Rep. Gabbard: There's more to foreign relationships that war, sanctions
Democratic candidate and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard weighs in on foreign policy and the first primary debate on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'
This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," June 27, 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. We're coming to you live riverside from Kyoto, Japan. We nearly didn't make it back to our live camera location yesterday. We had quite a journey. We will show it to you throughout the hour.
Shortly, of course, will be interviewing the President right here in Japan, who is here for the G20. But back in our native land, the United States of America, the Democratic Party went completely insane yesterday -- that's been happening for a while, of course -- insanity is a process.
But last night at the first Democratic primary debate of the 2020 season, they made it official. Elite Democrats have permanently broken with reality. They no longer care about what's true, what's possible, even what's real.
They live in a kind of dream-state, a place of fantasy punctuated by howls of self-righteousness. Watch as Julian Castro -- and keep in mind, he was an actual Cabinet Secretary in the Obama administration. It was only a couple of years ago, watch as Julian Castro explains that men who get pregnant having moral right to taxpayer funded abortions. I'm not joking. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JULIAN CASTRO, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't believe only in reproductive freedom, I believe in reproductive justice.
(Cheering and Applause)
CASTRO: And you know, what that means is that just because a woman or let's also not forget someone in the trans community, a trans-female is poor, it doesn't mean they shouldn't have the right to exercise that right to choose.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: And so they cheered. Behold, late Empire liberalism in full flower. Who exactly is the constituency for Castro's idea? Men dressed as women who get pregnant. That's the constituency.
Unfortunately, there are precisely zero people on Planet Earth who fit that description, not a single person actually. There never have been any people like that. There never will be any people like that. Why? Because it's impossible.
Biological men cannot get pregnant. Pretending otherwise is lunacy. It's the very definition of lunacy. But Julian Castro doesn't care. Taxpayer funded transgender abortion sounds like something that all good progressives should support. So Castro fervently does.
And critically, he knows that nobody in the room will defend science or pause to ask him what the hell are you talking about? They can't say a word. They're too intimidated. They know HR is watching.
So they nod like monkeys, as if everything he is saying is completely sane. "Oh, good point, Mr. Secretary, trans-females shouldn't have to pay for their own abortions. That's racist."
The whole thing was like a cartoon or an "Evil One" novel. It went on like this all night. Here, for example, is Julian Castro agreeing with Elizabeth Warren, that it shouldn't be illegal for foreigners to break our laws. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CASTRO: When somebody comes across the border, not to criminalize desperation, to treat that as a civil violation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Criminalize desperation and you thought this was your country just because like your ancestors, you were born here, just because you pay half your income to the government to keep the whole thing going, you thought it was your country? Think again, racist. America belongs to the rest of the world. Your job is to shut up and pay for it, complain and we will punish you.
Bill de Blasio often makes that point. Now, de Blasio, the single worst mayor in the 400-year history of New York City. That's impressive. But how did he wind up on a presidential debate stage last night? God knows. Maybe he illegally immigrated there. It doesn't matter. He was there.
And once you had the mic, de Blasio promised to seize your money and give it to his supporters who he explained deserve it much more than you do.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, D-N.Y., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, we're supposed to be for 70 percent tax rate on the wealthy. You hear folks say there's not enough money, what I say to them every single time is there's plenty of money in this world. There's plenty of money in this country, it's just in the wrong hands.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Got it? We've got the power, soon we'll have all the guns and we're coming for your stuff. That was the major theme of last night and in case anyone missed it, the two widest candidates on stage decided to repeat the point in stilted Spanish.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETO O'ROURKE, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: (Speaking in Spanish).
SEN. CORY BOOKER, D-N.J., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: (Speaking in Spanish).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Got that, gringo? You can add the English language to the long and growing list of things the Democratic Party considers racist. How long before you're banned from social speaking it? You think we're joking, right? Better to learn Espanol if you want to talk to your grandkids. It's a brand new world.
Some of the least impressive people in America are making the rules. Hope you're excited for it. At least men will be able to get free abortions.
Even when they weren't speaking Spanish, what Democrats argued it was typically an effort to one up one another on immigration, who could be most radical? Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CASTRO: I am talking about -- I am talking about everybody else.
O'ROURKE: I want to make sure, I want to make sure that everybody is treated with respect.
CASTRO: I'm still talking about everybody else.
O'ROURKE: But you're looking at just one small part of this. I'm talking about a comprehensive rewrite of our immigration laws.
CASTRO: That's not true.
O'ROURKE: And if we do that, I don't think that's asking too much.
CASTRO: That's actually not true.
O'ROURKE: I am talking about our laws when they come to our country.
CASTRO: ... millions of folks, a lot of folks that are coming are not seeking asylum.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Wound up. Fox's Ed Henry was in Miami last night for the debate and he joins us this evening. We're always glad to have him. Good to see you, Ed. How was it?
ED HENRY, CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Tucker, good to see you. Amazing. Round two coming up. You laid it out pretty interestingly. One of the juiciest parts of this story though, is that not too long ago, Julian Castro himself said the border crisis was BS. That's what he told CNN.
Now, he is trying to break out of the pack by beating up on the President, so he is saying just the opposite. "It's such a crisis," he said, "We need to do something radical." The word used a moment ago, so radical that Democrat Amy Klobuchar said, "Timeout." She said she'll look at decriminalizing illegal crossings, but said, wait, the real focus should be on going after human traffickers who are hurting women and children and people who are quote-unquote, "violating the law," which remember the President has said not for weeks, but he has been saying for years.
Funny because other big Democrats on stage tonight for part two have also flipped. Kamala Harris said dealing with illegal immigration was a quote "distraction from the real issues." Bernie Sanders said there was no crisis. Not a good look when apprehensions at the border are up 623 percent from 2017.
Then there's Bill de Blasio, you mentioned a moment ago pushing that 70 percent tax rate for the rich. He and Elizabeth Warren went further, they raised their hands in favor of ending private health insurance all together for millions of people.
Democrat John Delaney, who was on the stage last night told me after, he thinks that's political suicide for his party. One of the many reasons why the real winner from these two debates, second one starting soon, maybe the President of the United States -- Tucker.
CARLSON: Ed Henry, thank you. It would interesting to know what labor unions think who, you know, spent a hundred years negotiating private health insurance, what they're going to say about that?
Well, NBC brought five separate moderators to last night's debate, almost all of them pure toadies to the Democratic Party. And together they spent not surprisingly most of the night tossing softball questions to the candidates. They are questions intended to drag out the Russian collusion hysteria. Here's a selection.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSE DIAZ-BALART, NBC ANCHOR: We saw that image today that broke our hearts and they had names, if you were President today. What would you specifically do?
CHUCK TODD, NBC HOST: Do you have a plan to deal with Mitch McConnell if the House chooses not to impeach; as President, would you do anything to address the potential crimes that were outlined in Mr. Mueller's report?
RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC ANCHOR: No U.S. President has ever been prosecuted for crimes after leaving office. Do you believe that President Trump could or should be the first?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Is Trump bad? He's bad. Lots of soft balls. And yet still, no matter how easy the questions most people seem to agree that former Congressman Beto O'Rourke be-clowned himself.
After the debate, one obviously smitten MSNBC anchor fussed that he wasn't being taken seriously, Beto. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, NBC NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: I do still think it's interesting that there is just a snark to the way you're treated, whether it's by the media, or by the other Democrats on stage and I wonder what your -- that's what it looked like to me as someone rooting for everybody, I think a big field, helps all of us, it's certainly more fun to cover. But you were singled out, you were targeted. You were attacked, and then wonder what that was like?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So you're a blushing fan girl. Okay. Should you admit that in public on live TV? Probably not. But no matter how impressed she was by Beto O'Rourke, he is still more impressed by himself. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: But what grade would you give yourself for last night?
O'ROURKE: I'd give myself an A.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: He'd give himself an A.
LISA BOOTHE, CONTRIBUTOR: A healthy dose of confidence there.
CARLSON: All right, we're bringing a real teacher here. A healthy dose -- Lisa Boothe. Lisa Boothe is the one that gives out the grades in our class. We're always happy to have her. She is a senior fellow at Independent Women's Voice. Lisa, would you give him an A?
BOOTHE: I would give him an F, Tucker. I truly would. I think the biggest challenge with Beto O'Rourke is -- look, part of the reason why he was held in such high regard during the 2018 election was because it was a binary choice between him or Senator Cruz.
And you look at someone like Senator Cruz, he is polarizing just like President Trump. Democrats hate him vehemently. So that is why he received all this adoration, all of this money and was able to break some, you know, Senate fundraising records as a result and be a real candidate and competition to Senator Ted Cruz.
But now, he is in the midst of so many other candidates and Democrats have options. And that's why Beto O'Rourke -- because he's not that impressive -- is getting lost in the mix of so many other candidates.
CARLSON: If you're an MSNBC anchor, should you really flush and fan yourself and tell the candidate you know, I love you and kind of bat your eyelids like that? Is that -- I mean, should you do that? If you're a TV anchor?
BOOTHE: No, you shouldn't. But if I was Beto, I would keep going on her show or going on with her because it's an ego boost, one that he needs right now. So clearly, he should be doing it.
But you know, Tucker, to your earlier point about the debate moderators last night, there were no probing questions, there were no strong follow ups either, and I think it's actually a disservice to Democratic primary voters because the whole point of these debates is to try to weed through some of these candidates and for voters to try to form impressions and make -- and inform their decisions, and they can't do that if these moderators aren't actually getting to the heart of any of these issues.
And at one point, Savannah Guthrie even gave Beto when she asked him about the 70 percent tax rate. She said yes, no, or pass. Who gives -- you know, who gives someone an option of passing? It's either yes or no? Do you support this or do you not?
And if you do not answer the question, I'm taking this as a no. And I would implore anyone to go and watch the first 10 minutes of the Republican debate that we did in 2015 and watch the first 10 minutes of last night's debate and tell me who actually you know, conducted journalism.
CARLSON: Such a good -- that's such a good point, to ask a question and include in the question, a trap door that allows a politician a chance not to answer your question is just like insane.
BOOTHE: Just grade on curve.
CARLSON: You're begging to be ignored.
BOOTHE: Yes, exactly.
CARLSON: No, exactly the point. Lisa Boothe. Great to see you tonight.
BOOTHE: Good to see you, too, Tucker.
CARLSON: Dana Perino always has a wise overview of questions like this. She hosts of course, "The Daily Briefing" with Dana Perino. We're always happy to have her.
So Dana, did this change -- before we get into the specifics, just the big picture -- did this change the dynamic in any way, do you think in the Democratic Party?
DANA PERINO, HOST: The only change that I have found in this last 24 hours is that, Tucker, you're having so much fun covering this story. That it's kind of great to see these debates get underway, because you haven't -- you've got smiles. You're all the way over there in Japan having a great time covering this. No, last night --
CARLSON: That's true.
PERINO: I don't think it really changed anything. It probably -- maybe just on the margins a little bit, I think Elizabeth Warren remains in the place that she is. I do think that Julian Castro was able to push Beto O'Rourke out of his lane, right? He is trying to solidify that lane.
I think Klobuchar showed that she is very much Minnesota nice. She is substantive. She is smart. And then I think that Cory Booker probably, I would say, he had a pretty good debate, and then he'll probably be able to make the next debate if they ratcheted up. Right? You have to have double the amount of donors and a couple of the other polls. Other than that, I think that there just wasn't much there, there.
CARLSON: So the press is clearly hostile to Beto O'Rourke, and I'm hardly defending him. I don't think that he is impressive.
PERINO: Now.
CARLSON: On the other hand, I'm not sure he -- now, but that's the thing. I'm not sure he's less impressive than anyone else on the stage or than most on the stage. Why have they turned on him, do you think?
PERINO: Well, let's go back. Why was he popular when he was running against Senator Ted Cruz in Texas? He raised $80 million. He does have some charisma. He has an ability to talk to people. He could get people from all over the country to donate money to him, and they really wanted -- they believe that Texas one day is going to turn blue and they thought he was the answer to that.
So everything was all eyes on Beto O'Rourke, he almost took down Ted Cruz, and that was enough to land him something that Greg Gutfeld said earlier was the kiss of death, and that was the cover of "Vanity Fair."
But all the other people that want to run for president thought, "Oh, how dare you suggest that you are the one born to do this." And I'm just -- he has already said that that was not a good line for him to say that he didn't mean it the way that it came across.
But I think what happens is, you learn this before you're five years old, when you get too big for your britches, then your pants kind of fall down.
CARLSON: No, it's totally true. Stay humble. It's happened to me. Dana Perino, who will join us tomorrow to recap tonight's debate.
PERINO: Tonight is going to be a good one. See you tomorrow.
CARLSON: We're grateful for that. See you tomorrow. Thanks, Dana.
PERINO: Bye.
CARLSON: I think so, too. Well, the two sanest people on the stage last night are the ones with the lowest approval numbers for Democrats -- John Delaney and Tulsi Gabbard, particularly Tulsi Gabbard who said things that Republicans might learn from on the questions of foreign policy. She'll join us after the break. Stay tuned.
We're broadcasting live from Kyoto, Japan. Ahead by the way, as we've said of our G20 Summit interview with the President, we got a little lost yesterday. Throughout the hour we will take you on that journey. Here's how it all started.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: This is my producer, Justin Wells. I do the things he suggests I do. He is the one in my ear during "Final Exam." He is the Sven Golly behind the program. He said to me an hour ago, let's go on a train and then we'll take a boat. I said, "Where are we going?" He goes, "Oh, it'll be great. Don't worry." That's how we wound up here. No idea where we are or where we're going. Why? We're wet. It's beautiful though.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONNY DEUTSCH, MSNBC HOST: My issue unfortunately, and do not shoot the messenger is the messenger. I do not believe Elizabeth Warren on stage with Donald Trump beats him.
I still in my heart of hearts don't see anybody on that stage tonight that would beat Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: That was MSNBC host Donald Deutsch, no genius, ask anyone who knows him. But even Deutsch is clever enough to ask the obvious question if the 2020 Democrat is running on socialism and transgendered abortion, how are any of these people going to beat Donald Trump in the November election? It seems like a pretty obvious question.
To assess it, we are joined tonight by our old friend, Richard Goodstein. He is a lawyer, a former adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton. So Richard, I've got ask you about that Julian Castro moment, which kind of crystallized everything about late-stage liberalism to me.
A candidate comes out on stage, nine other candidates, five moderators, full crowd of people live and says that we need to pay for abortions for men who get pregnant, and nobody says, "Hey, Julian, men can't get pregnant?" Because you're not allowed to say that men can't get pregnant as a Democrat in 2019. Is that a problem, do you think?
RICHARD GOODSTEIN, FORMER ADVISER TO BILL AND HILLARY CLINTON: Well, when you have him on your show, you could ask him what he had in mind. I honestly, don't profess to know.
CARLSON: No, no, it's not him. It's not him. No, he is not -- whatever, he doesn't know what he is saying. He got his talking points confused. I'm talking about everybody else in the room -- all the other candidates, all of them there, nobody said, "Well, wait a second. Men can't get pregnant." And the reason they didn't say that is, as you well know, you're not allowed to say that.
So what do you make of a party that prevents you from saying that men can't get pregnant?
GOODSTEIN: I understand why you want to emphasize something seemingly batty like that.
CARLSON: No, I'm serious.
GOODSTEIN: But it reminds me of the emphasis in 2018, about caravans and what the public saw were these little kids in the south, and still --
So my point is, I think people want to focus on what matters and what doesn't and you have to ask yourself, why are all these Democrats running ahead of Donald Trump in these polls in states that Trump won?
So the economy is doing pretty well. He hasn't delivered on his three central promises -- no wall that Mexico paid for. He has to replace Obamacare, and he hasn't had trade deals.
But notwithstanding that, the economy is doing pretty well, and he is losing. Why?
And it's not -- and you can talk as much as you want about these crazy, you know, transgender abortions. But that's not what's going to get the swing voters, the suburban women who were with Trump in 16 and who abandoned him in droves in 18 coming back.
CARLSON: Well, no. Okay, you're talking about head to heads, which you know is a longtime veteran of campaigns don't mean anything. They do suggest that there are weaknesses with the Trump campaign. No one would deny. I'm not denying that. I don't work for them.
GOODSTEIN: Right.
CARLSON: I'll be honest about it. But it doesn't mean that any of these individual candidates can beat Trump. In the end, it's going to be one against one, and if you're the candidate who can't say that men are different from women, or that foreigners shouldn't be allowed to break American law, how can you beat Trump, if you can't tell obvious truths?
GOODSTEIN: Well, again, I think most Democratic voters actually are moderate, according to the exit polls from 2018. More moderates than there are self-described liberals.
And I think we'll see tonight some evidence that I expect --
CARLSON: Well, that's the point I am making actually.
GOODSTEIN: And I am saying, I expect a Michael Bennett, for example, to take on Bernie Sanders and say, Bernie, this party is not socialist. We don't agree with Medicare-for-All. We don't agree with free this and free that. And I think there's going to be a certain resonance to that. But you know, we'll see. I just think last night was a bit --
CARLSON: I mean, I hope you're right. I hope you're -- I hope you're right. By the way, we're seeing the President of the United States is in Osaka, Japan, about 25 miles from where we are right now, meeting with -- right in the center of the shot -- is the Japanese leader Abe and of course, we will be down there tomorrow to interview him.
GOODSTEIN: And is that Modi from India on the side as well?
CARLSON: Richard Goodstein -- I think it's -- I think that's exactly who - - I think it's exactly who that is. I don't have my glasses on. But I believe you're right. Thank you, Richard Goodstein.
GOODSTEIN: My pleasure.
CARLSON: It is and I'm getting confirmation from our producers, it is in fact, the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Modi. Richard Goodstein, good to see. We'll see you soon.
Presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard was the most searched Democratic candidate online last night, won a couple of online polls. Most of the press doesn't like to cover Tulsi Gabbard for some reason, but we do. She is joining us after the break.
But first another excerpt from our journey across Japan yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Somehow we've wound up on a bus. It's not clear where we are, where we're going, why we're here. I'm embarrassed to be speaking on camera on the bus, but I've been pushed to memorialize by my producers, just in case something happens and we don't come back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARLSON: Welcome back from Kyoto, Japan, the old Imperial Capital for more than a thousand years and an awfully, awfully pretty place.
Final preparations are underway about 25 miles from here in Osaka for tomorrow's G20 Summit of world leaders. The President will be there. We will be interviewing him.
Back in America though, the 2020 election will be the first election in which children born after 9/11 will be able to vote, which is bewildering to those of us who lived through it.
During last night's debate, Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio said it's America's duty to keep fighting in Afghanistan for some reason, 18 years after we've toppled the Taliban. That turned out to be a mistake.
Tulsi Gabbard, the only veteran on stage corrected him. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. TULSI GABBARD, D-HI, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... you will tell the parents of those two soldiers who were just killed in Afghanistan, "Well, we just have to be engaged." As a soldier, I will tell you that answer is unacceptable. We have to bring our troops home from Afghanistan.
We are in a place in Afghanistan where we have lost so many lives. We've spent so much money, money that's coming out of every one of our pockets, money that should be going into communities here at home, meeting the needs of the people here at home. We are no better off in Afghanistan today than we were when this war began.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: All obvious points, none of what you're allowed to say out loud in Washington. Now, they make Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard seem like basically an untouchable. She is not allowed to get the kind of coverage that the rest of the Democratic candidates get, but the viewers loved it.
At the debate, Gabbard was the most searched name online. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii joins us tonight. Aloha, Congresswoman Gabbard.
GABBARD: Aloha, Tucker.
CARLSON: So I couldn't help, but notice that I'm sure you don't want to play the victim in this, but that you had, despite the fact that you won a number of online polls, you had the most Google searches, your name after the debate, you got some of the fewest minutes to speak of any of the 10 candidates on stage. And you were the only one who was essentially attacked personally by the moderators. Why do you think that was?
GABBARD: Look, it shows that there's a clear bias in place. I made the most of every minute that I had, I wish I had the opportunity to have more time to address these important issues.
But I want to just point out something from that clip that you played that I think is really important, where we hear a lot of politicians say the same argument that well, we've got to stay engaged in the world, otherwise, we'll be isolationists, as though the only way the United States can engage with other countries is by blowing them up or strangling them with economic sanctions, by smashing them and trying to overthrow their governments.
This is exactly what's wrong with this whole premise and the whole view with which too many politicians, too many leaders in this country are viewing the United States' role in the world.
How about the United States be a leader in the world -- workout differences and build relationships with negotiations and diplomacy and finding common interests and seeing how we can work together so that we can stop sending our men and women in uniform into harm's way, serving in missions that do not serve the interests of the American people that make our country less safe and actually end up causing more harm and more damage to the people in the countries where we wage these wasteful regime change wars. That's the kind of change in leadership that I am seeking to bring as President.
CARLSON: You just mentioned sanctions. You're not questioning the ironclad bipartisan consensus in Washington that sanctions against Iran are morally righteous and can never be withdrawn, are you?
GABBARD: I am. Absolutely. I think this is one of the things that is leading us closer and closer to a war with Iran, a war that would be far more devastating than anything that we saw in the war in Iraq.
I served in Iraq in 2005 in a medical unit and this was the height of the Iraq war. There were lots of American casualties almost every day and I was confronted with that high, terrible human cost of war. A war with Iran would make that war with Iraq look like a picnic.
Escalating these crippling sanctions, withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, designating Iran's military as a terrorist organization, something as unprecedented and continuing to deploy more and more U.S. troops.
The neo cons in the Trump administration and Saudi Arabia and Netanyahu have created a situation where it's going to be very difficult for President Trump to avoid a war with Iran. They have built all the building blocks, placed the dynamite and lit the fuse, and it's going to be up to Donald Trump and his leadership, whether or not he is going to cut that fuse and say, "Hey, we need to get back on track and put the interest of the American people in our country first and avoid a war with Iran and get back into that Iran nuclear agreement."
CARLSON: This is why the neo cons hate you more than anybody -- more than anybody. They're writing pieces about you right now. Congressman Tulsi Gabbard, nice to see you tonight.
GABBARD: But you know what? You know, Tucker -- nice to see you. As you pointed out really quick, this is an issue that conservatives, Republicans, Democrats, progressives, this is an issue that transcends party lines. And I think that's where the leadership I bring brings the opportunity to unify the country to make this kind of change that's important to every single American in this country.
CARLSON: That's exactly right. There's nothing partisan in the slightest about this -- at all.
GABBARD: Exactly.
CARLSON: That's why it's such -- it's so nice to hear someone say that out loud. Congresswoman, thank you very much.
GABBARD: Thanks, Tucker.
CARLSON: Well, there's one candidate in the Democratic race, Eric Swalwell of California has already explicitly endorsed gun confiscations. He is coming to your house taking your guns away. And you know what that means, of course, it means in a year or so, everybody on the other side will be supporting it and if you oppose it, you'll be a racist.
Chuck Todd gave both Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, both sitting U.S. senators a chance to say they were against confiscating guns. Instead, both of them evaded the question.
Victor Davis Hanson was watching last night. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He joins us tonight. Professor, thanks for coming on. So I don't think anybody believes that gun confiscation which clearly a lot of these people are for, would make the country safer. So it has not made other countries safer. So what's the point of that? I wonder. Why would they support it?
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, SENIOR FELLOW, HOOVER INSTITUTION: Yes, it's kind of strange when a Professor of Law can't say we don't have a right to go into a person's home and confiscate a legal weapon, but she couldn't answer, "No, absolutely" to that.
I think what's going on, aside Tucker, from the fact that no Democratic primary candidate with few exceptions wants anybody to be the left of them, so they're all moving left.
But on the gun situation, I think we always in this country fixate on the misdemeanor that we think that we can control because we have no idea how to deal with the existential felony.
So if we have 11,000 or 12,000 deaths by homicide with the use of firearms, the vast majority are handguns, and they're usually stolen, or they're sold illegally, and most of it to be quite frank are inner city youth, the majority of them African-American, but we don't have any idea how to approach that.
So then we say AR15 or we're going to get automatic, semi-automatic, there is no automatic legal weapon. There are not very many of them even illegal, but we're going to go after semi-automatic assault -- so-called assault weapons.
But over the last 20 years, Tucker, are only 300 people have died from them in a country of 330 million. So it's almost like saying, well, let's go into people's homes and then confiscate iPhones because 5,000 people every year die while people text on a mobile phone, we don't we wouldn't consider that.
But we're going to shut down the country and destroy the Second Amendment to go apparently, after three -- to stop 300 people being killed by, you know, a rifle. It doesn't make any sense. But it's part of this inability to deal with the reality, so we have to pursue the fantasy to get a sense that we're doing at least something that and the fact that in this primary, nobody is going to be to the right of anybody. They're always going to be on the left of their rival candidate.
CARLSON: It almost seems like they're trying to punish and control large portions of the population. I mean, are they --
HANSON: Yes, they are.
CARLSON: At some point, they are going to stop pretending and just say that out loud, aren't they?
HANSON: Yes, I think they are. I think what gave rise to Donald Trump was a lot of people said, you know, I just want to be left alone. I follow the Constitution. I'm law abiding. And it's not my problem that you can't address these problems of people who are breaking the law and killing people. And you know why they're doing it, you know where they're doing it. But in an absence of a solution, you turn to me because it's good hype or good publicity.
CARLSON: Exactly.
HANSON: And when Elizabeth Warren said, you remember she said, "We need more data. We need more research," actually we have too much research. We know exactly the problem, but we don't have the wherewithal or the wisdom to speak the truth.
CARLSON: But we lie about it.
HANSON: We lie about it. We live in an empire of lies.
CARLSON: I dare you to read the data. Yes, good luck. That's exactly right.
HANSON: Yes, I can't either.
CARLSON: Professor, great to see you tonight.
HANSON: Thank you.
CARLSON: Well, we've been in Japan for a better part of a week. We've taken planes and trains and automobiles on the way to interviewing the President, but we didn't stop there. The journey continued throughout the hour. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: This is the third part of the saga. We began on a train, transferred to a bus. Now, we find ourselves on a boat on a river with three oarsmen behind me. Well, two on oars, one on a pole rowing into headwinds, the monsoon is coming in. They were talking about it a second ago. It's coming over the mountain right there.
And they are basically trying to move down river in the face of wind that hasn't stopped. In a second, apparently we're about to shoot some kind of impressive rapids. You don't think of Japan as a whitewater country, but it is here. Wish us luck.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARLSON: Even a trip across the ocean to Japan to interview the President of the United States does not stop the juggernaut that is "Final Exam."
In preparation for our trip before we left the U.S., we recorded this special edition of the segment. It covers the Presidents past foreign trips. Here's how it went.
Time now for "Final Exam" where we comb the hallways at Fox for the smartest people pit them against one another to determine who has been paying the closest attention to the news this week.
"Watters' World" host Jesse Watters, once again our defending champion. His challenger is Fox foreign correspondent Benjamin Hall.
JESSE WATTERS, HOST: Wow.
CARLSON: We have a special topic this time. Yes, a man who normally is covering wars. But tonight is on a game show.
BENJAMIN HALL, FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, this is a battle --
CARLSON: The theme for tonight's "Final Exam," President Trump's many foreign trips abroad. Are you guys ready for this?
WATTERS: We're ready.
HALL: Let's go.
CARLSON: All right. Here are the rules. I know you're familiar, but I'm just going to -- just to rev you up. Hands on buzzers. I ask the questions. First one to buzz in gets to answer the question. You must wait critically until I finish asking the question before you answer it. You can answer once I acknowledge you by saying your name. Every correct answer is worth a single point. Get one wrong and you lose a point. Best of five wins.
WATTERS: Got it.
HALL: I'm ready.
CARLSON: You guys ready?
WATTERS: Yes.
CARLSON: All right. Question one. During his last trip to Japan, President Trump became the first American President to attend what kind of sporting event.
WATTERS: Sumo wrestling.
CARLSON: Jesse Watters. Sumo wrestling?
WATTERS: Yes.
CARLSON: Was it sumo wrestling? To the tape we go.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
CARLSON: Sumo wrestling. I assume that's what that was. All right. One to zero. Good job, Jesse Watters. Question two. Now, this a multiple choice question, so you have to wait until all the options are presented before answering. During a trip to Saudi Arabia in 2017, Trump and Middle Eastern leaders huddled around an object and placed their hands upon it as a symbol of unity. What was the object they placed their hands on? Was it A -- a multiple choice question?
HALL: First time. We go next --
CARLSON: So we're going to go to Jesse after we read these answers. Was it A. A glowing orb? B. A wooden Falcon? Or C. An ancient scroll? Jesse Watters.
WATTERS: We're going to go with, A. A glowing orb.
CARLSON: Glowing orb. Was it a glowing orb?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Social media jumping all over this image in a pretty funny way. It shows Mid-Eastern leaders and the President surrounding this glowing orb with their hands on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: All right, for a bonus question here. What is a glowing orb?
WATTERS: You got me.
CARLSON: I have no idea.
WATTERS: No idea.
CARLSON: Good. That's an unanswerable question. It's the sound of one hand clapping, there's really no way to answer.
WATTERS: Okay.
CARLSON: Okay. This is a real question. Question three. During a trip to Asia in 2017, President Trump was serenaded by a world leader, which Asian president sang him a love song which included the lyrics, "You are the light in my world."
WATTERS: I'm going to guess anyway.
CARLSON: All right.
WATTERS: Oh, okay. I shouldn't have guessed, I was going to say the Chinese President, but now I think it might be the North Korean dictator. Final answer. Wait, final answer.
CARLSON: Do you want to answer and would you like to attach a name to your guess?
HALL: Okay, I'm going to go, too.
WATTERS: Yes, it's either Xi or Un --
HALL: Pick one of them.
WATTERS: And I am going to go with Xi.
CARLSON: Xi? Xi. The Chinese Premier was it.
WATTERS: X-I.
CARLSON: Was it Xi? Duterte.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And at the ASEAN Dinner, Duterte sang a love song with a famous Filipino popstar saying he did it on orders from President Trump.
RODRIGO DUTERTE, PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES: Under the orders of the Commander-in-Chief of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATTERS: I shouldn't have risked it. All right, I got cocky. I shouldn't have risked it.
CARLSON: Ouch. Yes. The Chinese have too much to lose, I think. That was the President of the Philippines and a pretty good singer, by the way.
HALL: He loves his karaoke.
WATTERS: All right.
CARLSON: He loves his karaoke. They love it there. Question four. President Trump was embroiled in a fake controversy during his visit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a couple of years back. The media attacked Trump for dumping a whole box of food into what kind of animal enclosure?
WATTERS: That would be a koi pond.
CARLSON: Jesse again.
WATTERS: Tucker, a koi pond.
CARLSON: A koi pond. Don't be coy with me, Jesse. Was it a koi pond?
WATTERS: With a K, yes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Trump feeding Asian carp at a koi pond. He was tossing spoonfuls of fish food before emptying the entire box.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So how do you know -- before we get to our final question, how do you know all of these?
HALL: That is not how you feed koi.
WATTERS: I knew that because CNN deceptively edited that video, and that was one of those fake news items that we like to talk about.
CARLSON: Good memory.
WATTERS:
CARLSON: Thank you. All right. Final question is a two pointer.
WATTERS: Okay.
CARLSON: It's a multiple choice as well. So wait until all the options are presented. This is about the President's first historic meeting with the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Kim traveled to Singapore, the Summit there was a very unusual item, an item he refused to be without, was it A. His king-size bed.
HALL: We didn't say it was multiple choice.
CARLSON: Was it B -- a multiple choice.
HALL: Nobody said it was.
CARLSON: Portable toilet. Well, we said it was multiple choice. And was it --
WATTERS: Well, I don't really have to answer this because he buzzed early, but I will. We are going to go with a portable toilet, Tucker, B.
CARLSON: I think it was the pet peacock, but the tape will reveal the truth.
WATTERS: Okay.
CARLSON: What was it?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For more reports, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un brought his own toilet to Singapore for his summit with President Trump to prevent intelligence agencies from using the sewer to get information on his health. Said intelligence agencies, "We're just going go ahead and guess bad then."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Disgusting. Good memory.
HALL: I have lost.
CARLSON: Jesse win. Benjamin Hall, it is great to have you back.
HALL: Tucker, I can't hear you. They've taken me off.
CARLSON: Good match.
HALL: Next time.
CARLSON: Thank you both. Jesse Watters, we've sent you enough mugs and now we're sending you show golf balls, TCT golf balls.
WATTERS: All right.
CARLSON: Which I don't know if you're a golfer, but they look pretty good. They're certainly weird. You can get them on tuckercarlson.com if you want them, and we're going to send them to you right after the show.
WATTERS: All right, I'll hit them straight.
CARLSON: Congratulations.
WATTERS: Thank you.
CARLSON: We'll be right back from Kyoto, Japan. We spent most of yesterday in an extended Odyssey of travel. Somehow we made it back to this location, but it wasn't easy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: All right, so we lost a man. Unfortunately, I was pressed into service. But the rest of us made it. What we thought was a three-hour tour turned into a day-long Odyssey.
All I can say is we learned a lot. We're a little wiser, a little harder, a lot more Japanese.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: See you, gentlemen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
CARLSON: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
CARLSON: We made it. Just kidding about losing a man. They're all there. We started with four, we ended with four. We're all here. Train, bus, boat. We're back where we started, at our camera position at our hotel on this river. One of the most stunning places I've ever been in my life. Absolutely beautiful. Makes you rethink what you thought you knew about Japan. Fantastic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: As you can see, we made it back alive and happy to the remarkable Suiran Hotel here in Kyoto. We will be sitting down with the President very soon in Japan, in Osaka. That interview will air on our air on Monday.
Earlier this hour, we showed you Julian Castro, who by the way, was an actual Cabinet Secretary under Barack Obama, we checked. His bizarre claim last night that went and if he becomes President, taxpayers will foot the bill for biological men to get abortions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CASTRO: I don't believe only in reproductive freedom, I believe in reproductive justice, and you know what that means is that just because a woman or let's also not forget someone in the trans-community, a trans- female is poor doesn't mean they shouldn't have the right to exercise that right to choose.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: That was Julian Castro, of course. And that was bizarre. What the other Democrats were saying was just as weird. It's clear now then the Democratic Party abortion should be widespread, available at any point in pregnancy, paid for by the government and available even to people who can't get pregnant.
Tammy Bruce is President of Independent Women's Voice and hosts "Get Tammy Bruce" on Fox Nation, which is reason enough to subscribe. It's that good. And she joins us tonight.
So Tammy, what do you -- what do you make -- It seems to me you could be pro-choice, you could be for Roe v. Wade, I guess and still think it's weird to see a presidential candidate guaranteeing men the right to taxpayer funded abortion. What is that?
TAMMY BRUCE, CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it was a night full of pandering. And that in and of itself is insulting. Right? I mean, whether it was speaking Spanish, you know, it's not the language you use, it's what you're saying. Right?
So it's a pandering. It's this presumption that their own base is shallow, and can be insulted and won't notice. This is the problem.
And that the pandering matters because then you don't need to talk about the details of the issues. And I think that this is why one of the many reasons why President Trump will win again in 2020. There's a whole host of problems the Democrats have, but this is an example of it.
And you know, he got the terminology wrong. But the fact is, that's not even an issue. If you are if you are born a woman, and if you identify as a man and you have not had the surgery, if you've not gone through the full transgender surgery, you could still get pregnant and then you could go somewhere and have an abortion. No one's going to ask you or care how you identify if you're in that medical dynamic.
But the other problem is --
CARLSON: That's a good point.
BRUCE: You know, the political correctness of this. In England now, a lot of -- this has been reported by "The Sun." The Public Health England has put out a pamphlet that says that individuals will only be alerted to tests they should take base on how they identify.
In other words, if you're a man and you identify as a woman, you will be sent reminders for your PAP smear and your cervical tests and for mammograms, which you don't have of course, a uterus.
But if you're a woman and you identify as a man, you will not be sent any longer reminders for your mammogram or for your PAP smear because that would be insulting, so we're in a weird place, Tucker. We're in a very weird place that could cost people their lives.
CARLSON: Yes, it's late-stage decadence. That's what it is. The great Tammy Bruce, great to see you. Thanks so much.
BRUCE: Thank you, sir.
CARLSON: Thanks for standing by every night in New York as we broadcast from Japan in case the satellite goes down. That's it for us tonight. We'll be back tomorrow at 8:00 and every night. The show that's the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness and groupthink regardless of the continent from which we're broadcasting. We'll be back. See you tomorrow.
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