Steyn: Biden is unable to run as himself in the current Democratic climate

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Steyn: Biden is unable to run as himself in the current Democratic climate

What is Joe Biden's biggest liability in his 2020 campaign? Reaction and analysis from SteynOnline.com's Mark Steyn.

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," April 25, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

TAMMY BRUCE, PRESIDENT, INDEPENDENT WOMEN'S VOICE: Good evening, everybody. Good evening and welcome to “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” I'm Tammy Bruce filling in for Tucker this evening.

Joe Biden has entered the 2020 presidential race and is immediately a front-runner, but can he beat 20 radical democrats fighting to take him down? Mark Steyn, one of your favorites will be here in just a minute to talk about that, plus the hecklers who went after Bernie Sanders last night, that's also just ahead.

But first, a Massachusetts judge and court officer who helped an illegal immigrant criminal escape the custody of I.C.E. have actually been indicted for obstruction of justice and several other criminal charges. Trace Gallagher joins us with more. Hi Trace.

TRACE GALLAGHER, CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Tammy. Jose Medina Perez is an illegal immigrant who has been deported twice, who is wanted on drunk- driving warrants and was appearing in a Massachusetts courtroom before Judge Shelley Richmond Joseph on drug charges. If Medina Perez made bail, there was an I.C.E. agent in the courthouse hallway waiting to re-arrest him.

Now, here's the conversation picked up on courtroom audio between Judge Joseph and the defense attorney for Medina Perez. Now, they speak softly so listen close. Watch.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DAVID JELLINEK, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I.C.E. will pick him up if he walks out the front door.

SHELLEY RICHMOND JOSEPH, JUDGE: I.C.E. is going to get him. What if we continue ...

JELLINEK: Are we filming?

JOSEPH: Larry, can we go off the record for a moment?

(END AUDIO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: Yes, so it's unclear what was said when they turned off the audio recorder, but the defense lawyer later told the judge, Medina Perez needed to get his property downstairs which the judge allowed. That's when prosecutors say the court officer, Wesley McGregor who is also charged used his access card to slip Medina Perez out the back door.

The lead Federal investigator said quoting, "The people of the this country deserve nothing less than to know that they're appointed and elected representatives that are working on their behalf while adhering to and enforcing the rule of law not a personal agenda."

Today, the judge and court officer were indicted by a grand jury and pled not guilty to obstruction of justice. As she left the courthouse, Judge Joseph lost her composure and began to cry and her attorney says the case is purely political -- Tammy.

BRUCE: All right, Trace, thank you. Boy, what a scene there. Thanks for that report. Now Howie Carr is a Boston area radio host. Hi, Howie, he joins us now. How are you doing?

HOWIE CARR, RADIO HOST: Very good, Tammy.

BRUCE: Good. Boy, what a remarkable event. We know that President Trump was elected in part because Americans were tired of not having the rule of law and seeing it in place and applied uniformly to all people and now, suddenly we have an example of where it just might have been. Give us some background. That's your state. It's pretty thrilling, isn't it?

CARR: Right. Well it is, I mean, I talked to the director of I.C.E. today, the Acting Director. He said as far as he knows, this is the first time this has happened. There are these sanctuary jurisdictions all across the country, but no judge, no politician, no sheriff or police commissioner has ever been indicted for letting these illegal aliens go and in Massachusetts as in most other areas of the country, this has gotten to be a terrible problem in the same courthouse which is just outside of Boston - - Newton District Court.

Last year, you had another judge had a had an illegal Dominican gangbanger in front of her who was accused of raping a BC college co-ed well while she was drunk and the prosecutors had asked for a high bail so that I.C.E. could grab this guy and get him deported or at least get him locked up while he faced charges. The judge cut the bail to $2,500.00 and he escaped out the back door.

They had a case south of Boston in Quincy, another rape case involving an Uber-Lyft type driver and he was let go at the courthouse and he escaped to Africa.

BRUCE: You know, Howie, I've got to say though, this is unusual in that and I think the lack of law and the lack of cooperating with Federal law enforcement kind of invites this as with that audio that we heard, there's like collusion. There was like an effort made to help facilitate the escape. It wasn't even just using the law as a state might have passed it and we can debate whether that would be constitutional or legal, but this is an actual effort to facilitate the escape by this judge and that clerk. I mean, extraordinary.

CARR: This judge, she violated all kinds of laws. You know, the courtrooms are open. If she wouldn't even let this guy who's not just a U.S. citizen, but he is an officer of the law, a sworn officer, an I.C.E. agent, she wouldn't even let him in the courtroom and then there are all these rules of the Massachusetts Trial Court that you don't turn off the tape recorder just for the very reason that they did turn off the tape recorder.

BRUCE: But look, if you're willing to do what they did, allegedly, and again, there's been an indictment, then I don't think the other smaller issues bother you either, but this seems to be I think a mentality that especially on the left and even within law enforcement as we've seen of course, even at the highest Federal levels that maybe the rules don't apply to them and the nation, I think is sent a message here very strongly that we want law and order and the rule of law to apply to everyone.

Great job out there also with all of your work, Howie, thanks for joining me tonight. Appreciate it.

CARR: Thank you, Tammy.

BRUCE: Yes, not a story that we all want to hear, but it was good to see how it is turning out.

Now, the U.S.-Mexico border has become a huge mess with literally thousands of people crossing over every day. Now, "New York Times" columnist Thomas Friedman says he has seen enough.

In a recent column, Friedman shocked many on the left by coming out in favor of a border wall. He said so on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: When you say though you want a high wall with a big gate ...

THOMAS FRIEDMAN, COLUMNIST, "NEW YORK TIMES": Yes.

BLITZER: A smart gate, but a high wall that's going to sound to a lot of folks out there that's what Donald Trump wants.

FRIEDMAN: Well, I think you've got to control the border. When you have an increase of illegal apprehensions of illegal entries by 374 percent since October, obviously you've got a situation where the border security is not sufficient.

I'm for a high wall with a big gate, a compassionate, a smart gate, so we can keep immigration going.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE: All righty, well, Jonathan Harris is a Democratic strategist. He joins us now. Jonathan, welcome aboard, sir.

JONATHAN HARRIS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Hi, how are you? Good to be with you.

BRUCE: Good. I know, it's like all of us are seeing pigs fly by the window, right, no matter which side you're on here. What's your take on this? I know that you don't like -- you don't agree with Mr. Friedman, exactly why?

HARRIS: Right, well the thing is I think we've all -- we've heard the numbers now. We've heard that a border wall would only curb about a third of illegal immigration because that's not where it comes from. It actually doesn't come predominantly from the southern border. It's people coming in through legal ports of entry and things like that. It would only cut about a third of illegal immigration, and I think a lot of people disagree with it on the front of number one, it's just not cost-effective to spend that much money to cut a third of illegal immigration and then also just the way that Trump promoted the wall which was essentially calling Mexicans rapists and criminals and so on and so forth.

Whether you agree with the wall or not, if you isolate just that, those remarks leave a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths and it just -- I think a lot of people who maybe even would have supported you know, some of -- a wall or extended fencing, when you hear what he says about Muslims and Mexicans, you just don't want to even be associated with it at all.

BRUCE: Here's our issue though. A lot of people don't like what the President says or even how he says it and then there's the facts of the matter and the reality.

HARRIS: Right.

BRUCE: So even taking your numbers which we can debate whether that's a case or not. In March alone, a hundred thousand illegal immigrants were apprehended, so you know, having 30,000 of those individuals stopped, why not do that? But isn't the nation's national security -- doesn't that matter especially with Al Qaeda still out there, especially with other terrorist groups with what happened in Sri Lanka? Don't we have a -- and this is not a zero-sum game. It's not just the wall. It is a comprehensive framework of border security with the wall being part of that.

HARRIS: Of course.

BRUCE: Especially when it comes to fentanyl and the drugs coming over, what would be -- what would make you happy? Just no wall? Or what would be the solution?

HARRIS: Well again, the issue for me, I think, and again for a lot of people on the left -- lawmakers, voters -- is cutting a third of illegal immigration and then asking the taxpayer to foot the bill for billions of dollars when you said to your supporters to America that Mexico is paying for this repeatedly. You've promoted the wall by calling Mexicans rapists and --

BRUCE: Well, whether -- we can argue with whether or not the President approached it properly or not, I think -- I think he did. Americans aren't going -- Americans aren't doing this and it's like -- any more than you wouldn't go to the doctor if you think there's only a 30 percent chance of a certain medicine working for you, just don't think, take it.

HARRIS: Of course.

BRUCE: But there has got to be a point where we come together as Friedman has at least went down to the border, saw what was going on and said, "Yes, we've got to take control of this."

HARRIS: I'm agreeing with what you're saying sort of in principle. I'm just saying that it doesn't -- the way he sold it was vile and the facts don't support the need for it.

BRUCE: Look, so that's John, thank you. I appreciate that and that's, you know, very 2016 of you.

HARRIS: Nineteen.

BRUCE: Thank you. I'll see you next time. Two years ago -- thanks for joining us. Two years ago, the college student, Otto Warmbier was returned to the United States from North Korea. None of you will forget that. However, Otto was in a comatose state and died days later.

Now sources say that when North Korea released Warmbier, they also gave the U.S. government $2 million bill for the "treatment" quote-unquote that he received. According to those sources, U.S. envoy Joseph Yun signed that bill, but for at least the following year, it was never paid.

The Trump administration has insisted that it paid no ransom money for the release of Warbier or any other North Korean hostages, three more of which were also released later. Extraordinary development there.

Joe Biden, in the meantime, has entered the Democratic presidential race as we know, but is Obama's Vice President liberal enough to win in the modern Democratic Party? That is next. Plus Mayor Bill de Blasio has declared a new war on hotdogs. That's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUCE: All righty, after months of waiting and speculation, Joe Biden finally entered the Democratic presidential race today. In his announcement, Biden said that giving Donald Trump eight years in the White House would permanently damage the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: We are in the battles for the soul of this nation. I believe history will look back on four years of this President and all he embraces, as an aberrant moment in time, but if we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation -- who we are -- and I cannot stand by and watch that happen.

That's why today, I'm announcing my candidacy for President of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE: All right, well Biden leads in the polls, but commentators are already warning that his age, sex and skin color are liabilities in the modern Democratic Party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It'll be really interesting seeing him be able to or attempt to connect with these voters who have quite frankly been paying attention to people like Kamala Harris and other younger lawmakers who are just a bit closer to the current base.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: What makes you so confident that a 76-year- old white man that this is his moment?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has he missed his moment? There's a Democratic base that is young and progressive and apparently somewhat desperate for an outsider. Do they want someone like a Joe Biden -- older, centrist, the consummate insider if you will?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Joe Biden understands that this modern Democratic Party is going to sit back and say "Really? We want a 76-year-old, white man?"

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE: Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn't thrilled either.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ, D-N.Y.: That does not particularly animate me right now.

I can understand why white people would be excited by that. This idea that we can go back to the good old days with Obama with Obama's Vice President and I think, you know, there's an emotional element to that, but I don't want to go back. I want to go forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE: Well, author and columnist, Mark Steyn joins us now. I have a feeling you have a few things to say, Mark. Welcome aboard.

MARK STEYN, AUTHOR AND COLUMNIST: Hey, great to be with you, Tammy.

BRUCE: Look, this is -- it is very interesting. I mean there's -- I agree with Alexandria, no one wants to go back, but I don't think anyone wants to go back to having their two jobs delivering pizza either, because this is be a rough primary and certainly, would be an even rougher general election. What do you think is his biggest liability? Is it his skin color? Is it his age? Is it being associated with the past? What do you think they're looking at here?

STEYN: Well, I don't think it's his skin color or his age because as much as I enjoy hearing all these people beat up on a 76-year-old white man, his principal rival in the Democratic primary is a 77-year-old white man and the difference between them, I think is that Bernie is a romance for his supporters. He is a romantic figure. He is a romantic insane figure, but he is romantic.

Biden is tired and is in the awful position of being unable to run as himself because the Democrats have basically disowned 90 percent of what Joe Biden has been doing in Washington for the last 45 years. So that's a terrible problem for a guy when you have to run in an essentially dishonest way, which is why he gave this tortured and weird rationale as to why he's decided to get into the race in this video.

So Bernie has it way easier. Bernie just has to be Bernie and Biden is trying to be something other than Biden.

BRUCE: Yes, in the video, it was interesting in that he really based it in Charlottesville and it seemed as though that it was this fear that all of America had become racist and he is supposed to be the moderate and yet, that is the rhetoric of the left and the rhetoric of the left really also is kind of sexist and racist in a way, an ageist for a group that's politically correct. They seem to be moving into an arena that they used to condemn people for.

STEYN: Well it is very interesting that old people are the last people you can beat up on and I think that's to do with the fact that Democratic ideology essentially now is living in a kind of hyper-present tense.

BRUCE: Right, good point.

STEYN: So that anything that happened before the day before yesterday is entirely irrelevant so that means the people who exemplify it, that is -- you know, candidates who are older than 12 years old can be beaten up on the grounds of their age. But Biden doesn't even do the old thing well, because you say what you like about Russian collusion, but the basic premise of the Russian collusion fever was that Trump was some kind of deep sleeper or not so deep sleeper for Vladimir Putin. That doesn't indict all Trump supporters.

This weird thing that Trump somehow is leading to this resurgence of white supremacism necessarily indicts not just Trump, but half the population of the country, too.

BRUCE: Well that's it and it's difficult to have to fit into that now, and the other older white man, Bernie Sanders last night attended an event called She, The People. A woman in the crowd asked Sanders what he would do to fight against so-called white nationalism. When he evaded giving an answer, Mark, he began to get heckled. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let me just follow up, Senator. The core of the question is about, as President what would you do with the rise of white supremacist violence to protect our communities?

(Cheering and Applause)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, I-VT, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Absolutely. You know as somebody who I know I date myself a little bit here, but I actually was at the march on Washington with Dr. King back in 1963 and --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE: Boy, he got booed for mentioning that. What's going on there, Mark?

STEYN: Well, I think Bernie, in fairness to him, well I'll say one thing by the way, he looks fabulous there. He doesn't look 77. He looks like 83, 97 maybe but you can tell he's actually serious about running for President because he lives just across the Connecticut River from me in Vermont and he looks more quaffed and groomed than I've ever seen him. So he is serious this time.

BRUCE: He is. He is serious and I think he's ready to take it -- to take it on, but this is just one, I think, one kind of taste of what everyone can expect in this Democratic primary season, Mark. Thank you so much. Appreciate you coming on tonight.

STEYN: Thanks a lot, Tammy. Great being with you.

BRUCE: Great being with you, too, dear. Well, identity politics is consuming the Democratic Party. Now, even presidential candidates are apologizing for their sex and skin color. Many of the men running are already pledging to pick a woman for Vice President if they get the nomination.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CORY BOOKER, D-N.J., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will have a woman running mate to me. It's really clear that we do that.

BETO O'ROURKE, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It would be very difficult not to select a woman with so many extraordinary women who are running right now.

SANDERS: I think we would look for somebody who is maybe not of the same gender that I am.

REP. ERIC SWALWELL, D-CALIF., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've pledged that I would ask a woman to serve as Vice President.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE: All, righty. Well, Rochelle Ritchie as a former Press Secretary for the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee as she joins us now, a friend of mine, too. Welcome back. Nice to see you, dear.

ROCHELLE RITCHIE, FORMER PRESS SECRETARY FOR THE HOUSE DEMOCRATIC POLICY AND COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE: Yes, I'm so happy to see you.

BRUCE: Yes, now I think we agree on a lot of situations here, but you could even hear the -- I guess, the discomfort of Bernie Sanders. He couldn't even say woman. I don't know why not, but do you think there's a problem with focusing on just the kind of the bean-counting if you will of gender as opposed to getting the right person for that job?

RITCHIE: Well, let me be the first to say I certainly believe that we should pick the most qualified person to hold that position as Vice President, however I always find it very interesting that we seem to, when we talk about identity politics, Tammy, we always seem to focus on marginalized groups of people, right? We always focus on African-Americans or women.

But it's weird because that same notion should also apply -- this identity politics notion -- should also apply to Republicans who may appeal to more white male dominated audiences. So is white or Caucasian a race? Isn't male a gender? So I'm not really sure why it's only when someone is speaking to issues to people that look like me that all of a sudden it becomes identity politics.

BRUCE: But I think it comes up in the specificity of what's being discussed pointedly for that reason like in that clip from where he was being heckled about you know, how are black women going to be represented? What are you -- or in the case of the question about the Vice President, are you going to elect a woman? It's a difference between that and policies that appeal across the board or to let's say blue-collar workers in the Midwest who might be primarily male or have a different point of view in that.

It's a difference between deliberately appealing to a group of individuals for the sake of doing that versus having policies that happen to appeal to a particular constituency in the country.

But I would also say, I don't know if you noticed this why would the men then -- somebody like Beto O'Rourke presuming that the women running are running to be his Vice President?

RITCHIE: And that's the other thing.

BRUCE: It's like what's that about?

RITCHIE: There is this assumption that the woman running is fine with -- I mean, yes, women running for President and you think that these women are interested in being Vice President? I don't think so, and Stacey Abrams I think it was on "The View" where she actually said this, that you know, if I were to run, I have intentions of running as President, not as Vice President.

BRUCE: Yes.

RITCHIE: But I think that we have to sort of understand that, you know, picking a female candidate to run as VP is not necessarily -- it may appear to be a winning strategy, but it's not always a winning strategy and I think we saw that with what happened with John McCain and Sarah Palin. You know, he sort of thought maybe he could pull some of those Hillary Clinton supporters after Barack Obama got the nomination from the DNC.

He thought, "Oh, I can pull those women." But it's about if you're going to do -- have a woman, don't say, "I'm going to select a woman," say, "I'm going to select the most qualified one," and that way, you're looking at her qualifications as opposed to her gender.

BRUCE: And there's enough talent -- yes. There is enough talent to where you could do that without even making a statement about it, because it was the right thing to do.

RITCHIE: And there is plenty of qualified women running for President right now.

BRUCE: Yes, exactly. Great job. Thank you. Nice seeing you.

RITCHIE: Nice seeing you. Great job to you, too.

BRUCE: No doubt, we'll be talking about this for -- which is good -- for a long time to come.

RITCHIE: Yes, we will.

BRUCE: All right Facebook spies on you. Amazon spies on you, but is your car spying on you as well? That is next. Plus prosecutor Kim Foxx let Jussie Smollett go unpunished. Now a judge is asking why she won't give the same leniency to people who aren't friends with Michelle Obama. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUCE: Big tech is spying on you almost all the time. Facebook says it expects to be fined up to $5 billion for spying, I guess, they shrug. And now they're facing a new investigation in New York for collecting users e- mail address books, your entire book.

Tech giants aren't just monitoring your computer though, they're also in your living room and even in your car. Fox News Headlines 24/7 anchor, Brett Larson has more.

BRETT LARSON, FOX NEWS HEADLINES 24/7 ANCHOR: Hey, Tammy.

BRUCE: Hey, Brett.

LARSON: Yes, this a bit of a frightening find that we -- as we continue to uncover these things of what technology knows about us from the products we buy to the things we search for to just how often you change the oil in your car.

The average person is creating a binary breadcrumb trail that links together virtually everything we do and big companies are making a fortune off of it and it's not just big tech either.

Car manufacturers in Detroit are buying and selling your personal information like your location and your driving habits. Industry insiders think data from your cars could be worth as much as $750 billion by 2030. So who is making the money? Consumer Rights groups, car manufacturers, even the folks who fix your car are all fighting over who owns your private information.

California state government is trying to combat the data collection. They're actually considering a law that would give consumers the right to obtain data collected on them, ask for it to be deleted and block companies from selling your personal information.

Opponents of the law say some of the data collected like where you've been and where you are will make it more difficult for emergency services to find you, but your car isn't the only thing tracking your every move.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You must have gotten our membership back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess, I did. The bigwigs promoted me to manager. I've been training new employees. We know this stuff arrived.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It just came a few hours ago. Oh, Steven, you did it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LARSON: Okay, it turns out that South Park clip is real. Amazon.com has a team of employees who listen to owners who talk to their Alexa smart device. Amazon says the humans are necessary to help the artificial intelligence understand this. This is how it starts, but some reports suggest that Amazon employees who listen in can see your location and at one point, had access to your phone number.

Silicon Valley is fighting against laws that would protect consumer privacy. A lobbying group actually representing companies like Google and Facebook and Amazon came out swinging against a bill in Illinois that would actually have stopped companies from recording private conversations unless you agree to it in a written policy, but it's not clear that fines and regulations will work on the larger-than-life tech companies.

Facebook, as we've discussed already prepared to handover billions of dollars' worth of fines admitting they set aside $3 billion for a settlement last quarter, a move that actually sent their stock soaring today on Wall Street. That was in their financial disclosure yesterday.

BRUCE: Extraordinary.

LARSON: They are setting aside this money for legal fees and fines because when you're making $15 billion in profit, $3 billion dollars, that's a fifth of your profit.

BRUCE: And a major part of that profit is going to be the selling of this data, so it becomes this vicious circle.

LARSON: Right.

BRUCE: So they're paying with your money effectively that they're using your data for to be able to continue on to do this.

LARSON: To continue selling, and there's been a lot of people saying, "Well, why don't they just make a version of Facebook where you pay $8.00 a year for it," because that's what your data -- well, Facebook is not going to agree to that. They make more money.

BRUCE: I just love that they say they have to do this in order to keep you safe. So that they'll be able to have people to save you.

LARSON: Yes.

BRUCE: Yeah, right. All right, Thank you, Brett. Great job. Well the cast of the TV show "Empire" have released a joint letter demanding that actor Jussie Smollett return to the show "Empire." The letter claims that Smollett is quote, "honest and filled with integrity," end quote -- and says he is innocent of all claims against him.

Meanwhile, in Chicago a woman charged with making a false police report is accusing State's Attorney Kim Foxx on a double standard. Judge Mark Martin agreed demanding that prosecutors tell him why they were prosecuting her, but not Smollett.

Robby Soave is an editor at "Reason" and the author of "Panic Attack: Young Radicals in the Age of Trump." He joins us. Welcome aboard, dear. Nice to see you.

ROBBY SOAVE, EDITOR, REASON: Thanks for having me.

BRUCE: Yes, fascinating situation here because the judge in this from what I can tell was also equally perplexed at the fact that she seemed to be taking a very different position with this young woman versus what she took with Mr. Smollett.

SOAVE: Yes, the judge raises an excellent point, and said explicitly, you know what's different with this person who filed a false -- allegedly filed a false report. Is it that they're not a rich, well-connected famous celebrity who has politically involved friends or associates or acquaintances? Is that why this person is being brought to justice at all cost where Jussie was just allowed to walk through without even pleading guilty? You know, that's what Kim Foxx did wrong in that case. She just said no, I don't want to move forward with this case, even though the evidence is good and I would convict him, I just don't feel like doing it.

Why? I think a lot of people were baffled by that. They wanted some sense of closure in the Smollett case that frankly we are unlikely to get now because of what the prosecutor did.

BRUCE: And also, as we've just now seen, what it does to other cases that should be perhaps adjudicated and handled in a certain way and now, at the same time, there's a County Inspector General who is also very curious about that decision-making process with her and you know, various lawsuits as well.

So eventually we may find out what the reasoning was, but in the meantime, good for that judge. Robby, thanks for joining us tonight. Appreciate it.

SOAVE: My pleasure.

BRUCE: All righty, well Tucker is back after the break. Lauren Blanchard is going for a "Final Exam" record. Can she join Shannon Bream in the Hall of Fame? That is next. Plus Bill de Blasio has declared war on New York's iconic hotdogs. That's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUCE: All righty, Tucker is back for our next segment. Lauren Blanchard just made her bid to join the "Final Exam" Hall of Fame. Here's what happened.

TUCKER CARLSON, HOST: It's time now for "Final Exam" where the news professionals compete with one another for a chance to be crowned the news knowledge champion.

For 10 straight weeks, Fox correspondent Lauren Blanchard has faced 10 separate opponents. She has crushed them all. They've all been buried by Blanchard. Tonight, she's aiming to break the standing all-time win record set by Shannon Bream by winning her 11th match in a row. If she does, she'll join Bream on our Hall of Fame wall.

Her opponent in this eleventh and final match is "Roll Call" reporter, Kathryn Lyons. We brought in just for tonight's showdown.

KATHRYN LYONS, REPORTER, ROLL CALL: I'd like to extend my congratulations.

LAUREN BLANCHARD, CORRESPONDENT: There's so much pressure on me.

CARLSON: I know, it is making me tense. Let's just jump right in this. You both know the rules. I'm going to repeat them as we always do. Hands on buzzers. I ask the questions. The first one to buzz in gets to answer. You have to wait until I finish asking the question before answering it. You can answer once I acknowledge you by saying your name. Every correct answer gives you a point. Every incorrect answered detracts a point from your total. Best of five wins. Are you ready?

LYONS: Not unless this is coming from the fourth hour of "The Today Show."

CARLSON: You are. Okay.

BLANCHARD: All right, let's do this.

CARLSON: All right, question one, and by the way, it may be coming from just there. Multiple choice, the first question: The President and First Lady just held the White House's biggest social event of the year. That of course is the White House Easter Egg Roll. Thirty thousand kids and adults turned up throughout the day. The question tonight, when was that event, the Easter Egg Roll first held? Was it A. 1878? B. 1787? Or C. 1692? Lauren Blanchard.

BLANCHARD: It was 1878. It was the 141st.

CARLSON: It wasn't 1692?

BLANCHARD: No, it was not.

CARLSON: Who put that in there? Okay, is Lauren correct?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House, First Lady Melania Trump hosting the annual event for children. It's a White House tradition dating back to 1878, and President Trump will blow the whistle to start the first race about ten minutes from now.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT: Happy Easter. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LYONS: I pushed it at the same time.

CARLSON: So our producers just reminded me. Alex McCaskill, our senior producer who writes this says, 1692 was the Salem witch hunts. So that's why -- if that sounded familiar. It's the art of -- okay, question two. American musician, Gavin DeGraw recently sang the National Anthem at a Stanley Cup playoff game. Something embarrassing happened to him as soon as he was done singing, what happened? Lauren.

LYONS: Oh, geez.

BLANCHARD: He slipped on the ice when he was done. He like stepped off the carpet and foop.

CARLSON: And foop, did he -- roll tape please.

(VIDEO PLAYS)

LYONS: He was standing there, he stepped back and just missed the carpet. He slipped.

CARLSON: Our judges are saying, your description went foop is correct. That's in fact exactly what he just did. Okay, question three. This once more a multiple-choice question. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen of England had her birthday just the other day, how old is she now? Is she A. 93? B. 94? C. 95? Kathryn Lyons?

LYONS: She's B. 94.

CARLSON: You think she's 94 years old.

LYONS: Yes, 94 years young.

CARLSON: Is she indeed 94?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to say happy birthday Queen Elizabeth. She turned 93 yesterday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow. Fantastic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LYONS: Ninety three.

CARLSON: She would be and I happen to know that she watches the show. She is probably throwing a glass of sherry at the TV right now. "I'm 93, not 94."

LYONS: I could use a glass of sherry right now. I'll take it.

CARLSON: That's pretty funny. So could Congressman -- okay, this is our Daily Double. This is a two-pointer. Congressman Eric Swalwell is running for President. He is asking for donations. He is advising people to stop spending on one specific type of snack and to give that money to him instead. What food does Eric Swalwell want you to forgo? Lauren.

BLANCHARDD: Potato chips, don't eat your dollar.

CARLSON: Potato chips. Is it potato chips?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One dollar could buy you a half bag of chips or it could save us from a crumbling government. How will you spend yours? I'll take year-old stale chips over Representative Swalwell. You know what, we should put one of these open somewhere in the green room for a year, and a year from now we should taste what they taste like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Oh, yum. Swalwell chips. I like that.

BLANCHARD: You can't get a bag of chips for a dollar.

CARLSON: for like freedom fries.

BLANCHARD: I don't think even a vending machine does that.

CARLSON: Okay, final question, this question is about "Jeopardy," our gameshow rival, a sports bettor from Las Vegas, a pro sports bettor is bankrupting that show pretty much because he just keeps winning. He recently broke a record, he surpassed a million dollars in the shortest time ever. How many days did it take this man to win a million dollars? Kathryn Lyons.

LYONS: Twenty three.

CARLSON: Twenty three days. It's very specific.

LYONS: Yes.

CARLSON: Okay, did it take him 23 days?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX TREBEK, HOST, JEOPARDY: You have 30 seconds. Good luck. Did he come up with Grant and Lee? He did. So you are up to $118, 816.00, a 14-day total of $1,061,554.00. The guy is amazing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LYONS: That was close.

CARLSON: Okay, it was. It was close. It was a little bit double, actually, but on this show unlike the SAT, we encourage guessing.

LYONS: I wanted to try something.

CARLSON: And it is rewarded maybe not in the outcome, but with our admiration, so we admire you Kathryn for guessing. Thank you very much.

LYONS: I do, too. Thank you.

CARLSON: And you Lauren you've won your 11th in a row and with that, it is time to induct you into the "Final Exam" Hall of Fame. You're the second person to make it there, alongside Shannon Bream. But first we have a video of how you prepared for this moment. We want our viewers to see this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLANCHARD: This smells like victory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: That's unbelievable and I just want to be totally clear. When we shot that, we had no idea. We didn't give you the questions ahead of time.

BLANCHARD: No.

CARLSON: That's how confident we were.

BLANCHARD: It made me study even harder because if I lost and that thing played --

CARLSON: Kathryn, don't feel bad. I could never --

LYONS: Oh, I don't feel bad at all.

CARLSON: All right, well now for the big reveal. Emily Lynn is here with your prizes, Lauren Blanchard. Emily has something for you.

BLANCHARD: This is such an exciting moment.

CARLSON: Oh, and Louis does, too.

BLANCHARD: Oh my gosh.

CARLSON: A sash and a tiara. There's not a dry eye in the studio. Lauren Blanchard, ladies and gentlemen. Really the all-time winner. The highest score ever. You will live forever in the hearts and memories of our viewers. Lauren, thank you very much.

LYON: Congratulations.

BLANCHARD: Thank you for being here.

CARLSON: That's it for this week's special "Final Exam." Pay attention to the news every week. We'll be back next Thursday. Tell us if you can beat the experts then we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUCE: This is a Fox News Alert. Text messages between former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page indicate that the FBI may have tried to use post-election briefings to monitor the Trump team. These text messages were released in 2018, but Fox has learned that they are now under renewed scrutiny from congressional investigators.

The text Strzok and Page discussed using post-election briefings to find people they could quote "develop for potential relationships," end quote, which may refer to cultivating sources to inform on the President's associates.

The texts also discussed tracking lines of questioning they received and quote, "assessing changes in demeanor by those at the meetings." Congressman Devin Nunes of California tells Fox that these texts are evidence of deep irregularities as you might imagine in the FBI's Trump- Russia investigation.

Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson meanwhile have sent a letter to Attorney General Bill Barr demanding more information. We will continue to monitor this extraordinary story.

Now California's cities are filling up with homeless camps, needles and human waste. Instead of fixing those problems, the government has given financial aid to illegal immigrants and banned straws.

Now lawmakers have a new idea, they want to ban schools from suspending students for willful defiance as they call it. In other words students can be disruptive as much as they want in class and schools will be powerless to punish them. Jason Rantz is a Seattle radio host, he joins us now. Jason, welcome aboard.

JASON RANTZ, RADIO SHOW HOST: Thank you. It's insane, isn't it?

BRUCE: Yes, you know look I'm a native Californian. I've lived in New York for a number of years. I love the West. Your state is extraordinary. California is wonderful, but what can you tell us about this. Banning straws is one thing, what is this about not wanting to take control of a classroom educational environment? What's behind this?

RANTZ: Yes, my guess is what's behind it is social justice, right. We have a bunch of ideologues who are in charge of major states of the West Coast and they're kind of running them into the ground.

When you look at something like this, it's usually about institutionalized racism, right? When you look at the data, it suggests that if you're a student of color, you're at a higher likelihood of being suspended.

So they're looking at this and saying, okay, there has to be something wrong. There has to be something wrong beyond what the teachers are doing. Let's just stop it rather than look at the data.

So they say, okay, we're not going to do the suspensions, but you're ignoring the root cause because I think all of us will probably agree there are some situations where teachers or administrators are rushing to suspending certain students or expelling students for whatever their conduct is.

But if you take an entire tool out of that toolbox, well you're making it harder for the teachers and by the way, you're literally ignoring the fact that institutionalized racism or not, these are teachers and educators who are suspending these students, right? I mean, this should be seen as a slap in the face to teachers, but progressives like to say, you know we fight for the teachers. Not really, because you're telling me that they're racists and they're targeting African-American students at a disproportionately high rate. It's a little bizarre.

BRUCE: Well and of course, for everyone involved including the students, if there was -- you wouldn't you would think that there would be a policy indicating that or at least an awareness that if someone is acting out in class, there may be a problem and that the efforts should be in addressing that issue, but by either -- but especially by ignoring that issue, it then sends a message also to the other students that you can do these things and have no punishment, in addition, to perhaps wanting to notice the nature of what dangers may be in that environment for the other students. You know everybody loses with this kind of a policy.

RANTZ: They do and I mean think about the fact that, why are these students acting out and why are they being willfully defiant?

BRUCE: Right, exactly.

RANTZ: Maybe there's something going on in the home. So let's say you decide we're no longer going to do the suspensions, we're going to do some alternative form of punishment, okay fine, but that's still not addressing that root cause of what maybe is going on in the home and while you're dealing with this to your point, you've got students who are just there trying to learn who are constantly being interrupted.

BRUCE: Beyond punishment, but just even inquiry. All right, well, Jason that's all the time we've got. Obviously this will continue on. I appreciate you bringing it to us. Thank you, dear.

RANTZ: Thanks for having me.

BRUCE: All righty, in 2014, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio had nothing but good things to say as most of us do about hotdogs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL DE BLASIO, D-N.Y., MAYOR: A great New York tradition, the annual Nathan's Famous Hotdog Eating Contest in Coney Island, something that is quintessentially New York, a place I love to visit.

I just personally loved Nathan's Hotdogs and look for every opportunity to have one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE: Now though, de Blasio has flip-flopped. He sure looked like he was enjoying that dog though, didn't he? Hotdogs are evil now. The mayor has put his name to New York's version of the Green New Deal and as part of that policy, New York will aim to remove processed meats including hotdogs from all city property including hospitals and schools.

Melissa Francis co-host "After the Bell" on Fox Business. She joins us now. Melissa, what the heck is going on?

MELISSA FRANCIS, FOX BUSINESS CO-HOST: Yes, no and "Outnumbered" on Fox News Channel, don't forget, but yes there is a war on Hotdogs. Mayor de Blasio has loved his last hotdog and now he feels like we don't need them any longer. It's always a money grab when you look at these things. That's what you have to understand and this is part of as you said, the Green New Deal. We're going to do away with processed meats because you've heard about cows and animals and they're little bit gassy and we've got to get rid of them to have a livable planet.

So this is part of his plan where he's going to take away buildings with lots of windows, no one is going to drive and we're going to get rid of plastic and paper bags in spots, but if you look closely, these things are never bans. What it really is, is you can do it for a price.

So for example, with the glass buildings, you can still do it if you want to do it. You know, people who want to live in huge lovely towers, but he's going to charge you millions of dollars and it's the exact same thing with the bags. It's the same thing with the congestion pricing, the problem is that taxes in New York are too high already and people are fleeing because we can't do the salt deduction any longer, so they came up $3.4 billion short due to personal income taxes from people who fled the state and didn't pay. In a panic did they decide to spend less? Oh no, Tammy Bruce, why would they do that?

No, they're going to dream up new ways to tax the rest of us and those few idiots like myself who are left here. They're going to drive us out by taking away our hotdogs and taxing us for living in a house with windows.

BRUCE: I live here as well, which means they're going to make --

FRANCIS: Oh, I thought you are in California.

BRUCE: It is going to look like -- I think "The Post" had him as Fred Flintstone. We're going to have stone based homes and I would suggest maybe that maybe the mayor might have a Hotdog or two in the privacy of his own mansion. It'd just be poor us who won't be able to eat the processed meats. I mean, Spam -- people enjoy Spam and bologna. Who doesn't like a bologna sandwich? It's ridiculous.

FRANCIS: I'm not a huge fan of bologna, but I love bacon. I've never seen a strip of bacon that I didn't want to eat. The irony is, is that he's supposed to be a man of the people, but what he's doing is he is depriving all these things to people who can't afford them.

BRUCE: Correct.

FRANCIS: And he's just putting them off to the side to the big real estate developers and saying you're going to have to pay few extra million dollars to have your glass windows. If you want to drive in New York, you're going to have to pay more money and you're just hurting the people he claims he is for and it's all under the guise of A Green New Deal. They make it about the environment.

BRUCE: So it's an excuse.

FRANCIS: But, it's just about money.

BRUCE: Yes, it is -- it's always, you know, you never want to let a good crisis go to waste, right? They're not going to solve any of the problems we have, but they're going to make regular people miserable as they get all the benefits. All right, Melissa thank, you so much. Great seeing you.

FRANCIS: You, too. Have a hotdog. I'm going to go have one right now while I can.

BRUCE: Indeed.

FRANCIS: Street meat in front of the box right now.

BRUCE: Good, perfect. All right, you guys, that's about it for us tonight. It's great to be with you here. Tune in each night at 8:00 p.m. to the show that is the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness and groupthink. Also, don't forget to DVR the show if you haven't already set that up. Have a great night. Sean Hannity is next.

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