Seattle radio show host says Washington's homeless crisis could worsen state's coronavirus outbreak

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," March 2, 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." A historic moment today in the world of politics.

After much trial and error and a great deal of anxiety and frustrated harrumphing on cable news panels, the Democratic establishment tonight finally has chosen the candidate to stop Bernie Sanders before he can take their money.

There's much relief in Washington right now. The Sanders threat is imminent and profound and they've been sweating it. Imagine General Chinese Gordon surrounded by screaming Mahdis at the Siege of Khartoum and you will know how they feel -- terrified.

It's one thing if your country falls apart. If tenth graders can't read and nine-year-olds are taking puberty blocking drugs and downtown LA looks like Calcutta and another 10,000 more Americans just died of fentanyl overdose -- whatever -- Americans are dying, Democrats are fine with that. They can live with it. They do. They don't say a word.

But if there's a rogue candidate out there who might actually be serious about closing the carried interest loophole, and forcing private equity barons to pay the same effective tax rate that you do, well, that cannot stand. It's totally and completely unacceptable. In fact, it's morally wrong. Alert the panel on "Morning Joe" we are going to war.

And tonight, they have found their warhorse, a hero they imagined will carry them forth to victory against the wild-haired infidel from Vermont. 
It is this candidate whom you should know is literally now the youngest man in the Democratic race.

This is the man they believe has the competence, the intensity, the intellect to repel the seething horde of Sandersites. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Joe Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE:  Look, tomorrow is Super Thursday, and I want to thank you all -- I'll tell you what, I'm rushing ahead, aren't I?

A hundred and fifty million people have been killed since 2007 when Bernie voted to exempt the gun manufacturers from liability.

It would put 720 million women back in the workforce.

Nobody should be in jail for a nonviolent crime.

My name is Joe Biden. I'm a Democratic candidate for the United States Senate.

What's not to like about Vermont in terms of the beauty of it and what a nice town.

Play the radio, make sure the television -- excuse me, make sure you have the record player on at night.

Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.

We choose science over fiction. We choose truth over facts.

Think about it, we hold these truths to be self-evident. All men are created by go -- you know the thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON:  Yes, that's the man. It's Super Thursday, and he's running for the United States Senate in memory of the nearly half the country that's murdered by guns and only last few years, guided by the belief that other children as bright and talented as white kids, not to mention clean and articulate, and in the hope that he can put three quarters of a billion women back to work, whether they want to go or not.

If that's the kind of transformational candidate you're looking for, Joe Biden is your man -- or if you're looking for someone to get you a second serving of Jell-O from the 4:30 early bird buffet, Biden could do that, too.

He is a renaissance man. As he himself will tell you, the Renaissance was an awful long time ago. Back during the Carter administration, actually, and you know what, Jimmy was a good guy better than they said -- and so on.

Honestly, and how do you say this without being rude or mean? This whole thing is sad. Worse than that, it's cruel. Running Joe Biden for President is like making your dog wear a dress. It may make for an amusing Instagram post, but it's wrong.

You can see the confusion in the dog's eyes. You can see the same thing in Joe Biden's eyes if you look closely.

Why am I here? What are we talking about? Maybe if I make a lot of noise about pushups, no one will notice.

So far the only thing we've learned from Biden's candidacy is that there's no one around him who cares enough to make him stop. Instead, there are only enablers.

Today, both Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar endorsed Biden, so did former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Beto O'Rourke. These are party people doing the bidding of their corporate masters. There's nothing warm or sentimental about it. They're pushing a defective product on consumers and they know it. They're selling lawn darts.

But whatever it takes, the Biden campaign isn't about ideas, much less ideals. The Democratic establishment's only concern is institutional control. That's where all of their power comes from, from holding together and running things.

If the Democratic coalition breaks down, they are by definition, powerless. They have nothing. And the real threat of Bernie Sanders is the threat he poses to the party. He could split it in half and break it forever. That cannot happen. Joe Biden is their last chance. That's why they're backing him.

Probably the only group sincerely Biden on tonight are the credit card companies. For decades, Biden was their paid lackey in Washington. They bribed him with cash. They gave jobs to his son. In return, he carried their legislation through Congress dutifully for many, many years.

Meanwhile, untold Americans, average Joe's as Joe himself likes to say were crushed by credit card debt. The average credit card interest rate in this country is 21 percent -- 21 percent interest at a time when the Fed is giving banks billions of dollars nearly for free. That's how low interest rates are for them, but you're paying 21 percent. This is a disaster.

How bad is it? Let's put it in perspective. Ask yourself. How many people do you know personally who have been hospitalized for coronavirus? 
Something we're all worried about and justly? Maybe none.

Now ask yourself, how many people you know personally whose lives have been diminished or destroyed by credit card debt? Yes, maybe it's happened to you, it probably has. It's happened to so many people.

Joe Biden is one of the decision makers who made that possible. It is not an overstatement, but they don't care. Now, they're telling you that for the good of the country, you've got to vote for Joe Biden.

Keep in mind, they don't even believe it as they say it. They don't even like Biden. But at this point, they'll say anything because they have to.

Richard Goodstein is a lawyer and a former adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton, and he joins us tonight. I've got to say, Richard, this is sincere. They're not many -- you know, I've lived in Washington a long time. I'm kind of Mediterranean about my judgments, I'm trying to be too judge-y about things.

But flacking for the credit card companies, being a paid shill, having them employ your son, when they're charging people 21 percent interest in the country where the Fed is giving free money to banks. How is it defensible, exactly?

RICHARD GOOSTEIN, FORMER ADVISER TO BILL AND HILLARY CLINTON:  So again, Joe Biden represented a state that these credit card companies happen to be headquartered in. It's not uncommon for politicians to go to bat for their constituents.

But there's a reason say in the last Fox News Poll National Poll that Joe Biden was right running 50 to 41 over Donald Trump and that's because there's a sense --

CARLSON:  Wait, but may I ask you, is that okay with you? Is that okay with you? I mean, I guess it's okay to sell fortified wine to wine-os. But if you're the guy representing MD 2020, or Thunderbird, like, are you proud of that? No, you're adding to the sum total of human misery. And I can't think of any company that brings more misery than credit card companies. They're disgusting. No?

GOODSTEIN:  Yes. I have a hunch if you had to rank --

CARLSON:  How did I get so liberal here? Are you defending that?

GOODSTEIN:  I think if you had a rank order, the reasons that the middle class are not doing all that well. Let's look at the last tax cut, which frankly, went mainly to the rich and didn't really do all that much for the middle class who are struggling to pay for the combination of education and healthcare.

You know, the litany and credit card debt is a problem for some people, but it's not particularly high in the list. If you had a beef with a Democrat, credit card debt is probably --

CARLSON:  Really? It's not particularly high in the list. I think --

GOODSTEIN:  Yes.

CARLSON:  I think it is very high on the list.

GOODSTEIN:  Education, housing and healthcare are the three things that are making people struggle.

CARLSON:  They are all -- trust me they're all -- this is one of the few shows that talks about those things. I think they're terrible. I think they're worse than Russia. I hate to go out on a limb and say it.

Let me ask you though, sincerely -- and I understand you don't want to Bernie to be President, I don't either. I get it. Is Biden -- he gives no sense that he is prepared for this and that he is up for it. He's looking forward to Super Thursday. I'm not being mean. I know the guy I don't hate him or anything but he does not seem prepared for this. Do you think he is?

GOODSTEIN:  So the person who he is going to be running against if he is the nominee has said that we need -- that people need to sacrifice for the furniture of their children, reading off a teleprompter, somebody who reading off a teleprompter said the Revolutionary War with be good because it attacked airports.

Again, that's who he is going to be running against so are both of these guys flawless orders? No.

CARLSON:  So you think -- but look, I make mistakes all the time, -- I make mistakes all the time, but let me ask you, I'm sincere. You don't get -- Trump says things that people disagree with or hate or they dislike.

GOODSTEIN:  It is not disagreeing.

CARLSON:  I have never gotten a sense from watching Trump, but do you get the sense that Trump like is fading? I don't get that sense. I do get the sense from Biden and I'm serious that he's fading.

GOODSTEIN:  I think when Donald Trump --

CARLSON:  Where is he going to be on Super Thursday this week for example?

GOODSTEIN:  Look, remember that whole Dung Xiaoping thing that Biden said -
- that didn't sound too great, nor did calling Tim Cook Tim Apple. Right? 
So do I think Biden is going to --

CARLSON:  That one is kind of funny.

GOODSTEIN:  Do I think that Trump is fading?

CARLSON:  Look, I mean, everybody screws up. But do you think Biden's all there? It's a sincere question. I mean, I'm just -- you look at all of this tape. Like he'll start a sentence and then he'll just reach this kind of mental cul de sac and sort of spins around in circles and it's just -- it's anxious make, no?

GOODSTEIN:  And it will not surprise you to know that on competing networks, they show a tape much longer of all the idiotic things that Donald Trump said that are equally silly, stupid, call it what you will. I understand why you --

CARLSON:  Then why is it -- I know a lot of people who dislike Trump. They live in my neighborhood and they say -- they say he is a fascist. He is this and that. I've never heard anybody say, you know, I don't think he's all there.

GOODSTEIN:  Oh, gosh.

CARLSON:  I talk to a lot of Democrats you say Biden -- and they like Biden
-- they're not -- none of them are against him personally, but they all say the same thing. They don't think he's up for it. But that doesn't -- that is not a concern for you.

GOODSTEIN:  And I'm saying I would invite your audience to Google the phrase, Trump teleprompter mistakes. That's reading off a teleprompter. 
That's not even the idea of coming up with things. Again, like, you know, an American invented the wheel.

CARLSON:  So you're not answering the question. You're -- but it sounds like maybe --

GOODSTEIN:  I am.

CARLSON:  Maybe you're a little concerned.

GOODSTEIN:  I'm not concerned at all.

CARLSON:  Okay, so you don't think there's any -- you think his mental acuity is 100 percent. Okay. Look, maybe, I'm just blinded by my partisanship or something.

GOODSTEIN:  I think Joe Biden --

CARLSON:  I am not very partisan, but I just -- it doesn't look like he's doing well. I am not joking even a little bit.

GOODSTEIN:  I am saying, I think Joe Biden has been saying silly things for decades. It's now in the spotlight. So yes, people are going to pick on it. 
And again, if you want to go gaffe for gaffe --

CARLSON:  Okay.

GOODSTEIN:  This is a fair fight.

CARLSON:  Okay. We'll wee. We'll see. All right. Good luck. Good luck. Joe Biden is your guy. Ride that horse until he drops.

GOODSTEIN:  And I feel a lot better about it than I did a week ago. When we've talked about the absence of coalescing and all of that.

CARLSON:  How about that? You seem to be all -- a burden lifted. Maybe he could protect the carried interest loophole. Good luck. Thank you so much.

GOODSTEIN:  Sure.

CARLSON:  So over the next few weeks, all the attention will of course be on Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden and maybe Michael Bloomberg. So we want to pause and remember the candidates we lost over the weekend -- not permanently, they're just not in the race.

For all of them, their failure to win the nomination is reason for all of us to feel a little better about ourselves. We're not as dumb as we thought we were. Tom Steyer disproved that simply because you're a billionaire doesn't mean you're an oligarch. Steyer spent more than $100 million dollars of his own money. And in the end, did an embarrassing dance on stage and then got nothing.

His said presidential run ought to be encouraging to every person in America, particularly the slower among us. If that guy can make a billion dollars, you can, too.

Pete Buttigieg's defeat proves that while Americans may be willing to vote for socialists or plutocrats or adulterers, they are pretty open minded actually. They still want their Presidents to be human. Creepy robots with biographies crafted in a Silicon Valley lab are going to have to wait till the 22nd Century to have their chance. Here's Buttigieg's minutes ago backing Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE BUTTIGIEG, D-FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE:  It is an honor to be here with Vice President Biden. You know, when I ran for President, we made it clear that the whole idea was about rallying the country together to defeat Donald Trump and to win the era for the values that we share and that was always a goal that was much bigger than me becoming President.

And it is in the name of that very same goal, that I'm delighted to endorse and support Joe Biden for President.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON:  I think Barack Obama gave that exact same speech, but I don't have Google in front of me, but you can check it.

And of course, Amy Klobuchar dropped out as well. Her defeat is good news for anyone who cares about proper comb hygiene. The Democratic race may be smaller tonight, but it's not more amicable. Why? Because Elizabeth Warren is still running and now she is openly campaigning for a divisive brokered convention next July, which would be really like Christmas day for the rest of us.

Warren's only reason for staying in the race right now is to sabotage Bernie Sanders, but many Democrats are happy to play along.

The weird neuroses anxieties and just strangers in the Democratic coalition are coming to the surface. It's like pulling up a rock and all these things crawl away or try to.

We're learning a lot about what they really care about. So over the weekend, "The Boston Globe" ran a piece arguing -- and this is for real -- that it was "disrespectful" for Bernie Sanders to try and win the Massachusetts primary since it would be a "major humiliation" for Elizabeth Warren.

That's really identity politics taken to its endpoint. It's the state of the Democratic race right now. If you're too extreme for the donor class, then it's sexist to try and win an election.

Victor Davis Hanson, one of the wisest people we know is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution out in California. He joins us tonight. Professor, you look on at this and what do you make of it?

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, SENIOR FELLOW, HOOVER INSTITUTION:  Well, this latest dropout group of Klobuchar and Buttigieg is same thing as the first round of dropouts with Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, Julian Castro and how to sum it all up, Tucker, is after a year of all of this wokeness and diversity and white privilege, what do we end up with?

We ended up with three old white guys that are 77 and 78, with a Marxist -- Neo-Marxist -- as the presumptive leader, and all of them have a history of insensitive remarks about women or things they've written.

So it's a complete antithesis of the whole premise of the Democratic Party and we don't have anybody who is a charismatic character other than Bernie Sanders and his criticisms are sometimes legitimate of American society, but his bromides are frightening.

So they are in a real -- and then they've got this outside billionaire who is coming into save everybody from Bernie Sanders, on the premise that Biden was fading, but Biden is not quite dead yet -- his candidacy, I mean that metaphorically -- and now Bloomberg is going to be blamed for you know, dividing the moderate vote and handing the nomination to Sanders.

And then this was supposed to be the transparent new reformist party and they're going to go back to an old 1950s, 1940s brokered convention with guys and cigars in the back room, horse trading jobs and employment and entitlements to get delegates. It's completely -- the reality is completely opposite to the rhetoric of the whole progressive movement.

CARLSON:  So they clearly don't care about the things they say they care about. So if you could just sum up crisply what they do care about, what do you think that is?

HANSON:  What they do care about is they want to control the House and they want to win back the Senate, and they want Supreme Court picks because they're interested in power. They're not interested necessarily in diversity or people of color being the new face of the Democratic Party or any of that.

They're interested in power, and they think they can't get it with Bernie Sanders, and they're absolutely right. He'll be a disaster. This is a worst field we've seen since Walter Mondale lost in a landslide to Ronald Reagan, and if they go the Bernie route, they're going to lose big and they're desperate and they're down to the 11th hour, and the only candidates they have that they think they can save the House and maybe going back to Senate are Bloomberg and Biden and they're pathetic candidates, and it's kind of a tragedy to watch this thing unfold.

CARLSON:  You're right.

HANSON:  It really is.

CARLSON:  Oh, but that there's been -- there's pleasure in it too, Professor, I would say.

HANSON:  But it's about power and they are losing that and they know it.

CARLSON:  Exactly. It's about power. Great to see you tonight. Thank you so much for that, as always.

HANSON:  Thank you. Thank you.

CARLSON:  Well, Chris Matthews of MSNBC, of course a longtime fixture in cable news, 30 years, shocked viewers tonight and quit his job at the beginning of his show on the air.

Chief breaking news correspondent, Trace Gallagher has more on this. Hey, Trace.

TRACE GALLAGHER, CHIEF BREAKING NEWS CORRESPONDENT:  Yes, Tucker, right at the top of the show, in fact, after the first break, Matthews was gone and here's what he said right out of the gate. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS MATTHEWS, FORMER MSNBC HOST:  Let me start with my headline tonight. I'm retiring. This the last "Hardball" on MSNBC and obviously, this isn't for lack of interest in politics.

As you can tell, I've loved every minute of my 20 years as host of "Hardball."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER:  Now for the record, the writing has been on the wall for several days. Matthews was not part of network's South Carolina coverage this weekend, and he's been under pressure to resign for a litany of controversial comments like comparing Bernie Sanders' victory in Nevada to the Nazi defeat of the French in World War II, for which he later apologized.

But accusations of sexist comments may have been the final straw.

Listen to what else Matthews said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEWS:  Compliments on a woman's appearance that some men including me, might have once incorrectly thought we're okay were never okay. Not then, and certainly not today and for making such comments in the past, I'm sorry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER:  And just for context, Matthews was accused of asking inappropriate questions during a recent interview with Elizabeth Warren. And then freelance journalist, Laura Bassett said he made inappropriate comments to her on a few occasions.

With all of that, 20 years of hosting "Hardball," now over -- Tucker.

CARLSON:  Amazing story, Trace Gallagher. Thanks so much. Boy, I never thought you'd see that happen. I have known Chris Matthews very well since 1995 when I started appearing on his show regularly. He is everything you think he is.

Groveling in the end couldn't save him. It never does. I would say his real sin, of course was being old and unfashionable. That's why they're making him leave.

But what's interesting though, this is NBC News, so as long as we're making people leave for moral crimes, you've got to wonder, why is Joy Reid still on the air? Who lied and got the F.B.I. implicated in her lie or Noah Oppenheim, the buddy of Harvey Weinstein or Andy Lack or Joe Scarborough who still works there. Really? Amazing.

So it would be worth asking what exactly is the standard we're applying here that forced Chris Matthews -- I am not a fan, but just being honest -- that forced Chris Matthews off the air? We should know more about this and we're going to try to find out.

Well, the stock market rallied today after last week's bloodbath, but coronavirus remains an imminent threat to this country, but the latest numbers on the disease's death toll, next.

Plus, Hillary Clinton has been ordered to testify under oath about her e- mails. Of course, we're following that story. We've got details for you.

Then the President speaking in Charlotte, North Carolina -- indefatigable, this President is. We will watch it for breaking news.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:  And we are winning, winning, winning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON:  This is a Fox News Alert. The coronavirus epidemic continues to claim more victims in this country. Three people in Washington State died over the weekend. Now, this afternoon, three more deaths in that State, Washington were announced. That brings the total death toll here in the U.S. to six.

Around the world, though, cases continue to surge. In Italy, the number of coronavirus cases surged 50 percent in a single day -- that was yesterday, Sunday. There are now over 2,000 confirmed cases of the Chinese virus there. And there have been 52 deaths so far.

South Korea continues to add more than 500 cases a day.

Dr. Marc Siegel has been on this story with us from the very start. He joins us tonight for an update. Doctor, thanks so much for coming on.

DR. MARC SIEGEL, FOX NEWS CHANNEL MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT:  Hi, Tucker.

CARLSON:  Give us your assessment as of right now, where are we in the spread of this disease?

SIEGEL:  Tucker, it's starting to spread more in the United States and communities here. We're starting to see more cases. You just mentioned six deaths. In South Korea, which has a very good health care system, they are testing a lot of people, they've got 33,000 negatives. They have many more to go, but there are over 4,000 cases now.

I think I would say that in all my years of studying contagions, I've never seen this much fear and hysteria. I've never seen this contagious a virus and I've never seen such a political football, where despite such a great public health response rising to the occasion, at least here in the United States, I mean, you sent me to Nebraska.

I've never seen a better group at the National Quarantine Center, professional, unafraid, in there every day with the patients, risking their own safety, perhaps outfitting properly, teaching the rest of the country, studying an antiviral drug and yet, there's been a huge outcry and the divisiveness going on here, criticizing the President, his task force, you know, really great people with expertise in virology. I'm absolutely shocked at this.

I think the fear quotient is way too high and so is the political divisiveness. It's a serious virus.

CARLSON:  Do we have any better sense of how dangerous it is and to whom?

SIEGEL:  Absolutely. We're getting there. You know, in Nebraska, they told me that the people that get most sick get very high fevers, higher than the flu.

People that are elderly are most at risk. People with chronic conditions. People with underlying health issues are at risk. Males, people, close to 80 years old. All of these people are more at risk and we're seeing that. That's where the deaths are occurring. That's where the hospitalizations are occurring, and that's where the pneumonia is occurring.

The thing that's most concerning here, Tucker is the way it's spreading. It is spreading wildly, and there's asymptomatic spread where you're not sure you even have it. There are cases cropping up in Washington State especially, we think that it's really gone rampant in Washington State, because of the number of cases that eluded detection.

We need more test kits. I spoke to Nebraska about this today and they said their test kits, they can tell in six hours, Tucker, if you have the virus or not. We need that kind of testing throughout the United States.

CARLSON:  Yes, that's right. And we just need to see what we find when we get it, the sooner we do.

SIEGEL:  Absolutely.

CARLSON:  Doctor, thanks so much for that.

SIEGEL:  We will see thousands more cases. Absolutely. Thanks, Tucker.

CARLSON:  Oh, for sure. Thank you. Well, in Iran, the official death toll from coronavirus sits at 66, but most people think the true number is far higher than that. The disease is proven particularly bad there. Here's one reason why possibly.

A video from the City of Qom, the epicenter of the Iranian outbreak, so Shia Muslim worshippers demonstrating their devotion by lip licking the tomb of a famous Islamic saint, obviously a problem in the middle of an epidemic.

Jason Rantz is a Seattle radio show host -- authorities say his state may have had a coronavirus outbreak quietly building for weeks. He joins us tonight.

Jason, thanks so much for coming on. So what do you think your state has -- you know, I think all deaths or at least the majority in our nation have been in your state. Why do you think it's been so bad there?

JASON RANTZ, SEATTLE RADIO SHOW HOST: Well, it's a little bit unclear. I think part of it has to do with we're a hub for travel, particularly from Asia, and that's probably behind some of this.

But I think also, we've got a potential problem growing with our homelessness crisis. I think when we hear about how easily the coronavirus will spread, we know specifically groups of people who can't do the hand sanitizer, taking showers, washing your hands multiple times a day. It's the homelessness issue, right.

And so you've got two groups of people who potentially could make this a little bit worse. Number one, the homeless individuals who are sort of living deep out under freeway underpasses, up hills and brush that you don't necessarily see, well, they might be suffering and no one's going to know that they need help.

And then you've got the group of homeless individuals who maybe are getting sick but aren't showing any symptoms.

Well, they're jumping on buses, because they can ride for free. They're going to public restrooms. They're going into public libraries. And there's a possibility that they're spreading it at a higher than normal rate, because they're not in the system, because they're not being quarantined, because they're not being checked with any regularity. And I think that that's a problem.

CARLSON:  So I'm not Marie Curie here, but you're saying that if you've got thousands of people defecating on the sidewalk that could pose a public health risk.

RANTZ:  I know. I'm not a doctor, but something tells me that that poses a potential issue. Now, what I think is kind of curious about this at the same time that I'm addressing these issues, you and I are talking about it. 
You've got the Seattle City Council that's making it harder to clean up encampments, to get people into the system, to get people into shelter. 
They think that lacks compassion.

Today, if you look -- spend 10 seconds on my Twitter feed, I'm getting called a fascist because I actually think that we should be putting people into shelter and actually getting them quarantined if they're sick. And if they're not sick, it doesn't matter. I want to get them actual help. And I want to get them access to you know, running water.

CARLSON:  In a lot of places, your city sadly the worst people have the most power. It's sad.

RANTZ:  Yes. Unfortunately.

CARLSON:  Jason Rantz, thank you for our ongoing reports from Seattle. I appreciate it.

RANTZ:  Appreciate it. Thank you.

CARLSON:  Coronavirus remains a major concern, but for now, the stock market in this country seems a little more optimistic about the efforts to fight it. The market tanked more than 10 percent last week, you may have noticed and was expected to fall more today, though that didn't happen. 
Markets rallied.

The Dow rose almost 1,300 points day. That was the single biggest single day points' gain in the history of the Industrial Average. That's reassuring news of course, but the coronavirus epidemic is far from over. 
In fact, it's barely begun.

Hopefully our leaders uses this as an encouragement, they needs to remain vigilant and aggressive in fighting the virus, instead of seeing this as an excuse to ignore it.

The Democratic presidential race has serious implications for this country, but it's also frankly kind of amusing. Mark Steyn finds it so, he joins us after the break.

CARLSON:  Joe Biden has been racking up some endorsements today, the question is will he remember their names? Biden had a tough time with this host on just yesterday actually. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WALLACE, 'FOX NEWS SUNDAY' HOST:  Mr. Vice President. Thank you. Thanks for your time. Please come back in less than 13 years, sir.

BIDEN:  All right, Chuck. Thank you very much.

WALLACE:  All right. It's Chris. But anyway, I just --

BIDEN:  Chris. I just said Chris. No, no, I just did Chuck. I tell you what, man, these are back-to-back, anyway, and it's kind of early in the morning, too.

WALLACE:  Oh, it's OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON:  Yes, he just did Chuck and he is feeling bewildered after that. Author and columnist, Mike Steyn joins us tonight. Mike, thanks so much for coming on. Mark -- Mark.

MARK STEYN, AUTHOR AND COLUMNIST:  Hey, my pleasure. Yes. Thanks, Martha. Always a pleasure. Yes, he's a -- I believe we have breaking news.

I had just been endorsed by Mao Zedong and Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria. So he's looking in pretty good shape for Super Tuesday. I don't actually believe that Chuck business with Chris Wallace, because we just did it here and that's what we do whenever we start making jokes about these things.

I wouldn't be surprised if the comeback coot isn't actually putting this on just the head fake Bernie and Bloomberg into not taking him seriously.

What I find interesting, just to make a semi-serious point about this is that all the most -- all the party elders, if you're the minder of a politician, the last thing you want is a politician with a mind of his own. You just want one who does what you tell him to do.

So for the minders, a candidate who has completely lost his mind is actually the perfect candidate. The more he does this, the more he says, hey, thanks a lot Chuck, the more he actually demonstrates to the minders in the party that he is the perfect empty vessel for their various machinations, so expect a lot more of this.

CARLSON:  Exactly.

STEYN:  Expect a lot more of this.

CARLSON:  That's exactly right. So I have to ask you about Sanders -- Bernie Sanders. So he is promising a $16 trillion Green New Deal, because he cares so deeply about climate change. It's an existential crisis, but he doesn't really care about the actual environment. And so he flies private constantly, so often, that on Saturday, he actually tried to board the wrong Gulfstream at Logan Airport.

And the owner of the plane took this picture of Bernie Sanders waving him on. What does it tell you? That Bernie Sanders just wanders around FBO's trying to get on Gulfstreams because he imagines they're his.

STEYN:  Yes, well, you know, I initially sympathized. I thought one of the reasons he's so hunched was from having to bend down to get into the little pathetic U.S. Air, Northwest, Continental, TWA puddle jumper up to Burlington.

But in fact, I was just told just before I came on air, that in fact he says he has been doing this -- he has to do this because he's running for President. But in fact he was doing it when he was just a Vermont congressman that he'd actually take private planes from Manchester, New Hampshire to Burlington, Vermont which is ridiculous because it's like a couple of hours in the car and you can stick it on cruise control, the road is empty and read the Communist Manifesto all the way home.

So there is something about this that is actually significant. He's classic nomenklatura. This Green New Deal is ridiculous because as we've been talking about, all of these public transit, putting people in big cities smaller accommodation. That's great if you want to catch the coronavirus. 
Meanwhile, he's not coming into contact with humanity because he is flying private from Dead Moose Junction, Main to Dead Beaver Junction, Vermont. This is ridiculous.

CARLSON:  What a hypocrite he is. What a foolish old hypocrite and a liar. So nobody had a more humiliating weekend than Tom Steyer did and in South Carolina, he dropped out. We want to warn our viewers that this video is disturbing, so take the kids out of the room. Here it is.

[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS]

CARLSON:  We need a new class of billionaires, don't we? I mean really.

STEYN:  Yes, he has got it all wrong. I mean, he is busting a move. He is busting a sacroiliac. It's ridiculous. That rapper is called Juvenile. That's why Tom Steyer bombed out. This is the most geriatric election this Democratic primary in the history of the free world.

He should have been up there with Geriatrica, the only surviving nonagenarian rapper who I believes celebrated 50 years in showbiz, because all of his contemporaries were killed back in the 90s -- geriatric rapper, he should be Tom Steyer, if he had done the Hokey Pokey with Bernie and Biden, he'd still be in the game.

He's got no clue how to play this thing. This is not a movement of youth. This is the geezer apocalypse and being up on stage with rappers called Juvenile is the last thing he should have done.

CARLSON:  Exactly, because, like the party itself, they're just exhausted. They're out of ideas. And they're down to 78 year olds recycling the 1970s.

STEYN:  Absolutely.

CARLSON:  Mark Steyn, great to see you. Thank you.

STEYN:  Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot, Martha -- Sean -- whatever.

CARLSON:  Whatever, man. Thank you. Hillary Clinton has finally been ordered to give sworn testimony about her private e-mail server. That story is still live.

Plus, we'll talk to a congressional Republican who is suing The Washington Post for false reporting. Where to begin? It happens every day. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON:  A Federal judge has ordered Hillary Clinton to sit for a deposition about her private e-mail server. That story is still going. Chief breaking news correspondent, Trace Gallagher is on it for us tonight. Hey, Trace.

GALLAGHER:  Hey, Tucker. This is big because Hillary Clinton has never had to submit to live questions under oath about her e-mail use. Previously, she has only given a written statement and has argued a deposition is unnecessary because she already answered the questions.

But D.C. District Judge Royce Lamberth says that's exactly the point, calling her answers "incomplete, unhelpful and cursory, at best." Going on to say, "As extensive as the existing record is, it does not sufficiently explain Secretary Clinton's state of mind when she decided it would be an acceptable practice to set up and use a private server to conduct State Department business."

This is all in connection to a Freedom of Information request filed almost six years ago by the conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch, who initially wanted e-mails dealing with the 2012 attack in Benghazi.

But if this deposition of Clinton goes forward, the judge is limiting the scope, so Benghazi won't be a topic. Instead, it'll focus on whether Secretary Clinton used a private server to intentionally get around the Freedom of Information Act.

Judge Lamberth, also allowing Judicial Watch to depose former Clinton Chief of Staff, Cheryl Mills, and the IT specialist involved in deleting the e- mails.

Clinton and her team will no doubt fight to stop this deposition from ever happening -- Tucker.

CARLSON:  But it could be interesting. Trace Gallagher. Thanks so much.

Congressman Devin Nunes represents California, of course, he sits on the Intel Committee of the House. We're happy to have him tonight. Congressman, thanks so much for coming on. What do you make of this?

REP. DEVIN NUNES, R-CALIF.:  I think it's frustrating. The American people are sick and tired of the Clinton White House or Hillary Clinton, she didn't get prosecuted, even though she had those classified e-mails on her server.

And look, I give kudos to Judicial Watch. They've been tough. They've stayed on this and that's what we have to do in this town. These people just don't lie down. They don't go away. You have to fight them every single step of the way. It's what you have to do and six years --

And the way I understand, I just saw Tom Fitton here in the Fox Studio, and he said that she should be deposed in about 75 days -- within 75 days. And look, this has been going since 2012. I mean, it's been a while.

CARLSON:  Interesting. Okay. Thank you for that. Now, you've filed your own suit against "The Washington Post" which is a daily newspaper now owned by the world's richest man as a kind of vanity publication. Why are you suing them and on what grounds?

NUNES:  Well, it's funny you say that, right? Like this is the world's richest man. I call it his glamour project. He wants to promote his company here in the nation's capital, I get that.

But it's not okay to slander and defame me, and if you may remember when the Russia hoax was resurrected again, just a couple of weeks ago, before we went into the coronavirus issue, we were talking about Russia, Russia, Russia again. And they brought me into this.

They claim that I went to the White House, that I talked to the President, and that I got the acting Director of the National Intelligence fired.

Well, there's a problem with the story, Tucker. I never spoke to the President. I never spoke to the President about MaGuire. In fact, the day that they claim that I supposedly went to the White House, I was in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

And so you know, so we filed today in Federal court. My guess is, is that Bezos, who has billions, he'll hire an army of lawyers and his people won't be held accountable. And we have to as Republicans start to fight back against this fake news. You just can't take something and make it up out of whole cloth, okay, when I was in another state, for God's sakes.

I never talked to the President. This is easy to prove. And what will happen, I promise you is they'll hide. They'll hide from the Federal judge, and the judge will have to get them to come in.

CARLSON:  Can I just say, this is a broader, more philosophical question, but I think it's important, why the rest of us play along in pretending "The Washington Post" is like a newspaper. It's a news organization. 
They're covering the news. When it's one man's propaganda operation, why don't we just say that?

NUNES:  Well, look, I do, right. So I don't talk to "The Washington Post" 
and I advise all my colleagues not to talk to "The Washington Post" and look, I think one of the things here and this is actually in my lawsuit, is that you took them to task actually.

So the reporter that wrote this is a true Russia hoaxer and you showed that on your show, I think a few months ago that they are used to it. They can continually talk about the -- you know, there was no FISA abuse. The dossier wasn't used to get a FISA warrant. They were wrong. They never corrected that.

And so I think that's part of what you're seeing here is, is that I've continued to hold these media companies accountable and they don't like it.

And so then they just think it's funny to throw me into their fake news stories, and I'm not going to stand for it. That's why, you know, I urge everybody. I've created, defendusa.com so that if you're out there and you believe that we should be fighting, you can go there and join the fight.

CARLSON:  So the world's richest man owns the local newspaper in the world's most powerful city, but nobody thinks that's a problem. We think that's an undue concentration of power. Nobody thinks that maybe -- maybe Jeff Bezos has an agenda which he so obviously does. I mean, it's little weird that we don't say that out loud. But I agree with you. It's not worth reading its garbage. They're liars.

NUNES:  And I'm saying it in Federal court, Tucker. I mean, that's exactly what I said in Federal court today.

CARLSON:  Well, you should. It's garbage. Thank you so much.

NUNES:  Thank you for the time.

CARLSON:  So Democrats are counting on America's growing Hispanic population to make the country permanently Democratic. But the Lieutenant Governor of Texas who is smart says that Hispanic voters can be won over away from the left. It's not that complicated. You need to do the obvious thing and no, it's got nothing to do with immigration. He will explain, after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON:  America's Hispanic population is rapidly growing and for Democrats, this growth is key to their plans to win the presidency forever. 
If Hispanic voters, new voters can turn Texas and Florida and Arizona blue, then that's it. Republicans can't win anything nationally anymore.

But this plan will only work if Hispanic voters continue to vote Democrat and they don't necessarily need to keep voting Democrat. There are reasons to think that could change.

Dan Patrick is Lieutenant Governor of Texas. He says he's got a plan to change that. It has nothing to do with immigration. Dan Patrick joins us tonight. Lieutenant Governor, thanks so much for coming on. Appreciate it.

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR DAN PATRICK, R-TEXAS:  Sure.

CARLSON:  So you've got a really interesting idea on this. So the conventional -- and I'll just set the stage and let you go, but the conventional view in Washington is if you want to win Hispanic voters, you have to liberalize immigration laws. There's really no other way. That's the only issue that care about.

Every Hispanic is for open borders. Republicans at the R.N.C. believe that. What's your idea?

PATRICK:  Well, first of all, Tucker, I got nearly 50 percent along with Greg Abbott in 2014 when we ran for Governor and Lieutenant Governor and we ran independently. So we got both -- cut about 50 percent of the Hispanic vote.

And the reason is we talked to Hispanics about our policies, and this is why President Trump will do so well.

Hispanic voters, the majority are pro-life. They're pro-family. They are pro-border security. They're pro-Second Amendment. They're entrepreneurs. They're hard workers. They want smaller government. They want to keep more of their money. They don't want to give it to the government.

So I've -- you know, you and I kind of talked a little bit before, Tucker, and I said, you know, I can go into a room of a hundred Democrat Hispanic voters who have always voted Democrat and I can lay out my pro-life, pro- family, pro-Second Amendment, pro-school opportunity, economic opportunity policy and when I walk out the door, I'll walk out with 25 or 30 votes.

But if a Democrat goes into a room of a hundred lifetime Republican, Hispanic voters and they say, well, we're for abortion. We're for higher taxes. We want to take your guns. We want open borders. They won't walk out with one.

And in fact, Tucker, one day we will have a Hispanic President probably not in the distant future, man or woman, it will be a Republican. It won't be a Democrat.

And the reason is the Democrats will never let a pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, pro-secure border, pro-charter school, you go down the list. This is what Hispanics in this country believe in. And that's why the President will do better than any other Republican has done before.

This is why we will win Texas easily for the President. This is why he will win more electoral votes than he did before because its policies, it's about values, Tucker.

It comes down when you vote for someone, you vote for someone who shares your values. The Democrats do not share the values of the majority of Hispanic voters in this country.

CARLSON:  Right. But they play the race card, Anglos hate you, vote for us. I mean, it's a race -- it's a race and it is disgusting. It's the most divisive and it's untrue. But why doesn't -- so Hispanic voters speaking broadly care about family, which I think all voters do? Why aren't Republican candidates making that pitch directly? We're going to help your family -- they don't do that. Why?

PATRICK:  You know, they just don't work at it hard enough and they need to. Real quick, a few years ago, I debated Julian Castro on Univision in Spanish.

At one point in the debate, he was hammering me about the DREAMers. And I said, you know, Julian, and you're pro-choice, right? And he said, well, yes, everyone knows that. I said, no. You're pro-choice. You're for abortion, right? And he said, well, yes, everyone knows that.

I said, well, here's the difference between you and me. If a young woman who is pregnant crosses the border illegally, I wish she wouldn't. But if she did, I will do everything I can to save the life of that baby and you will not. That was the end of the debate.

We have to go to Hispanics. We have to tell our -- talk about our policies and that's how we win.

CARLSON:  Exactly.

PATRICK:  And we can't step away from the social issues that we care about. Thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON:  No, that's right. And so often Republicans are cowards on those. Great to see you tonight. Thank you. Lieutenant Governor. We're out of time. We'll be back tomorrow 8 p.m. Sean Hannity takes over now.

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