Tucker: Beto O'Rourke thinks America is immoral

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Tucker: Beto O'Rourke thinks America is immoral

O'Rourke looks to create a national gun registry, confiscate gun.

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," September 9, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

TUCKER CARLSON, HOST: President Trump speaking to supporters in Fayetteville, North Carolina tonight. Special elections in that state tomorrow for two of North Carolina's congressional districts, a lot at stake. Good evening. Welcome to "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

We're going to head back to the President's speech for a moment, we'll be back. Here he is.

TRUMP: A lot. But I do, you know, we had a different location, as you all know, and we said, "Let's do this one, it is bigger." And we put screens outside for all of the people. We have screens and loudspeakers and everything. It's really amazing what's going on out there.

But after years of building up other countries, we are finally building up our country. That's the bottom line.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And the last administration, with Biden and Obama at the helm --

[BOOING]

TRUMP: They tried to ram through one of the worst trade deals ever negotiated, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, you could have kissed many of your industries goodbye. TPP would have gutted the American auto industry, it would have been even worse than NAFTA. And we know how bad NAFTA was.

All you have to do is even to this day, look around at all of those empty plants where people moved down and companies moved down to Mexico.

Not under the USMCA. We've got to get Nancy Pelosi to put it up for a vote, make it bipartisan. She'll have tremendous Democratic support. The farmers want it, the unions want it. The manufacturers want it, and by the way, 600,000 manufacturing jobs in this country. Remember, you wouldn't need a magic wand. You can't do that anymore. Well, we did it.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: But we've got to get USMCA put up for a vote by the Democrats.

But in my first week in office, I proudly withdrew from that job destroying TPP catastrophe.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And we're replacing one of the worst trade deals ever made by any country, you can go back as far as you want, NAFTA, the disaster of NAFTA.

So whenever you do, start talking to people, we need a vote on the USMCA.

That's United States, Mexico and Canada, and they've already voted. They want it and we want it. And it's great for the farmers. It's great for everybody.

We're also aggressively combating a problem that you have in North Carolina, a problem that we have in almost all states, the opioid epidemic.

Last year, we saw the first nationwide decline in drug overdose deaths in nearly 31 years.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And at the center of the American drug crisis is the border crisis.

Criminal cartels smuggle vast quantities of lethal narcotics across our southern border, including heroin, meth, cocaine and fentanyl. A hundred thousand people a year die from what comes across our southern border. And we can't get the Democrats to help us in sealing it even tighter, we've got to get them. We've got to get them. We've got to get them.

So if you want to stop the drug smugglers, the human traffickers, the vicious MS-13 gang members and by the way, thank you to I.C.E. These people go into those --

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: They go into those nests, we call him nests. These are vicious, vicious people. We go into the nest with our I.C.E. people and you know, for them, it's another day at the office. There aren't too many people in this room that want to do it for a living. Let me see, that guy could.

Maybe him. Maybe her. Right? Maybe her. But it's a rough job and they get so little praise for the job, they do so dangerous -- these are many killers in those gangs, and we're taking them out of our country by the thousands -- MS-13.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And as you know, Democrats even want to give free healthcare to illegal immigrants. As long as I am President, I will never ever let Democrats take away your healthcare and give it away free to people that have entered our country illegally. We can't do that.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: It is a tremendous incentive to come in. Democrats also want to bring in unlimited numbers of foreign refugees from overseas, all at the expense of supporting their own communities.

Republicans, no matter what you do or where you are, we want people to obey our laws. We want people that are going to help our country.

The Democratic Party has never been farther outside of the mainstream.

Every major Democrat running for President supports a massive government takeover of healthcare that would raid medication, force private doctors out of Medicine, and lead to the rationing of life-saving treatments.

And you know, they're going to take away your private healthcare, your private insurance, 180 million people will lose what they want to do. It's a disaster.

You know, it's like -- did you ever really sort of feel where you don't even have to treat people nicely? You don't have any choice, you have to vote for me. I can leave right now. I can say, "North Carolina, I've had it with you. I am leaving right now." And you know what, you've got to go out and vote. What are you going to do? Put one of these crazy people running our country again?

But it's never been so far left. I told the story the other day about a businessman I saw, one of the biggest in the country, you probably know his name, one of the biggest. He has hated me for 20 years and I've hated him also. Okay? Now they're going to go out tomorrow, "Breaking News, Donald Trump hates people."

You're sort of right about that. I never liked this guy. And I see him in the White House. And I said, "What are you doing here?" And he goes, "Mr. President ..." See now, he calls me "Mr. President." He used to call me something else. "Mr. President, I'm fighting for your victory." I said, "You've got to be kidding." He goes, "Honestly, you're doing a great job.

But also, if this radical left gets in, they're going to take away everything, and they're going to destroy our country." And for the first time, I like this guy.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: My administration is defending your right to choose the plan and the doctor that is best for you. Remember President Obama, 28 times --

[BOOING]

TRUMP: Remember, 28 times they counted them and it is much more than that, I would imagine -- that you can choose your plan. You can choose your doctor. It didn't work out that way, did it? Obamacare. And we're keeping Obamacare alive. We got rid of the individual mandate, the worst part of Obamacare.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We're keeping it and running it as well as it can, but the premiums are too high. The deductibles are through the roof. It's ridiculous. And we're coming up with Lindsey Graham and all of the folks who are coming up with a great healthcare plan that if we take back the House, that's why Dan and Greg, if we take back the House, if we keep the Senate, maybe even increase it a little bit, it wouldn't be bad. And on the assumption we keep the presidency, you're going to have great healthcare.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

CROWD: (Chanting "Four more years.")

TRUMP: Thank you. We almost had it. We had a man campaigning for eight years to knock out Obamacare and when he voted, it didn't work out that way, did it? We had and we would have had it, but we're going to end up actually with a better plan. Sometimes through adversity things work out better. We're going to end up with a better plan. You watch.

We will always protect patients with preexisting conditions also, always, you have my word. Our ambitious campaign to reduce the price of prescription drugs has produced the largest decline in drug prices in more than 51 years.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Virtually every top Democrat now supports late-term abortion.

[BOOING]

TRUMP: Ripping babies straight from the mother's womb, right up to the moment of birth. And if you look at Virginia, the Governor of Virginia, he was even talking about, essentially you would say, an execution. He was talking after the baby is born, the doctor will talk to the mother, and they'll make a decision as to whether or not that baby lives. This is a radical Democrat ideal.

[BOOING]

TRUMP: And that's why I've asked Congress to prohibit extreme late-term abortion, because Republicans believe that every child is a sacred gift from God.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Democrats are now the party of high taxes, high crime, open borders, late-term abortion and socialism. They're socialists. The Republican Party is the party of the American worker, the American family and the American dream.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Every day, we're making good on the motto, "Promises made, promises kept." In fact, we are keeping even more promises by far than we made or than we promised, so many more. So many more.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: So many more, you know what we did with respect to people that are very sick or terminally ill, right? Right to Try. I love the name, Right to Try. We have some of the greatest doctors in the world, labs in the world, hospitals in the world, and we haven't credible medicine that's prohibited from being used until it gets approval. And sometimes that approval can take many years.

And I said, "Wait a minute, if a person is sick," and they've been trying to get this for 45 years, I said, "If a person is sick, and maybe terminally ill, why aren't we letting them try this new technology and so many things are happening," and we did. Right to Try. It wasn't easy, but I was helped by Lindsey and a lot of great people. A lot of great people.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: All of them helped. Mark helped so much. All of them helped.

Greg. We have a tremendous success. We had so many people wanting to help. But it was complicated, believe it or not, because the country didn't want the liability. I said, "You know what you do? You draw up an agreement taking away the liability." They said, "That's a good idea."

The insurance companies and the drug companies were very unsure. This has been going on for many years. I got it done. The results have been unbelievable. Right to Try. Things that we never even talked about, we are getting done.

And you know, maybe one of the biggest things is within about a month, we will have close to 180 Federal judges, including Appellate Division judges.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Including two great new Supreme Court Justices and Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who they put through hell. We passed something that they've wanted to do for half a century. We pass VA Choice.

So when your great --

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: When your great and honored veterans are waiting in line for three weeks, four weeks, five days, 10 days, two months, they go to a private doctor, we pay for the bill and they get themselves taken care of instead of dying, which was happening.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We also passed VA Accountability on behalf of our great veterans.

That means when they treat our veterans badly and they wouldn't have done it in prime time, I can tell you. But when they treat our sick and troubled veterans badly, we can say, "You're fired. Get out."

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: It's called VA Accountability. That's another one they've been trying, and in all fairness, the unions made it very tough. Civil Service made it like almost impossible. Everyone said, "You'll never get it done."

We got it done. I want to thank the Republican Senate. I want to some incredible people in the House of Representatives.

And Kevin, I want to thank you because that was a great job you did on that one. That was a great job you did on that one. That was a great job.

Thank you.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Kevin McCarthy. We've achieved record funding for the U.S. military, $700 billion last year, $716 billion dollars this year, $738 billion, and you know, I'm a big believer in budgets. But we had no choice. We had to rebuild our military. With all that's going on today with China, with Russia, with radical Islam, with everything that's happening, we had to do something. And you know, budgets are fine. I love budgets, and we'll get to that, don't worry about it. But we had to rebuild our military. It was totally depleted. It was totally depleted.

And now we have beautiful new F-35s, F-18s, new ships, new missiles, new rockets. We have new everything.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: I came back with Admiral Brown, the United States Coast Guard and some of the other folks and they were saying that the new Coast Guard Cutters -- how good a job has the Coast Guard done during these hurricanes.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And then I said, "Admiral, how good are the new Coast Guard Cutters?" He said, "They are the finest in the world, sir." We have the finest -- and they had old broken equipment that they had to keep going on a shoestring. They have brand new Coast Guard Cutters. We had to do it.

We had to do it. There's always time for the other, but we had to do it.

We've rebuilt our military. We've taken care of the great people that work in our military. We gave them a raise -- a beautiful raise they were so entitled to.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And I also got other NATO members to pay an additional $100 billion over the last year and a half that they weren't paying. They were delinquent. We're supposed to protect them and they don't pay, I said, "You can't do that. You can't do that. You've got to pay." NATO.

Now we're finally making immensely wealthy countries pay the cost of their defense, were negotiating with a lot of them.

Think of it, we have these immensely wealthy countries and they're paying for a fraction of our costs to defend them. How did that happen?

And you know, what the biggest excuse is when I got to them, and I'll say, "King, you've got to pay," or "Mr. Prime Minister, you've got to pay," or, "Mr. President, you've got to pay." You know, it's costing us billions of dollars to protect these wealthy. You know what their biggest thing is because I can understand how we did this for so many years -- decades, decades -- you have been defending all of some --

I won't mention names because I don't want to embarrass anybody. I don't want to.

(Cheering)

TRUMP: Forget it. Some of the wealthiest countries in the world, and when I say, "King, President, Prime Minister, Queen," no matter what I say, you know what they say, "But nobody has ever asked us to do that before."

That's the only excuse. Because I said to them, "Why would we do this?

Why are we defending you? You're immensely wealthy. You compete with us on trade. We have lousy trade deals ..." we're renegotiating many of them, and ultimately, all of them. "Why are we protecting you, Mr. President?"

"Well, well, I don't know. I don't know."

But you know what their answer is? "Because you've always done it."

That's not a great answer. So we're taking in billions and billions, but I got $100 billion. And the Secretary General of NATO, Stoltenberg is my biggest fan. He said, "Until President Trump, you had to see the NATO cost of spending." It was going like this. And ours was going like this. We were defending many countries that treat us very badly and traded very unfairly. We were defending them.

And now it's changing -- around $100 billion. They're not happy. And then I read where Obama is more popular in Germany than Trump. He has got to be. I am making people pay their bills. He's got to be. You know, the day that I'm more popular than him, I'm not doing my job.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: The big story. They like him more in Europe than they like Trump.

I think they should. A hundred billion dollars more they're paying.

To protect America's security, I withdrew the United States from the horrible one-sided Iran Nuclear Deal.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We paid them $150 billion for that piece of work. I withdrew it and we put sanctions all over the place, and they're a much different country and let's see what happens. But I can tell you they'd like to get back to business because they're not doing very well.

When I came into office, Iran was a real terror, 18 sites of confliction.

They were behind every one of them in the Middle East. And who knows, it could have been elsewhere. And I said, "We're not going to do it." $150 billion President Obama paid and $1.8 billion in cash. Whoever saw a million dollars piled up as a promotion? In hundred dollar bills. It's a lot. It's a big --

Now take a million dollars and make it $1.8 billion in cash. I'm actually more impressed with that number than $150 billion, if you want to know the truth. $1.8 billion in cash and we got taken to the cleaners, so I terminated the deal.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And I recognize Israel's true capital and opened the American Embassy in Jerusalem which every President said they were going to do.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And I also approved for Israel the Golan Heights, and if you really think about it, I said to people, "What's more important? The Golan Heights or the Capital of Jerusalem by moving our embassy there?" He said, "Neither, sir. What you've done in Iran is more important than both of them." I said, "You know, I guess you're right when you think about it."

So we've done a good job all of us together as a movement. We've done a great job for Israel. For years, you watched as your politicians apologize for America. Now you have a President who is standing up for America and we are standing up for the people of North Carolina.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: You must never forget that the 2020 election is about one thing.

You. It's true. It's not about me, it's about you. It's about your family, your future and the fate of your country. That's what we did in 2016. They came from the hills and the valleys. They came from the cities. They came from all over the place. And people were saying -- these fakers back there -- they were saying, "What the hell is happening?"

But I knew it was going to happen because we go out and would see these rallies, the likes of which nobody has ever seen before -- ever, ever, ever in politics -- ever in politics.

A vote for any Democrat in 2020 and a vote for any Democrat tomorrow in North Carolina is a vote for the rise of radical socialism and the destruction of the American dream.

[BOOING]

TRUMP: We are entering this campaign with the best record and the best results, the best agenda, and the only positive vision for the people of North Carolina.

And I've said it, and I say it loudly and proudly, I don't believe there's been any President or any administration that has done more in two and a half years than we have as a group than we have. I don't believe so.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: When you add it all up, nobody has done what we have. Our first task is a giant victory tomorrow, right here in the Great State of North Carolina with your support. Tomorrow, we take the first steps to firing Speaker Pelosi and winning back the House in 2020.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We need everybody to get your friends, get your family, get your neighbors and get out and vote for Dan Bishop and get out and vote for Greg Murphy. You've got to get out tomorrow and vote.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Together we will lift millions more from our horrible, horrible situations that have developed over the years. Look at what's happening to Democrat-run cities -- every single one of them.

We're going to lift millions more of our citizens from welfare to work, dependence to independence, and poverty to prosperity. With your help, we will elect more Republicans to Congress to create a safe, modern, fair and lawful system of immigration.

We will enact trade deals that result in more products proudly stamped with the four beautiful words "Made in the USA."

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Boom, boom. Made in the USA. If you want Made in America, I don't care. What do you like better, Made in America? Or Made in the USA? Go ahead. All right, ready? We'll go Made in America, then Made in the USA?

What do you like better? Made in America?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Made in the USA?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

CROWD: (Chanting "USA.")

TRUMP: Okay. So I think we know that answer. So in 2016, we had in my opinion, the greatest phrase in the history of politics, "Make America Great Again," right?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Now we're within moments, hopefully, of having despite what you heard a few weeks ago, maybe we are heading -- they were going like, "Please, please let there be recession, please." They're willing to give up their results, because they think it'll help them win the election.

They're not going to win the election.

[BOOING]

TRUMP: Don't forget, we're doing this and still fighting the unfairness of China and other countries on trade. What happens when that gets fixed?

And other things get fixed? We're setting new records, and we're fighting trade deals and we're fighting military deals that are unfair to our country. Think what happens when it all gets fixed?

We have ourselves a country that's going to be so strong. But we add a phrase, make -- right? "Make America Great Again," the best. I think it was maybe the greatest 2016. But we've done a lot and now they're very close to setting a new -- I think it's the 118th time that we will have set a new record with the stock market, right?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Many, many times. Many, many times. I can't be sure of that media, but it's a lot. Okay. I always have to preface it, because they'll do headlines -- headlines, "Trump didn't tell the truth," or they love it.

So I've always -- I have gotten extremely cautious.

So we had the greatest phrase of all time, I think even the fake news media would agree. "Make America Great Again," MAGA. MAGA Country. "Make America Great Again," okay.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Now, now, we've largely -- we still have a year and a half, a little bit less. Can you believe that? Like, can you believe it? I stood in the White House with the First Lady that first night. And I said, "Wow, look at this. That's the bedroom of Abraham Lincoln. You have to see this. It's so perfectly done. And so the way it was, that's the bedroom of the great Abe Lincoln. I mean, Honey, can you believe this?" That was the first night and now, in less than a year and a half, the first term will be over. Think of that.

I announced today that we got the Soccer World Cup. That's a big thing.

Who else is going to do it? But it's -- we've got a problem. It's in 2026, Gianni Infante, who is a great guy and we announced it in front of the press, and 2026 and I said, "Well, wait a minute, under the normal rules, I'll be out in 2024. So we may have to go for an extra term."

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Oh, they're going crazy. They're going crazy. Tomorrow, you're going to see headlines, "Trump wants an extra term. I told you, I told you. He wants an extra term."

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: "He wants an extra term, ladies and gentlemen. We told you. We told you he is a dictator. We told you." No, no, I'm only kidding. I am only kidding. But we actually have the World Cup. It's the biggest sporting event in the world and we got it. And that's great. We're working it also with Mexico and Canada, giving them some of the games.

We're going to have a great relationship with the World Cup. It's a big deal. Really. Great. Bob Kraft helping me, the New England Patriots people. Great.

Tom Brady had a pretty good game the other night, right?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And how good a coach, whether you like it or not, I know you're North Carolina. But how good a coach, in all fairness, right, is Coach Belichick. How good is he, right? How good is he? I know you want to be cool. But he is pretty good, right?

We have to appreciate genius. We all like genius. But we're going to achieve new breakthroughs in science and medicine. Finding new cures for childhood cancer and ending within 10 years the AIDS epidemic in America.

That's shocking to hear that, but we could do that. We're going to do that definitely. Incredible the strides that we've been made.

We will defeat the Democrat effort to drive up the cost of houses, cars, healthcare, and education by liberating Americans from the endless push for job killing, soul crushing Washington regulations.

As an example, we're trying to get the car companies, we're going to give them a little bit of extra energy. And they'll be able to build a car that consumers can buy, which will be better than the car they make today. And you'll save $3,500.00. Think of that. It'll be safer, it'll be better, you're going to save $3,500.00. It'll be less costly, and we're going to try and get that done.

And then they were forcing you to buy light bulbs that cost a fortune. So I signed something a couple of days ago that gives you the right to continue to use the incandescent light.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: I don't know about you, much less exposure. I don't know about you, but I don't know, I'm not a vain person. I know, I have no vain people, especially these incredible ladies in the front. But I look better under an incandescent light than these crazy lights that are beaming down on me.

But you know, somebody told me that, as you know, they're much more expensive bulbs, and for what you save. But they said that if a bulb breaks, it's considered almost like a waste site. It's a very big -- big bulbs, the new bulbs. They're very dangerous with all of the gasses and all, and I said, "Well, what's the point? What are you saying?" "Well, we're saying if we continue that production, they can buy whatever they want to buy. But you're going to save a tremendous amount of money and you're going to have a light that's better. And there is a big danger. In fact, they have labels, 'Don't break this bulb.'".

What are you going to do? You're going to throw it away, I promise I won't break it on the new one. So you're going to hopefully buy the new ones, but you can buy the old ones, too and you can save a lot of money and you can even look better.

We will defend privacy, free speech, free assembly, religious liberty, and the right to keep and bear arms.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Above all, we will never stop fighting for the values that bind us together as one America, we will be one United Nation. We support, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We stand with the incredible heroes of law enforcement. Thank you, law enforcement. We believe in the dignity of work and the sanctity of life.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We believe that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy are the true American way, like you. We believe that children should be taught to love our country, honor our history, and to always respect our great American flag.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And we will live by the words of our national motto, "In God we trust." It will stay there.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We stand on the shoulders of American patriot who cross the oceans, settled the continent, tamed the wilderness, revolutionized industry pioneered science, won two World Wars, defeated fascism and communism, put a man on the moon and built the most exceptional country in the history of the world.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We are great Americans and the future belongs to us. The future belongs to you. With your help, your devotion and your drive, we are going to keep on working. We are going to keep on fighting. I'd like to fight a little bit less, but these people, they just don't stop. They just keep coming at you in waves. They are unfortunately not the best people.

And we are going to keep on winning, winning, winning. We're going to keep on winning.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We are one movement, one people, one family and one glorious nation under God.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: America is thriving like never before. We may have right now, the greatest economy in the history of our nation. And ladies and gentlemen of North Carolina, the best is yet to come.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Together, we will make America wealthy again.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We will make America strong again, we're doing it.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We will make America safe again.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And we will make America great again. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, North Carolina. Thank you.

CARLSON: The President of the United States finishing his event tonight in Fayetteville, North Carolina. We get reaction to everything we just heard from Charlie Hurt. He's the opinion editor of "The Washington Times" and author of the fantastic book, "Still Winning: Why America Went All In on Donald Trump-And Why We Must Do It Again." Charlie Hurt joins us tonight.

So Charlie, this speech, this event was given for a reason. There's a special election tomorrow in North Carolina. Do events like this have an effect, do you think?

CHARLES HURT, OPINION EDITOR, THE WASHINGTON TIMES: Oh, I think -- I think without a doubt Tucker, I mean, when you look around at the politics, the politicians, really on both sides of the aisle, but particularly among Democrats these days, there's so much anger and vitriol and that's not a good -- that can be an effective way to get voters out. But nothing compares to this kind of positive, funny, energizing stuff.

And what we saw for the last -- whatever that was -- an hour, hour and a half is Donald Trump at his best. He is so comfortable up there. He is comfortable with who he is. He is funny. He is engaging. He is talking about the incandescent light bulbs.

And you know, he is not -- I don't think of him as an ideologue. But because he's so comfortable talking about whatever it is that pops into his head, he winds up talking -- giving the best argument in favor of what I consider conservatism and limited government.

And so it's not just fun and games, it is that, it's hilarious. But it's also the important stuff that that we care so much about politics, which is finding a way to limit our government.

CARLSON: His joy in giving these speeches seems under diminished. He seems as happy about these rallies today as he was three years ago during the campaign or is that my imagination?

HURT: No, he really is and if you think about his predecessor, President Obama, he could fill one of these stadiums, maybe once every four years, and then it was, you know, he was lecturing to us. Obama was always so disappointed in us. And they were usually un-American.

CARLSON: Well, we let him down.

HURT: And this guy is -- it's the exact opposite. He loves America. He is unashamed. It's like going to the County Fair, or a Bluegrass Festival mixed with a Monster Truck Rally and a pro-wrestling fight that you've got all of these great villains and you've got these heroes, of course, he's always the hero. And it's -- but it's so entertaining.

And I think it's a very good thing for our politics to have politics be entertaining. Again, there's so few people, especially on the left, running today who can entertain five people in a room, much less a huge stadium like this, that this guy does, you know, week after week.

CARLSON: So really quick. One of my theories is that the President uses these events to talk through what he thinks and talk through what points and what ideas resonate with voters. So if you -- after watching him tonight, what's your sense of what he's going to run on in this campaign?

HURT: Well, obviously, the most important thing to him is the economy.

And the economy, part of that is winning these fights that got him elected the first time, which is ending the wars all over the place, restructuring or getting rid of these idiotic, quote unquote, "free trade deals" that have wound up screwing over a lot of Americans.

If he can double down on those things, I think that the guy wins without any problem whatsoever.

CARLSON: Charlie Hurt of "The Washington Times" joining us tonight.

Thanks a lot, Charlie. Good to see you.

HURT: Thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: Well, you just saw the President campaigning in Fayetteville, North Carolina tonight. Tomorrow's special elections there will be widely interpreted to be a test of the President's popularity going into the reelection.

But the President's chances will depend an awful lot on which Democrat runs against him. Who gets the nomination? Sadly, for the President's opponent who almost certainly not be medium blogger, Beta O'Rourke. He is polling at about two percent. That's good news for America by the way. How do we know? Well, watch this.

This weekend, O'Rourke spoke at the New Hampshire Democratic Party Convention. He spoke for just about 10 minutes. It was amazing how much lunacy he managed to cram in to such a short period of time.

Beto began his speech by denouncing the country as racist as he often does.

From the very beginning, Beto told us, America has been an evil nation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETO O'ROURKE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a country that has been defined by foundational, systemic endemic racism since the very founding of this country, August 20th of 1619. The first time that a kidnapped African was brought here against his will and made to serve as a slave to build the greatness and the success and the wealth of this country, which his descendants would never be able to fully participate in.

This is the reality of the United States of America. And sooner or later, it was going to find us. It wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of when.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: "What a disgusting country this is," says Beto. And because America is fundamentally immoral, Americans don't deserve the constitutional liberties they've had from the very beginning. President Beto he said, would create a national gun registry of all firearms in the country, and then use the registry to seize the firearms of law-abiding Americans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'ROURKE: This is a country that has produced the leadership that will ensure that we not only have universal background checks and red flag laws and end the sale of those weapons of war, but that we go the necessary steps further, as politically difficult as they may be, a gun registry in this country, licensing for every American who owns a firearm.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

O'ROURKE: And every single one of those AR-15s and AK-47s will be bought back so they're not on our streets, not in our homes, do not take the lives of our fellow Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: The most nauseating kind of trust fund politics that Beto just personifies. But really he was only half done. That seemed like a lot of insanity to you. But Beto got all of that out of the way in about six minutes.

He went on to explain that America is so evil, so racist that it is responsible for all of the world's problems. According to Beto, America causes not simply global warming, but also everything bad that makes people leave their countries and come here. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'ROURKE: The violence, the persecution, the droughts caused not by God, nor by Mother Nature, but by you and me, our excesses, our inaction in the face of the facts and the science of climate change that we are producing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Do trust funds make you decadent and stupid? Beto O'Rourke's existence kind of answers that question, doesn't it? But he's got ideas for us. What is the penance we need to pay for being as sinful a country as we are? Beto says we must give amnesty to every single illegal alien within our borders right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'ROURKE: We're going to legalize the presence of more than 10 million in the United States beginning with DREAMers who will never again fear deportation back to a country they do not know because we will make them U.S. citizens in this, their true home country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Tammy Bruce is the President of Independent Women's Voice and hosts "Get Tammy Bruce" on Fox nation, which is awesome. She joins us tonight. Tammy, great to see you.

TAMMY BRUCE, FOX NATION HOST: Thank you, sir.

CARLSON: So there's something about Beto O'Rourke that is such a perfect distillation of ruling class dumbness in our country, of actual privilege, right? He speaks for an awful lot of people I know. And I guess my question to you is, is he aware of what he sounds like, do you think, when he gives speeches like this?

BRUCE: Well, you know, I mean, effectively, he is saying -- and this is the delusion of it -- you know, "Elect me as President because I hate America." I mean, there's this weird position. And it's just -- it's just the more blunt position really, of all the Democrats.

And so you were talking to Charlie a minute ago, about disappointing Obama.

Well, now they want to punish us because we've not stopped disappointing them. But I think that he really -- there's a pandering to and a projection of his own real opinion about, you know, maybe feeling guilty for existing and for being born. He has expressed his guilt of being a white man and trying to make up for it, and I think a lot of this is projection.

What's brilliant about the President having this is what's the perfect juxtaposition about what is at stake here in the country and what the decisions are, the ultimate of a happy warrior that we see in President Trump, a guy who actually does love the country for all the right reasons and wants to make it even better for all of us, because we deserve it.

And the world deserves a strong and happy America, because then the rest of the world is better versus this horrible kind of misery that is being cultivated. And thing for -- regarding an election, and just I think, in life, that maybe trust funders don't understand in a certain way is that Americans want a positive framework that people vote for things, they don't vote against things. And this is, I think, lost upon the people who don't like us.

CARLSON: Right.

BRUCE: So you know, look, he is honest about eating regenerative dirt and making other strange comments about the disconnection even between normal life, and maybe he thinks that's romantic, or somebody in his life tells him that he's great and better than everyone else, and he just believes them.

But I think the Democrats -- he is actually the perfect representative for the Democrats right now. It's a shame.

CARLSON: He really is.

BRUCE: Yes, he is the perfect guy for them.

CARLSON: He is. The trust funders hate themselves, which I think is legitimate. They have every reason to, but then they transfer that and assume the rest of us hate their country as much as they hate our country.

BRUCE: Correct. Exactly.

CARLSON: It's a sickness, Tammy, great to see you tonight.

BRUCE: Thank you. Thanks for having me on.

CARLSON: Thank you. If you have picked up a children's book recently, you may have noticed that they are obsessed with diversity and woke politics.

Rachel Campos-Duffy says it's time for that to end. She joins us with much more just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: One of the biggest issues in this election is in fact sanctuary cities. McCready supports sanctuary city policies that force prisons and jails to release criminal aliens directly into your neighborhoods. Get out. Go ahead. Go into the neighborhood.

Support for sanctuary cities is disloyalty to American citizens.

By the way, we're building that wall and it's going up very big.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

CARLSON: That was the President tonight, addressing immigration at tonight's rally in Fayetteville. Rachel Campos-Duffy is a Fox Contributor and the wife of departing Congressman Sean Duffy whom we had on the other night.

She has a brand new children's book. Its title is "Paloma Wants to Be Lady Freedom." Great, great title. Rachel Campos-Duffy joins us tonight. Hey, Rachel, good to see you.

RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Good to be here. Thanks for having me on.

CARLSON: So one of the points that you have made is that when you go in -- and my kids are older, so I wasn't even aware of this until you said it -- but you go into the Children's Section at a bookstore and virtually every book is woke. I mean, they're all political it seems like.

CAMPOS-DUFFY: Absolutely. So in the case of immigration, for example, you see that there's this focus in the media on immigration, but there's also this -- on illegal immigration. There's also a focus on that in children's literature and on diversity.

And so what's happening is we're focusing so much on the things that make us different and we're not focusing on the things that unite us as Americans. And yes, there is a deliberate agenda to present literature that's woke, that's progressive and that's liberal to children.

There's also a deliberate effort, I think, to conflate legal and illegal immigration.

CARLSON: Yes.

CAMPOS-DUFFY: And I think that does a disservice to those people who come here legally, people like my mom who came here as a legal immigrant who, you know, went through the process, and it's a beautiful process, and we're devaluing that process when we conflate that.

CARLSON: So why do we sit back and allow our kids to be the targets of aggressive political propaganda from people who hate us, hate our culture, don't like children? What do we love that?

CAMPOS-DUFFY: Well, it's a great question. I think often parents and grandparents, by the way, underestimate the kind of power they have over their own children to influence them. They sort of give up and they sort of, you know, surrender to that agenda. And they forget that, you know, we still have a dinner table. We still have story time hour in our own, you know, homes and the progressives don't have that yet.

So if we're providing our kids with stories that unite us as Americans that celebrate freedom and our history and the American dream, those are the values our kids will hold on to or at least have to defend themselves against whatever is being presented them at school and the scholastic magazine in their backpack.

So this -- I think this is a great opportunity for people, whether it's my book or other books, search out those resources for your kids. Don't give up, don't surrender them or outsource your patriotism, your love of country -- all of that stuff to people who don't love the country. You've got to take it into your own hands as parents.

CARLSON: Good for you. Nice. I couldn't put it better myself.

Congratulations on this book and on your new baby. At some -- if you have children, you've got to start writing your own children's books.

CAMPOS-DUFFY: That's right.

CARLSON: I'm so glad to see that you have. Congratulations. It's really inspiring. Good to see you.

CAMPOS-DUFFY: Thank you, Tucker. Nice to see you.

CARLSON: Thank you, Rachel. America has been fighting in Afghanistan for almost 18 years, total cost, we're not exactly sure. But it looks in the neighborhood of $800 billion. Have we won? No, not even close.

Sixteen American troops have died this year, including four in the last few weeks. The President wants out. The public wants out. Permanent Washington is committed to continuing this war forever and attacking anyone who disagrees as a traitor.

President Trump, for example, recently announced the cancellation of peace talks with the Taliban. According to Washington's war enthusiasts, even attempting them was treason.

Colonel Doug MacGregor is a retired U.S. Army Colonel, the author of the fantastic book, "Margin of Victory," and the first person we go to for sanity on these questions.

Colonel, thanks a lot for joining us tonight. So you've seen the President in the last 24 hours denounced by many armchair generals in Washington as a quisling, as a traitor to his nation for considering speaking to the other side in this conflict. How do you assess that response?

COL. DOUGLAS MACGREGOR (RET), U.S. ARMY: Well, first, the President is right. He was right in July of 2017. He was right in 2018. He is right today. We need to get out. We need to get out tomorrow. We need to cut off the funding. We need to withdraw our forces. We need to pull out the embassy staff.

Don't waste time talking to the Taliban, anything they sign they will not honor. They are Sunni Islamists, we're infidels. They could care less.

But as we withdraw, we ought to launch a punishing, devastating intense air campaign against all of their heroin production facilities, the supporting poppy fields, all of the Islamist concentrations of fighters and terrorists that we can identify and make it abundantly clear that we can come back whenever we want to and devastate them.

But there is nothing in Afghanistan worth the life of a single American soldier. He understands that. He is right. He needs to overrule these people and get out.

CARLSON: One of our guys was killed the other day, such a poignant story.

He is 31 years old. This was his third deployment. He was first deployed to Afghanistan in 2010, and it really gives you a sense of the scale of this project. I mean, it's gone on for so long. What could possibly be the justification of permanent Washington wanting to stay?

MACGREGOR: There is none.

CARLSON: There is none. Okay. There you go.

MACGREGOR: Look, the argument is if we stay another five years, another five months, whatever it is, it doesn't matter, it could be five decades, nothing will change.

There is no foundation for societal modernization. This was never a country. It's a region with multiple groups vying for power. India and Pakistan have been fighting over Afghanistan now for many, many years. The Indians are there in great strength. The Iranians and the Russians are keenly interested because their countries are flooded with the heroin.

Those countries will engage. Yes, there will be more fighting and those countries will become involved because they have an interest in trying to stabilize the place. We don't.

Remember Osama bin Laden died or was killed eight years ago. It's time to get out. Mission complete. Bring them home. And by the way, the savings could be plowed into the border wall.

CARLSON: It's kind of remarkable to see people who clearly hate this country, denounce the President as a traitor for wanting to meet with the Taliban. I mean, is there a more disingenuous argument?

MACGREGOR: Well, look, anytime the President has expressed a willingness to talk to anyone that the mainstream media and people inside the beltway way don't like; whether it's Iran, whether it is President Putin, President -- it doesn't matter. They're always going to criticize him for that.

In this particular case, there's no point in talking to the Taliban.

They're not worthy of a meeting with the President.

CARLSON: Yes, worth getting out. Douglas MacGregor, so nicely put. Thank you very much.

MACGREGOR: Sure, Tucker. Thank you.

CARLSON: We hope that you will come back.

MACGREGOR: Yes.

CARLSON: It's unbelievable. A lot of angry children in Washington -- angry, self-righteous children with long track records of failure. We hope if we can add one thing to the conversation, it will be to remind you that people lecturing you from tall moral heights have no grounds at all, no grounds whatsoever to pretend they're morally superior to you. That's for sure.

All right, we're out of time, 8:00 p.m., but we're on that time every night of the week. We'll be back tomorrow at eight. The show that is the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and especially groupthink.

Get ready for a big breaking news night here on Fox News. We have a little surprise for you tonight.

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