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Media ignores CNN settlement with Covington teen

CNN settled a multimillion-dollar defamation lawsuit filed by Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann; reaction and analysis from Fox Nation host Tammy Bruce.

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," January 14, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

TUCKER CARLSON, HOST: Good evening and welcome to "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

The president, as you can see on the screen just about to speak to supporters tonight in Milwaukee, Wisconsin ahead of the Democratic National Convention this summer, we're following that rally for newsworthy moments. We'll have highlights for you as soon as we get them in just a bit.

But in the meantime, we want to bring you the latest on the Democratic Party, which because there is in the end, justice in this world, is coming apart before our eyes. What a spectacle it is.

The catalyst for the collapse is primary season that officially begins with the Iowa caucuses, that's fewer than three weeks from today. So it's soon.

It seemed like just this morning that Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts had been ordained the front runner and the likely Democratic nominee, but not anymore. In this environment, political fortunes can change overnight faster than one's ethnic identity even.

Suddenly the Warren campaign appears to be falling apart, her fundraising has tanked. She is badly behind in the early primary states. A recent Harris poll shows her in danger of dipping below 10 percent nationally. It's ugly.

And so, is she hurtles toward Earth, Warren has pulled her reserve chute. She is denouncing Bernie Sanders -- wait for it -- as a sexist. Warren now claims that Sanders once told her that no woman could win a presidential election. Bernie Sanders denies saying this. So who is telling the truth?

Well, the Sanders campaign responded with this video of their candidate making exactly the opposite case decades ago. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, I-VT., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The real issue is not whether you're black or white, whether you're a woman or a man. In my view, a woman could be elected President of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: A woman could be elected President of the United States. You just saw it. So has Bernie Sanders changed his mind about that? Elizabeth Warren claims that he has. The question is, is she telling the truth?

Let's review the evidence. This is the person who lied about her ethnicity in order to gain the quota system at Harvard. This is also the person who made big money advising corporations on how to avoid paying the people they'd harmed, and then once she'd cashed in doing that, built an entirely new persona as a ferocious consumer champion.

This is a person so synthetic and uncertain of who she is that she can't even drink a beer with her own husband without coming off like the captive in a hostage video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, D-MASS., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE Hold on a sec. I'm going to get me a beer. Hey, my husband, Bruce, is now in here. You want a beer?

BRUCE MANN, HUSBAND OF ELIZABETH WARREN: No. I'll pass on the beer for now.

WARREN: I'll pull up a stool and sit down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Make a note to yourself and watch that video at least once a day. I'm going to pull up a stool and sit down. How'd you like to have dinner with her? Terrifying.

And if you think that's the falsest thing you've ever seen, keep listening. Here's Elizabeth Warren telling audiences how she was fired from her first job for the crime of getting pregnant -- because that's what life was like in America before pioneering feminists like Elizabeth Warren put everything on the line to change the rules. It was a hellscape right out of the "The Handmaid's Tale."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARREN: I was visibly pregnant. And the principal did what principals did in those days. Wished me luck, and hired someone else for the job.

I was visibly pregnant, and the principal did what principals did in those days, wished me luck, and hired someone else for the job.

I was visibly pregnant. Wished me luck and hired someone else for the job.

I was visibly pregnant. Wished me luck and hired someone else for the job.

I was visibly pregnant. He wished me luck and hired someone else for the job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Wished me luck, exact same arm gesture, every time, a carbon copy. Watching that tape, you think how could we ever have believed she was going to win anything? How dumb are we?

And by the way, this scenario she just described, never happened. She made it up. How do we know that? Well, because Elizabeth Warren herself told a very different story 12 years before.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARREN: I worked -- it was in a public school system, but I worked with the children with disabilities. And I did that for a year, and then that summer, I actually didn't have the education courses. So I was on an emergency certificate, it was called. And I went back to graduate school and took a couple of courses in education and said, I don't think this is going to work out for me.

And I was pregnant with my first baby, so I had a baby and stayed home for a couple of years and I was really casting about thinking what am I going to do?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So it turns out they didn't actually wish her luck and fire her for being pregnant. What a fraud. What a liar. A phony. We can say that conclusively, so can a lot of voters.

So say what you want about Bernie Sanders, we do regularly, but he probably didn't attack Elizabeth Warren for being a woman. There a lot of reasons not to vote for Bernie Sanders, but you have to be a shallow lifestyle liberal to think sexism is one of them.

If that's Warren's Hail Mary pass and it is, she is done. It's over. So where exactly does that leave us in the Democratic primary? Well, really with two options. The party is either going to nominate an elderly socialist or an elderly corporate shill who spent decades taking bribes from the credit card companies. Those are the choices.

Democrats have reason to be nervous about that choice. Here's the latest tonight, the not very reassuring development from Project Veritas. It is a newly released video. You have no reason to doubt it's true. We haven't verified it ourselves, but you can judge for yourself.

In it, a Sanders campaign organizer vows that if Bernie Sanders doesn't get the nomination, people are going to get hurt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYLE JUREK, FIELD ORGANIZER, SANDERS CAMPAIGN: If Bernie doesn't get the nomination or it goes to a second round at the D.N.C. convention, [bleep] Milwaukee will burn.

Be ready to be in Milwaukee for the D.N.C. convention. We are going to make 1978 look like a [bleep] girl's scout [bleep] cookout.

The cops are going to be the ones that are getting [bleep] beating in Milwaukee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: That sounds like a good time. Blood in the streets. And keep in mind, that's what he is predicting will happen if Bernie Sanders loses. What's going to happen if Bernie Sanders wins, watch?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUREK: Germany had to spend billions of dollars reeducating their [bleep] people to not be Nazis. Like, we're probably going to have to do the same [bleep] thing here. That's kind of what all Bernie's whole [bleep] like hey, free education for everybody because we're going to teach not to be a [bleep] Nazi.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Reeducation. They're just confirming every suspicion. So the candidate who honeymooned in the Soviet Union we learn, employs campaign staff who are planning reeducation camps in the first term. Feel better?

Dana Perino hosts "The Daily Briefing" with Dana Perino and she joins us tonight to assess the Democratic race, more amusing with every passing day. Are we overstating Elizabeth Warren getting -- it's hard to believe that Elizabeth Warren thinks she is going to save her campaign by calling Bernie Sanders is sexist, but maybe she is?

DANA PERINO, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: Well, it's -- I would love to know and maybe we'll find out one day who actually leaked that information. You know, there is some speculation it could have come from the Biden team, right, to try to sow a little mischief between Candidate A and Candidate B, meaning Warren and Sanders because those are two candidates that they can't live with each other and they can't live without each other.

They have similar supporters, and one of them at some point is going to have to take off the gloves and start swinging, and I think that she took offense about oh, somebody said that I'm going to lead us on the Sanders campaign. So she got very upset about that.

So then it seemed like it was retaliation to say that Bernie Sanders is a sexist, and I think that the non-aggression pact between these two, it might even last through tonight's debate. But there's only three weeks until Iowa and to me, Bernie Sanders actually has better organization, better campaign staff, and are on the march.

I don't know if they'll actually be able to pull it off. I think Joe Biden still probably will squeak it out, ultimately, in the end, but Bernie Sanders is definitely on the rise. And I'm not going to start preparing myself for re-education at this point, but I do think that he has run a pretty good campaign.

CARLSON: So I'm not a math major, but here is the layout as far as I can tell. It's a three-person race. If you take out the tiny Episcopalian Mayor from the Midwest, and it's really -- so it's Bernie Sanders and Biden, Sanders -- I mean, Elizabeth Warren, Sanders and Biden. Warren, and Sanders are drawing the same kind of left populist voters.

So if one drops out and you combine the people who support them, they dwarf Joe Biden, correct?

PERINO: That's right. Now, I don't know if the Elizabeth Warren, supporters would actually be able to say that they're for Bernie, maybe so, but with the Bernie people, to be able to be for anybody else.

CARLSON: That's a good point.

PERINO: Now, back in 2016, it is estimated that about 10 percent of Bernie Sanders supporters voted for President Trump and that could certainly happen again.

But if he -- you know, I do think that he definitely -- Bernie Sanders believes he was robbed because of the super delegate process in 2016. The D.N.C. has changed many rules to try to make things more fair, and the progressive base like they are definitely on the march. They want to win.

CARLSON: Very quick. Biden is reaching out to Wall Street, I think he would have their support any way. He has worked on their behalf before. But if it comes down to Sanders and Biden, that seems to open up a gap, a chiasm in the middle of the party that it is hard to see how they could bridge it. They just have nothing in common.

PERINO: And it was very interesting today on "The Daily Briefing," I talked to Tim O'Brien, he's a senior policy adviser for Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who's also in the running. And don't forget, like this could go to a contested convention in July right there in Milwaukee.

And I wouldn't necessarily count -- discount -- I shouldn't count him out, but I wouldn't discount the effect that the Michael Bloomberg team could have on this race, especially if they think Bernie Sanders is going to win the nomination.

CARLSON: Yes, well, I'm really enjoying it. I mean, this couldn't happen to better people.

PERINO: It's fun, right?

CARLSON: Oh, it's the best. It's really -- it's just -- it's like Christmas.

PERINO: Tell my buddy, Dave Rubin, I said hi.

CARLSON: He is sitting right here. I will, Dana, thank you so much. Great to see you.

PERINO: Bye.

CARLSON: Well, the Democratic primary electorate includes millions of African-American and Hispanic voters. And according to the press, the geniuses on cable news, they're racist, because not enough of them have backed African-American candidates. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RASHAD ROBINSON, PRESIDENT, COLOR OF CHANGE: A stage for the Democratic Party that is all white is not a stage that the Democrats should be proud of in 2020.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: And with Booker dropping out, this contest becomes much more white.

KIMBERLY ATKINS, WBUR REPORTER: It was tough for Cory Booker to get beyond four percent just like it was tough for Kamala Harris and others. The voters here don't look like the voters in the rest of the electorate in the country and it's a tougher race for them.

JENNIFER RUBIN, OPINION WRITER, THE WASHINGTON POST: The way they've set up the primary order of states is a bad idea. Based upon really white states that don't reflect the Democratic Party.

There's really a lot of ways to win this presidential election for Democrats and it's not just getting all of those crusty white guys in diners in, you know, the Midwest.

Nothing against guys in diners in the Midwest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: I swear the Trump campaign is paying that woman. She's just an ad for Trump. Dave Rubin joins us. He hosts "The Rubin Report" on YouTube, our old friend joins us here on set. Dave, great to see you tonight.

DAVE RUBIN, HOST, "THE RUBIN REPORT": It's good to see you. Before you say anything, Tucker, I just want to be very clear. The woman you're talking about right there in the clip.

CARLSON: Yes.

RUBIN: That's Jennifer Rubin. I am in no way related to her.

CARLSON: I totally agree. You have the same -- no.

RUBIN: Very important that I say that at the beginning.

CARLSON: Well, she is a -- clearly, she's a plant.

RUBIN: What kind of conservative is she?

CARLSON: Is she Jeb Bush's former spokeswoman who is on MSNBC? You watch them, you're like, you know what? I'm voting for Trump. I don't care.

RUBIN: It's really confusing.

CARLSON: It's unbelievable. Anyway, let me ask you how dehumanizing do you think it is to see people in the media who appear intent on dividing the country along racial lines to dismiss people on the basis of their skin color, like how did we get to this place?

RUBIN: Who was that guy that wanted his children not to be judged by the color of their skin ...

CARLSON: There's monuments of them at the mall.

RUBIN:

... but by the content of their character? That guy was kind of right. That guy, MLK, Jr., obviously, he was a liberal. He was a liberal. But the progressives have nothing to do with true liberalism.

And there's a hilarity going on here, because for years, they've been screaming that all of us, anyone who is not a woke, intersectional, progressive is a racist. But what was going to be at the end of the road of that? At the end of the road is exactly what's happening right now. They would have to turn it on themselves.

And now they are turning it on themselves. So MSNBC is now putting up people to basically say, forget those Republicans and conservatives and Trump supporters that are racist. We're the racist because in an hour from right now, there's going to be a Democratic debate. I think it's on CNN and guess what's going to happen? It's going to be all white people. Thank God, Elizabeth is one 1/1024 Native American or whatever it is.

I don't know what happened to Andrew Yang, he should be in there but his Asian-ness doesn't even count, right? Because Asian doesn't sort of fit into the intersectional calculator.

So this is the end game of what all of these competing --

CARLSON: But what they're really doing as I think you're suggesting, if you want to be precise about it, they're blaming black voters.

I mean, there's a reason. the only reason --

RUBIN: Right. They're saying blacks aren't supporting their own. I mean, think how insane that is.

CARLSON: They're turning to the African-American electorate in the Democratic Party and say you're bigots.

RUBIN: Yes.

CARLSON: Like the rich people on MSNBC, people like that, I can't remember her name, but the woman, you share the last name with --

RUBIN: Jennifer Rubin.

CARLSON: That's what they're doing. Jennifer Rubin. That's what they're doing.

RUBIN: Yes. Well, you may remember that at the State of the Union last year, when President Trump said we have the lowest all time black non- employment, and the cameras flash to the Congressional Black Caucus, and they sat there like this.

Now, if you cared about your country, if you cared about black people or just citizens of your country, wouldn't you be happy that they have low unemployment? That would be good.

But if you're a partisan hack, then you wouldn't care about that. And I think most people are waking up to this stuff. I mean, it's -- I sent out a tweet at the beginning, on January 1st, saying this is the year of the implosion of this thing.

CARLSON: Of wokeness.

RUBIN: Of wokeness. It has to implode now, because Elizabeth has to call Bernie a misogynist, and someone else has to call Bernie a racist because that's all they've got because they can't -- they can't debate on policy. They can't really debate on taxes or foreign policy or any of these things.

So they have to get you on all of these things because it's sort of worked in a lot of ways against conservatives, right? You're one of the few guys that consistently stands up against it, but it silences a lot of people.

CARLSON: Yes, it does.

RUBIN: I think this is the year that it just -- they've cried wolf for too long.

CARLSON: Because the polling I look at suggests that really nobody is for this crap other than a very tiny percentage of MSNBC hosts, for example, but like your average person of all -- any color doesn't like this --

RUBIN: Nobody cares. It's an anathema and it's a reverse of what the American Dream is. Nobody cares what your skin color is. Nobody cares what your gender is, or even your sexuality or any of these things.

If you're an American and you live by the laws of America and you work hard and try to better your life and your family's life. That's what this whole thing is about.

But why do they never talk about that?

CARLSON: Exactly.

RUBIN: Why are they afraid to say words like liberty and freedom? Imagine those -- you know you said those words? Tulsi Gabbard said it, and now, she is out.

CARLSON: Yes, they hate her, right. I can't wait until -- these are the worst people I've ever dealt with, and I can't wait until they're gone. Dave Rubin. Great to see you.

RUBIN: Great to see you, man.

CARLSON: Thank you. After three years of promises, Democrats finally impeach the President. What does it mean for this country long term? What kind of precedent does it set?

Victor Davis Hanson has thought deeply about that. He joins us after the break.

Plus, a Federal court has approved a leftwing defender of the F.B.I. to fix the bureau's FISA process. Can he be trusted? Rhetorical question. Our investigation just ahead.

And we're monitoring of course the President's speech tonight in Milwaukee. Highlights just ahead.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: But Crazy Bernie Sanders and the Washington Democrats. By the way, Bernie is surging. Bernie. Bernie is surging.

[BOOING]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: So an impeachment update for you tonight, even before he was sworn into office as the President, Donald Trump was, of course, the subject of many attempts to impeach him.

The left spent three years hunting for a way to do that. Russia didn't work. Neither did Stormy Daniels. Remember that?

Finally, last year, Democrats decided that they were running out of time and they settled on impeaching the President for asking Ukraine's President to investigate a job held by the former Vice President's son -- clearly, that kind of payoff. They're impeaching him for that. They did it.

Of course, the point of it was to improve the party's chances in the presidential race this year. Will that work? Probably not. But the effects may linger far beyond this year's election. What could those effects be?

Victor Davis Hanson has thought a lot about this. He's a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He has sort of a piece on this exact question. He joins us tonight. Professor, thanks so much for coming on.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, SENIOR FELLOW, HOOVER INSTITUTION: Thank you for having me, Tucker.

CARLSON: What kind of precedent does this set? What can future presidents look forward to post-Trump impeachment?

HANSON: Well, I think we're on new ground, Tucker. I think from now on, you're not going to expect to have bipartisan support in the Congress.

I don't think anybody cares whether you have 51 percent public support. I don't think you're going to have to specify anything, high crimes and misdemeanors or treason or bribery can just be obstruction or abuse of power of something.

In addition, I don't think it's going to be rare. I think, anytime a first term President loses in his first midterm the House, the House is going to try to impeach him as a political act.

It's exactly opposite of what the framers outlined in the Constitution and what Hamilton, for example, talked about in the Federalist Papers, and I think it's going to be a political tool, it's going to be sort of a vote of no confidence and it's going to be quite frequent.

And I think also, Tucker, it's part of a larger trend that we're destroying institutions and customs and practices for the noble end, supposed it noble end of getting Trump. So I don't think we have a FISA Court with any integrity anymore.

They didn't ask about the F.B.I. fraudulent documents that were presented. And when they were apprised by Devin Nunes, for example, on two occasions, they didn't listen to him and now their outside adjudicator was knee deep defending the F.B.I. and they've lost.

It's tragic because they've lost all their credibility. That's another institution that's by the wayside. I don't know if we have whistleblower, that concept anymore.

A whistleblower was somebody with strong principled views that came forward, took the heat, had firsthand knowledge, met with the Inspector General. That's not true anymore. You just sort of go to the opposition party in Congress and develop a strategy. You never identify yourself. You have no firsthand knowledge, maybe third hand gossip, that's gone by the wayside.

So I think we're a new territory. There's sort of a shadow government. We weren't like the Europeans that had an alternate government in waiting. But you see, when all of these people are coming forward, Ben Rhodes and his group and Hillary's group and John Kerry, they're actively opposing in a way that I don't think Clinton or either Bush did.

I've never understood the concept of a C.I.A. Director Emeritus or a Director of National Intelligence, going on cable TV and being paid to analyze and attack the incumbent President about a scandal in which they're knee deep in with security clearance --

CARLSON: Let me pause and say, while retaining their top secret security clearance at the same time.

HANSON: Yes.

CARLSON: They're working for a cable channel.

HANSON: And then we -- and then Tucker, winking and nodding that they have sources that are going to really substantiate their accusation that Trump may be indicted by Mueller, all fraudulent, and bogus.

And that's a new thing. So are we going to get when the F.B.I. Director, Director of National Intelligence, he goes into office, and he just expects to get into the opposition and be paid for it while using his government clearance. And all these things are really disturbing.

And they all are, you know, they all have that common theme that Trump is so dangerous to the Republic that we can cast away these protocols that have served us pretty well.

CARLSON: This is all going to be over soon. And we're going to live with the consequences. And by the way, MSNBC and CNN have vetted that, paying these former Intel officials and it has really had a destructive effect on the country. I hope -- they think it was worth it. I think it's disgusting.

Professor, thanks so much for putting that in context for us so ably as you do. Thank you.

HANSON: Thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: Well, the D.O.J. Inspector General as you may remember, exposed what turned out to be flagrant and real abuses of the FISA process by the F.B.I. The F.B.I., of course spied on Carter Page and they did a lot of rotten things in order to do it.

Well, recently the F.B.I. was hit with a court order to fix the FISA application process. That's the good news. Here's the bad news. This week, former D.O.J. official, David Kris was appointed to review the reform process.

But if you were paying attention, you know, that during the Russia investigation, Kris strongly defended the F.B.I.'s surveillance of Page. There's also evidence that he is a political partisan, an intense one.

Now, he is the one who is supposed to fix the problem. How should you feel about that? Francey Hakes is a former Federal prosecutor. She joins us tonight. Francey, thanks so much for coming on.

I want to be open-minded. I spent the last four years learning that I have a lot of reason to distrust my government, but always looking for reasons to trust my government. How should I feel about this?

FRANCEY HAKES, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, I don't think you should feel good. I mean, he was appointed -- Kris was appointed as an amicus curiae, which means friend of the court. What it really looks to me like is friend of the swamp.

What we have here is a rotating cavalcade of officials and it doesn't matter really what party they're in. They go in and out of government, in and out of the right law firms, in and out of the right social circles in D.C. and they're part of the swamp that President Trump has so rightly been talking about now for several years.

With respect to Kris, though, he's not neutral. He is one of eight people that the court could have appointed. Why did they pick the guy? The one guy out of the eight, who has been supporting the F.B.I. and let me just say, as a former Federal prosecutor, who handled FISA warrants myself and as a line prosecutor, as an Assistant DA, which I was, too. This is just shocking.

If you read the Steele dossier, if you look at that FISA application, you will see that there were glaring caution signs for the most baby assistant District Attorney in this country who would have recognized and said, I'm not going to court. I'm not going to a judge for you, Agent so and so or Detective so and so on this crap.

I mean, it is so outside the bounds of what we normally demand for probable cause. And when you're talking about the FISA Court, you're talking about clandestine tools. You're talking about national security and using the tools of Intelligence in this country, you are talking about an even higher level that is required.

CARLSON: Well, and it's scary. I mean, because you watch what they did to Carter Page who did nothing, served this country as a Naval officer, and the people who did it have not been punished, they won't be.

The appointment of Kris suggest nothing will change. Meanwhile, guys like Roger Stone, or General Flynn, looking at prison for nothing. So it's like how do you restore the average person's confidence that the system is on the level that democracy is real and that it's not being run by a small group of self-interested bad people?

HAKES: Well, you restore confidence by actually taking action. I read about this in "The Washington Examiner" recently talking about two-tiered justice comparing the Hillary Clinton investigation with the Donald Trump investigation, two similarly situated people who were treated very differently and all the people who worked for them, all the people who were associated with them were treated very differently.

And until the public sees that we're no longer treating people differently, I don't know how you restore confidence.

CARLSON: You need someone to come in and really mete out the punishment, not for partisan ends, truly, but just to restore the confidence of the average person. Francey, great to see you. Thank you.

HAKES: Thanks, Tucker.

CARLSON: Well, to the left, author Stephen King is a villain for saying he cares more about art than diversity. Actor, Dean Cain can respond to that and other madness emanating from Hollywood. We're there tonight.

We're also monitoring the President who is speaking at a rally in the Midwest tonight. Highlights from that speech coming up.

TRUMP: And their courageous struggle for freedom. It's incredible what's going on over there. It really is, but we're watching and we're watching very closely and we were ready.

You know, that night when the attack was made on us, when the attack was made on us, remember this, they killed an American, they killed other people just before that. And so we did what we did, right?

And they said, it's our turn now. I said, you better be careful when you say it's our turn, because we had designated targets that you wouldn't know -- it would have taken him 30 years to rebuild, if that was even possible. It's true. It's true.

[APPLAUSE]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Author Stephen King is a good writer, serious lefty, kind of a hothead. Nasty narcissist, actually judging by his Twitter feed, but none of that is saving him from the outrage on the left. Why? Because Stephen King thinks art should be judged on quality.

Oscar nominations came out yesterday. The nominees are under attack for not being diverse enough. In response to this controversy, King tweeted this, "I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that you otherwise would be wrong."

Again, Stephen King is not a conservative, hardly. He is a lifelong liberal, but it doesn't matter. Saying something reasonable, defending art is unacceptable on the left, and so the left spent all day trashing him online.

Dean Cain knows what that looks like. He is an actor here in Los Angeles. He played Superman on television among many other roles. He joins us tonight. Dean, thanks so much for coming on.

DEAN CAIN, ACTOR AND PRODUCER: I'm happy to be here tonight.

CARLSON: There's something ominous about this. Stephen King just for the third time is a serious liberal.

CAIN: He can't stand the President. Rips on him.

CARLSON: Oh big time. But for the crime of defending art, he is being denounced as a racist, that's got to have a chilling effect on art and artists.

CAIN: Well, it's terrifying. If you're not woke enough, you're out. I mean, he has put some of the most woke tweets out there ever.

CARLSON: Yes.

CAIN: And then he said something that's patently true, which is art should be judged on art, not diversity. It should be about the art. It's what Martin Luther King, Jr. asked for. It's what he dreamt about, a day where you're judged by the content of your character, not the color of your skin and that's exactly what he said. And then the left wants to eat their own. That's what's happening.

CARLSON: But for those of us and their lot, I think who care about art, who think aesthetics matter, beauty matters. I mean, shouldn't we be really worried?

CAIN: I am. I think it's -- I think it's crazy. I don't see -- but I don't see color, creed -- Denzel Washington one Best Actor because he was the best actor.

CARLSON: Right.

CAIN: I wouldn't have given it to him because he is black. He happens to be my favorite actor, but it's not because he's black. It's because he's the best actor I know and I think he's fantastic. And that's how it should be. And I don't think he wants to be judged just because he's black or white or --

CARLSON: I can't imagine he does. Why would he?

CAIN: He wouldn't and I don't think anybody else really wants to be. So I find that insane and it's the hypocrisy of Hollywood, though. It's what we do, apparently.

CARLSON: So there's a new -- speaking of Hollywood, a new Morning Consult poll says that Hollywood is the single least trusted institution in American life. As someone who has spent his life in Hollywood, how do you feel about that?

CAIN: Well, to me, they're the least trusted as well. So I agree with that poll. I mean, I know Hollywood and I talk about this all the time. Hollywood is a bottom line down. They don't care -- whatever it is that's going to make you money, if you can do that, you're in.

I mean, look at the people that you know, have fallen from grace, so to speak, Harvey Weinstein and these types of folks and how many people coddled them and were around them. That's what happens in Hollywood. Somebody with the power, oh, the indiscretions, we won't pay attention to it and horrible.

So Hollywood should be not trusted, and actors are actors and we do our job. But you're certainly not always the bastion of morality. Let's put it that way.

CARLSON: I've noticed that. So Vince Vaughn, whom I don't know, but always struck me as a decent guy, an independent person.

CAIN: I know Vince.

CARLSON: Yes.

CAIN: Great guy.

CARLSON: And a good actor, I don't know the extent to which he is actually being attacked or not for shaking Trump's hand, but should he be worried?

CAIN: Vince Vaughn is beyond being worried because he has gotten to that place where he's Teflon. He's untouchable. He's had such great success that he won't be facing any real backlash.

But the fact that he shook the President's hand, and that made it -- and whether people were -- just the fact that it went viral, like it was a thing is insane.

It's about as crazy as Ellen sitting with George W. Bush.

CARLSON: Yes.

CAIN: If you can't sit and speak -- this is part of the problem we have today, you can't be seen with or talking with somebody who you might disagree with without getting horribly attacked.

We need to be talking to each other; even if we disagree, we should be talking to each other or else that makes you a bigot and that's what everybody is screaming against.

CARLSON: No, it's so smart. I can't let you go before playing my new favorite clip from Ricky Gervais because it makes me feel good every time. Here it is in summary, Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICKY GERVAIS, COMEDIAN: Well, you say you're woke, the companies you work for. I mean, unbelievable. Apple, Amazon, Disney. If ISIS started a streaming service, you'd call your agent, wouldn't you?

[LAUGHTER]

GERVAIS: So if you do win an award tonight, don't use it as a platform to make a political speech, all right? You're in no position to lecture the public about anything.

You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg.

[LAUGHTER]

GERVAIS: So if you win, all right, come up, accept your little award. Thank you, agent, and your God and [bleep].

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: It's like a central nervous system massage every time I watch that. Oh, it feels so good. Did that penetrate, is my question?

CAIN: I think it did. Even if you looked at the speeches that came through, instead of there being 97 speeches about wokeness, there was like four. I think everyone was like whoa, let me pull back a little, at least, I hope so.

That was one of the greatest moments I have ever seen at an award show because he picked on them as they should be picked on -- on us, anybody in Hollywood.

Remember the old Dean Martin roasts? Where they would give each other -- those are the great -- I'm named after Dean Martin, sorry, but those are the greatest and those people lack the ability to look at themselves and laugh at themselves these days and it's unfortunate.

But Ricky Gervais -- it's one of my -- well, it's a New Year and it's not very long into it, but is my favorite moment of the year without a doubt.

CARLSON: Me too. You're really named after?

CAIN: Dean Martin.

CARLSON: Amazing.

CAIN: I think so.

CARLSON: I didn't know that. Great to see you. Dean Cain.

CAIN: Thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: Thank you.

CAIN: Great to see you.

CARLSON: Appreciate it. Covington student, Nick Sandmann got CNN to pay after they vilified him, tried to wreck his life. So why isn't the press celebrating this triumph of the week over the powerful? Because they're on the side of the powerful against the weak, that's why. Details in a minute.

Also, we're monitoring the President's rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Highlights just ahead.

TRUMP:

... turned the camera off. And a good friend of all of ours, a Kenosha native, Reince Priebus. Reince, come up.

[APPLAUSE]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: A California couple tonight accused of luring thieves to their home and then assaulting them on camera in a case that raises important questions about who we ought to be punishing in this country. Chief breaking news correspondent, Trace Gallagher has more on this. Hey, Trace.

TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CHIEF BREAKING NEWS CORRESPONDENT:

Tucker, Visalia is between Bakersfield and Fresno, the first night 25-year- old Corey Curnutt, and his 29-year-old wife Savannah Grillot moved into their Visalia home, a burglar broke into their car. A few nights later it happened again.

So the couple went on the offensive. They put a bike in their front yard and waited and when someone tried to steal it, as they knew someone would, they ran out with baseball bats and beat the person then posted the video on YouTube.

This went on for months until the couple got arrested for assault. Police say they inflicted a variety of non-life threatening injuries on four people. Neighbors say it was a lot more than four. But nobody got arrested for stealing bikes. And police told us that's because the couple never reported the bikes stolen. Though in California, stealing anything under $950.00 is no longer punishable.

By the way the couple who took matters into their own hands has moved on, but Neighbors say there hasn't been any thefts since they left -- Tucker.

CARLSON: Trace Gallagher. Thanks for that update. Appreciate it. So in the State of California authorities have said let people steal whatever they want, and when homeowners decide to protect their own property, they get arrested. Just so you know.

Well, just over a year ago that CNN collaborated with "The Washington Post" and many other so-called news outlets to destroy the lives of innocent teenagers from Covington High School in Kentucky.

Operating on the basis of totally false cliches about those kids, they slandered them relentlessly. Well, last week CNN settled the lawsuit from Covington student, Nick Sandmann. It was a tramp for ordinary people, a kid victimized by people far more powerful than he.

So it's understandable that CNN would want to sweep this under the rug, they got busted and they paid hopefully many millions. But the rest of the press also curiously, seemed uninterested in covering what is an inspirational story.

Tammy Bruce hosts, "Get Tammy Bruce" on Fox Nation, which is excellent, and she joins us tonight. Tammy, thanks so much for coming on. Why -- this seems like a great story to me -- a kid, literally a high school kid fights back against the corporate behemoths, CNN, Jeff Zucker, whose minions were out to destroy his life. He fights back, he gets justice. And nobody -- nobody even notices? How?

TAMMY BRUCE, FOX NATION HOST: Well, they've noticed. And they've chosen to not cover it.

CARLSON: Good point.

BRUCE: And this is, you know, this is important because after this settlement, he was suing for about $250 million, $275 million -- and even if he gets 10 percent or one percent, he is going to be fine. And course, this is a minor, right?

And yet the reason the other media really hasn't covered is because they also -- many of them, not all -- did very similar things to this young man. Of course, his crime was wearing a MAGA hat, right? His crime was that they were with the pro-life march. That was the first crime. And then the other crime was that they support the President.

So what the attorneys for Mr. Sandmann have announced is that within the next 30 to 40 days, they're going to be pressing more at least 30 more lawsuits, including the standing lawsuits that exists still against "Washington Post" and NBC. They will be filing against ABC and CBS, an English newspaper called "The Guardian," "Huffington Post," which of course is on the internet, NPR, a partly government funded entity. You've got "Gannette" newspaper, which of course has a lot of smaller, "Cincinnati Enquirer" and other smaller entities.

So when you're looking at the spectrum here of individuals, entities, I should say that did what the lawyers for Mr. Sandmann say that CNN did, which is defame their client, you're seeing a media that in a way horrifically can't even report the news, because they see themselves as perhaps suffering some consequences. So that's part of it.

Remember, Lin L. Wood also is the lawyer and his team is the lawyer for Nicholas and he had some great success also for Burke Ramsey, the son of Patsy Ramsey, who was -- against CBS and they said that, you know, they implied that he was involved in his sister's murder.

CARLSON: Yes, they murdered his sister.

BRUCE: Yes. And they won. Lin L. Wood won a settlement in that regard as well. So you're looking at an important lawyer who's done this likely, you know, on contingency, a lawyer with history of success, a respected serious man and a minor being involved. But as long as the media is willing to destroy a minor, of course, it tells you that they're willing to do it to anyone at this point.

CARLSON: That's exactly right. I mean, they're not -- they're supposed to be comforting the afflicted. They're supposed to be punching up. That's a child from a Catholic school. They tried to destroy his life. I hope he crushes them. I mean it. I am with the underdog in this case.

BRUCE: Yes, this is -- absolutely. Lawyers and suing it's not necessarily my favorite thing. But the fact is, this is one way to keep the powerful in line, and especially media when they've just not only abandoned their job and their responsibility, they've turned themselves into the mob, into a mob of wolves and are willing to rip anyone apart. That's going to have to stop.

CARLSON: They are the Praetorian Guard for the ruling class, that's what they are. Tammy, great to see tonight. Thank you so much.

BRUCE: Thank you, sir. Great.

CARLSON: The President spent the evening rallying supporters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, site of the Democratic National Convention this summer. We have highlights of what he said after the break.

TRUMP: Who like Make America Great Again?

[APPLAUSE]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Wisconsin turned out to be a critical state for Donald Trump back in 2016 and remains central to his reelection strategy. So you shouldn't be surprised he is campaigning in Milwaukee tonight. There are a lot of highlights from the rally. Here are some.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Soleimani was responsible for murdering and wounding thousands of Americans. He was actively planning new attacks, but we stopped them cold.

[APPLAUSE]

TRUMP: And frankly, they already started the attack, as you saw in Baghdad on our very large embassy in Baghdad. That was already started.

And I said to our generals, get in there now. We don't want to have another Benghazi.

[APPLAUSE]

TRUMP: On my watch, on any watch. They said, sir, we'll be there tomorrow. I said, nope, you've got to be there right now. Get them over there now.

[APPLAUSE]

TRUMP: Now. There had thousands of soldiers -- there were soldiers. You take a look at that crowd, that was not protesters. They were soldiers, and they were surrounding our embassy in Baghdad and all of a sudden they see these beautiful -- very expensive, I will tell you -- brand new Apache helicopters.

[CHEERING]

TRUMP: Roaming over them.

[CHEERING]

TRUMP: And we saw those missiles launch, and they were big and they were fast and they were accurate. Four of them went bad. They fell way short. But 12 of them hit. And I said, man, they are quick. They knew immediately what they were. And they saw those missiles hit. I said, how bad is it? It hit a base. And an hour later or so, we get a call back. I said, how many killed? Nobody, sir.

[APPLAUSE]

TRUMP: I said, how many hurt? They said, nobody, sir.

[APPLAUSE]

TRUMP: And I said, they just saved themselves a trillion dollars and a lot of lives. That's true. A trillion, not a billion, a trillion. So they get a very smart thing and we're not looking for regime change. They've tried that with Libya. They go -- Hillary Clinton, let's get rid of Libya. Let's get rid of Gaddafi. Let's get rid of Gaddafi. How's that working out? Right?

Let's get rid of Gaddafi. That was a Hillary deal. Then you had Benghazi and see Benghazi. They didn't respond.

Now, here's the story with the Democrats, if I didn't kill him, and let's say we lost three, four or five embassies or bases or thousands of people or hundreds of people or two people were killed. They would have said Trump should have taken him out.

Anything we do, they go the opposite. So we kill him and that was precision.

[APPLAUSE]

TRUMP: Some people thought it went much too fast, it went too fast. So we kill him and they say, what a horrible -- if we didn't kill him, they'd say what a horrible thing. Right? You know with the wall, we're building the wall, you know that, right?

[APPLAUSE]

TRUMP: Oh, and by the way, they think they caught me and they'll never catch us. Because you know, Mexico is paying for the wall. You know that. You'll see that. It's all worked out. Mexico is paying. It's driving them crazy.

Now, they say, okay, he is building the wall. But Mexico didn't pay. Mexico will pay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: That's it for us tonight, unfortunately. We'll be back though. Every weeknight at 8:00 p.m., the show that is now and always the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness and groupthink.

Goodnight from Los Angeles. We head East now. Sean Hannity in New York City with breaking news.

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