Victor Davis Hanson says Bernie Sanders' surge is a commentary on anemic Democratic presidential field

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Victor Davis Hanson says Bernie Sanders' surge is a commentary on anemic Democratic presidential field

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders faces a 'never-Sanders' left, says Victor Davis Hanson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," February 3, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

TUCKER CARLSON, HOST: This is a Fox News Alert, the doors have just closed at thousands of caucus sites across the State of Iowa. For the 2020 Democratic race, the voting season has begun officially for good and bad. We're going to learn who's really up and who's really down.

Good evening. Welcome to "Tucker Carlson Tonight." We're expecting the first Iowa results to arrive in the next hour. We also have for you new and exclusive Fox voter analytics.

We'll also give you our explanation of how tonight's vote fits into an ongoing and particularly bitter Civil War within the Democratic Party, one that has not been covered very well by the media. They're the home team and they don't want to talk about it, but we will. That's all just ahead.

But maybe it's best to open tonight with an explanation of how this whole process works because it is complex.

And for that, we're joined by a man -- no better man -- Bill Hemmer, host of "Bill Hemmer Reports." He's in Iowa right now. Hey, Bill.

BILL HEMMER, FOX NEWS HOST: Hey, Tucker, good evening to you. Simply put, you mentioned it, thousands of locations all across the state. If you live in that particular location, that precinct in Iowa, you walk into a room, sometimes there might be names on the wall.

And if you support a particular candidate, Tucker, you go to that area. If that candidate has achieved a minimum of 15 percent of those who attend that caucus site, that candidate is considered viable and they advance.

If you're 15 percent or below, you've got a choice as a caucus goer in Iowa, you can stay with a candidate with less than 15 percent or you can move around the room to another candidate who is at that 15 percent threshold, or you can go home and it's pretty much the simplest way to explain what's happening in Iowa right now eight o'clock East Coast time.

To tell you, Tucker, if I were looking for a few signs throughout the night on Joe Biden. These are the results from four years ago.

Hillary Clinton just a hair beating Bernie Sanders by three tenths of a point. If I'm Joe Biden and I'm looking for caucus voters who support me, I'm looking along the Mississippi River area, all of these counties blue collar areas. This is Dubuque County, it is heavily Catholic. Hillary Clinton was a five-point winner four years ago.

If Joe Biden is going to have a good night, he has to do well in areas like Dubuque this evening, so we'll keep an eye on that.

What if you're Bernie Sanders? Where'd all these voters go from four years ago? Are they still with Bernie Sanders from Vermont? I'd look at accounting like Linn County here. This is Cedar Rapids in Eastern Iowa. Bernie Sanders won that over Hillary Clinton by five points.

Why is this -- why could this be a data point, perhaps, Tucker, throughout the evening? Bernie Sanders had a rally there a few days ago. Huge crowd, 3,500 people here. Second most populous city, Cedar Rapids in Iowa. If Bernie Sanders does well, he could be off and running there again in 2020.

So we'll see. We'll see how this thing starts to fill in throughout the night, and as we advance to the 2020 present day, the colors between Biden, Sanders and Bloomberg to a lesser degree because he's not campaigning here will fill in.

So that's the baseline of knowledge at the moment, Tucker. We will ride it throughout the night and see what we get here in Des Moines.

CARLSON: It is so complex. I've covered this since '92, and I've never really figured it out. But you have. There is still time.

Thanks a lot. Bill Hemmer for us tonight. We've got exclusive Fox News analysis on tonight's race. The polling data just came through, Shannon Bream is breaking it down as we speak, she will join us in just a few minutes.

But it is here, the night Democrats in Washington honestly have been dreading for weeks. Impeachment has obscured this, but trust me, in the mind of every Democratic consultant and office holder in D.C. has been tonight -- the first voting of the 2020 primary season.

As is so often the case, pretty much everything, the illiterates posing as political analysts you see in your television screen, once predicted has turned out to be wrong.

Remember they told you the Bernie Sanders had no chance to win? That the race was really between Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Beto O'Rourke and Kamala Harris. It all sounds pretty amusing now, now, that Beto has gone back to skateboarding and Harris has dropped out.

Warren is still in the race, but is now plummeting toward Earth. Joe Biden has wandered off to find the dessert cart. Why the hell can't a man get a decent slice of rhubarb pie in this place? He is wondering.

Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, is actually now the front runner in the Democratic nomination race, and this is the nightmare scenario for the Democratic establishment in Washington.

They're suddenly hoping against hope that Amy Klobuchar gets some gravity tonight and some votes, and in the meantime they're putting in frantic calls to a certain authoritarian New York Mayor, who also happens to have $60 billion in the bank, save us tiny billionaire, save us.

The rest of us have a lot to enjoy this primary season, but there's also a lot to learn by watching it, so watch it.

Sanders is running on a premise that you might recognize actually, if you voted for Donald Trump in 2016. The system is rotten and corrupt, elect me, and I will fight for you.

Except in this case with Bernie, there's some evidence that he will also tear down a lot of it -- maybe all of it. So far, Sanders has promised to use executive orders to open the borders, just in case you didn't think the country was changing fast enough already.

Sanders wants to ban hydraulic fracking, which would shutter America's most productive economic sector and make us once again dependent on Middle Eastern theocracies.

Sanders promises we will be fine though, because the Green New Deal which not incidentally, will give him total control of a huge portion of the American economy. So there's that.

And then he says he would nationalize our healthcare system and make private insurance illegal. He would hike the top tax income bracket, he'd impose a wealth levy on those who he thinks have too much, and that's just for starters.

So the Democratic Party's funders on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley don't like the sound of this, the new taxes especially. They love lifestyle liberalism when it means legal weed and raunchy halftime shows and non- binary bathrooms. That stuff is free, and in fact, you can make money on the weed and they are.

But tightening the Tax Code. No. No, thanks. They're not into that at all.

So they just call their friends over on CNN, the digital bodyguard of the ruling class, and they begged for help, and CNN delivered as it always does.

Just days before the last debate, CNN ran an utterly unproven hit piece on Sanders, calling him a sexist, and then they went further.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Senator Sanders, I do want to be clear here. You're saying that you never told Senator Warren that a woman could not win the election.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, I-VT., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That is correct.

PHILLIP: And Senator Warren, what did you think when Senator Sanders told you a woman could not win the election?

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, D-MA., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I disagreed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: See, he is a sexist, just like Donald Trump. And that was the signal to all the other establishment toadies to pile on which they obediently did. Paul Krugman waddled out from his cubicle at "The New York Times" to call Bernie Sanders a liar.

Craven hack John Chait of New York Magazine did what he was told -- as he always does -- and he called Sanders's surge an active insanity.

David Frum at "The Atlantic" reassured his panicked readers that Bernie can't win. But of course, none of them really believed that, they wouldn't be writing these pieces in the first place. They know Sanders could win, and they're worried about it.

And honestly, in some level, you can't blame them for being worried about it. Sanders is a human bug light. Every lunatic in the Democratic Party seems drawn to him inexorably, they can't stay away.

Most of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's squad, for example, has endorsed him. They are on the road for him. Just the other day, his surrogate Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib reminded the country how she earned her reputation as the single most unappealing Member of Congress. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Iowa, we have three days. I don't remember if you guys remember last week when someone by the name of Hillary Clinton said that nobody -- we're not going to boo, we're not going to boo. We're classy here.

REP. RASHIDA TLAIB, D-MICH.: Oh, no, I'll boo. Boo.

[LAUGHTER]

TLAIB: You all know I can't be quiet. No, we're going to boo. That's all right. The haters -- the haters will shut up on Monday when we win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Well, Monday has come and we're going to find that in just a moment if they have won, not that it really matters because no matter where he places in Iowa tonight, Bernie Sanders is not going away and neither are his supporters.

The Democratic Party is going to be dealing with these people for months and months, if not years, and you can't say it's not deserved, because it is.

Ian Samuel is a former Supreme Court clerk and he joins us tonight. Ian, thanks so much. Congratulations on a win that has not yet happened. We're expecting that Bernie Sanders is going to do well tonight. I can never resist this, will you make a prediction?

IAN SAMUEL, FORMER SUPREME COURT CLERK: I think we're going to win. I mean, you know, at this point, the caucus doors have actually closed. There's no more work we could actually do to do anything. The precinct captains are doing their thing.

And although I haven't been an Iowa, I have a lot of close friends who have been out there knocking doors, driving around in the freezing cold and all of them feel good. I think we're going to win.

CARLSON: So does it give them energy or does it discourage them when The Atlantic and New York Magazine and The New York Times and sort of buffoonish outdated publication, sort of as one land on the Sanders campaign? What's the effect of that?

SAMUEL: We love it. We love it. It's like, if you see the "Fifth Element" where you had that big planet that every time you shot a big weapon into it, it just got stronger. We thrive on this stuff, because it demonstrates that one of our arguments is true. That this system is rigged by a bunch of elites that you wouldn't want to have dinner with.

And look how scared they are? You know, they're not scared of Elizabeth Warren, and they shouldn't be. So if you really don't like these people, and a lot of people don't for a really good set of reasons.

CARLSON: I am one of them.

SAMUEL: You want somebody who scares them. That's part of why Trump had a lot of appeal because he was loathed by people who were so loathsome. And so, we love it. Pour it on.

CARLSON: Loathed by people who are so loathsome. People you wouldn't have dinner with. I'm looking for something to disagree here.

So what do you make of the Democratic National Committee's response. The D.N.C. is of course supposed to be neutral in a primary. It's the Democratic National Committee, not the Joe Biden National Committee, but they are now changing the debate criteria to allow Michael Bloomberg in.

What do you make of that?

SAMUEL: Yes. And remember, they swore up and down earlier in the process that they couldn't change these rules for anybody. Sorry, Cory Booker. Sorry, Mike Ravel. Sorry, everybody else. We can't change these rules for anybody.

And then Michael Bloomberg writes -- and this is true -- a gigantic donation to the D.N.C., and they look at, you know, Bernie Sanders streaking in on them like an asteroid. They're like dinosaurs looking up at him insisting he's a socialist, and they discover that maybe they can change those debate rules.

And I say, great. We are always looking for another billionaire to put in the loss column. So, you know, please have him there. We'll pay for the box for him to stand on ourselves.

CARLSON: So, this is -- we have only a little bit of time, it's a very long -- probably long answer, but give me the condensed version, how does the Democratic Party recover from this?

SAMUEL: Well, as it has existed previous to now, it's not going to. One of two things is going to happen. This party is going to be taken over by the working class sort of multiracial coalition that is behind this campaign, and I think that is what's going to happen.

And it's going to be the Democratic Party in name still, but it's going to be operated for a completely different set of interests, organized as really almost a real Labour Party, which the United States has never had. That's one possibility.

Or if that doesn't happen, then this is the Democratic Party's last chance to hold on to this coalition the sort of base is going to split in two, and the Democratic Party is going to go the way of the wigs. This is it and they know that it's it.

CARLSON: I think you're right.

SAMUEL: They are freaked out.

CARLSON: And I wish we'd done this story more aggressively for the past two months because I think you're absolutely right about that. Lots riding on this.

Ian, great to see you tonight. Thank you for that.

SAMUEL: Thanks.

CARLSON: With the doors finally closed, the caucus areas in Iowa are finally able to release brand new and exclusive Fox News voter analytics.

"Fox News at Night" host Shannon Bream, our friend is here with those numbers -- Shannon, good to see you.

SHANNON BREAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Yes, and Tucker, we've talked to nearly 3,000 people who are going to these caucuses tonight. Now, that they've begun, let's talk about some of the attendees, how did they feel?

Okay. Women are more than half of those who say they're going to show up tonight, but the female candidates don't have a lock on their support. Warren does top the list followed closely by Biden, Sanders and Buttigieg. Klobuchar rounds out this group at 15 percent.

Okay, so we also looked at seniors. They're about a third of the caucus-goers. They don't necessarily want to back an older candidate. Biden does top the list for them, but look at the following, Klobuchar, Buttigieg and Warren then come in.

Okay, so what about caucus-goers under the age of 45? On the other hand, they are breaking for Sanders with Biden at the bottom of that pack. They're very passionate. They're turning out. They've pledged they're going to be there tonight no matter what.

So Sanders also enjoys the backing of some longtime supporters over time. Now these may be carryovers from 2016. Listen, a lot of these, four in 10 of those who have known all along who they'd support say, they're backing Sanders. Nothing is dissuading them. They're sticking with him.

And finally, those who have just picked their candidate in the last few days, because there's been a lot of talk about how these caucus-goers actually said, listen, I don't know what I'm going to do when I get there. They're spreading their support more evenly among the candidates.

And of course, once they get in there and as Hemmer explained, they start debating with each other and they start horse trading and all that kind of stuff, they are still very malleable -- a lot of these folks.

So we will continue to track tonight. We have much more Fox News voter analysis coming up and as we get these nuggets, we will make sure you get them, too -- Tucker.

CARLSON: Klobuchar doing a little better than I expected, I think in that last graph. We'll see. Shannon, thank you. That was interesting.

BREAM: You've got it.

CARLSON: We have a lot more from Iowa in this hour and throughout the night, but that's not the only thing going on in the world this evening.

China's coronavirus keeps spreading and there are alarming signs -- genuinely alarming signs -- that that country's communist government is hiding just how bad things are in that country. You should be concerned, we are. There's new troubling undercover footage out of China. We've got it for you, and that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: This is a Fox News Alert. The Iowa caucuses are going on at this very moment. They're caucusing. And the first results will start arriving in just moments. When they do come, we will have them here immediately, obviously, and we can't wait.

So we wait on that. The other big story tonight is the continuing spread of the coronavirus in China and now throughout the world.

Amazing undercover videos from China show the scope of the crisis there. Not only that, but they raise disquieting possibilities that China's government is not telling the whole truth about what is going on. In fact now, that seems likely. Chief breaking news correspondent, Trace Gallagher has more on the story -- Trace.

TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CHIEF BREAKING NEWS CORRESPONDENT:  Hey, Tucker. The death toll from coronavirus in China is now 425 and that surpasses the country's death toll from the SARS virus back in 2002-2003.

But remember, that's the number China is reporting and there is skepticism because the country is notorious for secrecy and censorship, and many critics believe China is downplaying the severity.

Some Chinese citizen journalists are now posting videos online that we have not been independently verified showing a situation that appears to be getting worse.

In one video, clothing salesman, Feng Bin claims to have spotted eight dead bodies in five minutes at public hospitals in Wuhan. After the videos went public, Feng says masked men in Hazmat suits banged on his door telling him he needed to be quarantined. Feng says he was suspicious because he didn't have any symptoms and the men were not doctors.

Sure enough, he says they broke into his home, confiscated his electronic devices and took him away, not to a hospital, but to jail or he was accused of selling the videos.

There are numerous other reports of China cracking down on activists who are trying to use these videos to investigate the severity of the outbreak.

Chinese human rights defenders say more than 250 Chinese citizens had been detained for allegedly, "spreading rumors."

And finally we should note that food companies in China have launched contactless delivery service where food is left outside and drivers stay at least 10 feet away from customers. We should note KFC and Pizza Hut in China are also not allowing their drivers to have contact with customers -- Tucker.

CARLSON: Those are shocking videos, Trace.

GALLAGHER: Yes.

CARLSON: They really are. Thanks for that.

GALLAGHER: Sure.

CARLSON: Appreciate it. Gordon Chang knows an awful lot about China. He is the author of the book, "The Coming Collapse of China." He joins us tonight. Gordon, thanks so much for coming on.

So 450 deaths. That's the official number. It's hard to believe at this point, and we've spoken to people who seem to have knowledge of this in the U.S. government who suggested that that's not true. What do you make of that number?

GORDON CHANG, AUTHOR: Yes, that number is far too low, Tucker, and there are really two reasons for it. One of them, as Trace Gallagher mentioned, it is deliberate falsification. This has been going on since the virus was first identified last month -- in December.

But also there's something, and it's even more worrying. A second reason is, I think that the government in Wuhan and some other cities have just lost the ability to pick up corpses.

So really what we're having right now is they are completely overwhelmed. They're not able to keep accurate statistics. And so what we are witnessing is essentially a breakdown in government and keeping accurate statistics is a very minor part of their priorities right now.

CARLSON: Well, that tells the whole story right there. I mean -- and I think we maybe should have seen this coming. If you quarantine a city of 11 million people, bigger than New York City, that's not a small thing. There's massive disruption, economic disruption, massive expense in that and it's hard to control people, so you would never do that unless you felt you had to, would you?

CHANG: Right, and you know, I can understand why they want to quarantine. But remember, the Wuhan mayor said that about five million people from his city left before the quarantine was imposed.

And also right now, the quarantine has aggravated a problem, and that is people can't get to hospitals, so their at home and at their home, they're dying and they are infecting other people in their households because they are not in a sense quarantined from wives, husbands, brothers, sisters, whatever.

So you now have a situation where the quarantine has made the problem worse and it's also created panic, and that panic has had consequences on for instance, social cohesion, which is absolutely necessary if you want to beat an epidemic.

CARLSON: That's right. We should say the video we're playing right now, I don't know if you can see it, Gordon, but apparently the man who shot this video has now disappeared. Probably not surprising.

Very quickly, you're painting a picture of a country moving toward the brink of a real disorder. You think that's right?

CHANG: Yes, because also, you have -- it's not just Wuhan. Many virologist think that this Wuhan will be also duplicated in cities like Shanghai, Chongqing, maybe even Beijing. Clearly, there is fear everywhere throughout China right now, and this is only going to get worse because it's probably not going to end until April or May.

CARLSON: Scary. Gordon Chang, thanks so much for that.

CHANG: Thanks, Tucker.

CARLSON: We're taking you back to the State of Iowa. The first voting in the 2020 race, commencing now. The doors closed at the top of the hour. Any minute, we're expecting the first results.

Whenever facing truly dramatic events like this one, of course, we turn to Professor Victor Davis Hanson. He's a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and he joins us tonight.

Professor, you're looking at the voting in Iowa, and this really is the first moment where you get to test a lot of our theories about what voters want and what they don't want. And it looks -- we don't know of course -- but it looks like Bernie Sanders is doing pretty well. What does that tell us?

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, SENIOR FELLOW, HOOVER INSTITUTION: Well, it tells us that nobody in their right mind ever thought that his unabashed unapologetic socialists would ever win a primary or much less have a shot at the nomination.

It's been a century, Tucker, since Huey Long and Eugene Debs -- those were socialists that rose and fell.

CARLSON: Yes.

HANSON: I think it's a commentary on how anemic that Democratic field turned out to be. Joe Biden's candidacy was like a scab that was torn off during impeachment. We looked underneath it, it was sort of a putrid wound with Hunter Biden and he didn't -- the stress got to him.

And then Elizabeth Warren was what she -- she is what she always was. She was strident, self-righteous, sanctimonious, part pseudo socialist, part capitalist grifter. So that candidacy has stalled.

And he trends on the same thing that promoted Donald Trump. He's authentic. I can't think that Bernie would any more change his outer borough New York accent than Trump did, not like Biden or Hillary Clinton going to the south. You're so tired, I'll put you all in chains.

He is what he is, and that helps him. He is also hated by the party establishment in the way that Donald Trump was.

The never Sanders left is just as inauthentic and unattractive as the never Trump Republican establishment.

CARLSON: That is true.

HANSON: And that helps him. You know, all of that said, Tucker. I don't think that he is going to get the nomination ultimately, and if he were, he would -- I don't think he was going to win because he's very different than Donald Trump.

Donald Trump poached the heart out of the Democratic Party, the blue collar, lunch bucket constituency that was turned off by open borders and so-called free trade, things like that. And Trump has no appeal, I think to where Trump is, excuse me -- Sanders has no appeal where Trump is vulnerable.

Suburban women are going to be terrified by some of Sanders' agenda that you articulated earlier. The open borders, the wealth tax, high income taxes, that's not going to reassure people.

So I don't think that he is -- and then, is he really an outsider, Tucker? He's spent 40 years in politics. He doesn't have anything to show for.

CARLSON: Good point.

HANSON: Donald Trump was an outsider. This was new to him. And so he's been around and so I think there's enough differences that he doesn't quite fit the Trump model.

CARLSON: One thing we're learning and this is similar to Trump, a lot of Democrats don't like their own party. And that's, I think a powerful takeaway from what's going on.

HANSON: That's a great point because Trump united the Republican Party, 92 percent. I can't see Sanders uniting 92 percent of the Democrats in the same fashion.

CARLSON: Exactly. I completely agree with that. As always, thank you, Victor Davis Hanson.

HANSON: Thank you.

CARLSON: President's reelection team is watching closely tonight, of course. Lara Trump joins us to provide the campaign's reaction to what they're seeing. That's next.

We are tracking Iowa all night, so stay tuned to get the results the moment we get them. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Fox News Alert. It is just after 8:30 Eastern time. It is 7:30 in the State of Iowa and the doors closed minutes ago at the caucuses. Early results are imminent.

We're joined right now in fact by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. They're both in Des Moines, Iowa. It is great to see you. I don't know who to ask first so jump ball, what is your -- and I know you hate to predict -- but is your sense that going into this, Bernie was the front runner. Will he come out of it high on the roster, what do you say?

MACCALLUM: I think Bernie is going to do well. I mean the feeling that you get across the board here, but I think one of the most interesting things from the Fox News voter analysis, Tucker, is that the top five appear to be bunched very closely together.

CARLSON: Yes.

MACCALLUM: So I think that the potential for some interesting surprises here tonight is very plausible.

BAIER: And remember the process here. It's not like a lot of different processes. You go into a place, a precinct, a firehouse, and you get in the corner, and they go through and they just separate and you've got to stand there, and it takes a while.

So they're in there now. The doors are closed, but you have five candidates within striking distance, within essentially the margin of error, if you want to talk in polling terms, and Sanders is well positioned. Warren is, you know, stronger than a lot of people thought she was going to be.

The big question is Joe Biden, Tucker, and where he finishes here.

CARLSON: So Martha, given the process, it does seem like it rewards the candidate with the most intense supporters.

MACCALLUM: It does, and I think that's why one of the things that we're watching really closely is how Bernie Sanders reacts after this first round, because the way they're trying to organize it is that nothing will be released until all of the results are tabulated.

But on that first round, all of the candidates have their own apps where they're tabulating everything, and will Bernie Sanders, because of the pressure that he's under, against -- from his own party, as you were just talking about, Tucker, will they start to sort of leak out some of that information?

Because I think that they're trying to, you know, very aggressively game the impression here, not to change the numbers, but to make sure that they get those numbers out there.

CARLSON: So Bret, if Pete Buttigieg, of course from a nearby state, Indiana, feels like he's got to do pretty well tonight or else it's harder for him going forward or is that his campaign sense, do you think?

BAIER: I think so. I mean, I think he needs to finish in the top tier, but by all accounts, he's kind of there going in and it matters what the ground game looks like.

That is a lot in Iowa -- how you can get people first to show up and then to be influential and kind of move people around in these different precincts.

You have to have a precinct captain who says, hey, listen, let's go get the Yang people. Get them to stand over here and let's win this thing on the second alignment.

CARLSON: By the way, that would be the Yang gang. I think --

BAIER: Yang gang. Sorry.

CARLSON: Bret and Martha, thank you both so much. I hope you're having fun.

BAIER: See you.

MACCALLUM: Thanks, Tucker. We'll see you later.

CARLSON: The caucuses are actually being held, believe it or not for both parties tonight. Word is Donald Trump won on the Republican side. That was never in question.

So even the President's campaign is focused more on the democratic results tonight, of course. Lara Trump is the daughter-in-law of the President of the United States and is advising his campaign. She joins us tonight from Iowa. Lara, thanks so much for coming on.

LARA TRUMP, SENIOR ADVISER TO TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN: You've got it.

CARLSON: So I can imagine if I asked who would you like to see win, you'll say it doesn't matter because we feel strong about our chances in November.

But if no one was around, and I said, who did you really like to see win? What would you say?

TRUMP: You know, Bernie looks very strong right now, and I think whenever you're talking about comparing on November 3, 2020 -- two different candidates, they couldn't be more different between Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.

So you're right. It doesn't really matter to us at the Trump campaign who it is because we really feel like people are feeling the results of the Trump presidency in very positive ways every day across this country. So we feel great as we go into November.

But listen, if you want a stark contrast, and you want to show people really how frightening it could be out there, I guess, Bernie Sanders could be that person. But we'll have to see what the people of Iowa and all across this country decide.

CARLSON: It kind of seems like Elizabeth Warren has collapsed. Maybe that's too strong that she has collapsed. I suppose we'll find out fairly soon. But she's certainly not performing in the way that the national media expected, say three months ago. Does that surprise you?

TRUMP: No, I mean, listen, nothing surprises me. This has been a very unique Democratic field, I think and obviously my experience from 2016 when I was here in Iowa caucusing for Donald Trump who did not come in first place.

So things as we know in these very early caucuses and primary elections are always different and you can't really predict the future by them.

But it's been a very interesting field to see, and I think from the Trump campaign perspective, listen, we love a clear front runner, so we can focus in on that person. But it really hasn't panned out that way yet.

So listen, we're all watching just like everybody else in the country to see what happens.

CARLSON: It does seem awfully chaotic for a party that has said for three years now, all we care about is beating Trump. That's it. I don't care. Just give me somebody that could beat Trump. There's no clear front runner. Does that seem strange to you?

TRUMP: Well, it should be strange. The problem is, instead of focusing on actually getting along with this President and doing things positive to impact this country, they've been obsessed with trying to get him out of office.

So maybe they should have spent their time, I don't know, vetting better candidates and trying to find people that are likable as candidates.

Instead, they've tried to impeach the President. They've put forward the Russia collusion hoax. They've worked against him at every single turn.

Fortunately for the country, the President has been incredibly successful with everything he has done despite the fact that they worked against him, so maybe they should put their energy elsewhere, who knows?

CARLSON: Yes, I don't think they got anything out of any of that. And of course, as you said, the country definitely didn't.

Lara Trump, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

TRUMP: You've got it. Thanks so much, Tucker.

CARLSON: Well, a lot is riding on tonight's results for all the candidates, but Joe Biden, maybe most of all. He was supposed to be the prohibitive front runner, we'll find out if he is.

Peter Doocy is with him. He has been traveling with Biden. He's an Iowa for us tonight. Hey, Peter. So how do the -- how do the Biden people feel about this tonight?

PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: We've got some brand new info about that, Tucker. I just spoke to a Biden adviser and said that right now, the former VP is watching the coverage with his family and this adviser told me that the entry polls or the entrance polls that they have seen so far from caucus locations lines up with what they were expecting.

But we don't know exactly which polls they have seen. So we don't know if that is promising for them or not so much.

You can see behind me there are very few people here outside of staff and press because most of the Democrats that they are expecting to be here for eventual remarks from the former VP are still at their caucus locations making their way over.

And I can also report that whenever they get here, there is a cash bar setup. It will be $5.00 for a beer, $8.00 for in mixed drink if any of the Democrats so choose.

CARLSON: Now, that's a lot. You said the former Vice President was watching the returns. Any idea on what channel he was watching them?

DOOCY: No, we could find out.

CARLSON: If you would, I'd be grateful. If you could tweet it, we will be watching. Good luck out there, Peter. Great to see you.

DOOCY: Thanks, Tucker.

CARLSON: Major night in the political world, but it's also a sad one, particularly for a lot of us here. We've got news about Rush Limbaugh and we're going to tell you much more about it and speak to his most recurring guest host right after the break.

We are also expecting results as we've said from the Iowa caucuses, any minute. We're on all night long here on Fox. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: This is a Fox News Alert. We are monitoring the Iowa caucus results closely. We're going to start to get the numbers very soon. And of course, we'll bring you the winner as soon as we know who it is, so don't wander off.

But first, we want to bring you some sad news tonight. Radio show host, Rush Limbaugh has announced he has been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. He will be taking off time for treatment.

It goes without saying that we're rooting for him and saying a prayer for him. But it's also worth pausing for a moment now that we've all been reminded once again how really little control we have over our lives and noting what credibly talented person Rush Limbaugh.

Limbaugh has been the target of coordinated political attacks for more than 25 years, so it's easy to forget that he is not primarily a political figure. He's a broadcaster, and he is a remarkable one.

His critics are too small-minded to admit that, but see for yourself. Try hosting a three-hour show every day with no guests, and you'll get a sense of just how impressive Rush Limbaugh is.

Limbaugh doesn't just talk politics, he explains it and that's the key. It's always been the key. His show packs more facts and ideas into a three- hour period than most college courses do, and Limbaugh has done it five days a week with no tenure for decades. Again, try that yourself sometimes.

The main worry at this point is that no one else will ever try it again. The next guy will be content with shallow attacks and clever memes, Twitter on the radio. That's what we seem to be heading sometimes.

And it's yet another reason to root as fervently as you can for Limbaugh's speedy recovery. Godspeed Rush Limbaugh.

Joining us today is our friend, Mark Steyn, who is a fill-in host very frequently on the Rush Limbaugh show. He is filling in tomorrow, and we're happy to have him. Mark, thanks so much for coming on. What sad news this was.

You, of course know Rush Limbaugh really well. What's your reaction to it and to him?

MARK STEYN, AUTHOR AND COLUMNIST: Well, it is sad. Today was a very typical show. He did two and three quarter hours of great, terrific trenchant insight with a lot of fun, and a lot of fun aside.

He made some passing aside on a Tom Jones record about an hour and a quarter into the show. So he gives you all the heavyweight stuff. He's got a rich life. He has got a hinterland of interests, Rush. And that's why he is not like a lot of narrow people who are just focused on who happens to be up point and a half in Iowa, last week or whatever.

And then in the last 10 minutes of the show, he told us some really devastating and tough news.

CARLSON: Well, actually, I want to pause right there if we could and show our viewers who didn't see it, what Rush Limbaugh said in his show today about his illness. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO SHOW HOST: I have been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. My intention is to come here every day I can.

I've had so much support from family and friends during this that it's -- it's just -- it's been tremendous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Boy, that's heavy duty, but he handled it with self-control.

STEYN: No, it is heavy duty and he hates having to talk about himself in that way. You know, Rush is a phenomenon. As you were saying he does it for three hours a day. He's done it for over 30 years.

Radio was invented, got going just about a century ago. Rush has been number one for a third of the history of the entire medium.

He basically invented that form, and there are hundreds of radio stations all over the country that basically build their schedules around him. They've got him from noon to three Eastern. So then they find someone for the mornings and they find someone for the afternoons and someone to go before him, someone to go after him.

But basically, if it weren't for him inventing that form, those stations would be playing soft and easy favorites or doing sports talk or doing something else entirely different.

And if you imagine -- if you can imagine the state of American conservatism without the form that Rush invented, after Romney lost eight years ago, some one of these clever consultants who's made millions and done nothing said that we need to cut loose Rush on the talk radio crowd.

Well, Rush and that so-called crowd you want to cut loose bring 30 million people to the table while the consultant brings nothing.

The first time I guest hosted, I was asked while I was down in Australia, I was with the Prime Minister then, John Howard, and I said I had to fly back to guest host Rush's show and he said, oh, I hear that's a pretty big show.

And I said, yes, it's about 25 to 30 million listeners, and he goes, Rush has got more listeners than we've got Australians. And that's actually a kind of -- I hadn't really thought about it in those terms until then, but that's what he built, and he is so secure.

He's unlike many people at the top of this business, Tucker, he has no insecurities, no petty jealousies. He is secure and kind and generous, and everyone who has had anything to do with "The Rush Limbaugh Show" will be rooting for him to pull through this.

CARLSON: That's exactly right. And that's the first thing I thought, what a kind man. He is a kind man. We're rooting for him.

STEYN: He is. He is. I'm telling you this, I owe him everything -- in America, I owe Rush everything.

CARLSON: We will listen to you tomorrow. Thank you, Mark. Mark Steyn.

STEYN: Thanks a lot, Tucker.

CARLSON: Early results trickling in from the State of Iowa with the favorite entering the vote tonight was Bernie Sanders, who has made a dramatic surge since the New Year to take the lead in a lot of polls.

Jacqui Heinrich is with the Sanders campaign in Des Moines. She joins us tonight. So thank you for coming to us from the Sanders campaign. I'm interested what's the feeling there? What do they expect? How many people are there?

JACQUI HEINRICH, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tucker, the doors open here in just a few minutes at eight o'clock local time. Senator Sanders is expected to show up at this caucus party later on tonight. He came back from Washington to be here as the results start to come in.

I did get to speak to the senator's wife, Dr. Jane Sanders. Now, she says his run this time really feels different than in 2016 because he has so much name recognition because those policies that were once seen as very radical have now come into the mainstream within the Democratic Party. She used the $15.00 an hour minimum wage, as one example.

And also because they came so close to winning in 2016. They only lost to Hillary Clinton in the caucuses by three tenths of a percentage point. They've been able to draw on that existing support, especially while he has been sidelined in Washington during impeachment, and really call on those volunteers.

His campaign said, volunteers knocked on half a million doors. He's also got the most grassroots donors of any of his rivals. So they're hoping that all those people come out in force tonight -- Tucker.

CARLSON: It's going to -- we're going to find out very, very soon, and I'll be interested to hear what the reaction is. Jacqui, thanks so much for that.

HEINRICH: Thank you.

CARLSON: Numbers from the State of Iowa are starting to come in. Stay with us throughout the night to find out the winner. We will tell you of course, as soon as we know.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Fox News Alert. As we told you, the results from the Iowa caucus are coming in shortly. If Bernie Sanders wins tonight, he will be by definition the front runner. His Democratic opponents don't just oppose him, they despise him. How do they stop him? And if they don't, want happens then? These are the questions.

Kristen Soltis Anderson is a professional pollster. She's thought a lot about this and looked at the numbers. Thanks so much for joining us tonight. So if Sanders comes out ahead tonight, what next for the Democratic Party? What do they do?

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, PROFESSIONAL POLLSTER: Hey, if Sanders comes out ahead tonight, then he goes into New Hampshire very strong and New Hampshire is the state next door to Vermont. It's kind of home turf for him.

So if he winds up winning both Iowa and New Hampshire and the Democratic Party goes into panic mode trying to do anything to stop him, this could be really divisive and problematic long term for the party.

The one thing that unites Democrats is a desire to beat Donald Trump, but they are not at all united around whether Bernie Sanders is capable of doing so.

And so bringing up somebody like Mike Bloomberg late in the game with tons of money, a billionaire to take out Bernie Sanders would be enormously divisive, if not destructive in the Democratic Party.

CARLSON: That's for sure. Can I predict the CNN panel we're going to see if Bernie wins, particularly wins? They're going to say, Iowa and New Hampshire have so many white voters that they don't count. They just don't count. That's not the Democratic Party. It is not a meaningful win. What does Bernie say to that?

ANDERSON: Well, you've already begun hearing that drumbeat even before we got this latest polling surge. This has long term been a concern for Democrats.

However, Iowa and New Hampshire are also important tests of your ability to get passionate supporters to build organization. So it shouldn't come as a big surprise to Democrats that Bernie Sanders is doing quite well here.

Now, he does have long term challenges with, say, African-American voters, that's why he's not quite as strong in a place like South Carolina, but he's likely to do quite well in Nevada, and you can't say that that's just -- that's not a diverse caucus state for Democrats.

CARLSON: No. That's right. Big Hispanic population. That's a really smart point. Thanks so much for joining us tonight. I appreciate it.

ANDERSON: Thank you.

CARLSON: Maybe no candidate has more on the line tonight than Senator Elizabeth Warren. She was the national front runner about 20 minutes ago. Now, she appears to be fighting even to stay in the race.

Alicia Acuna is embedded with the Warren campaign tonight and she joins us. Alicia, thanks so much for coming up. So what do the Warren people think's going to happen tonight?

ALICIA ACUNA, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, as you know, the Warren people are hoping that those same progressive caucus goers are going to turn out for Elizabeth Warren if not for her then in their second choice make her the actual choice.

But the big news right now, she has made it back to Iowa, Tucker from the impeachment proceedings. She went to Roosevelt High School and she was able to shake hands with candidate supporters of all stripes who were there. She's hoping that folks will continue to turn out.

Democrats right now are really saying they expect a very high turnout, this go around. So it's all going to come down to that and we will see. I think it's going to be a late night. That's what we're hearing -- Tucker.

CARLSON: And that it will be. Alicia, thanks so much. Plus, Senator Amy Klobuchar hasn't received a lot of attention, but all of a sudden you're hearing people say today oh, I wonder if Amy Klobuchar is going to do better than expected, and she may.

Ellison Barber is in Iowa for us covering Klobuchar. She joins us tonight. Ellison, thanks so much for coming on. I don't know if it's just me, but I think a lot of people in Washington have gotten a lot of texts about Amy Klobuchar today. Does that reflect an actual surge, do you think?

ELLISON BARBER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can show you right now what we're seeing. There are 1,600 precincts all across the State of Iowa. Right now, we are in precinct number 38. You mentioned Senator Amy Klobuchar. Look right over here. This is one of her groups.

So this caucus site, they have, according to the caucus chair 400 attendees. In order to be considered viable, a candidate it needs to have at least 15 percent support. That is 60 people.

So you can get a sense of how much Amy Klobuchar has right here. She's someone a lot of people have talked about perhaps doing better in more rural areas.

We are in Polk County. It is Iowa's most populous county. It's a diverse county and it tends to be pretty Democratic. So candidates have spent a lot of time campaigning here, but come down a little more. I know we're running tight on time, but I want to give you a sense.

This is the first alignment. They'll move again if their candidates aren't viable. Down there, that corner filled with people. That's Senator Bernie Sanders' group. We saw earlier at one of the satellite caucuses today, he has had a huge turnout here, a lot of supporters. They have been very loud. We'll see what happens as the night progresses -- Tucker.

CARLSON: Fascinating, and we'll know soon. Ellison, thanks so much for that.

Well, the results are about to -- this will all be very clear. We hope soon, but it may stretch on throughout the evening. Either way, I hope you'll keep it to Fox.

We'll be back tomorrow night, 8:00 p.m. The show that is tonight and will always be the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness and groupthink.

The State of the Union is tomorrow, as if you didn't have enough news already. Good night from Washington. Sean Hannity takes the reins from New York City.

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