Tucker: Recall may be the last chance to save California

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Tucker: Recall may be the last chance to save California

'Tucker Carlson Tonight' host discusses Larry Elder's gubernatorial run amid the upcoming recall election on September 14th

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," August 24, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: Good evening and welcome to TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT.

You want to hear an amazing story? So as a child growing up in South Central Los Angeles, Larry Elder had a secret. Elder's father who was a janitor was black, so was Elder's mother. So were 80 percent of the people in their neighborhood, and to all appearances Larry Elder seemed black, too. That's what the people around him always assumed.

Little did they know that this child of South Central apparently an African-American in good standing, was in fact a secret agent working on behalf of global white supremacy. What an assignment. A white supremacist in South Central. Imagine that.

And yet for more than 50 years, no one had any idea this was going on.

Larry Elder spent decades in the public eye as a radio show host and not one person during that time guessed the terrible truth. And then last month, the crack investigative team at "The Los Angeles Times" finally broke this story, quote: "Larry Elder is the black face of white supremacy," read a headline in the newspaper. "You've been warned."

Busted. So how did "The LA Times" discover this?

Well, it took real journalism. There were none of the usual telltale signs. Nobody caught Larry Elder re-segregating fountains or burning across on somebody's lawn, no, it was far more subtle than that and much more dangerous.

Instead Larry Elder, publicly insisted on exercising his constitutional rights and then running for political office. Worse and more damning, Larry Elder criticized the leadership of the Democratic Party of California.

He even went so far as to run against the sitting Governor, Gavin Newsom, and that's how you know that Larry Elder is a white supremacist. He challenged an incompetent liberal white guy who is personal friends with Nancy Pelosi, and that ladies and gentlemen, is what racism is.

The question is now that we know this, can Larry Elder win anyway? We'll find out in three weeks.

If Larry Elder is elected, he will not only be the first black governor of California, he will also be the most popular statewide official in recent memory. That's the interesting thing. For a purported democracy, California has a long history of electing people that polls show just about everyone who actually lives there hates.

It's an awfully strange kind of democracy that way. Dianne Feinstein for example has represented the State of California in the U.S. Senate for nearly 30 years and yet, her approval rating is just 35 percent, yet somehow she keeps her job anyway. How?

Kamala Harris did the same thing. When Kamala Harris ran for President, only seven percent of California's Democratic voters said they supported her, and that makes you wonder how Harris got elected in the first place to anything. But don't ask. A question like that would be what we call the big lie, so shut up and accept it.

The interesting thing is that California voters don't technically have to accept it, because a century ago, voters in that state amended the Constitution to allow the recall of demonstrably awful politicians who'd unfortunately taken office.

So, let's say you had a pompous low IQ governor who was totally incapable of managing his own empty personal life, but at the same time who, for his own perverse reasons, seemed totally intent on destroying the entire state. What would you do with a guy like that?

Well on September 14th of this year, next month, California voters will have the chance to fire him. They have a recall option.

If a majority decides to recall Gavin Newsom, then the replacement candidate who gets the most votes will become the Governor, and as of tonight that is likely to be Larry Elder.

Larry Elder could actually win, so no wonder "The LA Times" is so upset. No wonder they dispatched a crack investigative team to discover he was secretly a white supremacist.

Even dim old Gavin Newsom who in the best of times seems only vaguely aware of his surroundings, who has what they say in the military, no situational awareness, even that man dopey old Gavin Newsom has finally started to figure out, he is in very serious trouble.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): I think this is important to know. Larry Elder is running away with this on the other side. I just hope folks -- I want a level set -- what could happen on Election Day if we don't turn out in historic numbers to vote no on this recall?

Think about the judges he'd appoint. Who would he have appointed to replace Kamala Harris in the U(S Senate? How would that impact the trajectory of this country? What would this mean to the future of the Democratic Party?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Oh, did you see the fear in his botoxed eyes? That ladies and gentlemen, was a cry for help. And guess who heard it? Oh the media in California. They work for him and so they immediately got to work.

Here is an actual line from a story produced by the so-called News Division of "The LA Times" quote: "One issue was Elder's pronunciation of the N- word. He used an exaggerated tone enunciating the E-R at the end of the word rather than using the A pronunciation which is more commonly accepted among and used by black people, studies have shown."

Studies have shown -- really? Studies done by which researchers in which social science laboratories and who exactly is funding these studies on the N-word and how it's pronounced?

Unfortunately, "The LA Times" did not explain any of that. There was no footnote to the story. Instead, the paper just kept going. It dispatched one of its crack investigative reporters over to MSNBC, the natural venue to report their findings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: He says he doesn't believe sanctuary laws or citizenship for DREAMers um should be happening. He is against in-state tuition, healthcare and driver's licenses for the undocumented. How serious are the chances that this guy could be the next Governor of California?

JEAN GUERRERO, COLUMNIST, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Well, it's very serious because it's possible that, you know, the majority of the people who are going to turn out are the people who are excited by Larry Elder's brand, of you know extreme far right beliefs and he just represents an incredible threat to immigrant rights and racial justice and the immense progress that California has made on these issues and it would set a catastrophic precedent that would reverberate across the country.

REID: And it is ironic. This is a black man and it just goes to show you that it is true that even people of color can be influenced by white supremacist narratives and fall victim to it, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: That's got to be the greatest clip ever played on cable television -- ever. So, here you have the lady from "The LA Times" explaining to the Harvard race lady that the real problem is that voters might be too excited to vote for Larry Elder, they might be psyched about their own leader, and that would set a terrible precedent.

Oh yes, as the Harvard race lady said, absolutely. Here's a black guy who has been brainwashed by the white man and voters might like it. That's a threat. This democracy thing is a threat.

CNN is deeply concerned as well, so CNN mobilized its goons, too, a crack unit it describes as the leading investigation team for the social media mobile generation, if you can even imagine.

So, they dispatched this team. What did the team find? Well, they found more thought crimes.

For example and we're quoting here, "Larry Elder even has challenged mainstream orthodoxy on subjects like violence against women." Can you imagine? Larry Elder quote, "Even challenged orthodoxy." Yes. Even orthodoxy. And not only that, CNN also discovered that quote, "Elder has long relished making provocative comments in his time as a radio show host."

Wait. Provocative comments, too? When will this nightmare end?

It's starting to sound like Larry Elder might not be just like everyone else in politics and that's disgusting. It is as "The LA Times" informed us, a terrifying trend.

On the other hand, it is entirely possible -- trying to stay open-minded here -- that some voters in California might like it. Why would they like it? Possibly because the people who currently run their state have destroyed it completely.

To name just one among many examples, those people have arbitrarily released more than 75,000 prison inmates, including violent felons. Now, the point of this, of course, was something called equity, never described, but frequently on display. What was the result of this? Well, here's the result.

Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): Out in the open, free-for-alls like the one that happened at this Walgreens on Monday have spiked over the past year with brazen thieves clearing shelves of food, cosmetics, and over-the- counter drugs that are often resold on the street.

Home Depot shared pictures of recent busts of entire warehouses filled to the rafters with stolen drills, nail guns, and other tools.

A witness captured this wild scene on Monday as a crowd of thieves stormed Neiman Marcus. No one was hurt, but the group made off with handbags and other designer goods that will most likely be resold online, where organized retail crime is thriving.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So, they never do define equity, do they? The new President used the word "equity" more than any other word in his inaugural, but what is it? Oh that's what it is. Equity is stealing. It is ripping off power tools from Home Depot. It's taking handfuls of lipstick from Walgreens. It's stealing.

So, when did we get here? How did we get here? Well, this is what happens when you let the ideologues on Twitter control your state.

By the way, the social media revolutionaries are not simply in charge of criminal justice policy in California, they've also taken complete charge of the energy grid. Right?

Gavin Newsom has ordered the state to transition to something called renewables -- another term that's never defined -- in nine years, by 2030. What's the result of this? Well, it's a lot like what's happening to Walgreens. The lights don't work, the air conditioning has gone dead.

California frequently runs out of power. It's Zimbabwe on the Pacific. Oh, don't say that. Tough. It is.

And everybody who lives there knows it, unless you're Rob Reiner and you've got your own generator, but Gavin Newsom doesn't care. He just keeps destroying California. Why does he hate California so much?

In his first year as Governor, homelessness, people living outside, defecating on the sidewalk jumped seven percent statewide. In LA County, it jumped 13 percent in one year. Have you been there recently?

Well, three years ago, an official from the U.N. did show up. He came to San Francisco. That's the city that Gavin Newsom once ran as mayor. The city he promised to rid of homelessness, make it possible for women to jog in Golden Gate Park again, but he didn't. So, the U.N. official showed up. Clearly, he has seen a lot of bad places. He said California was so bad that what he saw quote, "Constitutes cruel and inhuman treatment and is a violation of multiple human rights." Was he overstating the case? Here's what it looks like.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This isn't camping, these are homes. You see fighting, guns, knives, fires. Drug use day in and day out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't realize sometimes what you're living in the middle of until you see some -- a video and you think, wait a minute that's where I live.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a cleanup today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So how often do they do this cleaning?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh this is the first one in months --

MALE: Months?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not humane, this is not compassionate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I was a councilman, I would be down here right now, man, talking to you, talking to these people, saying what are we going to do about this, man?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The city councilman has allowed them not to have a rock bottom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Oh, did you see that racist lady at the end complaining that there are mentally ill drug addicts right in front of her store, destroying the city? Another white supremacist.

So why is this happening?

Well, you get what you put up with. That's the first thing to know.

The second thing to note is that California may be the only place in America where homelessness actually has a connection to housing prices. That's not true in most places. It is true in California.

Median home prices in the State of California are now north of $800,000.00, the first time it's happened ever. A lot of reasons this is happening, massive foreign investment from China is one of them, no one is even bothering to stop that because they're taking payoffs from the real estate developers.

But the bottom line is that normal people can't afford housing. What has Gavin Newsom done to help them? Not one thing. Who is he helping? Well, he is spending his time and your money awarding among other things, free healthcare to hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals who snuck in. We used to call them illegal aliens. They are foreign nationals with foreign passports, but they're getting free healthcare -- from you.

It's like a joke, but it's not a joke. It is happening in our biggest state, so next month's recall may be the last chance to save the State of California and you should want that because it matters because it's our country.

But it's also about something bigger than just one state. This recall is a test of our democracy, the question is, do elections still have meaning? Are voters still allowed to choose their own leaders or does "The LA Times" get to do that? Does the party apparatus get to do that? Do we have any power at all as citizens? Are they going to steal it from us?

If the answer is they're going to steal it from us, then we're in trouble.

Once citizens conclude that their votes are meaningless, they quickly become radical. Democracy is the safety relief valve that keeps our society placid. But when people think it's fake, they go bonkers because they have no option. They have no power. They have nothing to lose.

So, it is in the interest of all of us that the State of California conducts a free and fair election next month, yes, with outside election observers. U.N., you're welcome, too. Why? Because there are indications that it won't be free and fair.

Just yesterday, police in Torrance, California announced they had found hundreds of stolen recall ballots in someone's car. What were the ballots doing there? Oh we don't know. Maybe Larry Elder knows. He joins us right now.

Larry Elder, thanks so much for coming on. I'm sorry to make fun of the slurs that they've leveled against you, but they are so ridiculous that it's probably a good sign, would you agree that maybe they are worried?

LARRY ELDER (R), CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Well, they are scared to death, Tucker.

The only thing I would add to your wonderful and entertaining monologue is this. The decline in the quality of government schools in California, we are near the bottom in Reading and Math scores, 75 percent of black boys cannot read at state levels of proficiency and those levels are low.

Half of all third graders cannot, and 80 percent of the kids educated in government schools in California are black and brown. These are the very ones that the left claims that they care about. Now the polls show that the majority of urban parents, black and brown, want choice in education and that's one of the things they're scared to death about.

I support choice, so that the money would follow the child rather than the other way around and a parent would be able to put her child in a private school, a parochial school, a religious school or even homeschooling, dare I say.

And they're scared to death, the largest funder of my opponent, Gavin Newsom is the teachers union and they're the most powerful union in this state.

CARLSON: I mean, one-party states don't work. They didn't work in 1970s Romania and they're not working in the state I was born in, that's been completely destroyed by the mismanagement of one party. That's just true.

I'd say that if the Republicans are wrecking it. It just doesn't work.

What's so interesting is that the people who are defending our democracy, that chick from "The LA Times," for example, the race lady in MSNBC, they're terrified of democracy, the idea that people might like you or want to change or just be dissatisfied with the offerings they have, I mean, why don't these just come out and say we're against democracy, we're for oligarchy. Shut up and take it.

ELDER: Well, they ought to and they can't defend his record. Elizabeth Warren cut a commercial for Gavin Newsom and talked about this being a Republican takeover, didn't say anything at all about the rising crime, the rising cost of living, the rising homelessness, the fact that for the very first time, people are leaving California.

Tucker, just today, there was a long report by the Hoover Institution that shows that the rate at which businesses are leaving California for the first six months of this year is twice the rate at which they've left in the last three years and it's across the board -- manufacturing, aerospace, finance, and even tech.

They always thought tech was always going to remain in California, they're leaving as well, and they're citing the cost of living here in California, taxes and regulations, which are all through the roof.

CARLSON: Elizabeth Warren should be ashamed of herself. How can any normal person who is not visually impaired go to Los Angeles and San Francisco, two of our greatest cities -- really they are two of our greatest cities, in my opinion, and say things are fine. You know, it's just great.

I mean, this looks great. I'm really kind of happy with it. Like how can they say that?

ELDER: Well, it's all of his friends and that's why he has raised almost $50 million to defeat me and they're coming from Big Tech, they're coming from Hollywood, coming from the teachers union, and the public sector unions, which are extremely powerful here in California.

He has raised, as I said, $50 million. He is probably going to spend about $75 million. He is going to outspend the recall side almost nine to one and that's why I need some help so I am asking people to go to electelder.com and throw a little something in the tip jar because I have expenditure limitations. He can raise and spend an unlimited amount of money and he is doing just that.

CARLSON: Yes, well if they're calling you a white supremacist, it just tells you everything about their sincerity. They will say anything -- it is only about power we should -- yes.

ELDER: They are the black face --

CARLSON: The black face, you know, black face --

ELDER: The black face of white supremacy.

CARLSON: You know it makes me mad on your behalf. I've taken a lot of that myself, but you know, they need to be overthrown is the bottom line, and Godspeed. Man, I hope you do it.

Larry Elder, thank you.

ELDER: Absolutely, thank you. Appreciate it. God bless.

CARLSON: So, what a disaster this last week has been for the United States. Even if you fervently wanted the military out of Afghanistan because it wasn't helping us, the way we got out really, really hurt us.

So, who did it help? Well there's only one country it obviously helped and that of course would be China.

They just announced a new plan to take advantage of the chaos there. We'll tell you what it is, straight ahead.

Also right now on tuckercarlson.com, you can order a signed copy of "The Long Slide." We've got a few left. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: I want to bring you back on a FOX News Alert. The Supreme Court has just ruled that the Biden administration must reinstate the previous administration's policy on remaining in Mexico.

Now, that policy required asylum seekers, many of them from Central America to wait outside our borders while the U.S. government process their claims in immigration courts. You can't just put them on planes at taxpayer expense and fly them into people's neighborhoods and call it a day. You can't do that.

Shortly after taking office, Joe Biden started doing that. He suspended the remain-in-Mexico policy by executive order, because of that decision, illegal migrants from foreign countries have flooded by the millions into the United States.

Apprehensions at the southwestern border are at their highest levels ever. Now, that policy is back on the books, at least for now. The question is, will the Biden administration ignore it as they have other Supreme Court decisions? Because like who cares? It's just pretty important.

Well on Monday, China's Foreign Ministry suggests that they're going to provide financial assistance to the new government of Afghanistan, the Taliban. A spokesman for China's Communist Party called the United States the main perpetrator of chaos in that country and vowed to play what he called a positive role in the new Taliban government.

Christian Whiton was a senior adviser in the last administration. We're happy to have him join us tonight. Christian, thanks so much for coming on.

So, the government of China directly funding the Taliban. Are you surprised by this? Why do you think they would do that?

CHRISTIAN WHITON, FORMER SENIOR WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: I am not surprised. We'll see if it actually happens, but China, a dirty little secret, they really, really liked us in Afghanistan considering the alternatives because China, as has been widely reported has more than a million Muslims in political concentration camps, re-education camps is what they call them in Xinjiang in Western China.

So far, a lot of Muslims have not cared too much about this. Persians in Iran, Arabs in the Gulf don't seem too exercised, but if there was a group of Muslims who might be upset by this and might actually wage violent jihad against China, it would be fellow East Turkic-type peoples potentially trained or transited through or originated in Afghanistan.

So China is very worried about jihad next door.

CARLSON: Interesting. So, you don't think this is primarily a play for mineral resources in Afghanistan. It is a way to deal with the destabilizing effect of this Muslim population.

WHITON: I think it's both. You know, the idea that Afghanistan will be a mass exporter of really useful minerals, hydrocarbons et cetera, that's been around for a while. Supposedly there was some survey that showed just an enormous amount of potential in Afghanistan, but it takes capital, it takes roads, it takes investment, it takes workers who are capable of sort of keeping an industrial type lifestyle.

None of these are really going to be present in Afghanistan and none of them really have, so it's always a possibility that there could be something there, but it is doubtful.

CARLSON: I've got to ask really quick and I probably should know the answer to this, but do you think a lot of foreign -- other governments will recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan?

WHITON: I think so, probably pretty quickly. You know probably, China and Russia early on, others in the Gulf. They've had very good relations with Qatar. Qatar has been their sort of interface with the world and they've been acting in ways that are pragmatic.

Now, I'd hate to have to depend on that, but the fact that they've allowed us, right, I mean, all it would take to close down the Kabul Airport right now is a pickup truck with some mortar tubes to, you know disrupt flight operations.

So people, I think not the G7, but others will probably recognize them within a couple of years.

CARLSON: Yes, that's a fair point. Christian, I appreciate your coming on. Thank you very much.

WHITON: Thank you.

CARLSON: If you're interested in knowing more about the dynamic within Afghanistan, which is confusing, no one explains it better, we think, than Lara Logan. She was on a recent episode of "Tucker Carlson Today." It's on FOX Nation.

Tomorrow afternoon, we'll have Erik Prince on the show. Interesting. Interesting conversation. The man spent an awful lot of time there.

Meanwhile, the January 6th commission is kicking into high gear. It's every bit as insane and authoritarian as you even imagine, probably more so. The committee has just announced subpoenas for the phone and text records of Members of Congress.

Can that be allowed? It looks like it's happening. One of those members being targeted joins us after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: So, the January 6th Commission will not answer any of the most basic questions about what happened that day and why? Who shot Ashli Babbitt? How many F.B.I. employees or informants were in the crowd? What's on all those surveillance tapes of thousands of hours they are holding from us? We're not going to learn any of that. You don't have a right to know. Shut up and obey.

What they are going to do, we've just learned is to subpoena the phone records of sitting Members of Congress. When was the last time that happened, if ever?

It doesn't matter. Adam Schiff, a natural authoritarian if there ever was one, is fully on board with this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Congressman Benny Thompson, the committee's chair confirming to CNN that he wants telecom companies to preserve phone records of several people including Members of Congress.

We know that Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan spoke with Trump on January 6th, whose records do you want to see?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Well, I'm going to leave it as you might imagine to the Chairman to make those disclosures public or in a formal announcement, but I can tell you this, we intend to be very thorough. We want to know exactly what took place before January 6th that led to that tragic day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Jim Banks represents Indiana in the United States Congress. He is apparently one of the Republicans whose phone records will be grabbed. He is definitely one of the Republicans that Nancy Pelosi barred from serving on the commission in the first place.

Congressman Banks joins us now. Congressman, thanks so much for coming on. So, this does seem without precedent, it seems like a threat to the legitimacy of our government, who you talk to is nobody's business. There's an important principle here. Is there anything you can do to stop this as a Member of Congress?

REP. JIM BANKS (R-IN): Well, Tucker, first of all, this is an abuse of power by the Congress that we've never seen before. Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House would abuse her power, weaponize the Congress and the process to spy on her political opponents is something that is unthinkable in our system of government and that's exactly what she's doing.

Nancy Pelosi and her progressive colleagues have done more to damage American democracy over the last eight months than any group of Capitol rioters or crowd of rioters or rioters anywhere ever could achieve.

But what can we do to stop it? When we win back the majority next year, we have a duty as Republicans to hold every member of this committee accountable for this abuse of power, for stepping over the line by preventing them to be in positions of authority, take them off any committee, get them as far away from positions of power as you can because they've shown us by threatening to do this, they're going to abuse their power wherever they are.

CARLSON: I wonder if there's anything to do in the meantime. I mean, should AT&T or the Big Tech companies really be allowed to violate your privacy, the privacy of any of us? Is there something that can be done to them? Can you help any of the Americans sitting in solitary confinement for trespassing? Can you tell us who shot Ashli Babbitt? Can you leak the contents of those video recordings so we can know for ourselves what happened that day? Et cetera.

Is there something Republicans can do to fight back? Because this is crazy.

BANKS: It is crazy, Tucker, but they're already doing it. I mean, the Biden administration is partnering with Big Tech companies. It is one thing to spy on Members of Congress, they are spying on you and everyone who is watching the show tonight because they deem all of you as domestic extremists.

If you voted for Donald Trump, you're a domestic extremist. If you support the Second Amendment, you're a domestic extremist. If you believe the borders should be closed, you're a domestic extremist.

I could go on and on and on, but that's what they believe. They are partnering with Big Tech companies and using algorithms to spy on all of your social media and doing it with the help of foreign countries as well.

So, I don't know how we stop it other than win back the majority in the midterm election and reform, repeal Section 230 and break up these Big Tech companies and the enormous power that they have.

CARLSON: A lot of people watching have lost faith in the leadership of the Republican Party to actually fight back and to stand up for them, and I think for good reason. But I mean, this is a case where Members of Congress need to stand up for themselves. Do you think that this has awakened a lot of Republicans who have been kind of Chamber of Commerce guys that you know, that these big companies are against you and they're extinguishing democracy and freedom in our country.

BANKS: Not just that, but the unprecedented abuse of power by the Speaker of the House. Tucker, I'll tell you, with everything going on in Afghanistan, everything going on at Capitol Hill this week, most of my Republican colleagues have no idea this is happening. They're about to find out about it and this serves as a wake-up call to all Republicans that these authoritarian Democrats aren't playing a game, they're out to destroy you.

They're out to destroy all of us who disagree with Nancy Pelosi and any of you who believe something different than what they believe.

CARLSON: That is -- I don't think anything you said was overstatement and I appreciate your saying it. Congressman Banks, thanks.

BANKS: Thank you.

CARLSON: Quick news alert here. We want to let you know that we've just received a tip that Adam Kinzinger is still crying. He was spotted again this afternoon seated on a bench on 17th Street in downtown Washington overlooking DuPont Circle.

Why was he crying? We can only speculate here, perhaps it was just the profound ennui of life, perhaps he is what P.G. Woodhouse often described as a sensitive plant. He feels too much, it's too much for him. He can't stand the injustice of the world, the meanness, the cruelty the insensitivity of his fellowmen.

We don't know, maybe he looked into the yawning abyss of his soul and burst into tears.

If you know, contact us. We'd like to report it. All we know is, he is crying again.

Well, it's widely known that Big Tech is effectively a branch of the Democratic Party. They're funding a lot of the Democratic Party's satellite groups, but it turns out that many supposedly conservative organizations are also taking money from Big Tech and they're doing it secretly.

We'll tell you who is taking the money and what it's buying, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: So we told you last night about what's happening in Australia. All Americans love Australia, there's a lot to love. It's a beautiful country, great people, but what's happening there right now is really hard to believe. It's been completely transformed into something no one in the West would recognize. Chinese citizens would recognize it, but the rest of us wouldn't. This is not a country that's following the rule of law, it's not a country with freedom.

Now, we told you last night about a newscast in Australia, we got a copy of it. We wanted you to see it directly so you could evaluate for yourself. Keep in mind as you watch this, it's completely real. This is from 9 News Australia. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): Anthony Karam knows he is COVID positive when he steps into this public lift, already breaking so many rules he doesn't bother to cover his mouth as he sneezes and splutters.

The 27-year-old is still infectious, but has gone missing from his Wentworth Point Apartment, a warrant now issued for his arrest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This 27-year-old chap who apparently has expressed the view that he doesn't care less whether he spreads the virus is one example of the worst of the worst.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So, here you have a whole nation, an entire continent, an advanced country full of well-educated people, the whole place mobilizing to hunt down a single 27-year-old man for the crime of sneezing while alone in an elevator.

No one is saying a word about this. What can they do? They gave up their guns in the name of public safety. So, they don't do anything and that's what happens.

So, Republicans and even many Democrats now love to complain about Big Tech. Oh Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple, they're bad. Everyone hates them. That's what they tell you in public, but in secret, a lot of them are taking an awful lot of money from these same companies.

Who's taking the money and what are they doing with it?

Well, the American Principles Project has got the numbers. They found that many left-wing organizations and dozens of supposedly conservative groups are in fact funded by Silicon Valley. Who are they? Well, those groups include the Heritage Foundation, the Brookings Institution, and the Federalist Society.

Jon Schweppe is the Director of Policy and Government Affairs at the American Principles Project, a project that actually has principles. We're delighted to have him join us tonight.

Jon, thanks a lot for doing this research and for telling us about it. So, groups that a lot of our viewers send their money to in hopes that those groups will defend them are in fact also taking money from Facebook and Google and Apple?

JON SCHWEPPE, DIRECTOR OF POLICY AND GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS, AMERICAN PRINCIPLES PROJECT: Right. Right. No, there's a lot of these conservative groups, pro-free market groups and they're on the take and this is kind of an open secret here in Washington. But up to this point, there hasn't really been research to show how broad this is, and we found more than 400 organizations, academic centers et cetera, groups that have a great deal of influence on Capitol Hill all taking money from Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple.

And of course, you know with that money comes the willingness to launder those companies' talking points and promote their preferred policies, and obviously, this has an effect. It certainly has an effect on the Democrats, but we've found, it has an effect on Republicans in Congress. You know those canards you hear about how these are just private companies they can do whatever the heck they want. Well those are Google talking points, those are Facebook talking points. And you know, it gets laundered through this ecosystem and that's how these companies have major influence in D.C.

CARLSON: But I mean this just seems like the definition of corruption. I mean, if you found out that National Rights Life was taking money from Planned Parenthood or PETA was taking money from the pork producers, you would say whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second that's corrupt.

Why haven't we seen news stories pointing out that these groups are clearly, at least ideologically corrupt, I mean by definition?

SCHWEPPE: Well, I think there's an effort underway to try to promote that kind of transparency, but it is the mainstream media. A lot of these media outlets are also funded by Big Tech companies and don't forget the politicians as well.

CARLSON: We're owned by one.

SCHWEPPE: I mean -- and the politicians as well, they're funded by these groups, these organizations, these companies as well and that obviously has an impact on what's happening in Congress.

You know, Republicans, we see it all the time, Republicans in committee hearings, you know they might even take off their jacket and pound on the table to tell you how mad they are about Big Tech, but then you know under the table, they're trying to kill like the bills that are going to be before the House next month to break up Big Tech.

These are Republicans that, you know ostensibly are preaching to their base they're doing something about Big Tech and they're not. They're trying to do the opposite, actually.

CARLSON: Yes, it's like "The Washington Post" which is owned by Jeff Bezos or "The Atlantic" Magazine which is owned by Steve Jobs's widow, one of the biggest shareholders at Apple who are actually going to report on this. They're not going to indict themselves. I mean, it's kind of a closed system, isn't it?

SCHWEPPE: Right, and this is what happens when you have trillion dollar companies, you know taking the lead in every sector of society.

CARLSON: It's scary. Thank you, Jon Schweppe, I appreciate it.

SCHWEPPE: Thank you.

CARLSON: So, as the debacle in Afghanistan continues to mesmerize us, Joe Biden has been very busy transforming this country and in particular, its court system. Not many people are noticing this, but one Republican senator who is often promoted by conservatives is helping Joe Biden do it. We'll tell you who that is, straight ahead.

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CARLSON: The situation in Afghanistan is so bad and so humiliating for the United States that it's easy to forget the Biden administration is in control of this country as well, so what have they been doing to us? While that's been going on, we've tried to keep at least one eye open to find out.

Well, it turns out, the Biden administration has been completely remaking the Federal Judiciary as the rest of us have been focused on Afghanistan. In just the past three months, without many people noticing it at all, the administration has gotten a remarkable number of its judges through.

Joe Biden has nominated 33 of them, nine of those judges have already been confirmed, and many more soon will follow.

So for perspective, no President in the past 40 years has come close to these numbers by this point in his first term. Many of these judges and the Biden administration will admit this are full-blown political activists, they are not jurists, they're left-wing ideologues. They're people like Myrna Perez who Joe Biden has just appointed to one of the most important courts in the country, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Myrna Perez has spent the last 15 years campaigning against voter ID laws, anyone who wants voter ID according to Myrna Perez must be a racist. Right before her confirmation hearings began, Perez wrote a piece for a social justice magazine in which she railed against quote: "The G.O.P. campaign to make elections less free." Less free? Showing a state ID as do to get on an airplane or buy Sudafed at Walgreens.

So, you would expect the Biden administration to flood the judiciary with lunatics like this. They want power and partisan judges will help ensure that that power goes completely unchecked.

Here's what you wouldn't expect and that's one of the most prominent members of the so-called Conservative Party to spend his time helping the Biden administration do that, but that's happening. It's exactly what's happening.

This summer, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance Myrna Perez's confirmation. Every Republican on the panel voted no except for one. Do you know who that was? It was Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Now why would Lindsey Graham support the confirmation of someone like Myrna Perez? Well to answer that question, it helps know that this is hardly an isolated case. We checked.

Lindsey Graham is the only Republican on the Judiciary Committee who has not voted to reject a single judge the Biden administration has proposed, no matter how crazy they are. For procedural reasons, in a Senate split 50/50, Lindsey Graham's support matters very much.

Senate aides tell us that because of Lindsey Graham, one man, the Biden administration is able to rush its nominees through the Senate confirmation process faster than any other President in memory.

So the most radical President of our lifetimes gets the most judges confirmed, thanks to Lindsey Graham.

Now, those nominees include someone that many Democrats hope to see in the Supreme Court soon. That would be an activist called Ketanji Brown Jackson. Jackson is a former trial judge who spent the last four years writing political orders for the benefit of Jerry Nadler and Nancy Pelosi.

For example, Brown once wrote an opinion comparing the previous administration to an illegal monarchy. That decision was so crazy that the D.C. Court of Appeals, which leans to the left reversed it not once, but twice.

But it was good enough for Lindsey Graham who voted in favor of Brown's confirmation. That's because Lindsey Graham, in case you didn't notice, spent most of last year begging for your money, money from conservatives at all hours on cable television has no problem installing judges who hate his constituents and you shouldn't be surprised by that.

A few years ago Graham admitted in an interview with POLITICO that his overriding political ambition was to quote, "stay relevant," not to represent his voters or keep the left from destroying the country, but to ingratiate himself with the people in power and advance his own interests.

So in that respect, Lindsey Graham has done exactly what he said he would. The question is why are conservatives continuing to promote him and allowing him to continue to sit on the Judiciary Committee?

Well, we would love to ask that question of Lindsey Graham himself. We've asked him many times to come on the show but he refuses, because he's afraid, and that's a shame. That would be a very interesting fact-based conversation.

Well, that's it. That's all the time we have tonight. We hope you have the best night.

Sean Hannity takes over now.

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