Tucker Carlson: Tulsi Gabbard's career as a rising Democratic Party star came to a halt after questioning this

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Tucker Carlson: Tulsi Gabbard's career as a rising Democratic Party star came to a halt after questioning this foreign policy

Fox News host Tucker Carlson reacts to Tulsi Gabbard's announcement that she is leaving the Democratic Party on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'

This is a rush transcript of "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on October 11, 2022. 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.

So, when Tulsi Gabbard won the Democratic Party's primary for a congressional seat in Hawaii 10 years ago, she had effectively won the seat. Hawaii may be the most liberal out of all 50 states. It is a Democratic state, flat-out. It has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate in nearly 40 years, so if you get elected as a Democrat in Hawaii, it's not exactly breaking news, it is standard operating procedure.

And yet when Tulsi Gabbard won that primary and then the seat, the Democratic National Party took a deep interest in her, and you can see why.

Here was a smart, appealing 31-year-old who knew what she believed and could explain it fluently. And by the way, she was also an Iraq War veteran.

So, in political terms, Tulsi Gabbard was near-perfect, and they got it immediately. Barack Obama endorsed her right away. Nancy Pelosi called her personally and invited Tulsi Gabbard -- do you remember this -- to speak on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention.

And then when she was sworn into Congress in January, the DNC named Tulsi Gabbard, Vice Chair of the National Party. She had just gotten there, and she was Vice Chair of the DNC.

And then, of course, the media played its prescribed role: If Nancy Pelosi likes you, well so do they. So, fawning profile after fawning profile emerged.

If you lived in Washington at the time, you remember it very well. Here, ladies and gentlemen, the future of the Democratic Party, Tulsi Gabbard. In case you don't remember, here's a selection to jog your memory:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, 2012: Watch out for the next superstar -- listen, Tulsi Gabbard.

JONES, 2015: Tulsi Gabbard is a rising star in this party. Tulsi Gabbard should be here tonight. The reality is we do not have enough young veterans in this party, enough young women in this party, enough people of color in this party.

CHRIS JANSING, MSNBC, 2016: You're considered a rising star in the Democratic Party. You had a position of leadership in the Democratic National Committee.

LEA GOLDMAN, MARIE CLAIRE MAGAZINE, 2012: Tulsi's story is really, I think, tailormade for Hollywood. I half expect Natalie Portman to be vying for the role any day now because this story is not to be believed.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT, 2012: Tulsi Gabbard, she is going to be the one to watch tonight at the DNC.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, 2015: And Tulsi Gabbard, she's an Iraq War veteran. Yesterday she was promoted from Captain to Major in the Hawaii National Guard. So, she certainly is a rising star. The fact that she is not here tonight for whatever reason is unfair.

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't know, but in a battle, I want her in my trench. I can tell you that.

VAN JONES: Me, too. Me, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Did you hear that? She's a rising star. Hollywood is going to make a movie about her. "I want her in my trench."

It's pretty hard to believe now, but that was the absolute consensus among Democratic Party sycophants until 2016.

In 2016, as if by command from above, the fawning stopped abruptly, replaced initially by silence, and then by howls of scorned rage.

So, what happened in 2016? Well, Donald Trump was elected President and then a few days later, displaying the independence of spirit that Democrats claim to love in young women, but actually despise more than anything, Tulsi Gabbard decided to talk to the new President about an issue that she cared about, which was US policy towards Syria, a country that, again, Gabbard was virtually alone in pointing out has an awful lot of Christians in it, so maybe we should pay attention.

As she put it at the time, "I felt it was important to take the opportunity to meet with the President-elect now before the drumbeats of war that neocons have been beating, drag us into an escalation of the war to overthrow the Syrian government." Woah. We can't say that in Washington. Maybe she didn't know, but they told her, "Stop, let the adults do it," but Gabbard didn't seem to care.

A few weeks later, she went personally to Syria. She was a Member of Congress. You can do that, and she wanted to see conditions for herself and then while she was there, she met with the Syrian President, Bashar al- Assad, and that was it. It was over.

Whether Tulsi Gabbard knew it or not, her career as a rising star within the Democratic Party came to a complete, abrupt and final halt. She had done the one thing you're not allowed to do. She committed the one unforgivable sin, which is to question permanent Washington's foreign policy. You can't do that, and everyone knows it, and if you look around, you can see that no one does do it.

They always tell you how radical Sandy Cortez is, Rashida Tlaib. Would they do that? No way. AOC may be a socialist, but in the end, she is with Bill Kristol and Liz Cheney on Team Raytheon. She does not cross that line because you're not allowed to.

But Tulsi Gabbard -- as someone who had served in the US military, in fact was still serving in the US military, was an elected Member of Congress -- decided, why shouldn't I say what I think? And so she did.

And for doing that, overnight her fellow Democrats accused Tulsi Gabbard, the combat veteran you'd want in your foxhole, of committing treason against the country she was serving.

Hillary Clinton went even farther than that. Speaking of conspiracy nuts, Hillary Clinton, way crazier than Alex Jones ever thought of being, she claimed the Russians were grooming Tulsi Gabbard as some kind of Manchurian candidate.

You want to listen to lunacy? Listen to this:

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER US SECRETARY OF STATE: I'm not making any predictions, but I think they've got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate. She's a favorite of the Russians.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

CARLSON: Well, that's just completely whacked. Was she a crisis actor, too? What a lunatic, but no one noticed because everyone was saying it.

"The LA Times," which at one point was an actual newspaper, accused Tulsi Gabbard of "talking like" a Russian asset, maybe a spy.

So, the years went by and Tulsi Gabbard decided to run for President, still as a Democrat as she had been in her entire time in Congress. She had always been a Democrat, of course, the Vice Chair of the DNC and so she wound up in a presidential debate in October of 2019, and she responded to the smears against her. Watch this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TULSI GABBARD, THEN CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: "The New York Times" and CNN have also smeared veterans like myself for calling for an end to this regime change war.

Just two days ago, "The New York Times" put out an article saying that I'm a Russian asset and an Assad apologist and all of these different smears. This morning, a CNN commentator said on national television that I'm an asset of Russia. Completely despicable.

As President, I will end these regime change wars by doing two things: Ending the draconian sanctions that are really a modern day siege, the likes of which we are seeing Saudi Arabia wage against Yemen that have caused tens and thousands of Syrian civilians to die and to starve, and I would make sure that we stop supporting terrorists like al-Qaeda in Syria who've been the ground force in this ongoing regime change war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: They called her a Russian asset. Now, that slur is so common that we don't really think of it, but think about it just for a second. This is a transparently patriotic person, an elected Member of Congress who is serving in the US Army, who is also, by the way, one of the nicest people in all of Washington who is making traditionally liberal points about war - - not that all wars are bad or war is never necessary. She has participated in wars personally.

She is merely saying and has said dozens of times on television that wars that don't benefit the United States are probably a bad idea for us to engage in. That's all she said and for that, she was run out of town.

Now, why is that? Why is that such an unacceptable thing to say? Well, of course, because there's a pattern here. Certain people do benefit from wars, and they want more.

So, three years after that debate, another US-funded regime change war is underway and that is exactly what's happening. This time our stated goal is removing not some third world dictator who might have WMD, but removing a guy who was the world's largest nuclear stockpile (6,300 nuclear warheads) Vladimir Putin, and once again, because Tulsi Gabbard has questioned the wisdom of this complete lunacy, Democrats are accusing her of working for Vladimir Putin.

So, if you want to know what the Democratic Party actually believes, don't listen to what they say. "Oh, we want to empower women of color who are also veterans." No, they don't. They want people who support regime change war. That's their red line. That's the one thing they will brook no dissent on whatsoever. They don't care what you think about that. They don't want to debate you on it. If you disagree or even ask questions, they go right to traitor.

So today, Tulsi Gabbard did what is probably inevitable and probably has been since 2016. She left her own party, the Democratic Party, and we don't have to guess as to why because she explained it in some detail. And we ask you, please listen carefully to this, because it's inspiring and interesting, and she did it on her new podcast called "The Tulsi Gabbard Show." It launched today. Here she is:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TULSI GABBARD, HOST, "THE TULSI GABBARD SHOW": I can no longer remain in today's Democratic Party. It's now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue and stoking anti-White racism, who actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms enshrined in our Constitution, and who are hostile to people of faith and spirituality, who demonize the police, who protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, who believe in open borders, who weaponize the national security state to go after their political opponent and above all, are dragging us ever closer to nuclear war.

Now, these are some of the main reasons I'm leaving the Democratic Party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So, keep in mind, until today, this was a registered Democrat, an office holder, a standard-bearer of the Democratic Party, the future of the Democratic Party from the country's most liberal state. This was a liberal Democrat.

Did you hear that? Is there a single word you disagree with? Is there a single word that the Republican who represents you, who you send money to, who you vote for, would repeat in public?

In other words, here you have someone who, until yesterday, was a member of the Democratic Party saying things the overwhelming majority of Republican voters believe, but only a tiny, a vanishingly small minority of Republican officeholders are willing to say out loud, because it's too scary. Oh, it just tells you so much.

Tulsi Gabbard joins us tonight, and we're happy that she is.

Tulsi Gabbard, thank you so much for coming on tonight. That was quite a statement. I'm listening to this and I'm thinking, you know, we have Republicans on the show from time to time, they don't put it as clearly and bravely as you do.

So, how do you feel? I mean, you've been in this party a long time. You were its future, you left. I mean, this has got to be kind of a fraught moment for you.

TULSI GABBARD, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CONTRIBUTOR: You know, Tucker, as you know, I've always been an independent-minded person. A Democrat, yes, but an Independent Democrat and my loyalties are very clear.

I love our country, and I took an oath both as a service member, as a soldier as well as a Member of Congress to support and defend the Constitution, and that is an oath that I take extremely seriously.

And so when you look at this party, today's Democratic Party, it is controlled by fanatical ideologues who hate freedom. They despise the Constitution. They actively find ways to undermine our God-given rights enshrined in the Constitution, like freedom of speech. If you say something, and I say something that they don't like, instead of saying, "You know what? Agree to disagree. Live and let live," in the traditional liberalist kind of way. No, that's not good enough.

They will do all that they can to destroy you, silence you, smear you, work with Big Tech, work with corporate media to actively destroy anyone who dares to even question their agenda. They are against freedom of religion, they are hostile towards people of faith, people who have their own spiritual practice, especially Christians 0be vindictive, to discriminate, to punish people who happen to exercise that freedom of religion.

The list goes on and on, but the foundation of freedom is really what was at the heart of my making this decision that I cannot be a member of a party that is against freedom and actively trying to undermine it.

CARLSON: Well, it was inspiring to hear that, but also disappointing. I mean, I feel like printing out your words and asking every Republican candidate who comes on the show to read them, and if you can't read them, I'm not voting for you. Right? I mean, why is it so hard to say out loud? First of all, the people are always talking about racism are committing it. Why is that so hard for people to acknowledge it? It's so obvious.

GABBARD: It speaks to the whole environment of fear that those in power, these elitists in power have fomented to where people are afraid to speak the truth. They are afraid to exercise their right to free speech, because hey, you might lose your job, you might be canceled, you might be trashed, and God forbid, in Washington, you might not be invited to the cool kids' parties, you might not be as popular and this is really what it comes down to. It is rather than taking a stand for peace, for prosperity, security, and freedom of the American people, we have too many people in Washington who are war mongers, subservient to the military industrial complex, and continuing to put their own selfish interests with the interests of their donors first, with no mind for the costs and consequences that their decisions have on the American people.

This is exactly what we're seeing right now with President Biden and leaders in Congress whose decisions are actively pushing us to the brink of a nuclear holocaust, of which they may have their bunkers where they'll be saved, but we, the American people will have no shelter, no place to go, no place to hide and face the consequences that could destroy all of humanity and the world, as we know it.

CARLSON: You were the first person I heard say that back in February when this all started. I believed you.

GABBARD: That's why I ran for President.

CARLSON: Well, it turns out you were absolutely right. Really quick. Since you did serve for so many years in the Congress in the party you just left, you know everybody, of course. Has anyone called you today? Your former colleagues? Democrats to say anything to you?

GABBARD: One. One got in touch with me and sent me a text message with three thumbs up.

CARLSON: I would love to know who that is, but I'm glad you're influencing people.

Tulsi Gabbard, I'm not going to ask you what you are doing next. We will all watch, but I hope you'll come back on the show soon. Thank you.

GABBARD: I look forward to it. Thanks, Tucker.

CARLSON: Thank you.

So it has only been a couple of months, but you can still hear it in the back of your head, can't you? "This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated." If you don't get the COVID vaccine you're immoral.

Then we found out the COVID vaccine doesn't actually prevent the transmission of COVID. Hmm. Even Pfizer doesn't deny that. In fact, they knew that and we know that they knew it because one of the company's executives just made a stunning admission about it. Not beating a dead horse here. It's kind of important. We've got details just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Well, even the zombies in Brooklyn aren't defending Tony Fauci anymore. He has been unmasked as the sinister buffoon he is. But it wasn't that long ago, he was in charge of everything. And when he was in charge of everything, he told us repeatedly that if you get the COVID vaccine, you're not going to get COVID. Period. We know that, and we're quoting, "You become a dead end for the virus," said Tony Fauci.

And so widely accepted was that statement that Twitter banned anyone who disagreed with it or even questioned it as part of his COVID misinformation policy. But it soon became clear that that itself was misinformation, because of course, you can get COVID and pass it on if you've had the shot.

And in fact, that shouldn't be surprising, because Pfizer, which made the vaccine, never even tested to see if it prevented the transmission of COVID. What? You'd think they would know that, since Tony Fauci and everyone in the US government and everyone at your kids school and everyone on television and "Morning Joe," and all the rest of them knew for a fact, but Pfizer didn't even know, and we know that because Pfizer executive, Janine Small, answered questions on Monday at the European Parliament and here is how it went.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT "ROB" ROOS MEMBER OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: Was the Pfizer COVID vaccine tested on stopping the transmission of the virus before it entered the market? If not, please say it clearly; if yes, are you willing to share the data with this committee? And I really want a straight answer, yes or no and I'm looking forward to it. Thank you very much.

JANINE SMALL, PFIZER EXECUTIVE: Regarding the question around, did we know about stopping immunization before it entered the market? No. These -- you know, we had to really move at the speed of science to really understand what is taking place in the market.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Oh, the speed of science. That's the speed at which you're moving too fast to do science, and you just sort of hope for the best and yell at anyone who disagrees with your preferred and hoped for outcome, the speed of science.

Rob Roos is the man you just saw on tape. He is a conservative Member of the European Parliament. He's from the Netherlands. And we are grateful to have him on tonight.

Rob, thanks so much for coming on.

Did you know the answer to that question when you asked it? And were you shocked by what she said?

ROOS: Well, good evening, Tucker.

It really was a special moment. For the first time, Pfizer admitted that the vaccine was not tested on stopping the transmission of the virus when it entered the market, and this has massive implications.

Governments pushed millions of people worldwide to get vaccinated by telling them -- by telling you to do it for your grandmother.

CARLSON: Yes.

ROOS: And they took perfectly healthy young people into taking this jab using false arguments. And they used big words such as "antisocial" to sow immense hatred against people who refused to comply with the government's wishes. And even worse, many governments, including mine actually introduced so-called COVID passports. These passports made access to parts of society conditional. Those who did not wish to get vaccinated lost that access, not being able to visit a restaurant or a gym, all in the name of public health.

Our governments love to talk about institutional discrimination, but this was real institutional discrimination.

CARLSON: Yes.

ROOS: In many countries like the US and Italy, vaccine mandates were introduced for certain professions. Many people lost their job, their livelihood, their business because they stood by their principles.

Austria even had a lockdown for the unvaccinated because of this reason. The government literally imprisoned people within their own homes. All of this was based on the idea that vaccination helps prevent the spread of the virus, otherwise, why shun people out of society?

But this has now proven to be a big lie. Even the President for International Development Markets of Pfizer now admits that there was no scientific basis to say vaccination would stop the transmission of the virus. And I find this one of the biggest scandals of our time. The politicians responsible for this will be angry that people are looking back at this time, but I won't forget what they did to millions of people. And if we are a democracy, we should have accountability and that is what I'm calling for.

CARLSON: Yes, if we are a democracy -- and by the way, Pfizer knew this. None of its executives bothered to correct these politicians and yet no Pfizer executive has been charged with the crime they committed, which is pretty unbelievable. I wish there would be more politicians like you in Washington.

Rob Roos, thank you for coming on tonight. We are really grateful.

ROOS: Thank you very much. Have a good evening.

CARLSON: Thank you.

So Biden announced at a fundraiser the other night, not to you, not on television, but to his donors, and by the way, we're on the brink of nuclear Armageddon. That's not a big deal. What? Did you know that? We are on the brink of nuclear Armageddon where your children get killed? Okay, we've got more on that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: So Joe Biden was at dinner with donors the other night no doubt talking about trans rights and how vitally important it is to get equity at the Federal Reserve when he casually dropped the observation: Oh, by the way, we're pretty close to nuclear Armageddon.

Nuclear Armageddon? We could all die. You, your kids, the grandkids you don't yet have, all dead. All humanity gone.

It was kind of a headline, right? No, not in this country. The media know their job. It was just to cheer on the war until it gets to the point of nuclear Armageddon.

MSNBC is super excited because all the celebrities are for it. Ukraine's drone has a celebrity endorsement. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEHDI HASAN, MSNBC HOST: Zelenskyy has also been doubling down on his PR savvy, leveraging the soft power of his now huge global celebrity status, and that of some of his newfound friends to bring more attention to the Ukrainian cause.

One such newfound friend, hero of the Battle of Yavin, Jedi Master, and veteran freedom fighter, Mark Hamill.

Yes, I kid you not, Luke Skywalker himself, the very Tatooine farm boy who shot a proton torpedo into an exhaust pipe the size of a one brat to destroy the first Death Star. Pardon my momentary detour into "Star Wars" fanboy-dom.

MARK HAMILL, ACTOR: Basically what they were wanting me to do was become the so-called ambassador which is a glorified word for representative of their army of drones.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So save that tape, if we survive, we'll look at it because that's what peak insanity looks like. And the craziest of all is Zelenskyy who literally called for nuclear strikes on Russia, which has more nuclear warheads than any country on the planet now wants to take Crimea. What? What does it have to do with the Russian invasion? This is getting super, super crazy, and life on the planet is endangered by it. Maybe we could note that at least, maybe you should know.

Glenn Greenwald has said this before. He is a truly independent journalist who writes in Substack. He joins us tonight.

Glenn, thanks so much for coming on.

Now, I don't want in any way, my opinions to be seen as a challenge to the intellectual hegemony of the surviving "Star Wars" cast. But nuclear Armageddon seems like something that we should be talking about, no?

GLENN GREENWALD, JOURNALIST: Yes. I mean, it would seem like it would be a topic at least worth mentioning in passing when the President of the United States draws closer to nuclear Armageddon than any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is where the United States and Cuba were very close, minutes away, in fact, from destroying the planet and all life on it through nuclear annihilation.

And the question I have, Tucker, and it is the question we've been asking since this all began and even before is, if you're going to go to a war, if you're going to get involved in a war as the United States undoubtedly is in Ukraine, the question is, what is the reason to risk tens of billions of dollars and in this case, a possible nuclear exchange? Are there really people in the United States (AUDIO GAP) Eastern Ukraine, which 99.9 percent of Americans couldn't name because they shouldn't, because it doesn't matter to them is that question of who rules those provinces really, so vital and prescient to your lives that is it worth the risk of nuclear war in order to fight Russia over it. It's worth it to Russia. It is right on the other side of the border. Why is it worth it to the United States?

CARLSON: Well, that's a really great question, but you're not allowed to ask it. So, it does -- I would just say one thing, during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, I think most Americans were aware of the stakes and how close we were. Do you think most Americans have any idea how close we are now?

GREENWALD: How can we have any idea of how close we are now when even when the President comes out and says it? They just continue to ignore that and emotionally manipulate the public.

CARLSON: Yes. Glenn Greenwald, I'm sorry, from Rio tonight. Audio cut out. That's weird.

So, I want to bring you a story that you may not be aware of, as well, and that is that some prominent Republicans in Washington actually don't want to win in November. It seems really important to you maybe for the future of the country, but some of them are actively trying to lose. Mitt Romney is one of them.

He is working against his fellow Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee in his reelection campaign. It seems like a big story. Not getting a ton of coverage.

Senator Mike Lee joins us tonight.

Senator Thank you very much for coming on. So your race, which I haven't been really paying attention to, but I just started reading about it, you are being painted as some sort of dangerous extremist, which I can see firsthand you are not, and you have your fellow Utah Republican senator working against you, like how did this happen?

SEN. MIKE LEE (R-UT): Well, he has explained that he has got two friends in this race. When he first told me that my reaction was, "Who is the other friend?" And that he therefore wants to remain neutral.

Look, I understand it. I respect him.

Here is what's going on. My opponent, Evan McMullin is a Democrat running in disguise. So, I understand the commitment made by my colleague and I work with him and like him, but here is the deal.

I don't think Mitt Romney wants Chuck Schumer to continue to be the Senate Majority Leader. If I'm right on that, then he has to get on board because that's exactly what he will be producing. That's exactly what this will lead to, if you're target and tricked into electing Evan McMullin, a closeted Democrat into the United States Senate.

And so as soon as Mitt Romney is ready to, I will eagerly accept his endorsement. He's got a big family and I encourage all of them to go to leeforsenate.com and make donations to my campaign because Evan McMullin is raising millions of dollars off of ActBlue, the Democratic donor database, based on this idea that he is going to defeat me and help perpetuate the Democratic majority.

CARLSON: So maybe you don't want to say this, maybe you're not even aware of it, but I believe it is true that members of Mitt Romney's immediate family, his nuclear family are actively helping McMullin against you.

So, is it possible to just call Mitt Romney whom I know you've known probably your whole life, and say, "Please, like there's a lot at stake here."

LEE: Well, I've asked him. I'm asking him right here again, tonight, right now. Mitt, if you'd like to protect the Republican majority, give us any chance of seizing the Republican majority once again, getting it away from the Democrats who are facilitating this massive spending spree and a massive inflationary binge, please, get on board. Help me win reelection. Help us do that.

You can get your entire family to donate to me through leeforsenate.com.

I'd invite all of your viewers to do the same because this is a race that's getting closer and closer because Evan McMullin continues to raise millions of dollars from progressive Democratic donors nationwide who are hell bent on getting rid of me and replacing him with Evan McMullin.

CARLSON: I don't think -- do you think the voters of Utah understand how fervently Evan McMullin's donors hate the values of the State of Utah? I mean, for real. It is not about tax rates, it is the way people live. They are religious people with families, like they don't -- they hate that. Do you think your voters get that?

LEE: No, I don't because look, the local media in Utah is complicit in this. They want Evan McMullin to win. For that very reason, they are refusing to ask him policy questions. They allow him simply to engage in ad hominem attacks on me notwithstanding the fact that the guy claims to be campaigning on this platform of civility, which is laughable, but they never make him answer any actual policy questions.

So yes, I think a lot of Utahns are being duped and fooled, and it doesn't help to have the tacit acquiescence, that tacit assistance of my Republican colleague for Utah. It's noteworthy here that 48 -- all 48 of my other Republican colleagues are on board with me, have supported me, have supported my campaign, and have endorsed me. It's not too late, Mitt. 1You can join the party. I welcome you to do so, because otherwise you'll be stuck with two more years of Chuck Schumer being the leader and two more years of Joe Biden having unfettered rule over the United States Senate without any Republican backstop.

CARLSON: I mean, this is a guy Pierre Delecto, who marched with Black Lives Matter which hates the nuclear family and endorsed riots like, I think he has gone insane. My view, not yours.

But Senator Mike Lee, I appreciate your coming on tonight. It's an amazing story that we were not aware of. Thank you.

LEE: Thank you.

CARLSON: So the first thing you hear if you complain about rates of illegal immigration is "Shut up. They're way better than you." Illegal aliens have lower crime rates than you do, the native born Americans. That's actually not true. Like a lot of things, it's just a flat out lie. We have got the numbers to prove it, it is straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: John Carter Cash is the only son of June Carter and Johnny Cash, so imagine that childhood. Well, he is working on a new documentary about it. The documentary is called "Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon," coming out later this year.

We just spoke to John Carter Cash for a brand new episode of "Tucker Carlson Today." He tells us what the last part of his father's life and his faith. Here is part of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN CARTER CASH, AMERICAN COUNTRY SINGER-SONGWRITER, AUTHOR AND PRODUCER: In the face of his struggles, he didn't only endure, but he quadrupled his efforts and he made arguably some of the best music of this life.

CARLSON: Yes, he did.

CASH: . in the last part of his life. You can hear the frailty. You can hear -- you can hear the fact that he knew he was broken, and then he wasn't going to be able to get backed up in many ways. You can hear that in his voice.

But there's something else there: You can hear the tenacity. You can hear the endurance. You can hear the almost preternatural strength that was rising in him to continue his creativity.

He lost his eyesight in the last part of his life. And, you know, I mean, it is -- and yes, a lot of it was brought on by his own, you know, his own nature. But the way he lived while he was dying was a testament to the human spirit.

And so, you know, I carry that with me. There's -- but it is really -- it all comes back around to his faith.

He had that sense of peace, and for one thing, it's like, he never -- he was never angry with God. One of his favorite books from the Bible was the Book of Job, and likened to Job, Dad was surrounded by loss, loss of his brother when he was a child, the loss of his wife towards the end of his life, something that devastated him that he never got over.

But he never cursed God for that and he always -- I think he had a sense of peace and understanding that this was grace, this was life. But it didn't mean that we didn't go without struggles, that we didn't go without pain. We live on a fallen plane.

And I mean -- but he had a way of showing that kindness and that love and that connection with the spirit to everyone in his life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: How he lived while he was dying revealed who Johnny Cash really was. That's true many people. That's a great conversation, you can see the whole thing on "Tucker Carlson Today" on foxnation.com.

So, in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Ian, the Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis announced the arrest of four looters, three of them were here illegally.

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GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): We've had four looters that were arrested, I guess, a couple of days ago and they need to be brought to justice and we're not going to tolerate it. But you know, three of the four are illegal aliens, and so these are people that are foreigners. They are illegally in our country and not only that, they try to loot and ransack in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

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CARLSON: So you come to the country illegally, you break a law to get here and you start stealing when you get here? Really, it's really too much. How common is this? Because it is insulting in addition to everything else.

We don't really know because most States do not identify illegal aliens when they're arrested. So, you don't know how often they commit crimes, and there is a point, of course, a political point in hiding that from you.

But a new analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies looked more deeply into it and we can tell you the results of this study exclusively tonight.

CIS found that illegal immigrants in Texas, for example, "Appear to be convicted of crimes such as homicide, sexual assault, and kidnapping at higher rates than the State average." For example, in one recent year, the homicide conviction rate for illegals in Texas was 3.3 per 100,000. That was much higher than the State's overall rate, which is 2.9.

So these are meaningful numbers and they demolish the talking point that's often thrown at you when you bring up this topic.

Sean Kennedy was lead researcher on this for the Center for Immigration Studies. He joins us tonight.

Sean, thanks so much for coming on.

How did you find these numbers which had been hidden?

SEAN KENNEDY, LEAD RESEARCHER, CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES: Well, a number of studies had been done by first the libertarian, Cato Institute and then repeated by "The Washington Post" and "The New York Times" debunking the notion that illegal immigrants commit any crime for that matter and I was just curious, and my lead authors were curious as well as to what the actual data said and we found out that the data was being absolutely misrepresented.

They claimed that native born Americans could be compared apples to apples to illegal immigrants except for Texas doesn't collect data on native born Americans. That's some other category which includes unidentified illegal immigrants.

And every year, especially in serious crime categories, Texas keeps finding more illegals in its prisons that weren't identified initially upon arrest. So, there is more and more illegals amongst the convicted felons in Texas when Texas goes back and checks on people's immigration status.

CARLSON: So the Cato study was a lie, and yet, as you said, it was weaponized immediately by the usual liars to shout down anyone who said, "Well, maybe we shouldn't have open borders."

KENNEDY: Absolutely, it was a mischaracterization because you used to be entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts. But now you're entitled to your own facts, but not your own opinions and that is where we stand. It is that one of these lies gets halfway around the world before we get our pants on with the truth, and that is where we stand on illegal immigration and crime because a subsequent study by the University of Wisconsin also confirmed Cato's analysis, except for, it made even more egregious methodological errors and mischaracterized more data about illegal immigrants than what Texas collects.

And we spoke to Texas Department of Public Safety at length and got the original data they used, and it just doesn't say what they said it says. It doesn't include the categories that they represent in their papers.

CARLSON: Well, that makes sense that people willing to break immigration law will break other laws. I mean, most normal people would not break immigration law. If I said, "Hey, Sean, why don't you and I sneak into Japan, they've got a high standard of living, good food, you can ride the subway without getting murdered. Let's sneak in." You would say, "We can't because it's against the law." Right?

So, it takes a certain sort of person to sneak into a country, does it not?

KENNEDY: Absolutely. It also takes a certain kind of country to allow people to come in with impunity, and not hold them to account. At the end of the day, we don't know how many people in our prisons, though some estimates by the Bureau of Justice Statistics say that one in five prisoners in California is illegal, one in 10 in Oregon, nine percent in Massachusetts, so we know that there are non-citizens in our prisons. How they got there, why they're still here are questions we need to answer, but the only way we can answer those is if we have the truth out there.

And unfortunately, the media and some supported research institutions are hell bent on misleading us because they want to push for their policy. Facts be damned.

CARLSON: Yes. It is the pandemic of the unvaccinated.

KENNEDY: Yes.

CARLSON: A lot of lying about numbers. Sean Kennedy, I appreciate you actually getting to the truth. Thank you.

KENNEDY: Thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: So do you remember this guy, the hatchet in McDonald's guy threatening ladies with a hatchet? Well, he's out of jail, he never went to jail, but he's back in trouble.

We'll tell you how, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: If you were trying to have dinner in McDonald's in Manhattan last month, you may remember the guy who showed up with a hatchet and was threatening people on a rampage or maybe you saw a media coverage of it. Nothing happened to him. Prosecutors let him out of jail with no bail, whatsoever, but that doesn't mean he stopped being the man he is. We've got an update. FOX's Matt Finn has that for us tonight.

Hey, Matt.

MATT FINN, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Tucker. Our viewers may remember this shocking viral video of this man smashing up a Manhattan McDonald's with an axe. He was arrested and released without bail on that incident.

And now, "The New York Post" reports that this man was arrested again, this time in Brooklyn. Thirty-one-year-old Michael Palacios dubbed the ax-man was arrested Sunday. Palacios was allegedly busted spray painting graffiti in Brooklyn, and then stealing a $3,500.00 bike to escape from police.

Officers ultimately took the man into custody. This time he was charged with two counts of criminal mischief and possession of stolen property. He was released without bail, again, yesterday, according to sources.

Now last month, Palacios was seen on this video terrorizing a McDonald's with an ax after reportedly getting into an altercation. At one point he pointed that ax at an innocent horrified woman inside that McDonald's.

Palacios claims he was defending himself and didn't chop up the people in that McDonald's because he did not want to.

We will keep you updated on this second arrest for the ax-man -- Tucker.

CARLSON: So you're saying, Matt, he didn't chop up the people in that McDonald's, so he has got that going for him on his LinkedIn page.

FINN: Right.

CARLSON: I am the man who did not chop those people at McDonald's. We are going to try and get in touch with that man, book him on our show. We're going to ask him, why didn't you chop up those people at McDonald's? We will see.

Matt Finn, great to see you tonight. Thank you.

And we will be back 8:00 PM tomorrow night. In the meantime, here is Sean Hannity.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST, "HANNITY": He did not chop them up because he didn't want to.

CARLSON: He didn't want to. Just didn't. Just didn't want to.

HANNITY: This is a scary world. Anyway, thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: Yes.

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