creepy porn lawyer by the way is good as of tonight. He is now officially the creepy extortion lawyer as well as the creepy tax evader, and the even creepier long-time fixture on CNN.

Just hours ago, the man you saw on the screen was arrested in Manhattan.  He's now facing indictments in both New York and the state of California.  Authority say he went years without paying any taxes on what he earned.  They say he embezzled cash for his own clients and employees. And most spectacularly, they say that he tried to extort millions of dollars from the Nike shoe company in a mafia style shakedown scheme.

He's actually on tape doing his best John Gotti impression. In short, this guy is in serious trouble tonight. If he calls you with a "can't fail it investment opportunity," it would probably best to pass on that one, just our advice.

But tonight we're wondering what happened to all the people around the creepy porn lawyer and there were a lot of them. How are they doing? The Democratic officials who begged him to run for President. The donors who funded is exploratory committee. And more than anything, the media, they truly love this man.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANIE RUHLE, ANCHOR, FOX NEWS: He's a beast.

EDDIE GLAUDE, PROFESSOR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: He's a beast that he keeps popping Donald Trump and all of these folks in the mouth. Jon Meacham says he may be the savior of the Republic.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I owe Michael Avenatti an apology for the last couple weeks, I've been saying, "Enough already Michael, I've seen you everywhere.  What do you like to say?" I was wrong, brother. You have a lot to say.  The Democrats could learn something from you.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CARLSON: It's a match made in heaven. They deserve each other. But tonight, we're especially concerned about CNN. In a single two-month span that channel welcome the creepy extortion lawyer onto their air a remarkable 65 times. Maybe that's where he learned the negotiating skills he tried to use with Nike.

According to reports, another CNN legal analyst, Mark Geragos, colluded along with him in this scheme against Nike. Geragos has been indicted, too. There's no words tonight at who else at CNN might be arrested. But of course, we'll keep you posted on that.

In the meantime, author and columnist, Mark Steyn joins us tonight to chew this over. Does this surprise you, Mark?

MARK STEYN, AUTHOR AND COLUMNIST: No, not at all, Tucker. By the way, if you're road testing new labels for the creepy porn lawyer, I think we should go with creepy porn extortionist and I congratulate you. I congratulate you, Tucker, because you grasp the essence of this character in a way that CNN and MSNBC and all the rest of the media didn't.

As you know, we were talking, as you mentioned six months ago after that interview about the reality of the situation here that stormy Daniels is stripping on an 18-inch bar in Richmond, Virginia, hoping to get a few dollar bills and maybe the occasional five tucked in her garter while he's sitting there in a $4,000.00 suit and making exploratory trips to Iowa and New Hampshire.

And in a way, it ties in with everything else you've been talking about this last hour, the way the media have been pushing things that are obviously phony down the throats of the American people. And no matter how often -- they're basically like a kind of army of Yosemite Sam's. They keep sticking the dynamite down their own pants. And no matter how often, Brian Stelter's pants are dynamited and Anderson Cooper's pants are dynamited and Don Lemon's pants are dynamited, they'll fall for the very next three people extortionist who comes along.

CARLSON: But why is it -- I notice a theme here with Avenatti and Harvey Weinstein and any of these presidential candidates, what about the Democratic Party and their handmaidens in the media attract them to the worst people in the world? It's always the unusually bad people they wind up celebrating. Why is that?

STEYN: Well, I think it's to do something Alan Dershowitz was talking about earlier today that once you've decided on the outcome, you become actively invested in willing the outcome. Now, I'm an old Fleet Street chap, so I love sex scandals. For the sex.

CARLSON: Me, too.

STEYN: For the sex. The minute -- the minute Stormy Daniels was presented as a campaign finance reform, that's the least interesting sex I've ever heard about. That's a fetish that only Democrats and the media can get into. And the idea that the -- look, nothing else is going -- seems to be clear enough in the Russia collusion thing. Why don't we merge it with stormy Daniels by making this a campaign finance reform in fact? That's a losing proposition for anyone other than CNN.

CARLSON: Such a good point. I can say this sincerely about creepy porn lawyer. He really was creepy. In all the years I've worked with our stage manager, Louie, the only time I've seen them use Purell is when creepy porn lawyer was here. I am not kidding, when he touched him by accident and then he used it. He's that dirty?

STEYN: No, no, no, you were a hazmat suit next time, Tucker. You don't want any of that creepy porn --

CARLSON: And by the way, I would almost never say I -- you know, I feel bad about saying, you know, describing something that took place off camera. But that really did happen. It's stuck with me ever since. I've never met a guest in 22 years of doing this, who was more personally menacing and dark than that guy.

STEYN: But the question you came up with that label and the question is, why did you get the essence of the man and CNN and MSNBC and the rest decided to glorify him and say here, "Head to Iowa and New Hampshire.  You're looking great for 2020." You don't really --

CARLSON: Great question.

STEYN:  ... to do that.

CARLSON: That's a good point. As always, Mark Steyn. Thank you.

STEYN: Thanks a lot, Tucker. Great to be with you.

CARLSON: Out of time, back tomorrow.

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