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Tucker: Bloomberg is trying to buy the election

Bloomberg isn't running on any agenda, trying to subvert democracy with cash.

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," February 17, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

TUCKER CARLSON, HOST: Good evening and welcome to a special edition of "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

According to new numbers over the weekend, the Democratic primary race is constricting to become really a two-man contest. A lot of people still in the race, but the outline of the future is getting clearer.

So on one side, you have a candidate -- Bernie Sanders -- who wants to turn this country into a comprehensive welfare state. He plans to upend every aspect of American life in order to impose a new economic order.

Now Sanders isn't hiding what he plans to do. He is running on what he plans to do.

His main rival is Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York. Bloomberg had shot to above 15 percent nationally in the polls from nowhere essentially. He is suddenly leading the race in the critical Super Tuesday State of Florida.

So what is Mike Bloomberg running on? That's a trick question, actually. Bloomberg isn't running on anything, not because he doesn't have ideas. He's got plenty of ideas, and some of them are far outside the American mainstream.

But Bloomberg doesn't think any of that matters. He's not running on ideas. He's not trying to convince voters of anything. He's not making arguments or working to change their minds on policies they care about.

He is trying to buy them and hence, the presidency. It's the single most cynical political campaign ever run in this country.

Bloomberg is trying to subvert our democracy with cash, and he is going all in to do it.

According to the latest numbers, Bloomberg has spent more than $417 million on advertising so far in this race. His nearest rival, Bernie Sanders has spent $40 million. That's less than a tenth.

Joe Biden, the man they told us was the front runner has spent just $12.3 million. Compare that, let's say it again, to the at least $417 million Bloomberg has pumped into the race, just on advertising, and that's just the beginning.

Aides say Bloomberg is willing to spend $2 billion of his own money by Election Day and the number could go higher.

Nothing like this has ever happened in America. Bloomberg's spending is like -- and pick your metaphor here -- a tsunami breaking over our political system. When the waters recede, there's nothing left. It's been flattened and wiped clean by the weight of Mike Bloomberg's wealth.

Bloomberg is the tallest figure on the landscape. The only one left upright. That's his plan. He has all but admitted that's his plan. Watch him here, disavow, stop and frisk, the single most successful policy he had as Mayor of New York.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I defended it looking back, for too long, because I didn't understand then the unintended pain it was causing to young black and brown families and their kids.

I heard their pain, their confusion and their anger and I've learned from them and I've grown from them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So think about what you just saw. It's not the normal pandering. Mike Bloomberg believes passionately in gun control. It's his life's mission. It's his signature issue. Stop and frisk may have been the most effective gun control policy ever administered anywhere.

It took thousands of illegal firearms off the streets of New York, but Democratic primary voters have decided they don't like it. They're against stop and frisk. So without even pausing, Bloomberg grovels, as you just saw, and attacks his own legacy.

Why did he do that? Because he doesn't care. Whatever. They are only words. He'll do whatever it takes. Now, they say politicians are ethically flexible, and of course they are. But this is different. There's something ominous about it.

Bloomberg can seamlessly change his core beliefs because he doesn't think his beliefs are relevant to the outcome of this race. Only his wealth matters. And the horrifying fact is he may be right.

How wealthy is Michael Bloomberg? Well, for context, the richest of the fabled Russian oligarchs, Leonid Mickelson is worth about $24 billion. Michael Bloomberg could literally give away twice that amount or spend it on a presidential race if you wanted and still be five times as rich as Donald Trump is.

It's hard to imagine just how much money that is. But with that money, Bloomberg can suffocate all opposition and seize power.

A ruling class which worships money above all, sees nothing wrong with this. They're eager to help Bloomberg do it. Like Bloomberg, they're religiously libertarian on economic matters. That's a position that shared by only a tiny percentage of the population.

No normal person in this country thinks the widening wealth gap is a good thing. It's so obviously making America unstable. But Mike Bloomberg has been one of its chief beneficiaries. He will defend the current system above all else, there's a reason he is the favorite of finance moguls and tech connoisseurs.

Again, this is a total departure from anything we have seen before in the history of this country.

Say what you will about Donald Trump but in 2016, he ran for President on ideas that large numbers of voters actually liked whether or not they liked him.

Secure the border, end counterproductive wars, fight the fascism of political correctness. In selling those ideas, he spent about half what Hillary Clinton spent. But Bloomberg can't be bothered with selling ideas or with a platform. He doesn't care what the public thinks that's why. He believes he can win by overwhelming voters with his money.

This is the nightmare scenario that campaign finance reform activists used to tell us about. They were right about one thing, our system has been vulnerable to people like Michael Bloomberg for a long time. He is just the first one who's actually tried to do it. You should be alarmed by his campaign for President.

Democracy doesn't break when voters choose unwisely, they sometimes do. Democracy collapses when what voters want becomes irrelevant.

Jason Nichols is a Professor of African-American Studies at the University of Maryland. He joins us tonight. Professor, thanks so much for coming on.

JASON NICHOLS, PROFESSOR OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: Thanks a lot, Tucker.

CARLSON: You've seen this kind of unexpected, in my view, unexpected rise in Bloomberg's popularity among African-American voters. You wouldn't have thought this would happen. Why is it happening?

NICHOLS: Well, I think it's because of the -- you know, the ubiquitousness of his ads. They're everywhere and touting his experience and how well he's done and the things he's done for African-American communities, whether they are, you know, out of context or what have you.

I think the thing is that, you know, he is not coming on shows like this and answering difficult questions. He is drowning out any kind of, you know, criticism that may come for things like stop and frisk, and you and I will have to seriously disagree on whether that was effective.

CARLSON: Sure.

NICHOLS: That was completely ineffective, but either way, he is able to drown it out with his own advertisements, and he doesn't have to answer any questions and he's probably not going to go in front of the media until after Super Tuesday.

So he's the winner here. He wins because he has money, something a luxury that Elizabeth Warren didn't have or that Bernie Sanders didn't have. When they faced tough criticism, particularly when it comes to race, they had to go to, you know, to the media and answer those questions. He is avoiding everything, and just making stump speeches and putting out ads.

CARLSON: By definition, and I hope I'd be honest enough to say this, even if I agree with Michael Bloomberg, which I emphatically do not on most things, but even if I did, I hope I'd be honest enough to say, this is an attack on democracy when you overwhelm the system with your personal wealth. Are you bothered by the fact that it's working?

NICHOLS: Well, so I think it's working in the short term, but eventually, I believe, particularly African-American voters, they're going to want answers. They're going to want to know, you know, when you have people like Charles Blow and other influencers who are saying, look, stop and frisk was a violation of your constitutional rights.

When they start asking, well, you know, you've given to the campaigns of Rick Snyder who is responsible for the Flint water crisis, when you've given to Lindsey Graham, and when you've given to Rudolph Giuliani, we want answers and he is going to have to sit there and answer and we also know that Bloomberg can be a very surly person.

He is not energetic like Donald Trump, that which is what I think won Donald Trump the election, it wasn't money, it was charisma. He is not an intellect or anything like that, but he has tons of charisma, something that Bloomberg doesn't have.

So he's going to have to go out in front of these audiences, answer these questions, and I really don't think that it's going to bode very well for him.

CARLSON: That's the hope. You hope democracy kicks in at some point. Professor, thanks so much for coming on tonight. I appreciate it.

NICHOLS: Thanks a lot, Tucker.

CARLSON: Michael Tracey is an independent journalist, meaning he thinks for himself unlike most journalists, we're happy to have him join us tonight. Michael, thanks so much for coming on.

So take three steps back, which I know you do for a living and tell us what the Bloomberg campaign means for the country?

MICHAEL TRACEY, INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST: Well, here's an interesting way to look at it. In just the past few years, Mike Bloomberg has gone out in public and stated that he couldn't win the presidency, so he wouldn't even bother trying.

And that was the characterization of his vision of his presidential fortunes in just the past few years because what is his actual governing agenda? Well, it amounts to a kind of hyper corporatized smug surveillance state cultural liberalism for which there is absolutely no constituency on a mass scale in the national electorate.

So Bloomberg rightly so --

CARLSON: May I stop you there? I just want to be absolutely clear on that point. You've looked at the numbers, and there is no constituency for the kind of politics of the Google Board of Directors, like most people don't want that.

TRACEY: Shocking, right? So Bloomberg rightly surmised that he was not going to go and ever win the presidency on the strength of his political convictions because they're completely ugly, and despicable and alien too much of the country. So what has he done?

He's had this vociferous focus purely on bashing Donald Trump, because there is a constituency for that. Whatever kind of behemoth data analytics and polling team that he's assembled correctly relate to him, that among older paranoid liberals, and some Independents, there is widespread just petrification that Donald Trump could win a second term.

So rather than campaigning or even presenting himself to the media, or doing anything resembling what the ordinary course of action here would be for a presidential candidate, rather than doing any of that, he is just putting together these sleek, kind of cutesy ads going after Trump saying, hey, you know what, I've got billions. I've spent $400 million plus so far, but that's just chump change for me. That's basically what my wealth appreciates to on a given week or something. I don't know what the interest increase is there exactly.

But he is saying, look, I can go after Trump on these petty characterological issues as if people are confused as to what Trump's personal idiosyncrasies are at this point. But there is a constituency out there for that, who look at the Democratic field and say, oh, my goodness, I'm not interested in these inner messy debates among the Democrats.

You know, I was just in New Hampshire leading up to the primary and I would talk to a lot of just standard Democrats who did not care about the differences between a Bernie Sanders or an Elizabeth Warren or a Joe Biden, they just desperately wanted to beat Trump and Bloomberg recognizes that. He is saying, look, I'm uniquely equipped to beat Trump. I'm going to flood your daily consciousness with these tedious ads that have been market tested to, you know, press your emotional buttons, and that's what he's doing.

It's paying off like you suggested, this is the most brazen oligarchic intervention in the history of American electoral politics and it's not even close. It's hugely disturbing. And whether on the right or left, anywhere in between, you should be incredibly alarmed at what's going on here.

CARLSON: And yet, you're one of the only people in the internet saying this, which tells you how fully corporatized our media has become.

Michael Tracey, I hope you will come back on this topic. It's good to see you tonight.

TRACEY: Absolutely. Thanks, Tucker.

CARLSON: We will have more on the Michael Bloomberg campaign, which we can't say enough, you should be worried about, not as a conservative or liberal, but as an American.

Bloomberg as of tonight is considering not one, but two former first ladies to be his running mate. We'll talk about it with Mark Steyn just ahead.

But first New York's new Bail Law is undoing all of Bloomberg's accomplishments when he was mayor there and criminals are celebrating. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Well, a bit of good news in the political world today. Governor Blackface or Klan robe or however we're calling him, Ralph Northam of Virginia, has for now been stopped in his effort to punish his entire state as penance for his disgusting personal failures.

Last week, the Virginia House passed a bill that would have banned the sale of so-called assault weapons, basically your deer rifle. It would have made thousands -- many thousands -- of normal law abiding people into criminals, felons by doing that, by banning all magazines capable of holding more than a dozen rounds -- please.

But today, four Democrats in the State Senate joined Republicans to table the bill in chamber. In other words, it's now dead and that's a victory for law-abiding citizens everywhere. But when they try again, you can be certain you'll hear about it first right here.

Speaking of law and order, New York's new Bail Reform Law has proven to be a real blessing for criminals across the country. Charles Murray is a serial criminal. He works in the New York subway informally. He has been arrested there 139 times, including six times just this year and it's still February.

After each one of these arrests, he has been released immediately after a hearing. But after his most recent arrest on Saturday, Barry gloated about the power New York's new laws give him, "Bail reform, it's lit. It's the Democrats. The Democrats know me and the Republicans fear me. You can't touch me. I can't be stopped." Verbatim quote. Barry then bragged about the money he had stolen for which so far he's faced zero consequences. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: What's happened just now?

CHARLES BARRY, CRIMINAL: Famous. Famous.

QUESTION: What happened, sir?

BARRY: Famous.

QUESTION: What happened, sir?

BARRY: Famous.

QUESTION: This is your 139th arrest?

BARRY: I'm famous. $300.00 a day. $300.00 a day for your money, cracker. Your money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Yes. Remember according to New York lawmakers, the guy you just heard hurling racist epithets is a victim and you're the bigot who was oppressing him, just so you know. Bernie Kerik is a former New York Police Commissioner. He joins us tonight. Bernie Kerik, great to see you tonight. Thanks so much.

BERNARD KERIK, FORMER NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER: Thanks, Tucker.

CARLSON: So, if you really cared about the city you ran, guys like that would be punished, wouldn't they?

KERIK: Guys like that would be punished if you really cared about the city, you'd get rid of the mayor, and you'd work on getting rid of the governor.

This is the governor's responsibility. It's irresponsible. It's dangerous. And this demonstrates -- Charles Barry's arrest demonstrates why Giuliani's policing in early 1994 to 2002 was so successful in reducing crime -- violent crime by 65 percent and reducing the homicide rate by 70.

Fifty percent of the people we arrested jumping turnstiles, a basic violation or a low level misdemeanor were wanted on felony arrest warrants and four felonies in crimes they committed, other crimes that committed in the city.

This guy is completely out of control and you can't do anything to him. The judges, the prosecutors, nobody can do anything to him because of the bail reform law that Governor Cuomo signed into effect.

CARLSON: You think of all the nice people in New York of all backgrounds who are working hard, paying their taxes, trying to do the right thing, raise their kids and lawmakers are taking the side of this guy over and against them.

KERIK: And Tucker, it's not just him. It's others like him. We've had people in the last six weeks since January 1st, we've had people arrested on rape charges let out, re-raped. We've had people arrested on felonies, let out, murdered. This is going on for the last six weeks.

And at some point, somebody -- you know, this isn't brain surgery. They're sitting around in a circle jerk right now trying to figure out what to do about it. They have to change it. And the mayor should be standing on his pulpit screaming at the top of his lungs to fix it, and he is absent.

CARLSON: Is the political system so paralyzed in New York that no one will be punished for this? I can't imagine anybody who is willing to defend this monstrosity in public. But will people be voted out of office over this, do you think?

KERIK: Well, look, I would hope so, and you have to go back to what happened in 1994 when Rudy Giuliani was elected, people elected Rudy Giuliani because crime was at its highest. There was no economic development. Real estate values were plummeting. Tourism was dropping off the charts.

And at some point, the people of New York City said, okay, enough is enough. We have to fix it. We're coming back to that now.

For the first time, Tucker in 25 years, last week, I saw squeegee guys at the Lincoln Tunnel. I mean, it's absurd. We're going back to where we were in 1990s, early 1990s and 1980s.

CARLSON: Exactly.

KERIK: And it shouldn't be.

CARLSON: The people in charge are suicidal and decadent, I would say. Bernie Kerik, great to see you tonight. Thank you for that perspective, as always.

KERIK: Thanks, Tucker.

CARLSON: Well, Bill Kristol's friend, John Bolton didn't testify about impeachment in public, but he is still doing everything he can to sell his book. His latest comments after the break as our special programming continues tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Welcome back to TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT. Our special programming. John Bolton didn't get the war with Iran that he craved, fantasized about for decades, but he is ensuring he gets as much payback as he can with his upcoming book.

Today, Bolton said that leaks from his book about Ukraine are simply -- and we're quoting, "sprinkles on an ice cream sundae." As if that could be any creepier. Imagine John Bolton and an ice cream sundae. Imagine the pistachio in his moustache.

Well, Bolton also complained about the White House reviewing his book for classified material. He suggested they're planning to censor it. Matthew Whitaker is former Attorney General and he joins us tonight.

Mr. Whitaker, I'm not going to ask you about John Bolton eating ice cream because we both agree that's repulsive. But what do you make of --

MATTHEW WHITAKER, FORMER ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: It's not a good visual.

CARLSON: Yes. I'm sorry about that. What do you make of his book, and what do you think it will contain?

WHITAKER: Well, I think first of all, Tucker, John Bolton, there was no doubt there were significant areas of policy that he disagreed with the President even before he became National Security adviser.

And there's -- you know, one of those is Iran. I mean, this is the same guy that wrote on a notepad 10,000 troops to Colombia, when Venezuela was a hot button issue.

So I mean, you know, this is -- there's certainly a very, you know, kind of a very strong desire to have a very strong American foreign policy of sending troops wherever in the world they might go, which is inconsistent oftentimes with what President Trump ran on in 2016.

What I think this is, it is really just an attempt for John Bolton to sell more books. You know, we know most of his disagreements and most of his thoughts on foreign policy, and so he's got to stay relevant and talk about and make it sound like there are things in addition to the sprinkles that come with this book that there's actually some ice cream in this book, and I don't think that's going to be the case. I think we already probably know what's in most of this book.

CARLSON: So I mean, this is a question probably maybe outside your lane as a former Attorney General, but what do you think the audience is for a book that promotes attacking Iran like, what percentage of Americans would be interested in something like that, do you suppose?

WHITAKER: I don't think there's a -- I don't think -- again, I don't think there is a very big audience for that. And you know, I don't sell books, and so I don't have a lot of experience in what people want to read about.

But, you know, again, sending troops to Colombia or invading Iran or, you know, sort of taking over Syria or the Middle East I mean, these are all things that I just don't think the American people you know -- there's a reason that that Donald Trump won the election that was because he wanted to get us out of these decades long wars and not send troops even to other places.

CARLSON: Well, that's exactly right. So I have to ask you this. So Roger Stone, as you know, is being sentenced on Thursday, this Thursday the 20th. He could be going to prison for nine years for lying.

Meanwhile, another liar, demonstrably, Andrew McCabe is enjoying a paid gig at CNN, not the first liar they've hired.

After learning he won't be prosecuted for leaking to the press and then lying to the F.B.I. about it, McCabe said he was offended that he was ever at any risk at all for lying. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: While you've been on with me, on Fox, there's a banner font calling you a liar. I mean, did you ever expect in any way to be dealing with anything like this?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: To be removed from that organization and unfairly branded a liar because that was the desired outcome by the President has just been one of the most sickening and demeaning experiences of my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: What do you make of this? Andrew McCabe who had -- unlike Roger Stone -- actual power, not prosecuted for lying, which he did, and Roger Stone facing nine years like how can we take this seriously?

WHITAKER: Well, there's a problem where the American people are going to look at these examples. And there's other examples of General Flynn and George Papadopoulos, as well, where it does look like there's a two-tiered system of justice.

And in Andy McCabe's case, the I.G.'s report lays out the factual basis for a case. He was referred for criminal charges by the Inspector General to the District of Columbia's U.S. Attorney and I've sat in the chair both as acting Attorney General and as a U.S. Attorney and I know how hard it is to bring cases and to charge people, and so I can understand, I trust Bill Barr that these difficult decisions are being well-considered and being made for the right reasons.

But at the same time, it is very difficult based on what I know and what I've read in that Inspector General's report as to why Andy McCabe hasn't been charged, and I'm hearing that everywhere I go right now from ordinary Americans. It just -- it does not make sense.

CARLSON: People who believe in this country and want to believe in our most basic systems, particularly our justice system, but it rattles them. It rattles me. It's a shame. Matthew Whitaker. Thanks. I appreciate your coming on tonight.

WHITAKER: Glad to join you, Tucker. Thank you.

CARLSON: The President's impeachment acquittal two weeks ago was of course a victory for everyone, even people who don't like him.

For three years, Washington wasted thousands, untold thousands of hours, untold millions of dollars trying to invalidate the 2016 election in which tens of millions voted.

The next election is almost here, so now would be a great time for Congress to finally spend some time, I don't know, fighting the opioid epidemic or policing the tech companies or preventing China from plundering our country -- do something useful for once.

But Democrats say they're refusing to move on. On Saturday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to acknowledge that the last impeachment effort even failed. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: The President seems liberated and this is about democratic politics, so I'm not asking you to criticize here, but he was acquitted. His poll ratings are high.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): There is no --

AMANPOUR: By the Senate.

PELOSI: You don't have an acquittal, unless you have a trial and you can't have a trial if you don't have witnesses and documents, so he can say he is acquitted and the headlines can say acquitted, but he's impeached forever, branded with that and not vindicated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Meanwhile, Congressman Eric Swalwell of California, not the brightest member, maybe the most enthusiastic told us it could be time for a second impeachment. This time the President's high crime is not wanting Roger Stone to die in prison.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Might you impeach him over this? Over Roger Stone and the sentencing.

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): You know, we're not going to take our options off the table. We don't wake up in the morning wanting to impeach him. You know, we want to work with him on prescription drugs, background checks and infrastructure, but we're not going to let him just, you know, torch this democracy because he thinks that he's been let off once and we're not going to do something about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Brian Dean Wright is a Democrat. He's a former C.I.A. officer, a frequent guest on the show. Nice to see you. Brian, thanks so much for coming on.

So you would think, as a political calculation, impeachment is the one word Democrats would never mentioned again, because it did not help them. The numbers I think are clear on that. Why are they still holding out the possibility of another impeachment?

BRIAN DEAN WRIGHT, FORMER C.I.A. OPS OFFICER: I don't know. And every time I hear Pelosi speak along with Swalwell, I want to put my head in a car door and smash it repeatedly because that would be more enjoyable.

What I don't understand is a party -- my party --

CARLSON: I'm with you.

WRIGHT: Right. We have been utterly focused on this impeachment stuff. We hear for over four months that Trump is worse than Hitler and that he was worse than Nixon and they were going to prove it. And what did we get as a party? As a country? We got Trump's approval numbers up, the G.O.P.'s numbers up and the Democratic Party is about as popular as hemorrhoids, and a lot of problems of the country.

So I don't think that the calculus went well. And that's frustrating and it should be to all of us. Because if we really are honest about this, Tucker and we step back, ask ourselves the question, should Congress provide oversight over the executive branch? And the answer to that is, yes. We need that.

CARLSON: I agree.

WRIGHT: The Constitution calls for it, and we need for the House and the Senate to provide that sensible oversight.

But doing so requires a degree of non-partisanship and it requires the American people to believe that there's a fact based approach to this.

But it's pretty hard to convince the American people or anybody who is watching that that could be possible, knowing that from day one Swalwell and Schiff and Pelosi and Schumer and all the rest of them have been saying impeach the President from day one.

So what is horrible then about that is A, we're not doing what we should be doing from a congressional perspective. But then second, it really underlines the point doesn't it, that we start to begin to think that there is only one party or there's only one dear leader, right?

I mean, people start fearing that that's the case that we are slipping into this China-North Korea business.

And unfortunately, people can start to make that argument if Congress doesn't do its job. So that really is the ultimate cost, I think, when Pelosi and Schumer and the rest of the folks in the clown car don't actually do what they should be doing and what the American people want us to do.

CARLSON: That's totally right. And by the way, they could appeal to Republicans and achieve their ends if they had been reasonable. But instead, they were insane and they sunk their own boat.

Brian Dean Wright, great to see you. Thank you.

WRIGHT: Always a pleasure.

CARLSON: So while you were sleeping, China has been assiduously enthusiastically plundering our jobs, stealing our scientific research. Our leaders know this is happening, they don't care.

But here's something even more remarkable. They may have had control over America's largest pension fund and money from that fund apparently went to Chinese defense contractors at the direction of the communist government of China. That happened. It's happening all over the country. We will give you the details when our Special continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Welcome back to tonight's special hour. Fourteen American cruise passengers have been flown back to the United States despite testing positive for coronavirus.

Meanwhile, fear the disease has disrupted Hong Kong so significantly, the city is battling a new menace, gangs of toilet paper thieves, of course we're not making that up.

Chief breaking news correspondent, Trace Gallagher can confirm that. He joins us tonight. Hey, Trace.

TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CHIEF BREAKING NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey Tucker, the U.S. initially said that nobody with the virus could get on the evacuation flights from Japan back to the U.S., but during the bus trip from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan to the airport, word came in that 14 Americans had tested positive for the virus.

But instead of turning those people back, they were isolated to a separate part of the airplane. Four of those infected are now in quarantine at a hospital near Travis Air Force Base in California, the other 10 are at the University of Nebraska.

And as we learned today on Fox News, some American passengers fibbed their way onto the flights. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JERI SERATTI-GOLDMAN, AMERICAN PASSENGER: We were tested in Japan, and never got the results back and we made up the story that we were clear. And then on the flight overnight, we came down with a fever.

BILL HEMMER, FOX NEWS CHANNEL ANCHOR: You say you made up the story that you were clear, what was that?

SERATTI-GOLDMAN: Well, we made up the story that no news was good news.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: It turns out the virus is also changing business protocols, including the cancellation of meetings and large conferences and implementing no handshake policies. Instead, employees are told to elbow bump.

And new research shows that because large areas of China are shut down it could impact more than five million businesses worldwide. About 20 percent of those businesses are here in the U.S.

Meantime, because of the outbreak in China, the new hot commodity -- toilet paper -- in Hong Kong, armed robbers held up a delivery driver and took hundreds of rolls of toilet paper worth an estimated $130.00. The robbers were later caught.

We should note, finally, because of the coronavirus, only elite athletes are being allowed in this year's Tokyo marathon --Tucker.

CARLSON: Toilet paper. It's a low margin business, apparently. Trace Gallagher, great to see you. Thank you.

As China becomes more powerful, the Chinese government finds it trivially easy to infiltrate and plunder America's institutions, almost all of them.

American companies outsource their jobs and eventually their expertise to China in return for a quick profit. Universities and labs hire Chinese scientists who then send their research back to their masters in Mainland China.

But even our pension funds aren't immune. A remarkable story tonight. CalPERS is California his public pension system. It has $300 billion in assets under management.

Recently, a letter from Indiana Congressman Jim Banks revealed that CalPERS chief investment officer had been recruited by a Chinese espionage operation. It almost defies belief.

Congressman Banks joins us tonight. Congressman, thanks so much for coming on and for exposing this story, which is shocking and I don't say that lightly. Tell us -- just give us a quick summary of what happened?

REP. JIM BANKS (R-IN): Well, this is really one of the more incredible stories and examples of China's infiltration into our systems as you talked about, Tucker.

But in this case, we learned that you Yu Ben Meng, the Chief Investment Officer of CalPERS is a graduate of something called the Thousand Talents Program, which Tucker is a program that's funded by the Chinese government controlled by the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party that's designed to recruit valuable individuals and place them in highly valuable places.

In this case, putting Yu Ben Meng in a place to oversee the largest state pension fund in America, where he has steered $3.1 billion to 172 different Chinese companies.

Now, what's even worse than that, Tucker is that I serve on the House Armed Services Committee in the Congress, and every day, I've been a part of working with President Trump to rebuild our military.

We've made the largest investment in American history in our military because we're trying to keep up with the China threat militarily.

What we've learned in this case is that CalPERS is investing in Chinese military shipbuilding and naval bases through this investment fund and even worse than that, they've invested in a company called Hikvision, which is a company that has developed some technologies used to spy on and persecute the Uyghur Muslim population through different types of surveillance technologies.

That's what the California public pension fund is being used for. I believe it's a travesty. And I've called on Governor Newsom to do something about it.

CARLSON: So one of the biggest players in American Finance which CalPERS is, is helping to build the military of our chief military rival. This is grotesque.

Quickly, can you tell me, is it just taking place in California? Are there concerns this is happening in other states?

BANKS: I'm concerned that it's happening all over the country and is happening even in the Thrift Savings Plan, which is the Federal pension plan as well. But this is the only case that we can find where the fund actually employs a graduate of the Thousand Talents Program which makes it so clear and egregious.

It is happening right under Gavin Newsom's nose. If he doesn't do something about it, Tucker, we have to ask the question, which side is he on?

CARLSON: That's a question worth asking. By the way, CalPERS is wildly political, of course, as you know. Congressman, thank you so much for bringing the story to light. Depressing.

BANKS: Good to be with you.

CARLSON: Michael Bloomberg hasn't yet purchased the Democratic nomination or the presidency. But his team is already thinking about who to pick as Vice President. Could Hillary Clinton be on the ticket yet again? Michelle Obama? We will ask Mark Steyn as our Special concludes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Michael Bloomberg has so much money he could literally buy Twitter -- all of it -- with a personal check tomorrow morning. And like so many Twitter users, Michael Bloomberg doesn't know when to stop talking.

Over the weekend, a 2016 video surfaced in which Bloomberg had this to say about farming and we're quoting, "I could teach anybody, even people in this room to be a farmer. It's a process. You dig a hole, you put in a seed, you add dirt on top, add water, up comes corn."

According to Bloomberg, you only need brain power for the office jobs of the digital age. Farming, any moron could do that. Robert Mugabe had the same belief, by the way.

Victor Davis Hanson is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, but he's also a fifth generation California farmer, and he joins us tonight. Professor, thanks so much for coming on. What do you make of these remarks from Michael Bloomberg?

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, SENIOR FELLOW, HOOVER INSTITUTION: Well, I think what Michael Bloomberg said in the past, what he says in the present and what he says he said in the past are three different things.

So I think he thought he was giving a history of 3,000 years of you know, agriculture and labor, et cetera, but it was just a revelation into his soul and it wasn't pretty, because he said, I can teach anybody in this Oxford room to be a farmer -- he couldn't.

And the idea that ancient or modern, you drop the seed in the ground, and presto, corn sprouts. It is ridiculous.

I mean, farmers then and now deal with weather. They deal with climate. They deal with soil chemistry. They deal with pests. They deal with man. They deal with the market. They deal with government. It requires the most skill sets of any profession in the world.

And some of the most brilliant things of the ancient world -- Columella, Theophrastus and Varro are scientific treatises on farming, and the idea that Michael Bloomberg could write all of that off is sort of not enough gray matter. And when he says that he was talking only about the past, but he used the present tense, I could teach you in this room and then he said that people farming in the past and that by implication the present didn't have the same degree of skill sets or gray matter is absurd.

Today's farmers, Tucker, they are masters of GPS, they calibrate sophisticated machines to very small tolerances and calibrations. They use GPS, computers. They are the most brilliant people I've met in the world.

I have a very strange life because I was schizophrenic. I lived on this farm where I'm speaking today, and then I had a world of academics. And I can tell you and I don't want to be mean spirited, but the people that I knew that made it in farming were so much brighter, so much more skilled than the people who were tenured professors. It's just truth.

I'm not deprecating professors, but as a person who has a PhD, I can tell you it's a lot easier to be a PhD than it is a farmer.

CARLSON: So that's part of it, and I am so glad that you pointed that out.

HANSON: They are the most brilliant and courageous people and they live in a landscape so much different than Michael Bloomberg's Manhattan. They did deal with a lot of strange and tough people.

And so they combine the intellect with physical courage and. I did pretty well in academia, but I couldn't compete with people in farming. They were too smart and too courageous for me.

CARLSON: It's just funny how smart Michael Bloomberg thinks he is. It is - - and we're almost out of time. He strikes me as kind of a clever little moron, but is Michael Bloomberg regarded among smart people? As one of them? Like a genius of some kind?

HANSON: I don't think so. What was this candidacy supposed to do? It is supposed to appeal to moderates. He's offended professional women. He has offended minority youth. He has offended people who work with their hands. He has offended farming.

And you're starting to see that the wit and wisdom of Michael Bloomberg is really a synopsis of a very isolated, insulated egomaniac narcissist, and I don't understand this Democratic primary.

They lectured us about white billionaires and white privilege, and now they're almost offshoring or outsourcing their primaries to the epitome of everything they said they hated. It's a cruel joke, Tucker.

CARLSON: Speaking of smart, this is not flattery, you are smart. Professor Victor Davis Hanson, always a pleasure. Thank you.

HANSON: Thank you.

CARLSON: Everything you just heard about Michael Bloomberg is, of course, true, demonstrably. But he could still become President despite the fact he represents essentially nobody in this country.

One proof, according to a scoop of the "Drudge Report" this past weekend, Bloomberg is strongly considering Hillary Clinton as his running mate if he wins the Democratic nomination.

Not all Bloomberg's ideas are that appalling. Another source told this program that his inner circle is also considering Michelle Obama as a running mate.

Author and columnist, Mark Steyn joins us tonight to assess. What do you make of this, Mark Steyn?

MARK STEYN, AUTHOR AND COLUMNIST: Well, I think of those two options, the Michelle Obama one is the more likely one because obviously Hillary brings with her a ton of baggage and it would mean that Bloomberg would have to be defending Russia, Christopher Steele, the dirty dossier and all of that all through his campaign.

I think what he is doing here, he is essentially short circuiting the entire nomination process. He is saying -- forget about these guys have wasted their time, these losers stumped in Iowa and New Hampshire for the last year. But also forget about any of the last minute saviors coming in at a brokered convention. Forget about Hillary or Michelle being parachuted in. Basically, I'm the guy.

And there's a kind of great security and arrogance about this. If you accept everything that Victor said, with which I agree and that Jason Nichols was talking about earlier, he is basically saying the entire nominating process as it's been known, is now irrelevant.

I've parachuted in. Not a single person apart from free writing votes in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire has actually voted for me, but none of those voters matter. I'm already naming my Vice President. A couple of weeks down the road, I'll be naming my Secretary for the Interior. Before Super Tuesday, I may even hold my own G-7 Summit, and at least half of those guys like Justin and Angela Merkel would turn up for it. That's how inevitable I am. That's what he's telling people.

CARLSON: Yes. But isn't that a self-fulfilling prophecy? I mean, I agree with you completely. I doubt he has spoken to Hillary Clinton or Michelle Obama.

STEYN: No.

CARLSON: But it kind of works, doesn't it?

STEYN: Yes, I think so. I mean, in a sense, he is the perfect opponent for Trump because he is almost like a parody of the globalist entirely disconnected from any kind of Democratic accountability.

It's not just that he has obviously all the China connections, it's just his lifestyle. I mean, he could quite easily spend more time campaigning around his garden in Bermuda than he does around half of the American states.

If you had to pick a perfect candidate to express the elites' contempt for self-government, this guy would be it.

CARLSON: That's exactly right. You're looking at a corporate takeover of the country. In 30 seconds, do you think it's likely that he'll get the Democratic nomination?

STEYN: He might stumble through to the nomination, but it's not going to work in the general. He's beyond parties. He's been Republican. He's been Democrat. He's going for the Democrats because he thinks they're the most vulnerable to this pitch and he might be right about that.

CARLSON: Yes. It's a hostile takeover. He's seen that before. Mark Steyn. It is great to see you tonight. Thank you so much for that.

STEYN: Thanks a lot, Tucker.

CARLSON: It's an amazing moment we're living in. Things are moving fast. It's worth thinking about what it means. Scary, though it may be.

We'll be back tomorrow night and every weeknight at 8 p.m. The show that is the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness and groupthink. DVR it if you can.

Have a great evening, Sean Hannity is next. See you tomorrow.

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