Tulsi Gabbard appears likely to be left out of third round of Democratic primary debates

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Tulsi Gabbard appears likely to be left out of third round of Democratic primary debates

Are Democrats rigging their presidential primary again? Insight from independent journalist Michael Tracey.

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson," August 23, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

TUCKER CARLSON, HOST: Good evening and welcome to a Special "Inside the Issues" Edition of “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” We want to open with less than breaking news. This is not a Fox News Alert.

Hours ago, Congressman Seth Moulton of Massachusetts dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination. Confused? Never heard of Seth Moulton, you say. Don't worry that many people have. Moulton served honorably in the United States Marine Corps in Iraq four times. Other than that, he hasn't done a lot, apart from collecting useless college degrees and running for office.

What's interesting, though, is why he is being forced to drop out of the race today. By any sane standard, Moulton as a thoroughly Liberal Democrat on every issue, he is more left-wing than Barack Obama was on the day he left office.

Three years ago, he would be considered a liberal firebrand. Not anymore. By the lunatic standards of the modern Democratic Party, Seth Moulton is now a flaming moderate. And that's the kiss of death. Moderates are not welcome in the Democratic Party any longer. Watch what happened, for example at the last debate, when Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio urged his fellow liberals to take practical considerations into account.

They treated him like a man with an infectious disease. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TIM RYAN, D-OH, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now in this discussion already tonight, we've talked about taking private health insurance away from union members in the industrial Midwest. We've talked about decriminalizing the border, and we've talked about giving free healthcare to undocumented workers when so many Americans are struggling to pay for their healthcare.

I quite frankly, don't think that that is an agenda that we can move forward on and win. We've got to talk about the working class issues for the people that take a shower after work who haven't had a raise in 30 years. Please focus on them, we will win the election.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Congressman, I want to bring in Congressman O'Rourke, your response, sir?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Not a lot of applause for that. Then when former Congressman John Delaney gently tried to encourage his party to restrict its ambitions to the physically possible, Elizabeth Warren ordered him to be banished from Wonderland forever.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN DELANEY, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So I think Democrats win when we run on real solutions, not impossible promises. When we run on things that are workable, not fairy tale economics.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, D-MASS., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, I don't understand why anybody does to all the trouble of running for President of the United States just to talk about what we really can't do and shouldn't fight for. I don't get it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: You and your reality based ideas, how dare you. Be gone. It's demented, obviously. But as a political matter, it's been highly effective. When he dropped out today, Congressman Moulton noted that quote, "It is evident, this is now a three-way race between Biden, Warren and Sanders," and really, it's a debate about how far left the party should go.

Except there isn't really a debate, the farthest left candidates are winning. Of the nearly 20 people in the field, only Biden, Warren and Sanders can muster more than 10 percent support, which in fact makes it a two-person race, if we're going to be honest about it, and why wouldn't we be?

Biden may be a decent person, but he is fading. He says weird things a lot. He did it again today in New Hampshire. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My two political heroes were Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. My senior semester, they are both shot and killed.

Imagine what would happen if, God forbid, Barack Obama had been assassinated after becoming the de facto nominee, what would have happened in America?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Imagine that your Biden's political director sitting off stage and all of a sudden he wanders into unscripted territory and says, "Imagine the assassination of Barack Obama." You've got your head in your hands, you are frantically texting reporters trying to get him to de-emphasize it.

Let's be honest, this is not an attack on Joe Biden. He is not going to be the nominee. He is not going to be the President. I mean, seriously, he is not.

So the actual race comes down to Warren and Sanders, competing visions of how to achieve the same socialist fantasy. Warren is promising reparations based on skin color. That's popular. Sanders wants a government takeover of the entire energy sector.

They'll be working to out crazy each other for the next six months. That is a dynamic guaranteed to produce yet more extremism. And it has some Democratic leaders worried.

Yesterday, for example, the DNC voted down a proposal to hold the debate focused exclusively on climate change. Why would they do that? Well, because the solutions that candidates would promise live on television are insane. Spend $16 trillion, ban airplanes, seize control of the entire U.S. economy.

The trustafarians love stuff like that. Normal people find it terrifying. Even the party hacks here in D.C. don't like it, and that's probably a compliment. Honestly.

You really think Nancy Pelosi believes climate change is an existential crisis? Of course, she doesn't think that, that's why she flies private.

Barack Obama can say whatever he wants about carbon emissions and stroke his chin and be very, very concerned. But when you're spending $15 million of your own dollars on a beach front estate in Martha's Vineyard, you're not really too worried about the oceans rising.

The problem is the Democratic base doesn't get the joke. Democratic primary voters believe the talking points, and very soon, they'll be powerful enough to nominate their own presidential candidate. And when that happens, it's going to be a very different party.

David Tafuri is an old-fashioned kind of Democrat. He is a lawyer and former Obama campaign adviser and he joins us right. So David, I think you're not going to get this on TV, but let's just stipulate. I think it's very likely I'd be willing to bet money on it, Joe Biden is not going to be the nominee.

You've got the other two, the only ones getting real poll numbers are on the record supporting a series of proposals that you know, maybe good ideas or maybe bad ideas, but they're really unpopular with the country, really unpopular -- race based, restitution, reparations -- like nobody is for that. I can get it on the list. I don't think these guys can get elected on this stuff, do you?

DAVID TAFURI, FORMER OBAMA ADVISER: Well, first of all, I don't agree with you about Biden. I mean, he is the front runner. It doesn't mean he's going to win for sure. I think a lot of things are going to happen between now and the primaries, and then you're going through the primaries, anything can happen.

One thing to make clear to your audience is that the issues that voters care most about, like healthcare, gun control, and abortion, actually, all of the Democratic candidates basically agree and they're more in line with the majority of voters than President Trump, if you look at the recent polling. Even a Fox News poll from last week --

CARLSON: I would not say that this --

TAFURI: Let me just finish real quick.

CARLSON: Yes.

TAFURI: Even a Fox News poll from last week shows at more than 60 percent of the electorate favors an assault weapons ban and Trump is against it.

CARLSON: Here's what they don't favor. Well, let me just first say of Biden. Okay, I think Biden is a totally hollow person who will say anything and has no real beliefs. But I think his temperament is basically moderate. And I think he likes other people. Okay. And I like that about Joe Biden.

So I'm not attacking him for ideological reasons. I just think that he is flaky and getting flakier. I think you know what I'm talking about. And I really just don't think that anybody really believes he is going to be the nominee. So there's that.

Second on gun control and abortion, most people may say, "Yes, I'm for gun control. I'm pro-choice. But the Democratic candidates have come out for taxpayer financed abortion in the ninth month of pregnancy. And they've come out on the gun question in favor of forced gun grabs, like cops showing up your house and saying, "Give me your guns." They're on the record saying that.

People don't support those things. That's too far. That's too radical and you know it?

TAFURI: Well, I don't know which candidates you're talking about right now. The eight to ten candidates that actually have a chance to win do not support radical positions like that.

CARLSON: Well, that's not true. Every single one of them support -- every single one of them supports taxpayer funded abortion through the third trimester of pregnancy.

TAFURI: No, no. They support -- they support taxpayer funded abortion according to Roe versus Wade. Roe versus Wade --

CARLSON: Is there a single -- hold on -- is there a single candidate -- no, you're wrong. I am sorry.

TAFURI: Let me make sure -- Roe versus Wade makes clear that states can regulate abortion in the third trimester and every single candidate supports it.

CARLSON: I know what the decision says. I'm just asking, is there a single candidate running right now, we'll just say it -- of Biden, Warren, and Bernie Sanders -- of those three, the only three getting over 10 percent in the polls, any of those support restricting abortion at any time at any trimester, and restricting Federal funding for it, at any time, and the answer is no.

And the point is that's so far out of the mainstream, it's unbelievable. They also support all of them giving free healthcare to illegal aliens. What percentage of the population supports that?

TAFURI: Well, Biden is not trying to change Roe versus Wade and Roe versus Wade makes clear that states can regulate abortion in the third trimester. So you're wrong. He does allow and support those states that have decided to regulate it, which almost all of them had -- have for the third trimester.

Now, with respect to the fact that you keep saying that it's some kind of foregone conclusion that Sanders and Warren are going to win. That is simply not true. They are -- the top person is Biden, and there are several others who are more moderate than Sanders and Warren who also have a good chance of getting hot, catching, you know, catching fire --

CARLSON: I don't believe it.

TAFURI: And going up the poll.

CARLSON: Look, I want that --

TAFURI: I think we're so far away from the primaries still.

CARLSON: ‘Well, we'll see. I mean, look, I want a moderate person in the race. I don't want crazy people on the stage.

TAFURI: And I think that's what we're going to get.

CARLSON: But I am not in control and neither are you and we're going to get a crazy person.

TAFURI: And -- well --

CARLSON: Anyway, we're out of time.

TAFURI: I would just say that Trump is -- there's a lot of fatigue for Trump, and if the Democrats put up a moderate candidate, they likely will win.

CARLSON: They have a decent chance with a moderate. They have no chance with a socialist.

TAFURI: I agree.

CARLSON: Great to see you, David. Thank you.

TAFURI: Thank you.

CARLSON: Bernie Sanders is already known for being a hardliner. Now, he is proving his credentials on global warming, too, with his newly announced climate plan. Sanders has made it plain that the Federal government is going to take over the entire energy sector -- one fifth of the economy -- watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, I-VT, D-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What we need to do is have an aggressive Federal government saying that we are going to produce a massive amount of electricity, from solar and from wind and from other sustainable energies, and we will sell it out.

And by the way, we're going to make money doing that. But you can't nibble around the edges anymore. We need to transform our energy system. That means a massive increase in sustainable energy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: This is a guy who literally knows nothing about energy. Howie Carr is a radio host. He joins us today. So, Howie, the plan that he is outlining is in any normal year would be considered like the most radical thing any presidential candidate has ever proposed from the founding of the Republican until the present day. And yet in this environment, it kind of has gone without notice. What exactly is he calling for?

HOWIE CARR, RADIO SHOW HOST: Well, as you said, he is calling for the nationalization of the energy industry and you know, remember Barack Obama said, we can't drill our way out of this. Well, we have drilled our way out of it, Tucker.

CARLSON: Yes, I've noticed.

CARR: And you know, if we want to prove Barack Obama right, in retrospect, we will give -- we will nationalize the energy industry and then we won't be able to drill our way out of it.

I mean, look at Venezuela, once a prosperous country, one of the world's leading exporters of oil -- more oil in the ground than Saudi Arabia. Now, they don't only not import -- not export much oil at all, they have blackouts all the time. I mean, that's Bernie Sanders' view.

And look at that, he got called out by a college kid yesterday in Chico, California. That kid said, "Well, look, why don't you put your money where your mouth is?" and Bernie got all huffy, as he did with Martha MacCallum A few months ago. He said, "Well, I'm not going to walk to California." Well, why do you and I have to walk?

And as you pointed out, Tucker --

CARLSON: And why doesn't he fly commercial by the way, like everybody else? Like I do? No, I'm serious. I don't understand what -- how can you call for other people to make deep sacrifices in the way they live and their standard of living and where they heat their homes, for example, and you're flying private. Like, how does that work?

CARR: Let's just look at Leonardo DiCaprio.

CARLSON: Disgusting.

CARR: Look at these conferences at Davos to save the world. You know, you mentioned Barack Obama buying the beachfront mansion on Martha's Vineyard for $15 million. How much does he really think there's a problem? What about Al Gore on the West Coast.

CARLSON: Exactly.

CARR: He bought the place on Montecito a decade ago. He obviously doesn't think there's a problem. I don't think they want to debate on climate change because it's a loser issue. I mean, Jay Inslee was the climate change candidate, and he dropped out of the fight. People understand this.

And if you give in on climate change and have a debate, I mean, what's next? Are they going to have a debate on abortion or repealing the Second Amendment? Are they -- or do they want to talk about the genders?

You know, MSNBC, Tucker, you probably saw this. One of the hosts today said that it's incendiary to say that there are just two genders. Joe Biden said they're three genders depending on the Facebook page you go to, 8-57-73, the Democrats want to have a debate on how many genders there are?

CARLSON: It really would be nice --

CARR: Reparations.

CARLSON: It would be nice to get like a coalition of high school biology teachers. You know what I mean? To kind of stand up and stand up for science, please. Howie Carr, great to see you tonight.

CARR: Is it subtle science? Is it subtle science, Tucker? How many genders there are? Not, the Democratic Party.

CARLSON: Apparently it's not. Talk about deniers. Great to see you.

CARR: Thank you.

CARLSON: Well, linked e-mails made it clear that the 2016 Democratic primary was rigged against Bernie Sanders in favor of Hillary Clinton. Now, it's looking like the 2020 race may have similar problems. Tulsi Gabbard has logged at least two percent in several dozen polls, but the DNC does not want her on the debate stage, and they're claiming now that those polls aren't certified polls. So Gabbard likely won't make the next round of primary debates.

Michael Tracey has been following this from the very beginning. He is an independent journalist, and he joins us tonight. So I don't know exactly how many of our viewers are going to vote for Tulsi Gabbard, probably none. But I think we can all agree that Tulsi Gabbard is a valuable voice and we should hear from Tulsi Gabbard, and it seems to me -- I don't want to be paranoid -- but it sounds like the Democratic Party, they don't want her voice included. Am I being a conspiracy person by wondering that?

MICHAEL TRACEY, INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST: Well, you might be surprised, Tucker, she does tend to generate actually somewhat significant support among even conservatives and libertarians.

CARLSON: Yes, I believe that.

TRACEY: Notwithstanding the fact that she has a fairly straightforward left-wing policy agenda. But she has something about her -- I don't know - - ambiance that draws a sort of idiosyncratic range of support from across the spectrum. And I think that has rubbed certain people the wrong way.

I'm not going to allege a conspiracy as to why she is likely going to be excluded from the next debate, but I am going to allege that the criteria the DNC is using to determine who is included and who is excluded is laughably arbitrary.

As I mentioned in an article that I wrote this week in "RealClearPolitics," Gabbard has gotten over the required polling threshold in two separate polls, in two separate early primary states.

"The Boston Globe" is a newspaper with the widest circulation in New Hampshire, and "The Post" and "Courier" is the newspaper with the widest circulation in South Carolina. Gabbard has gotten placed at two percent or more in polls published by those two newspapers, but the DNC in it's bizarre, mysterious infinite wisdom, has decreed, again, arbitrarily that those polls are not approved. They're not -- you know, they don't satisfy some weird criteria that nobody can quite ascertain.

So while I'm not going to allege an overt conspiracy, although it's true that everybody from Donna Brazile to Elizabeth Warren alleged that the previous primary cycle was quote, "rigged," but you'd be forgiven for having that impression given how obscure and sort of inscrutable the criteria that the DNC is using this time around.

I'm not saying that Tulsi should necessarily have special privileges or that the rules weren't laid out months ago, which they were, but the rules don't seem to hold up to any kind of logical scrutiny.

CARLSON: Right.

TRACEY: That's the problem.

CARLSON: And we know for a fact they despise her because she has challenged their neoconservative assumptions about foreign policy, and God bless her for doing that. Michael, thanks very much for joining us tonight.

TRACEY: Thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: Good to see you. We learned today that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been diagnosed with another occurrence of pancreatic cancer. Ginsburg is 86 years old. Last December she was treated for lung cancer. Ginsburg is an impressively tough person. We wish her the best and hope for her recovery.

At the same time, though, we're hoping for the nation's recovery as well. Today is another reminder that Ruth Bader Ginsburg won't always be on the Supreme Court. And we fear that her exit whenever it comes, will unleash yet another wave of hate, threats and cruelty from the institutional left.

It's been less than a year since it happened the last time. Progressives then were willing to destroy any reputation, any institution, any human life, if it meant preserving their grasp on political power. They held the entire country hostage with a mixture of viciousness and insanity. We can't survive repeated outbreaks like that.

Here's hoping that this time, our friends on the left can take a deep breath and calm down. Yes, everyone wants political power, we understand. But a Supreme Court seat is not worth destroying the country.

Well, the CEO of overstock.com, Patrick Byrne just gave one of the wildest interviews in the history of this channel. Martha MacCallum talked to him and she joins us in just a minute to discuss what happened and what it meant. It's a really interesting story.

And then CNN spent two years pushing the Russia collusion hoax. Now, they've hired one of its chief perpetrators as a contributor, a proven liar -- to tell us the truth. All right. We'll tell you what and why. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Welcome back to our "Inside the Issues" Special Edition of “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” Overstock.com CEO, Patrick Byrne resigned yesterday from the company he founded after baffling investors with a press release about the American deep state.

Martha MacCallum hosts "The Story with Martha MacCallum," of course every night 7:00 p.m. Eastern right before this show. She spoke with Byrne right after he resigned and it quickly became one of the weirdest things I've ever seen on television. You can judge for yourself.

Byrne says his relationship with Russian national Maria Butina who is now in prison was a political espionage sting set up by the Feds against America's top politicians. Here is part of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: So you had helped the government a couple of times. They reached out to you, what did they ask you to do?

PATRICK BYRNE, CEO OF OVERSTOCK.COM: I don't want to go into the nitty- gritty right now. Here's what it is. This was all political espionage conducted against Hillary Clinton, Rubio, Cruz and Trump. This is not a theory of mine -- some political theory -- I was in the room when it happened in a way, I mean, not in a way, I was part of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So then Byrne went on to say that his handler in this operation was none other than disgraced F.B.I. official, Peter Strzok. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BYRNE: The men in black as I call them, showed up and asked for this third favor, and I -- well, anyway, I'm not going to go into the details right now, but I didn't know who sent the orders, but I did them. They seemed fishy last summer watching television, and here's the punch line, here's the punch line, people. Last summer, watching television and some congressional hearings, I figured out where those orders came from. It came from a guy named Peter Strzok and Bill Priestap, Carlin, McCabe, Comey -- that was who sent the orders.

MACCALLUM: Well, you're naming a bunch of F.B.I. people there.

BYRNE: Well, Peter Strzok and it has been confirmed to me that my instructions came from Peter Strzok.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Byrne then confidently predicted that this story that he just -- he is explaining would expose Jim Comey in the end, too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: No doubt, Peter Strzok would watch this and say, you know, "He is full of it. I had nothing to do with anything that he is talking about."

BYRNE: I can't wait.

MACCALLUM: I would imagine

BYRNE: I can't -- he won't. I can tell you, Peter Strzok, you want to see a former Director crap his pants? Pardon me. Go stick a television camera on Peter Strzok or let's just say James Comey and say the name Patrick Byrne, you will see a former Director of the F.B.I. crap his pants.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: What to make of all this? We could dismiss that of hand and say he is crazy, but maybe we shouldn't dismiss it out of hand, actually. We talked to Martha MacCallum about it just moments ago. Here's the conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARLSON: Martha, thanks a lot for coming on tonight.

MACCALLUM: Hi, Tucker.

CARLSON: Like everyone else in America, I watched that interview you did just spellbound, and I'm not exactly sure what to make of it. So I am grateful that you're here to tell us your impression. So what did you think?

MACCALLUM: Yes. You know, it was a surprising interview. It's a very surprising story. But I had spoken to a couple of sources that are close to the investigation who said that it's possible that he may be telling the truth. It is sort of the way that they are looking at it at this point. He turned over all of his texts and documents and e-mails to the Justice Department investigation back in April. He met with them twice, April 5th and April 30th.

So there's at least enough of a seed of a thread there that they are hearing him out. He says this is the key to everything. He says, "I was there. I saw what happened." And basically he is suggesting what he thought he was part of, he says he had worked as an asset for the Federal government a couple of times before on different things just to be helpful.

And when they reached out to him this time, he thought he was doing the same thing. But he said it became very clear to him that after some point, it was not a law enforcement issue, but a political espionage issue. And that's when he says, you know, his feelings about the whole thing started to turn.

Now that being said, you know, Andrew McCabe has responded, James Comey has responded. They say they've never heard of him. That nothing about what he described is the way that things happen in these investigations. So you know, there you have it.

CARLSON: So he does a pretty good imitation of a delusional man. I mean, that was my instinct watching. That this guy is imbalanced.

MACCALLUM: Yes, he rails -- yes.

CARLSON: But the allegations he is making are -- some of them are general, others are specific, and they're serious. And so you would imagine that the agencies involved would immediately shoot it down. But you said you've spoken to high level sources who haven't shot it down.

MACCALLUM: Yes. You know --

CARLSON: It's surprising.

MACCALLUM: And I think too, the way they described it is that they're saying that he may be, you know, he may be telling the truth. You know, there may be something or they don't know for sure. This is obviously part of an ongoing investigation, John Durham's investigation, and we'll see if anything comes of it from there.

But, you know, he claimed, when we spoke last night that he believes that, you know, Bill Barr is going to uncover what he says is the greatest American political scandal of all time.

And keep in mind that what we've been going through for the past two years with the Mueller investigation was one side of this investigation. But the other side of the origins of the investigation is just beginning.

He also says, I'm not the only one who, you know, was involved in this, was an asset that was part of this. And I also think that there's -- you know, there's enough kind of mention out there, surrounding this investigation that there's a belief that it wasn't just Carter Page and the FISA applications. That if there was this kind of attempt, this kind of effort to kind of, you know, sprinkle some scandal around and see where it would land and see if they could find something that connected to President Trump, an insurance policy, if you will, that it was likely that they tried it in a number of different places.

CARLSON: Interesting. So we do know, it has been confirmed that he did have a relationship -- a romantic relationship with the Russian woman now in jail, a supposed spy, and his allegation is he was asked by the Feds to have that relationship. Is that right?

MACCALLUM: Well, he says he met her on his own, and then they began becoming interested in her because she was a Russian in the United States, and she was interested in meeting up with all of these political types.

But he says, you know, then they started encouraging the relationship and he claimed on another interview that he -- you know, that they told him to go back and re-initiate an intimate relationship with her.

But here's where things are fuzzy because he said to me, "I never touched her. We were close friends." He said he respected her. He thinks that she is a very smart person. But he is sort of -- once it became clear that she was looking for ways to connect with the Trump administration. She mentioned he says Donald Trump Jr. wanting to connect with and meet with him, and that she sort of moved away completely from wanting to investigate the Democratic side of the equation.

He said about a third of him, you know, believe that there was definitely something that was up with this relationship and with her.

CARLSON: What a story. What an unbelievable story.

MACCALLUM: It is. You know --

CARLSON: I mean, it turns out, you know, maybe as your reporting suggests, it's possible that some of this is real, which is, I guess, shouldn't surprise us.

MACCALLUM: Yes. It's interesting that Andrew McCabe said, you know, some of what he described is not the way we do things, and then he went on to say, -- and then he went on to say, you know, I don't know him. I've never heard of him before three days ago. So we'll see where it leads.

CARLSON: Some of what he -- it's so perfect. Martha. That was great. Great interview. Thank you so much for coming on tonight. I appreciate it.

MACCALLUM: Thanks, Tucker. Great to see you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARLSON: See you. Well, former acting F.B.I. Director Andy McCabe disgraced himself, maybe more than any other single person during the more than two years of the Russian collusion hysteria -- the hoax. He was one of the perpetrators of that hoax.

As recently last February, he was suggesting in live television interviews that the President of the United States might be a Russian spy. At the time, we noted this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Americans put a lot of trust in the F.B.I., they have no choice. It's our top law enforcement agency. F.B.I. officials are supposed to be adults, they are supposed to be immune to hysteria and fads, and above all, immune to political pressure.

And when it comes to Russia, Andy McCabe sounds worse than any CNN anchor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Not to brag, but that was a prescient observation. As of today, Andy McCabe is literally a paid CNN contributor. Joe Concha writes about media for "The Hill." He joins us tonight. So Joe, the question is, McCabe is a liar. He was fired for lying from the F.B.I. Did CNN hire him in spite of that or because of it?

JOE CONCHA, MEDIA WRITER, THE HILL: I think it shows Tucker, that this is now strictly more of a business than anything about journalism. It seems that the prerequisite now is, all right, were you in a position of power? Okay. Do you hate the President? Good. Okay. Here's your stage. Go ahead. Go on. Look at Michael Avenatti. He got on cable news hundreds of times in a small span, because he hated the President and spoke about politics and even Russia when he wasn't qualified to do it.

And with McCabe, by the way, he lied under oath, three times to the F.B.I., as you said, told Anderson Cooper that the President was a Russian asset. So think about this, if he lied to the F.B.I., and we're applying the Michael Flynn standard here in terms of sentencing and going to jail, Andrew McCabe shouldn't be on CNN, he should be in jail because he has committed the same crime that Michael Flynn has.

But instead, he will go ahead and you'll see him on cable news. And it's a complete disservice to CNN viewers, where their integrity is going down, for lack of a better term, a black hole.

CARLSON: CNN this morning suggests that he'd been wronged because he was fired two days before his pension was to be vested. I mean, it's really -- shame has no role there. Joe Concha, it's great to see you tonight. Thank you. Have a great weekend.

CONCHA: Good to see you. You, too.

CARLSON: No place in America welcomes more illegal aliens than Montgomery County, Maryland or as more welcoming toward them. Now two illegal immigrants have been arrested for raping an 11-year-old girl. That story is next as our Special continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Welcome back to "Inside the Issues" Special. The Bureau of Justice statistics has released a new report showing that non-citizens have dramatically increased in its proportion of Federal arrests. In 1998, for example, 37 percent of all Federal arrests were of non-citizens. Last year, non-citizens had risen to 64 percent of all people arrested by the Feds. Again, 64 percent of everyone the Federal law enforcement official arrest is not an American. Amazing.

Overall, the raw number of non-citizens getting arrested more than tripled despite being just seven percent of the country's population, at least officially. Non-citizens are 24 percent of Federal drug arrest, 28 percent of fraud arrest, and 15 percent of all prosecutions in the U.S. District Court for non-immigration crimes.

So the next time they tell you, immigrants are more law abiding than we are. Be quiet. You have your right to criticize them. They're lying. Of course they're lying. They're always lying. They're definitely lying about that.

So it's easy to have this data remain abstract though until it actually affects where you live. Montgomery County, Maryland is a place that has been affected. It's place a place that has fallen all over itself to accept illegal aliens. Now, two illegal immigrants have been arrested for raping an 11-year-old girl. One of the perpetrators received a final order for removal in 2016. But as is often the case, he was never deported.

Vince Coglianese has been following this very closely. He is a host of WMAL Radio here in Washington, D.C and he joins us tonight. Vince, thanks a lot for coming on. So it sounds like there have been quite a few alleged sexual assaults by non-citizens recently.

VINCE COGLIANESE, HOST, WMAL RADIO: Yes. Particularly in Montgomery County, Maryland. Let me start with Montgomery County, one of the richest places in the entire country.

CARLSON: Yes.

COGLIANESE: And it's right here 20 miles away from where we're sitting right now. And this county has been dominated by these illegal immigrant rapes. Over the course of only the past month, we have four illegal immigrants confirmed who have been arrested on rape charges in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Now, what makes Montgomery County unique is that it is a sanctuary County. They don't like helping the Feds with illegal immigrants. When they take an illegal immigrant into custody, including ones that have containers by the Federal government, they don't tell them. They won't let them know.

And in fact, in just the past week, we had an illegal immigrant who committed a rape, allegedly, against a woman when she was blackout drunk. They take him into custody. He has since been released on bond and they never turned him over to I.C.E.

CARLSON: That's unbelievable. So this is -- and we've seen other examples, but I'm not sure we've seen concentration this intense of ways that ordinary -- that Americans are being hurt -- physically hurt -- by the political imperatives of the left.

COGLIANESE: Well, the irony of this is it's not just Americans who are being hurt by this. It's also illegal immigrants who are being victimized by the people that are committing these rapes.

What we're finding is disproportionately the people who are impacted by this are often have the same exact immigrant community. So the county executive is a man named Marc Elrich. He hates Donald Trump. He thinks that Donald Trump and I.C.E. are committing acts of terrorism by enforcing the law. He has used that phrase "terrorism" because it brings fear he says to the community.

Well, I've got to say, Mr. County Executive, what brings fear to the community more enforcing illegal immigration laws or allowing rapists to be released into that community so they can commit crimes against them.

CARLSON: Has anyone noted this to him?

COGLIANESE: Well, people have tried and you know, what's interesting is when the story of the 11-year-old girl who was repeatedly raped by two illegal immigrants, the Montgomery County Police say came out. It was radio silence from Montgomery County leaders. They didn't want to talk about this because they know how bad this is for the signs of their leadership.

And in fact, they were partying on the beach in Maryland, in Ocean City, Maryland during this. They were having a conference refusing to respond to any media requests. It was over 24 hours later, the first response came from a County Spokesman blamed the Federal government for the fact that these illegals committed these crimes.

CARLSON: How did they blame the Federal government?

COGLIANESE: They said, "Well, it's their responsibility to enforce Federal immigration law, they should have done it. If they had done it, this wouldn't happened."

CARLSON: That's unbelievable.

COGLIANESE: That's how outrageous it is. And Montgomery County residents are furious. I'm talking to them every single day on my radio program, and they're absolutely livid and they're not the only ones.

Law enforcement in Montgomery County don't know what the rules are. They're told they're not supposed to talk to I.C.E. Now, Montgomery County leaders are so consumed with self-loathing over all of this and they're trying to get this out of the way that they've told the cops, well, you can actually -- the jailers -- you can contact I.C.E. in the case of severe crimes.

But what that means, totally opaque, not clear at all to local law enforcement officials and they say, these guys, these leaders are making up the rules as they go along.

CARLSON: A little late for the children who have already been raped.

COGLIANESE: Yes.

CARLSON: Quickly, what's the name of the county executive again?

COGLIANESE: Marc Elrich. He is the Montgomery County Executive and he's at the center of all of this chaos. He hates Donald Trump more than he likes his own residents.

CARLSON: Yes, well, that's -- he is not the only one. Vince Coglianese. Thank you for that report.

COGLIANESE: Thank you very much.

CARLSON: President Trump just escalated the trade war with China. Can the U.S. win that war? That's next as our special continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Welcome back to "Inside the Issues" Special. America's brewing trade war with China just became a lot more intense. Earlier today, China announced new tariffs on $75 billion worth of American goods. As is his habit, the President responded on Twitter. He announced a five percent increase in tariffs on $550 billion dollars of Chinese goods.

Gordon Chang is the author of the book, "The Coming Collapse of China" and he joins us tonight. Gordon, thanks a lot for coming on. So here is the obvious thought. Trump is the first President in my lifetime to challenge China in this way on trade.

The Chinese don't like it. They have an opportunity to hurt the American economy going into a presidential election, thereby getting rid of Trump. Why wouldn't they do that?

GORDON CHANG, AUTHOR: Well, of course, they'll try to do that. And I think that that's what they're trying to do right now with these tariffs, and also retaliating against U.S. companies.

But Tucker, the whole thing about this is that they were running out of bullets. First of all, they sell us a lot more than we sell them. Also, you know, they can go after U.S. companies in China. But the problem is, they then undercut their reputation for being a reliable member of global supply chains. And that's what made China rise, getting factories into China.

Now, they're pushing factories out of China, and that's really bad news for the Chinese communist system.

CARLSON: But maybe that's the key to it. It is a communist system. It's not a democracy. And so its leaders can absorb a lot more pain than our leaders can because they're not accountable to voters, they can kind of do what they want. Doesn't that give them an advantage in the short term?

CHANG: It gives them a little bit of advantage. But you know, we have seen President Trump show so much more political will than Xi Jinping. And by the way, you know, Xi Jinping, of course doesn't have a formal election coming up like President Trump does next November.

But Xin Jinping has an election every day. Remember that he is now totally accountable -- because he took power from everybody else. Also, he has deinstitutionalized the Communist Party, which means he no longer has those rules that protect him.

So I think that he has a very low threshold for risk. And I think he is much more vulnerable than President Trump is. Trump can lose the election. Xi Jinping can actually lose his life.

CARLSON: Right. No, that's a really smart point. So what's the next step in this do you anticipate?

CHANG: There's going to be more tariffs, more tariffs and more tariffs. The Chinese are supposed to come to Washington next month for the 13th round of negotiations. Well, like the 12th round, those were not important. Those were like an hour or so. They were in Shanghai. They were just talking points.

I think that if the Chinese actually do come to D.C. next month, it's going to be basically the same thing. The Chinese need to hurt a little bit more before they become realistic. But you know, Xi Jinping right now is at a point where he can't afford to compromise. So I see more friction ahead.

CARLSON: Interesting. Do you think that the Chinese will be willing to damage the U.S. economy?

CHANG: Yes. I mean, they already have tried to do that. They'll continue to do it. That's the only thing they can do is try to affect the American electorate. But you know, people in the United States are now starting to see how maligned China is. And they're starting to rally behind the President.

Not everyone agrees with what the President is doing. But I think everyone agrees with his goals, and that's really important. That's the first step to getting a unified country.

CARLSON: I think a lot of people in Washington side with China in this dispute, but I think outside of Washington, I think you're right and I certainly hope you are. Gordon Chang, thank you. You're such a clear eyed assessor of this.

CHANG: Well, thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: It's Friday, so it's time for the "Dan Bongino News Explosion." Our favorite former Secret Service agent joins us just ahead with his top stories of the week. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: It's Friday, so of course we want to cap off the week as we always do with the "Dan Bongino News Explosion." Our favorite former New York City cop is here with a rapid rundown of the top stories in the past week. Dan Bongino, ladies and gentlemen. Hey, Dan.

DAN BONGINO, CONTRIBUTOR: Tucker, always good to see you. So I got my three faves for the week news stories. Let's start with number three. And oh boy, is this a doozy. Listen, there's no better way to establish your credibility as a news network when you've promoted the collusion hoax for two years, then to hire the guy who basically has been investigated for lying about the collusion hoax for about two plus years.

CNN in case you missed it today, folks, hired Andy McCabe, former Deputy Director of the F.B.I. You know, Tucker, I wonder who went into the room with the focus group at CNN and said, "This is a great idea. Let's hire this guy." I mean, I get it, only 10 people in these tuna fish airport actually watch CNN, but still, not the best move towards getting your credibility back. I'm not crazy, right? Probably not the best guy, just throwing that out there.

CARLSON: The guy who just got fired for lying about 20 minutes ago. No. He is probably not. It's not the most trusted man in the news. No.

BONGINO: And he take shots at us. It's hysterical. I love it. All right, moving on. We can't go a week ever without a de Blasio story. Of course, socialist Mayor of New York Bill de Blasio, who had a little bit of a mishap. He was supposed to make it to this union meeting and give speeches, his flight was canceled, so he decided to remote in, but there was a little bit of an issue with his voice check this out. This is kind of hysterical.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, D-NYC, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are doing something that should have been done a long time ago in this country. We're passing legislation this year to guarantee working people like every other industrialized country in the world to guarantee working people by law, two weeks paid vacation every year. That's the kind of thing that would transform people's lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BONGINO: Yes, that is now -- listen, Bill is holding steady, Tucker, don't worry, at zero percent. He is hanging in there. He is holding a steady zero. Don't worry. I know you're a big fan of Bill de Blasio. There's nothing happening. His campaign is holding rock solid at zero percent. But talk about a jinx campaign. We did not manipulate that, by the way. That was the actual voice that came over. There was some kind of a sound problem --

CARLSON: But it's so perfect. It's just every time I see de Blasio, I think we've got a real problem with democracy. I don't know a single person -- and including Liberal Democrats -- who doesn't think de Blasio is lazy, dumb, incompetent and wrong.

And there's not one person I've ever met who admires Bill de Blasio. I never met someone who voted for him. And yet he's a two-term Mayor. How does that happen?

BONGINO: Tucker, the guy gets up at like 8:30 to 9:00 in the morning. I mean, is that even physiologically possible after 40? I'm serious. Like we were kind of joking about it there, like, when was the last time you got up at 9:00 a.m.? Like when you went to sleep at five? Does that even happen? Like who does that as a normal functioning adult? No less the Mayor of New York City? No wonder the guy is magically holding at the astounding donut of zero percent in the polls. Just phenomenal.

CARLSON: Phenomenal.

BONGINO: All right. My last story, our number one story of the week. Joe Biden just cannot -- what a gaffe machine. I mean, it just never stops. We have to update shows nightly on the Fox News Channel, an update for the latest gaffe. I am going to host for "Hannity" next and we should update the show.

But this one, I just want to throw this out there. The Golden Rule of politics, don't ever ask a question you don't know the answer to. Well, Joe Biden decided to interview Peter Doocy at the network and asked them, "Well, have you seen any bigger crowds out there?" To which Peter Doocy responded, "Actually, we have. Elizabeth Warren had like 12,000 people last week." And Biden look totally shell shocked.

Don't ask a question you don't know the answer to. That's the Golden Rule of politics.

CARLSON: The poor guy. It just -- it just seems like he is fading.

BONGINO: It is. I almost feel bad for him. I really do. And that's hard for me to say, but I say it. Wrap it up.

CARLSON: It's unbelievable. Dan Bongino. Great to see you.

BONGINO: You too, buddy. See you next week.

CARLSON: UC Berkeley has introduced a new class for its very woke student body, it's a student talk class is called "Adulting." It will cover skills like doing taxes, saving money, coping with stress -- all skills they don't have, apparently.

It's easy to make fun of all of this, but actually, we support this. We support anything that makes American young people more capable and independent and in fact, more mature.

We've got some our own suggestions for classes we'd like to see. How about, how to disagree with someone without trying to ruin his life? Or how to consume facts then draw your own conclusions without being bossed around by "The New York Times"? Or how about why your mechanic may know more about life than your college professor.

We would really like to see how to fly fish because in the end, nature is bigger, prettier and more important than the Internet. Something we should all remember -- every day, including this weekend, which is here. Enjoy it.

That's it for us tonight. We'll be back Monday and every week night, 8:00 p.m. The show that is the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness and groupthink.

By the way, I'll be gone Monday and Tuesday for a work-related trip, but I'll be back again on Wednesday, and I'll see you then.

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