Tucker: Lori Lightfoot doesn't think much about crime

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Tucker: Lori Lightfoot doesn't think much about crime

'Tucker Carlson Tonight' host evaluates the Chicago mayor's priorities amid crime spike

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," June 16, 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.

Last night, we opened this show with new information about what happened at the Capitol on January 6th. No day, it's fair to say, in recent American history has received more media attention or been used for greater political effect by partisan actors. Because of January 6th, our Attorney General told us this week, we've got to change our country forever.

And yet, given all the talking, the endless talking about January 6th, it is remarkable what we still don't know about what actually took place that day. Until this Monday night, for example, when it was reported by "Revolver News," we had no idea that at least 20 organizers and participants in the events at the Capitol have not been indicted, despite the nationwide dragnet for people who were there.

This is interesting. The government knows exactly who these people are, but has refused to charge them with crimes. Why is that? Well, because it seems like they may have had some connection to the government. Some of the people who broke into the Capitol committed crimes while inside and encouraged others to do the same appear to have been in contact with the F.B.I. before the event.

Let that sink in for a moment.

The events of January 6th that you keep hearing about endlessly, events that Democrats in Congress describe as an act of war carried out by white supremacists, as dangerous and historically significant as Pearl Harbor and 9/11, those events apparently were at least in part organized and carried out in secret by people connected to Federal law enforcement.

It's hard to think of a bigger potential scandal than this one.

Now, it's clear why the government won't release more than 14,000 hours of surveillance footage shot at the Capitol that day. People they know are on the tape.

Well last night, clips from our show began to circulate on social media. The tech monopolies which helped get Joe Biden elected continue to work closely with the administration to control the news and information that you are allowed to see because it's America, right?

Well, this piece of news, the one on our show last night was a problem for them, so they tried to make it go away. Twitter appended the following note to our clip last night quote, "Federal law does not permit cooperating witnesses or informants to be charged with conspiracy despite a baseless suggestion by Tucker Carlson that some co-conspirators of the January 6th attack were not charged because they were undercover F.B.I. agents," end quote.

Hmm. Let's think about this. Now, leave aside for a second the most obvious question that arises from the statement which is how would Twitter, which is a media company, not as far as we know a law enforcement agency be able to confirm our reporting last night was, quote, "baseless." How would they know that? Does Twitter somehow have access to the F.B.I.'s personnel files? We don't know. We hope someone finds out.

But consider the statement more broadly. Twitter is saying that people who are secretly working with the F.B.I. cannot be charged for encouraging others to commit crimes. Well, yes. Exactly. That's the very point we made on this show last night. That's why they haven't been charged because they were secretly working with the F.B.I.

So, in an effort to shut us down, Twitter just confirmed what we suggested was true. Thanks, Twitter. They are morons. It is pretty funny.

Less funny though is the Justice Department's role in January 6th. Federal law enforcement appear to have played a role in what happened that day. We'd tell you more about it, we'd love to, but we don't have subpoena power. We're just a cable news show. Congress does have subpoena power, let's hope they use it immediately.

In the meantime, we want to start tonight with an actual insurrection, a real one. An insurrection against the rule of law, against civilization itself that's been going on for more than a year in the City of Chicago.

Since the death of George Floyd last May, Chicago's Mayor, Lori Lightfoot has embraced every part of the equity and inclusion agenda. Lightfoot banned the police from chasing criminals even in the case of some very serious offenses.

Her D.A. refuses to prosecute many crimes. The results? Nearly 200 more people have been murdered this year than last. Many more dead people, hundreds.

Yesterday, there was yet another mass killing in Chicago. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): Denise Mathis, Rantanya Rogers, Blake Lee, and Shametria Williams -- all killed in Chicago's latest mass shooting. The shooting happened at about 5:45 Tuesday morning inside a home on the 6200 Block of South Morgan Street in Englewood. Of the eight people that were shot, four died. The other four victims are in the hospital, two of them reported in critical condition.

The attack is the third mass shooting in Chicago in a little more than a week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Did you hear that? That was the third mass shooting in Chicago in just over a week, each one of them was a far greater human tragedy than anything that happened at the Capitol on January 6th, but as the bodies in Chicago accumulate, the people who run the city barely notice. In fact, they made it possible.

Four days before Christmas, a 28-year-old named Marvin Flanagan murdered a man during a home invasion. Flanagan should have been in jail at the time, he was a five-time felon with convictions for armed robbery. But officials let him out and then he promptly committed murder.

This is now common in the City of Chicago.

Marvin Flanagan is just one of dozens of criminals who've been let out of Chicago Jail recently, only to go on to shoot or murder someone else. Lori Lightfoot did this, but she accepts no responsibility for doing it. Instead, she blames firearms and demands more money from the Federal government.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT (D), CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Cities individually cannot tackle this problem on its own, we just cannot. In Chicago, we've done absolutely everything possible and we need help from the Federal government because this is a national problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: "It's a national problem." The gun problem, it's a national one. Is it really?

Chicago has long had some of the strictest gun control in the nation. The State of Montana has virtually no gun control. Who has got a higher murder rate?

This entire conversation is nonsense. Lori Lightfoot has no idea what she is talking about, and in fact, as you can probably tell, she is not very interested. As long as her own security detail shows up on time, Lightfoot doesn't think a lot about crime. What she thinks about is radical social change and this week, she got an assist from the United States Congress.

Starting this Saturday, our country is getting a new Independence Day to supplant the old one, which people like Lori Lightfoot complained was racist. Not a single member of either party in the Senate opposed it. Republicans in fact co-sponsored the resolution.

"Happy that my bill to recognize Juneteenth as a national holiday just passed the Senate," wrote John Cornyn, a supposedly conservative senator from Texas. Lori Lightfoot is thrilled by this. Unlike John Cornyn, Lori Lightfoot understands the power of symbols. They are immensely important that's why we have them.

For Flag Day on Monday, a holiday designed to honor the American flag -- speaking of symbols -- Lori Lightfoot is flying something instead called the Pan-African flag, you're seeing a shot of it on your screen right now. It's now up in City Hall in Chicago, that and the Juneteenth flag. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIGHTFOOT: We must also recognize that freedom has been illusory for far too many American residents including black people, so we must embrace all American history and today on Juneteenth, we will be raising another flag, the Juneteenth flag.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: "Freedom has been illusory." Really? What is she saying? Well, she is saying that your old Independence Day and the nation that it celebrated was all a lie.

So, this is the kind of thing that Lori Lightfoot spends her time doing, that and berating her staff. Thanks to an open records request from "The Chicago Tribune," we've got some of Lori Lightfoot's e-mails, and it turns out, she is every bit the person you imagined she was.

In January for example, Lori Lightfoot told her staff, quote, "I need office time every day." (Exclamation point) she wrote that very same line 16 times in a row, "I need office time every day. I need office time every day. I need office time every day." And so on, 13 more times. Demented.

And then for clarity, quote, "Not just once a week or some days every day."(Exclamation point). And then Lightfoot wrote that exact same line 10 more times in a row.

She needs help, but it is not as much help as her staff needs, someone ought to stage a hostage extraction for their sake. Lightfoot ended her e- mail with this. "If this doesn't change immediately, I will just start unilaterally canceling things every day. Have I made myself clear, finally?" (Question mark, exclamation point).

So, as the bodies piled up hundreds more under her tenure as mayor, you've got to wonder, how much time did Lori Lightfoot take to write all of that? Was she shaking and spitting and screaming as she did? Of course, she was. You can picture the scene.

[VIDEO CLIP OF THE MOVIE "THE SHINING" PLAYS]

JACK TORRANCE, FICTIONAL CHARACTER PLAYED BY JACK NICHOLSON: Whenever you come in here and interrupt me, you're breaking my concentration. You're distracting me, and it will then take me time to get back to where I was. Understand?

WENDY TORRANCE, FICTIONAL CHARACTER PLAYED BY SHELLEY DUVALL: Yes.

JACK TORRANCE: How do you like it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Here's Lori. It's terrifying, but apparently it didn't work. It wasn't enough. Things did not improve in the Mayor's Office despite those missives. In May of last year, Lightfoot announced a new policy for memos that arrive late.

Late memos won't just be rejected, they will be torn by rage filled fingers into millions of tiny little pieces and cast into the wind like chaff. Given the right weather conditions, late memo fragments might blow over Lake Michigan and fall onto Grand Rapids.

In an e-mail to her staff, Lori Lightfoot attached a picture of ripped up documents for emphasis. Lori Lightfoot, human shredding machine, and yet still, somehow this person remains the mayor of America's third largest city. How long can that continue?

Joining us now is a man who has had the privilege of having obscenities screamed at him by Lori Lightfoot. We're joined tonight by Chicago Alderman, Raymond Lopez who by the way is a Democrat.

Mr. Lopez -- Alderman, great to see you tonight.

RAYMOND LOPEZ (D), CHICAGO ALDERMAN: Tucker, good evening.

CARLSON: I believe in democracy. I think that, you know, people elected by the public should serve out their terms. I don't believe in removing people. I don't like impeachment.

On the other hand, if hundreds more people are dying every year because of the decisions of one leader, you have to ask, is there a way to remove Lori Lightfoot before the end of her current term?

LOPEZ: You know that question has come up numerous times especially as we see our mayor not only become more and more inept at addressing the problems, but downright unhinged as these e-mails have shown. And sadly, in the City of Chicago, there is no state law for a recall or removal.

The citizens are stuck with their choice until the end of her term, which is for another two more years.

CARLSON: So, what do you do in the face of this? I mean, crime is a complicated thing. It arises from many causes, of course, but in the case of Lori Lightfoot, you can see exactly the results of policies that she has endorsed and put into place and people are dying as a result.

So, how do you respond to that? What do you do?

LOPEZ: Well thankfully, we've seen a number of my colleagues, a number that have been on your show like Alderman Sposato and Alderman Napolitano, and others who have begun to continue the drum beat against Lori Lightfoot's bad policing policies, and those policies that negatively impact the overall safety of our residents.

And we will continue to see more and more aldermen stepping up to the plate considering the fact that now, her main policing policy is to overwork our officers, 12 to 17 hours a day with no days off, driving them to literal exhaustion, in my belief, to force them into making a mistake that she can use to continue her rhetoric and to continue the politics of police bashing.

CARLSON: I mean, it's a measure of how central safety is to people's lives that it absolutely transcends politics. I just want to say again that you are a Democrat. You're probably a liberal on a lot of things that -- I'm not liberal, don't think it matters. What matters is not getting killed on your way to the grocery store.

So, do you think there are other Democrats in the City Council of Chicago - - I think, you've got a hundred aldermen there -- who are starting to see that this is not working?

LOPEZ: We've got 50 aldermen and I think many of them privately concede that this is not working, and I think, Tucker, too, on a national scale, you know Democrats need to learn that you do not have to contribute to the era of crime enabling in order to get elected.

I am a Democrat. I represent African-Americans, Latinos, and I've won five elections in a row by speaking to the truth that people have which is that, what you just said, they want to be safe. They want their children to be safe. They want their husbands, wives, and brothers, and sisters to all be safe.

And when you have 80-year-olds in our city being shot watering the grass or just like in my own neighborhood last week where a 20-year-old was picked up by her boyfriend to go celebrate the end of COVID in the State of Illinois and was gunned down by gang bangers who didn't recognize her at the other end of the block, we are truly failing, and we can do better.

And Chicago should expect better from its mayor and from its City Council.

CARLSON: We should expect better. That's exactly -- that's a nice way to put it. It's exactly right. We're all American citizens. We have a right to live in safe, clean places, I think.

Alderman, I appreciate your coming on. Alderman Raymond Lopez of Chicago.

LOPEZ: Always.

CARLSON: We hope, the next mayor.

Candace Owens has been watching all of this. She understands that symbols do matter. She is the host of "Candace." She joins us tonight with a reaction to all of this.

Chicago -- Candace, thanks so much for coming on -- is really kind of a case study in what happens when you apply bad policy.

CANDACE OWENS, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That's absolutely right and Lori Lightfoot, I mean, she is a disaster and I think first and foremost, people take a glance at her and the first thing you think is this is a woman who is an avowed racist. And you might look at that and say, well that's obvious because she says she doesn't want to speak to any white reporters and only black reporters.

But I think actually, Lori Lightfoot is abundantly racist towards black Americans, right? So, she pretends, don't pay attention to what she is saying; pay attention to what she is doing. She is pretending that she represents black people when she gets in front and says, I only want to speak to black journalists. But that's meant to be a distraction.

Actually, look at her track record. Who is it that she have her policies led to the mass homicide of? Black people. Black people are dying on the streets of Chicago.

Black people are the people that are suffering when you know in the first quarter of this year, 34 homicide rate increase. It is black-on-black crime, and she has seen this through.

The more important thing though when you showed a clip of her earlier and she started talking about, "We need help, we need help." Do you recall, Tucker, a few months ago when I said to you that the entire defund the police movement, the entire purpose behind what the Democrats do. They don't do anything about purpose, they are always taking a part and parcel of a Machiavellian scheme.

I said to you, Tucker, that they are going to start requesting when the streets get bad enough, until they say, we now need Federal help, and at that moment, you're going to see them start talking about a Federal Police. They are going to want to see Federal policing happening on the grounds of these inner cities.

I believe that has been the long game that the Democrats have been playing. This is why they have been undermining the local police at every second because they are looking to give more power to the Federal government. This is what is happening in Biden's America and I believe that this is just -- really what we're seeing is just a faster -- a faster spread toward America shifting towards a federalized police system in this country.

CARLSON: I think that's really smart. I hate to believe -- and I remember when you said that. I remember thinking, boy, I hope that's not true because it's just -- it's just so awful that you would create chaos, you allow hundreds of thousands of people to die just so you become more powerful. But I think, you're absolutely right.

So, in other words, they did -- none of this was accidental. I mean, they knew defunding the police would get a lot of people killed. How could you not know that?

OWENS: Of course they knew that, and you look around. You have to study history and that's why I've said, you see them, they're calling themselves socialists. They're hitting the ground. They're demanding socialism.

Well, let's actually take a look at what socialism has been around the year. Socialism -- has been around the world, pardon. Socialism has led to the death of 100 million people all across the world. When you look at communist socialist regimes of the past, this is what you see.

The Federal government needs more and more power, and they need to make sure they take it away from local. Yes, they are taking this away from local, so the Democrats put this plan into place and now, it is speeding up. So she is not helpless, she is saying, we need help from the Federal government. We need help from the Federal government, so that eventually people on the streets are going to say please, anybody, help us and you're going to start to see real crimes from the Federal government when they put their boots on the ground and start saying okay, now, we have complete and utter control.

It is not chaos -- from chaos, dictatorship arises. That is the lesson of human history.

CARLSON: It is amazing. You make -- I'm completely sold and Chris Wray, we're going to need to expand the F.B.I. by, you know 3x, so they can keep order in Chicago.

Candace Owens, thank you.

OWENS: Also, Tucker, I need office time every day.

CARLSON: Every day. Tell me that 14 more times and I'll believe you, with some exclamation points. Candace Owens, great to see you.

We're not overstating in any way the severity of the situation in Chicago, which is a core American city. I mean, you know, no offense, but it's not - - it's not some other city, it's a real city. It's one of the cities that built this country.

It's a beautiful city with great people in it, and it's actually falling apart.

We did a documentary for FOX Nation on "Tucker Carlson Originals" where we got hundreds and hundreds of never before seen hours of surveillance footage of the streets of Chicago. Some of it is too graphic to play on our nighttime show. FOX Nation is one place where there is no censorship -- at all.

So, we recommend if you're interested in what's happening in Chicago, taking a look at our documentary on that. There's a lot there by the way on FOX Nation.

Well, we're starting to learn some of the side effects that may be caused by the coronavirus vaccine. You're not allowed to mention them for some reason, but they are real. One woman says her husband and her son nearly died and were gravely injured after taking the vaccine, a vaccine in at least her son's case, he did not need. She joins us next to explain what happened.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: The last two nights, we've reported on the destruction of one of the prettiest neighborhoods in America, Buckhead in Atlanta. We hoped that the city's mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms would notice that her city is falling apart, the people being murdered, and then do something about it.

Instead, Keisha Lance Bottoms is focused on access to gender-neutral bathrooms. That's her big achievement. She decided administrative order -- just signed it -- designated more than a hundred city-owned restrooms as, quote, "all gender."

So, you can still get shot while you're out jogging in Buckhead, but at least you can use the ladies room, if you like.

So, there is enormous social pressure, and in fact institutional pressure from the corporate media not to mention any potential downsides of vaccines and while most people agree, this show certainly does, that vaccines are a good thing.

Nothing is all good. Nothing in this temporal world comes without a downside. And anyone who claims otherwise is a liar. Period. That's always true. Sometimes the tradeoff is worth it, but there's always a downside.

So, we feel honor-bound to tell you what it is, because it's your choice whether to take it or not. Period.

So, way back in January, just when the vaccines had come out, a physician called Gregory Michael died of a brain hemorrhage 16 days after taking Pfizer's COVID vaccine. Since then, health officials have been proving a link between the vaccine and blood clotting and in fact, the Biden administration's own numbers suggest that more than 5,000 people have died from taking the vaccine.

You can argue whether or not that's true, but you can't argue it is not worth following up on, and it hasn't been by anybody. Meanwhile, the AstraZeneca vaccine has not been administered in many countries including here in the U.S. in part because scientists believe it can cause fatal bleeding.

So, the question is, how widespread are these problems? No one is reporting on this. Again, we're not saying vaccines are bad, we believe vaccines are good, and some people should take vaccines. But we believe in telling the truth. Period.

Cherie Romney has firsthand evidence of the harm that they can do. She says members of her family experienced blood clotting after taking the COVID vaccine and we're happy to be joined by her tonight. Mrs. Romney, thanks so much for coming on tonight.

CHERIE ROMNEY, CONCERNED MOTHER AND WIFE: Thank you for having me.

CARLSON: Now, I know from reading your pre-interview that you're in favor of vaccines. You've taken vaccines. You've obviously encouraged your family, so it's not a question whether vaccines are good or bad. It is a question because most people including me think they're good.

But in the case of this vaccine, what do you believe the effect on your husband and your son has been?

ROMNEY: Well, there's no other explanation for what happened to my son and my husband so, we are pretty certain that it was a direct result of the vaccine.

My son and my husband formed blood clots. My son formed blood clots, three blood clots, two in his brain and my husband formed over 100 in his lungs.

CARLSON: Now, first of all, I'm sorry. That's awful and it's devastating, and of course it's life-threatening.

But tell us the circumstances under which they took the vaccines in the first place. How old is your son? Was he at risk? Did he have pre-existing health problems?

ROMNEY: No. My son is 17 years old. He is an athlete. He was an athlete he was an elite athlete. He was a very -- a varsity basketball player on his basketball team.

We went in to get the vaccines, my husband, myself and I because he travels a lot and because there's a lot of talk about these vaccine cards, things like that, so we felt a lot of pressure to go get the vaccines.

So, we thought let's hurry and go get that done before the summer season of basketball starts.

He is not in any risk category whatsoever.

CARLSON: So you --

ROMNEY: Well, on the 21st --

CARLSON: I'm sorry. Just to be clear, you were pressured into getting the vaccines that --

ROMNEY: Oh definitely. Definitely. It wasn't something we were worried about. I didn't think that there was a chance that my son or my husband or myself really we're going to experience some significant side effects from COVID itself, especially my son and my husband because they are really healthy, and my son, being an athlete and only 17 years old wasn't in a high risk category. But we did feel pressured to administer the vaccine to them because of that travel, because of those tournaments, because of the talk in these different states about needing to have vaccines or you can't participate in some of these things. So, we did feel that pressure.

So, on the 21st of April, we went in and the three of us got our COVID vaccines, our first COVID vaccines. I want to make that really clear, it was the first COVID vaccine. That very night, my son began to complain of swelling in his neck. The swelling continued to develop and by the fifth day, the morning of the fifth day, he could not move his head or his neck without assistance from his hands.

We took him into the pediatrician, the pediatrician said it has nothing to do with the shot. It really doesn't. They think it's a pulled neck muscle. Eight days later, my son was in the pediatric ICU with three blood clots, two in his brain and one in his neck.

And the very weekend after he was released from the hospital, my husband was admitted to the hospital with over a hundred blood clots in his lungs.

CARLSON: I'm really sorry and I hope they recover. I know that they're still in trouble and I just -- I can't overstate Americans should never be forced to take medicine they don't want or need. Period. Under any circumstances.

ROMNEY: And if I can say that my son, it actually turns out that my son, we found out on the eighth day that he was in the hospital, my son had nucleocapsid antibodies, so he had had a recent infection unbeknownst to myself, my husband, or my son, and he had recovered from COVID. He had natural antibodies.

So, we gave him a vaccine that was not medically necessary and put him in harm's way. A single blood test would have shown that he didn't need those -- that he didn't need that vaccine.

CARLSON: So, many American families are going through this right now. Colleges are forcing this on kids who have been infected and recovered. It is a scandal and I appreciate your coming on tonight.

Cherie, thank you so much and Godspeed to your family.

ROMNEY: Thank you.

CARLSON: So, Julian Assange is in prison in the U.K., why is he there? Across the west, we're letting people out of prison who committed violent crimes against their fellow citizens, but he is still there unable to see his family. What did he do wrong?

Well, he humiliated the people in power. Julian Assange's father and brother are in this country and they join us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Julian Assange has been in jail for an awfully long time. He is now in jail in the U.K. He was under house arrest in a foreign embassy in London. The U.S. has now accused Julian Assange of violating the Espionage Act.

This has been going on for a long time and it shows how dumb we are that it took us a very long time, years to ask the obvious question: what exactly did Julian Assange do wrong? Everyone, all good people hate Julian Assange. What was his crime exactly?

Was he hacking into other people's computers? Was he stealing secrets from the U.S. government? No, actually, he was publishing things other people sent him. He was a journalist. He was an editor. That's literally true.

Should you throw editors in jail because they embarrass you? You probably shouldn't, not a good precedent to set even if you don't like the person's politics. You should be against that.

A wide group of people are against it, it turns out. We spoke recently to Pamela Anderson who is trying to get a pardon for Assange. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAMELA ANDERSON, ACTRESS: He needs to do the right thing. This is one of those moments in history, in his lifetime, too, that he needs to make the right decision. And so, it's all up to, you know, President Trump that he would really gain a huge following and a huge sigh of relief and gratefulness for so many people on the planet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: We spoke to Roger Waters of Pink Floyd about it. Tonight, we're going to speak to Julian Assange's father and brother, John Shipton is his father; Gabriel Shipton is his brother. We're happy to have them on the show tonight.

John and Gabriel, thanks so much for coming on.

JOHN SHIPTON, FATHER OF JULIAN ASSANGE: Thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: John, first to you. What -- this is a sincere question. What did your son do wrong exactly? What is his specific crime?

J. SHIPTON: Well not a specific crime at all, Tucker. He has just offended some people in certain sections of Washington and consequently, has faced the 12 years now of persecution and harassment. And Julian, as you know is not an American citizen, yet he has been tried under the 1917 Espionage Act to bring Julian to the United States under the threat of 175 years in jail.

Nothing at all, just embarrassed a few people.

CARLSON: Well, for those of us in the business of embarrassing and offending people in Washington, this is a bad precedent, which is -- I'll just be honest -- one of the reasons I'm interested in this case.

Gabriel, tell us the conditions that your brother is in right now. Can you go see him if you want?

GABRIEL SHIPTON, BROTHER OF JULIAN ASSANGE: He is in Belmarsh Prison. I visited him in October last year, and since then, he has had no visits. The prison is in the total lockdown due to COVID, so he has had no visitors from any family or his lawyers.

So, you know, he is -- it's a maximum security prison, so it's got all the most dangerous prisoners from around the U.K., the most violent prisoners and he's been there up on three years now. So you know, he won his extradition case on January 4th and then the U.S. government appealed, and then a couple of days later, he was refused bail so he's been in, since January, he's been sitting in prison.

And he is an innocent man, not able to see his family, or lawyers, and we just don't know when the appeal will happen or when this will end.

CARLSON: And not just -- not simply innocent. I mean, I don't even think the charges make any sense against him. In this country, you are constitutionally allowed. I mean, it's the first part of our Bill of Rights, the First Amendment. You're allowed to print things the government doesn't like, which is what he did.

Let me ask you, Gabriel, is any American elected official -- I know there's activist types and cable news hosts -- but any elected official taking your side on this?

G. SHIPTON: Well, not since Biden's Inauguration -- not since President Biden Inauguration on the 23rd of January, we haven't had -- there has been no -- it's been silent from people in the Congress, in Senate, which is you know, part of the reason why we're doing this tour is to encourage Americans to stand up for their First Amendment rights.

CARLSON: Yes.

G. SHIPTON: And speak to their Congress people and tell them that, you know an Espionage Act prosecution --

CARLSON: I think we're having some audio problems, but let me finish your sentence -- an Espionage Act prosecution for printing things the government is embarrassed to see in print is a scary precedent that's going to come back and bite us in the butt and we should not allow it.

Anyway, John and Gabriel, I appreciate you taking time out of your tour to come on tonight. Thank you very much.

J. SHIPTON: Thank you. Thank you, Tucker.

G. SHIPTON: Thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: Thank you. So, Hunter Biden, not attacking him or anything, but a lot of Americans are out of work, Hunter Biden seems richer than ever. So, where's all the money coming from? Simon & Schuster paid him a lot of money for a book that didn't sell, but not enough to support his lifestyle. He has got another source of income. We'll tell you what it is after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Well, like herpes, the Hunter Biden story keeps going. You can treat its symptoms, but you can't really make it go away. FOX's Trace Gallagher has the very latest for us tonight. Hey, Trace.

TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: It turns out he is now an artist, Tucker. This is Hunter Biden's first go at the art world. He has no formal training and he paints with a straw, yet his work has been picked up by a New York art dealer who plans to sell the paintings for up to $500,000.00 each. It seems like a lot when you can buy an Andy Warhol piece for $750,000.00 and Warhol's been dead for 34 years.

Another art dealer told "The New York Post" that without name recognition, Biden's work would start around $25,000.00 which has some wondering if he is selling art or access. Peter Schweizer who wrote a book about how politicians hide corruption to enrich their family says he thinks this is clearly pay to play.

We should note the sale of Biden's paintings will be confidential. We should also note his art dealer maintains that Hunter Biden's work is quote, "authentic," meaning he paints with a straw -- Tucker.

CARLSON: Paints with a straw -- the straw. Trace Gallagher, great to see you.

GALLAGHER: You, too.

CARLSON: So, the country has never been more racially divided. That's a tragedy. Certainly, not in our lifetimes, and it is intentional. It's being driven on purpose by people with power using lies. Who knows why?

Charles Murray has watched it happen and he has taken an honest look at what is driving those lies. Charles Murray, of course, is probably most famous living social scientist in America. He is the author of a new book called, "Facing Reality: Two Truths about Race in America."

We just sat down with Charles Murray for the latest episode of "Tucker Carlson Today." Here's part of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES MURRAY, AUTHOR, "FACING REALITY": It's a product of last summer. You know, last summer I've listened to the narrative after the riots and the protests and so forth, and when they were talking about. you know, the police and terrible policing in the inner city, I said to myself: aren't they even mentioning that the environment that the police work in in the inner city is vastly more dangerous than the environment in a suburban neighborhood?

When they were talking about: we don't have enough managers in senior positions in Microsoft and places like that, and I'm saying, don't they even mention how few blacks there are who can qualify under the current situation for those kinds of positions?

I didn't want them to use that information to discount the problems in policing or discount the problems of racism in the job market. I wanted them to acknowledge the fact, there are group differences that go a long way toward explaining some of these other inequities that are at the center of attention.

And so finally, I got mad enough at it. I said, I've got to write a book. And then as I got started on it, Tucker, I began to realize that what's going on with critical race theory and identity politics is a repudiation of the American creed.

It's saying the founding ideals are wrong and I had to fight back against that.

CARLSON: So, let's start at the beginning. What are the founding ideals that they are repudiating?

MURRAY: It's -- you know, you're not old enough maybe. The American creed used to be a phrase in common use. It was based on the first paragraphs of the Declaration, "All men are created equal." They are born with inalienable rights, and what it boiled down to was, in America, you can go as far as hard work and talent will take you. You are the equal of everybody else. You're the equal in terms of the law and you are equal and with innate human dignity.

You know, individually. You've got to treat people as individuals. You can't treat them as members of groups.

Identity politics says you must treat people as members of groups. The power of the state must be used to foster social goals that bring another group up preferentially to meet another group. Well, okay, I understand that they think this is wonderful idealism. It in fact repudiates what has made America, America.

When I say I want us to repudiate identity politics and return to a set of ideals in which all Americans are equal under the law and all have equal innate human dignity, that is a huge majority of the American population of every ethnicity. I'm absolutely confident.

If that's the case, we've got to tell each other that. We've got to say out loud that we believe this stuff and we've got to stop letting the people who say that color blindness is hate speech. We've got to stop letting them dominate the conversation and we've got to -- we've got to identify this overwhelming American majority, which still loves what made this country special.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Great conversation. Well worth watching. You can find it on "Tucker Carlson Today." It's on foxnation.com along with a lot of other conversations like it.

So, we're Americans. We don't cover a lot of things that happen in Canada because it's Canada, but when things go completely crazy in Canada, we pay attention. When they start rounding up and arresting people who oppose the regime, political dissidence, yes, that just happened to the leader of Canada's Conservative Party. He joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: You want to know how fast a democracy can become authoritarian? Well, one of the most prominent political figures in Canada, a man called Maxime Bernier went to a protest against lockdowns, outdoors, and was arrested by the regime for doing it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good afternoon, sir.

MAXIME BERNIER, LEADER OF THE PEOPLE'S PARTY OF CANADA: Yes, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... with RCMP.

BERNIER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I can get you to step out of the vehicle, I'm going to place you under arrest right now.

BERNIER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're under arrest under the provincial health orders. Okay, so if you can just put your hands behind your back. Face towards the vehicle. Okay give me one hand here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll just sit in the vehicle, okay?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The other hand. You have any weapons or anything on you, sir?

BERNIER: Weapon? No. No weapon. Only my words.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... anything like that? Sorry?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anything on you that's going to hurt me or anything like that?

BERNIER: No, no. Nothing would hurt you. Only my words. Only my philosophy. Only what I believe in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Only what I believe in." Maxime Bernier is the leader of the People's Party of Canada. He is a former Cabinet Secretary in the Canadian government. He joins us tonight.

Mr. Bernier, thanks so much for coming on. It's -- from an American perspective, it's remarkable that the government, the Trudeau government would arrest its political opponent for complaining about its policies. That's what it seems like from our perspective.

What's your view?

BERNIER: You're absolutely right, Tucker. I'm very pleased to be with you, very pleased to be free, but yes, you know I'm doing a tour across the country to speak against these authoritarian lockdowns and stay-at-home order.

And I'm the only political leader in Canada who is speaking against that and in that tour, I had planned to be in Manitoba and just before coming to Manitoba, the Premier of that province threatened me. He said in a press conference the day before I arrived there that I was not welcome, and if I'm coming to Manitoba, he said that my -- he will empty my wallet.

So, he doesn't want to have any discussion about his policies and actually you're right. I was out there with my supporters and speaking to be ready for the next election, speaking about my values and just after that, they arrested me saying that I was not respecting the COVID regulations.

But it was not about that, it was about political repression, and in Canada, you cannot speak against the regime. It is like in China. I was in jail for eight hours. They, you know, handcuffed me, put me in jail, and for a non-crime for just after a gathering with my supporters and it was a political repression.

CARLSON: I mean, from our perspective, if this can happen in Canada, we should be afraid. Very quickly, is anyone else in Canada afraid of what's happening? Do people see this as scary?

BERNIER: Well, I was not the only one to be put in jail for my belief. Actually, another candidate from my party was put in jail also in Nova Scotia because he was doing a freedom rally. So, it is scary that in Canada right now, in 2021, you are like in China.

Actually, I will always fight for what I believe and like I said to the policemen, my weapon is my words and I will always use my words to fight for more freedom and a smarter government in Canada.

I will be back in Manitoba.

CARLSON: Maxime Bernier, we're out of time. We are rooting for you. Come to America. Great to see you. Thank you.

Sean Hannity right now.

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