Tucker: Biden immigration policy designed to punish Americans
'Tucker Carlson Tonight' host explains the motive behind releasing illegal aliens into the U.S.
This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight" February 8, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: Good evening and welcome to TUCKER CARLSON
TONIGHT. Happy Monday.
Some medical news for you off the top. Last month, the C.D.C. issued a
press release that begins this way, quote, "The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention is expanding the requirement for a negative COVID-19 test to
all air passengers entering the United States. Testing before and after
travel is a critical layer to slow the introduction and spread of COVID-19.
This strategy is consistent with the current phase of the pandemic and more
efficiently protects the health of Americans."
Got that. It's all about the health of Americans, and that's why every
human being who enters this country by air must first present a negative
test for the coronavirus that includes American citizens, there are no
exceptions.
Corona infection, in fact, is the one universal reality of the human
condition. We are all potential incubators of this deadly virus.
But it doesn't end there. Travelers who test negative for COVID must still
wear masks at all times, and that includes while onboard the airplane or
while walking through the airport. If you don't have a mask on, you had
better be actively chewing, otherwise prepare for a steep fine and the
possibility of never flying again.
Nor is one mask necessarily enough. Tony Fauci has announced we ought to
consider wearing three masks at once, a paper petticoat for your face.
That's how serious our government is about fighting this global pandemic.
But of course, you knew that, you've watched it.
You know that the risk is imminent and profound enough that your children
likely have been out of school for a year. Your business may be shut down
right now. Your parents may have died alone, unable to hold your hand in
the final days.
The United States itself bears no resemblance to the place you once knew 12
months ago. But those are the sacrifices you have been asked to make, and
you have and for good reason. COVID is dangerous. It's existentially
dangerous, they keep telling us.
The authorities are more than willing to destroy your family and your
country in order to protect you from this virus. That's their public
position stated every day.
Do they actually mean it when they say it though? Those pictures of
California Governor Gavin Newsom eating a maskless dinner in a crowded room
with the most expensive restaurant in America were one indication that no,
maybe they're not entirely sincere about their COVID policies. Maybe it's
kind of a sham.
Maybe there's one standard for you, a member of the despised and much
bullied plebe class, and another very different standard for politically
favored groups who can do whatever they want. Now, you'd hate to think that
could be true in a country like this, a country with such a long and noble
history of egalitarianism and equality under the law.
Unfortunately, there has been growing evidence of that double standard. Now
there's hard proof.
Tonight, we've learned that Joe Biden administration is releasing thousands
of foreign nationals living here illegally into American neighborhoods
without bothering to test them for the coronavirus.
People from countries with high infection rates within in crowded
conditions set forth into the American population, like COVID isn't real.
That's happening. It is the official policy of the U.S. government.
On Friday, the White House was asked about this policy, and here was the
response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: The U.S. Customs and Border Protection is saying that they're
having to catch and release some migrants without giving them any kind of
COVID test before they are entering the community. So what is being done?
What could be done?
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Are you -- are you suggesting
they're letting people in across the border without testing them? Or tell
me a little bit more --
QUESTION: They are being released -- they are having to because of the
Executive Order that the President signed earlier this week.
PSAKI: Which executive -- which one?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Yes, which one? COVID infected illegal aliens released into the
United States? Whatever. It's not like there's a pandemic.
The Press Secretary didn't care enough to answer the question. No big deal.
Can I remind you that our Treasury Secretary is a woman? Shut up. You've
been empowered.
But people who know the details of what is going on right now feel very
differently and they are worried.
Brandon Judd runs the Border Patrol Union. We do not test the illegal
aliens we release, Judd told the show, quote: "So we're releasing people
without knowing which obviously puts the public at risk." Well, yes, it
obviously does.
Leon Wilont is the Cheriff of Yuma County, Arizona. Last week he wrote a
letter to one of his senators, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema will not call the
Biden administrations new policy quote, "a particularly dangerous
approach."
As he put it, quote, "There is currently no protocol for testing any of
these people for the COVID-19 virus nor is there any support being offered
by the Federal government to house, feed, medically treat, or transport
these immigrants," and that's why in some places, taxpayers are paying for
foreign nationals who should be deported to live in hotel rooms. Unlike
you, they're not paying for your hotel room.
But if that seems crazy, disconnected from reality, it is a small part of
the Biden administration's immigration policy, a policy that seems designed
to hurt the United States as profoundly as possible.
In an internal memo sent last week, I.C.E. officials announced the
administration is suspending something called Operation Talon. That
operation targeted sex offenders, but no more. Illegal alien sex offenders
are now a protected class.
Then a day after that, another internal I.C.E. memo announced the quote:
"Effective immediately, the Biden administration would stop deporting
illegal aliens who have been convicted of drug offenses, assault, DUI,
money laundering, property crimes, fraud, tax evasion, or who have gang
tattoos."
Going forward to any illegal alien charged with a crime, but not yet
convicted of a crime would also be safe from deportation. So what does all
of that mean in practice?
Well, it means for example, that an MS-13 member arrested for drug dealing
with previous convictions for say, theft, extortion, grand larceny, would
have to be released back into the United States, maybe into your
neighborhood, even if he had been deported many times before.
That's not some crazy hypothetical, by the way. Things like that will
happen. A foreign national charged with rape, but who flees before trial --
and that happens quite a bit -- cannot be deported either. Technically, he
hasn't been convicted of rape, so deporting him would be an act of bigotry,
and so on.
This is all real, and we will see cases like that guaranteed.
The question is motive. Why are they doing this? Even if you thought the
United States badly needed more low-skilled workers in the middle of an
employment crisis, even if you believe that, even if you believe that your
right to cheap housekeeping is more important than the right of the
American middle class to exist, and many of our leaders emphatically do
believe that, how exactly do you explain suspending the hunt for sex
offenders? How is that a good idea for anyone?
How is it a good idea to release illegal aliens in the middle of a pandemic
without even testing them for the coronavirus?
How does all of that conceivably help you as an American, as someone who
pays for all of this stuff? Well, of course, it doesn't help you. But
helping you is not the point. No one is even pretending the point of this
was to help you. It's the opposite. The point is to punish you.
When we release people who break our laws without even bothering to test
them for the virus, the same virus we've used as a pretext for wrecking
your life, what we're really saying in the clearest possible terms is: we
don't like you.
This isn't a policy. It's an act of aggression. It's designed to humiliate
you and demoralize you.
Reckless and destructive immigration policy is the penalty you are paying
for your white supremacy. It's almost too dark to believe that's their
motive, too dark to believe it's real, but it is. And over on MSNBC,
they're saying it out loud.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YAMICHE ALCINDOR, MSNBC POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Underscoring all of this as
we talk on this racial reckoning is xenophobia, it is racism, it is white
supremacy. What -- how when you separate brown children, especially from
their mothers, we have to ask ourselves, how was that allowed to happen?
And what role did white supremacy play in that?
NICOLLE WALLACE, MSNBC HOST: Absolutely. I mean, I think that's at the
root of all of these conversations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: It's not the root of all these conversations, it is a
smokescreen. None of these conversations have anything to do with race
whatsoever. It's about protecting the American population. Period.
Joining us now is AJ Louderback. He is the Jackson County Sheriff. We're
happy to have you with us, Sheriff Louderback.
AJ LOUDERBACK, SHERIFF, JACKSON COUNTY, TEXAS: Thanks, Tucker. Glad to be
with you.
CARLSON: Is it true in the State of Texas, that people who have been
detained because they're not here legally, they are foreign nationals, are
being released without coronavirus tests?
LOUDERBACK: That's absolutely true. Absolutely true. It's even -- if I
could continue, Tucker, the memo -- the memo that I received this last
week, it is essentially a defund the I.C.E. by memo, by a memorandum that
was sent out by David Pekoske on January 20, 2021.
So this is a particularly devastating document, protections for Americans
here in the United States. The message really has been sent -- when I read
it first and looked at it, it is a message to the world you can come here
illegally. You could commit crimes here against Americans and remain here
illegally.
CARLSON: But of all things, the coronavirus, since Americans are now being
told in the near future we may not be allowed to fly on airplanes
domestically without being proven free of the virus without a certificate
that says we've been tested and are negative.
How in a country like that, could we just forget to test illegal aliens for
the virus before releasing them? Like how did that happen, do you know?
LOUDERBACK: No, I'm sure I wouldn't have forgot an item. You know, I don't
know, but in the haste to open the border for everyone in this country, the
-- I mean, this is something that I expected to some degree. We walked this
path from 2008 to 2016.
This program that was released by memorandum is very similar to the
Priority Enforcement Program from in 2014-2015 where people were able to
commit crimes here against Americans.
The COVID issue conveniently overlooked during this time, so, you know, I
struggle for a thought process like many Americans and Texans on how
administration can conduct themselves in this manner, and promote a lawless
attitude here where people are going to get hurt and seriously injured,
killed, and people allowed to stay here, which is unbelievable. Yet here we
sit with this situation.
CARLSON: Yes. In a country where you're not allowed to go to church or go
to funerals, because of coronavirus. Are you worried about the effects of
this? What do you think the effects will be?
LOUDERBACK: Irreparable harm, Tucker. Yes, we're worried every police
officer in the United States should be should be extremely concerned about
the attitude, the lawlessness, the complete abject removal of law. We have
a nullification of the law here going on.
It's not we're going to -- we're not going to enforce anything. We're going
to allow our C.B.P. and our I.C.E. officers, U.S.C.I.S. is all three were
affected by this memo, which effectively guts the I.N.A. and handcuffs them
where they're unable to respond.
So in law enforcement here, those of us who do not have the jurisdiction to
enforce the Federal laws here, we have created a situation here which is
unthinkable for the public.
The public has no idea, the strength of a memorandum that's been filed here
in the United States by this administration. So it's -- you know, I think
it's our job and I appreciate, you know, your program and inviting me on
here to get the word out, and spread what's happened here, and what's
happening right before our very eyes, what this administration is doing.
CARLSON: Well, we appreciate you telling us the truth, Sheriff.
Sheriff Louderback, great to see you tonight.
LOUDERBACK: Absolutely.
CARLSON: Thank you.
LOUDERBACK: Thank you.
CARLSON: Well, one place where the ruling party does believe in law
enforcement is in Washington, where they live and work. The nation's
capital under military occupation tonight. The Pentagon today telling us
how much it's going to cost taxpayers. Listen carefully.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY (RET.): The estimate through March 15th is that
the total cost of National Guard support will come to $483 million, $284
million of that is for personnel, and $199 million of that is for
operations and that gets us through March 15th.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Razor wire soldiers in your nation's capital, no explanation why
they are there. No explanation of the mission itself. We now know roughly
what it will cost. This is one of those stories that's playing out right in
front of us, and yet is being almost completely ignored by the rest of the
media.
We thought it'd be interesting to take a look at what is actually happening
in Washington. Richie McGinniss will take us there. He's a reporter with
"The Daily Caller." We're happy to have him on tonight. Richie, give us a
sense of what the city is like tonight.
RICHIE MCGINNISS, REPORTER, "THE DAILY CALLER": Tucker, it's truly a
shocking scene down here in front of the Capitol. I've been in D.C. for 12
years, and I've never seen anything like this before.
As you can see, we have the concertina or razor wire along the top of the
fence. And in all the protests zones that I've been to over the last year,
I haven't seen razor wire a top a fence like this and to see it around the
halls of our democracy is quite shocking.
CARLSON: So you came pretty close to gunfire in Wisconsin this summer. We
interviewed you at the time. I think we have a couple of times you went to
a bunch of different riots and demonstrations.
From my understanding, there was a very light law enforcement presence at a
lot of those things, contrast that with what you see tonight in Washington.
MCGINNISS: Yes, Tucker, actually the last time that we spoke was after the
riot at the Capitol, and if there ever was an example of being light on law
enforcement, I think that was definitely the case on January 6, as well as
in Kenosha where we saw protesters in great numbers and law enforcement,
obviously having a difficult time keeping law and order there.
So we've seen this happen before. But obviously, that's not the case
tonight with the National Guardsmen and Capitol Police manning all the
checkpoints of this fencing.
CARLSON: Have you gotten -- as someone who lives and works in Washington -
- have you gotten a clear explanation as to why these soldiers are in the
city?
MCGINNISS: No, I have not, Tucker. I have not gotten any explanation. And
I do understand that Mayor Muriel Bowser does not want the fence to remain
permanent, but that remains to be seen whether or not this this fence will
stay up.
CARLSON: It's really an amazing, an amazing moment. Richie McGinniss thank
you for that reality check. I appreciate it.
MCGINNISS: Thank you, Tucker.
CARLSON: How crazy are things getting? Not just in Washington, but in TV
Land more broadly. A prominent news anchor now suggesting the use of drone
strikes against American citizens who have the wrong politics. It's got to
be peak lunacy.
We'll talk to someone who has thought a lot about how this country got here
and how we can get out of it. That's straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARLSON: Well, it used to be there was a time, as they say, when most sane
people in this country believe that bombing American citizens with military
drone strikes in this country just because you don't like their politics, a
little over the top, maybe a little too far. Maybe not the unity we were
looking for but things have changed.
Supporters of Donald Trump, it turns out were so dangerous that maybe they
do deserve hellfire missiles raining down on their homes. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: We had a policy and it was very controversial, it was carried out
under the Bush years and under the Obama years of attacking terrorism at
its root, of going after and killing, and in the case of Anwar al-Awlaki,
an American, and again many American with a drone strike for the crime of
inciting violence, inciting terrorism.
Mitch McConnell was in the Senate then. He was in the Senate after 9/11,
too. How does Mitch McConnell who understands that the way you root out
terrorism is to take on in the case of Islamic terrorism kill those who
incite it? How does he not vote to convict someone that he said on the
floor of the Senate incited an insurrection?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Yes, okay, we play a lot of pretty over the top video on this
show, particularly from that channel and that news anchor, save that tape.
No matter what happens next, that will live forever as one of the craziest
things ever said on cable television and one of the most ominous.
But it's a sign of the moment we're in. The question is how do we get out
of this moment?
Well, we are bringing next a man who has thought and we think struck a
hopeful note. Russ Vought was the Director of the White House Office of
Management and Budget in the last administration. He's now the President
for the Center for American Restoration, which is what we need. He joins us
now.
Russ, thanks so much for coming on.
RUSS VOUGHT, FORMER DIRECTOR OF WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND
BUDGET: Thanks for having me, Tucker.
CARLSON: So I don't think we need to make the case to our viewers that
we're in an unprecedented time, people saying stuff like that on
television, how do we get out of it?
VOUGHT: Sure. I think what's important is that we need to remember to stay
on offense on these particular issues in which they are pushing us at the
front. These are the cultural issues. These are the America First issue.
These are the issues, the theme that you've been talking about for many
years, Tucker, and that's where the American people, the forgotten men and
women across this country, this is where they want their people in
Washington to fight for them, and not to go back to the business as usual
four or five years ago.
And so that's what this center is all about. We want to restore a political
consensus in this country that we are for God, we are for country, and we
are for community, and that our only way out of this is to keep building
that country and to restore that consensus in this country.
CARLSON: Do we have leaders who believe that and can articulate it, do you
think?
VOUGHT: I think we have some, but we need to build their ranks and we need
to arm them. We need to provide a network of activists across the country
that are right there willing to fight with them so that they can know and
hear and have that encouragement.
But we need people who are willing to stand in difficult tough fights in
this town. It's easy to be for tax reform. It's easy to be for educational
policy reform. It's hard to be for Big Tech reform. It is hard to get us
out of endless wars.
And so that's where we really need to keep fighting on those cultural
America First issues.
CARLSON: I get so distressed and discouraged looking at leaders in the
Republican Party, not all of them, but I'm thinking of one in particular
who has the most power in the Senate tweeted the other day that the real
problem is Vladimir Putin, some internal thing he was doing of zero
interest in most people I would say, including me.
Can people like that be brought around to the obvious, which is you have to
protect and serve your voters in order to justify your salary?
VOUGHT: Time will tell, Tucker, but I think what's important is that we
insist that these issues that we've been talking about for the last four or
five years are the agenda. There's no going back.
And so when we have leadership in the House and the Senate talking about
trying to keep us in these wars, go back to passing the amnesty bills,
that's where we've got to say no, we're not doing that and then to be able
to look forward and to figure out, why is it that these issues and these
ideas have taken so long to get on the agenda for Washington, D.C.?
CARLSON: Yes. I mean, you're looking at it, as far as I can tell, a
situation where everyone with power has one view, a very self-serving view,
in my opinion, and then the majority of the country, regardless of partisan
affiliation, on the issues is on the other side, like, what's the point of
being in Afghanistan? Should we really open the borders?
But it doesn't seem like the people with that view, the majority of you,
have any power at all?
VOUGHT: Well, that is one of the reasons why I think we've got to do voter
integrity reform. We've got to do Big Tech reform. Because if we lose our
voice, and right now, we are in danger of losing our voice, and your last
segment just got at it with regard to how they are calling us all
terrorists and insurrectionist.
If we lose our voice, we've got no movement. And so this is a real
precarious moment. It needs leadership, and our center is trying to rally
leaders across this country to have a voice in Washington, D.C.
CARLSON: Russ, I appreciate your hopeful position on this and the clarity
of what you just said. Thank you.
VOUGHT: Thanks, Tucker.
CARLSON: Well, it won't surprise you that the party that hates nature --
at war with nature is not actually the party of science. More evidence
tonight, the Biden administration just disavowed its own C.D.C. Director in
favor of the teachers union. Details ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARLSON: Well, the Centers for Disease Control has come out with a new
study showing what every other study on the topic has shown since the
beginning of this pandemic, schools are quote "low transmission zones" for
the coronavirus.
The C.D.C. Director Rochelle Walensky said it is safe for teachers to
return to schools even before they have been vaccinated. But her party is
not convinced.
Last night, Joe Biden explained to the Democratic Party's donors and of
course the biggest donors has always been the teachers unions -- are more
important than the kids they teach.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's time for
schools reopen safely -- safely. You have to have fewer people in the
classroom. You have to have ventilation systems that had been reworked.
Our C.D.C. Commissioner was going to be coming out with science-based
judgment within I think as early as Wednesday as to lay out what the
minimum requirements are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So we've got to shake you down before we can open the schools.
Dr. Marc Siegel joins us tonight to assess the science behind all of this.
Doctor, good to see you.
DR. MARC SIEGEL, FOX NEWS CHANNEL MEDICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Good to see,
Tucker. "Follow the science," said President Biden but that may not apply
to teachers unions, right?
So listen, what is the science? It's becoming clearer and clearer every
day, the longer school stay closed, the more mental health problems there
are, the more the C.D.C. itself is reporting more visits to mental health
urgent care.
And then there's this huge study out of North Carolina of 90,000 kids and
teachers that showed only 32 cases of COVID and over 770 in the community
itself. Clearly, COVID is not spreading in schools the way it is in the
community.
So follow the science, open the schools and sure enough, C.D.C. Director
Rochelle Walensky said as much and she said it more than once last week and
she said, yes teachers should be a priority to be vaccinated, but that's
not the limiting step.
And then I looked, and I saw press secretary Jen Psaki saying that she was
talking in her personal capacity. Wait a minute. Personal capacity? You
mean as the head of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital,
one of the top infectious disease specialists in the world. That's her
personal capacity.
Anyway, moving on from that, they definitely should reopen to schools,
Tucker, and I'll tell you why.
Right here in the frontlines in New York City, a teacher went on a Zoom
call today, Tucker, to his middle school children, and he announced our
middle schools are opening finally on February 25th. And you know what he
said? He said there were kids that came out that he didn't even though were
there. He hadn't heard from them in months. They were rejoicing, they were
celebrating, they were cheering.
And one child who he hadn't even known was still in his class said two
words, Tucker, "Let's go." Tucker.
CARLSON: Great to see you, Dr. Siegel. Thank you.
SIEGEL: Thank you.
CARLSON: Well, over at "The LA Times," a columnist called Virginia
Heffernan is out with a new piece comparing her neighbors who she believes
voted for Trump to terrorists and Nazis. What did they do wrong exactly?
Well, it turns out they may have plowed the snow from her driveway.
You might see that as an act of generosity, but to Virginia Heffernan who
went to Harvard by the way, it was an act of violence. Heffernan wrote
this, quote: "Hezbollah, the Shiite Islamic political party in Lebanon also
gives things away for free." And then she added this all-time great
observation, quote, "Free driveway work, nice as it is, is just not the
same currency as justice and truth," end quote, which apparently she alone
gets to define, justice and truth.
Virginia Heffernan in charge of justice and truth.
There's something deep about this piece, something very revealing about the
state of the country right now in the state of the left. Greg Gutfeld is
the host "The Greg Gutfeld Show," co-host to "The Five," author of "The
Plus: Self--Help for People who Hate Self-Help." He has thought deeply
about what this column means because it does mean something and joins us
now to explain.
Greg Gutfeld, good to see you.
GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST, THE GREG GUTFELD SHOW: Good to see
you, Tucker. If I ever, Tucker, you have to make this promise to me, if I
ever become a cartoon of myself, take me out and shoot me.
Because I cannot tell if this person who wrote this is for real, or a
cartoon of herself. An elitist writer for "Harper's" or Slate" who has a
pandemic getaway and a podcast with David Corn writes this piece in which
she slams her good-natured neighbors, compares them to Hezbollah and Nazis
because they cleared her driveway.
I love this story almost to an obsessive degree, because I can't figure out
if it's real. I mean, wouldn't she consider that they -- this might get
back to her next door neighbor? To her scary right-wing neighbors might
find out that Virginia Heffernan called the Nazis -- wouldn't that, like
strike a little bit of concern? But she did it anyway.
I want to know how the neighbors feel. I volunteer myself to go interview
them. I probably actually might even know them. Who knows? Because they
might even plow my driveway. Who knows?
She might be my neighbor. It might be me. But I don't know. I don't know.
I think that they deserve -- the neighbors deserve a response. I think the
editors of "The LA Times," probably should have done a better job in
finding out some details, because there are no details in that story
whatsoever about who they really are.
But I go back to this. If it's fake, then she's an idiot. But if it's real,
then she's worse than an idiot. She is a spiteful mean person to look at
people through a political lens like that and to dehumanize them.
And under this phony guise -- this phony guise that this article was about
unification. She calls them Nazis. So she actually -- it was like a Trojan
horse, that she actually went there and decided to label abuse on, I don't
know, 74 million people because he's crazy or she's a liar. I can't tell
which is which.
And I don't want to -- by the way, Tucker, I don't want to impugn her and
say she made this up.
CARLSON: No, of course not.
GUTFELD: I don't know. I don't know. All I know is, as an editor, it
raises more questions than it answers. How is that?
CARLSON: Well, it did. But what she reveals is what she and a lot of
people in her world really think, which is that ideology is much more
important than human kindness, relationships mean nothing compared to your
ideas.
GUTFELD: Yes.
CARLSON: That's why -- that's what they were able to hold up Teddy Kennedy
who killed a woman as a champion of women because he was for abortion.
Like, that's kind of all they care about: it is ideology.
GUTFELD: Yes. It's interesting, whenever there's a hurricane or whatnot,
you always see the pickup trucks going in helping anybody.
CARLSON: Right.
GUTFELD: She's the type of person who probably wouldn't, because she is
like, you need to have -- I'm sorry to say, you need to have Trump
supporters in this world. I know that scary to liberals, but they're
usually really useful.
They know how to fix things. They know -- I have I said this before, a
truck in Idaho is more useful than an Art Studies degree in Brooklyn.
CARLSON: I agree with that. Hey, Virginia, see if you can keep the power
grid going for a week. Can I just ask you since you make such a smart
point?
GUTFELD: Yes.
CARLSON: Have you noticed that the angriest people in America are the ones
with absolutely no useful skills. People like Virginia Heffernan, no useful
skills, she does not know how to do anything.
GUTFELD: By the way, yes, Tucker, I will -- I can't point that finger at
anybody other than me. I have no useful skills whatsoever. I am pathetic
with any kind of electrical devices.
It's amazing that I'm even allowed outside my house because I am -- I'm a
klutz. I just fell and landed on my tailbone, and sitting is excruciating,
Tucker, but because I love you, I did the show anyway.
CARLSON: That is really is the measure of love, isn't it? Well, I hope
Virginia Heffernan gets back to you --
GUTFELD: Even though --
CARLSON: Even though, tell me?
GUTFELD: You know what? I would plow your driveway any day, Tucker, I
would do it. And that's no euphemism. It's the real deal. I will plow your
driveway.
CARLSON: I don't know -- I am not sure how to respond, but I'll take that
as a compliment, the Great Greg Gutfeld. Thank you.
GUTFELD: Thank you.
CARLSON: So the entertainer, Ice Cube is bringing a class action suit
against Robinhood, the app after Robinhood prevented its own users from
buying shares. We will talk to his business partner about this suit. Why
did they bring it? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARLSON: Last month, in really a pivotal moment in the history of our
markets, the trading app, Robinhood, which is designed for retail investors
to get involved in markets, normal people, stepped in and prevented its own
users from buying dozens of stocks that include shares of GameStop and AMC.
Robinhood wanted users to sell those shares. Why? In order to bail out
hedge funds that had shorted those companies. Now the business partner of
entertainer, Ice Cube is bringing a class action suit against Robinhood for
doing that.
Jeff Kwatinetz is the co-founder of Big3. He is a television and film
producer, and as we said, a business partner of Ice Cube, he joins us
tonight.
Jeff, thanks for coming out. Why are you doing this? Tell us what the suit
is about and what you hope to achieve?
JEFF KWATINETZ, CO-FOUNDER, BIG3: Well, first of all, I just want to say
that while Ice Cube always supports the little guy, this is in my using my
Harvard Law degree with two class action lawyers from Florida. So I'm
purely as a lawyer here.
But I think, to take a step back is very important. It's important to
question a system that gives rise to constant abuse of the 99 percent by
the rich, powerful, and elite, and that's what happened here. In 1987,
2001, 2008, we see the abuse happen, and at the end of the day, people get
bailed out, no one goes to jail, and the little guy gets caught holding the
bag, and I think that's what happened here.
You know, we have a problem in America, obviously, people have a problem
trusting our institutions, and whether you're a Robinhood viewer, I mean
user, or if you're someone else who just sees what happened, you distrust
institutions because here it is happening again.
So in this environment, along comes Robinhood, and they say we are going to
support the little guy, we're going to democratize finance, and we have
your back. And the truth is, Robinhood is nothing but another Wall Street
wolf in sheep's clothing. What they did is they designed the perfect
mousetrap.
So they designed something to go capture people by giving free -- using the
word free, which it turns out not to be -- giving out free stock, giving
them more free stock if they bring in other people, gamifying it and
basically pushing them into high risk trades like options and were
encouraging it.
And as it turns out, those are the exact types of users and trades that are
worth a lot of money to people on Wall Street to so-called market makers
who actually do the trades. And these guys aren't dumb, they came out of
high frequency trading, they designed software to go after, you know,
taking a penny out of every sell, a penny out of every buy. So they knew
what they were creating.
So what they've actually done is they've taken the customer, what you
normally think of the customer at Robinhood, the trader, and they turn them
into the product. They are essentially chum for the bigger wells and the
wells are the same Wall Street people who invest in them, who will benefit
by their IPO, and who are their counterparties.
Now here's where it gets interesting. They created this monster to do this,
but the monster got really big and it started to eat some of their own
people and take advantage of it.
So, you know, on Thursday, January 7th, we hear that, you know, we know
that shorts, people betting against the stock, people who are trying to
drive businesses out -- out of business, especially in the middle of a
pandemic. I mean, that's pretty cold, right?
These traders, you know, they're actually it turns out, they're not as
inexperienced and stupid as Wall Street thinks, and they come up with a
mechanism to all band together and start buying and by January 17, you
know, hedge funds, other Wall Street players have lost somewhere between
$18 billion and $20 billion.
We know that a hedge fund named Melvin lost about, you know, $2.5 billion
to $3 billion.
So suspiciously on that day, the most important day, they come along and
say, oh, you can only sell, you can't buy, which for any momentum stock and
any attempt to do a short squeeze that ends it because that ends the
momentum.
CARLSON: Of course.
KWATINETZ: Because you can only trade one way.
CARLSON: Of course, but the whole thing is, you just pointed out and I
don't think I've heard people say this enough, the whole thing was a scam
from the first day.
We will be following this. Jeff, I hope you will tell us how this turns
out. Obviously, rooting for you and appreciate you coming on tonight. Thank
you.
KWATINETZ: I appreciate that. Enough is enough. We've got to stand up to
people taking advantage of the 99 percent.
CARLSON: I completely agree with that. Thank you.
So if it has dawned on you at some point that the thread that connects a
lot of seemingly unrelated actions on the part of the people in charge is,
oh wait, they're mimicking China because they're aligned with China. If you
imagine that, you should know you're not imagining that, because it's true.
We'll speak to someone who's connected the dots after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARLSON: Last night, Joe Biden promised to reverse the Trump
administration's foreign policy on the question of China. According to
Biden, the U.S. will now follow something called the International Rules of
the Road. What does that mean exactly? Well, you can guess what it means.
More subservience to the emerging nation of China.
Most people don't understand how big this is, or how far back it goes, or
the implications for them. Lee Smith understands. He's an author and a
journalist. He's written one of the best pieces of the year on this topic
for "Tablet" Magazine.
The piece is called "The 30 Tyrants." You'll have to stop reading midway
through because it's upsetting. But as you read it, you'll also know it's
true. So we recommend that you do. He joins us tonight to explain.
Lee, thanks so much for coming on.
LEE SMITH, AUTHOR AND JOURNALIST: Thanks, Tucker.
CARLSON: And for the mental energy required to connect all these dots in
the piece, and again, I really hope our readers read it for themselves. But
in the meantime, will you summarize your position.
SMITH: Yes, I mean, basically, what I wanted to explain is I wanted to
explain why so many things look crazy. Many things, for instance, that you
cover on your show all the time, for instance, tonight, why people are
coming across -- why people are coming across the border in such profound
numbers?
It all looks crazy until you realize there's a reason it's going on, and
the reason is, is because the oligarchy that runs this country now is not
primarily loyal to the United States. They do not care about the amount of
damage they do to America. They don't care about the amount of damage they
do to Americans, that's part of the system.
Their primary loyalty is to their relationship to the Communist Chinese
party. That is their center of gravity. It's the source of their wealth,
privilege, and prestige.
CARLSON: So keep connecting, if you will, and I hope sure that again,
people will read this because print is really the only medium that can
fully explain a thesis as complex as yours, but I think you're right. So
what else would connect to that point that you just made?
SMITH: Well, I mean, the big thing is starting -- I mean, one of the key
dates is of course, it starts with Henry Kissinger's and Richard Nixon's
opening to China.
But really a big date as 1994 when Bill Clinton decided delink human rights
and trade regarding China, right? The ambition -- you hear people say all
the time, oh, we were hopeful that China would adopt more democratic
policies. It was nonsense.
The premier of China at the time was Jiang Zemin, this was the man who was
catapulted to power after sending tanks into Tiananmen Square. So the
American elite knew exactly what they were getting into. What they looked
at, they looked at an enormous cheap labor pool. And they said, we're going
to get rich and that's precisely what happened, where we are more than a
quarter of a century along and that's precisely what's happened.
Now, one of the interesting things that happened during the Donald Trump
presidency because Donald Trump started calling these people out, I think
that Donald Trump didn't even have that clear a sense of how tied in, how
extensive this network was.
One of the examples I mentioned is, for instance, whoever would have put
Apple CEO Tim Cook and LeBron James in the same family album, but there
they are, sure enough, because they both rely -- their wealth relies on the
two same things: cheap Chinese labor and a growing Chinese consumer market.
If you look across, this is not just -- it's not just entertainment. It's
not just tech. It goes into the corporate world. It goes into finance.
Unfortunately, it affects our government throughout.
One of the most astonishing revelations was a memo that former D.N.I. John
Ratcliffe wrote, regarding the C.I.A. regarding their intelligence
analysis, C.I.A. management was apparently bullying analysts saying they
didn't like their analysis of China, because they were worried about the
policies that might encourage, meaning Donald Trump's policies who was hard
on China.
Therefore, C.I.A. management was protecting China from solid analysis. It's
astonishing, but take it one step further. Remember who owns the Cloud on
which all of the C.I.A.'s information is collected? And that's Jeff Bezos,
who is China's number one distributor in the United States.
CARLSON: In 10 seconds, does it shock you that the new Defense Secretary
has basically said the greatest threat we face is not China, but white
supremacists in this country?
SMITH: No, not at all. If you look at the Biden administration, the way
it's staffed, and unfortunately, if you look at the first family, you see
that there are deep and extensive ties to the Chinese Communist Party. It
doesn't surprise me at all.
CARLSON: Amazing piece. Lee, I appreciate your coming on tonight.
SMITH: Thank you very much, Tucker. Thanks.
CARLSON: Thank you very much. We'll be back tomorrow night 8:00 p.m., the
show that's the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness and groupthink.
Sean Hannity takes over from New York now.
END
Content and Programming Copyright 2021 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2021 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials
herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be
reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast
without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may
not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of
the content.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox