♪ >> tucker: good evening, and welcome to a special, inside-the-issues edition of "tucker carlson tonight." we want to open with less than breaking news. this is not a fox news alert. hours ago, congressman seth moulton of massachusetts dropped out of the race for the democratic nomination. confused? never heard of seth moulton, you say? don't worry, not many people have. moulton served in the united statesmarine corps for new york four times, but other than that he hasn't done much other than collecting useless college degrees and running for office. what's interesting is why he's being forced to drop out of the race today. by any sane standard, moulton is a thoroughly liberal democrat on every issue. he's more left-wing than barack obama was on the day he

left office. three years ago, he would be considered a liberal firebrand. not anymore. by the lunatic standards of the modern democratic party, seth moulton is now a flaming moderate and that's the kiss of death. moderates are not welcome in the democratic party any longer. watch what happened, for example, at the last debate when congressman tim ryan of ohio urged his fellow liberals to take practical considerations into account. they treated him like a man with an infectious disease. watch this. >> now, in this discussion already tonight, we talked about taking private health insurance away from union members in the industrial midwest. we talked about decriminalizing the border, and we've talked about giving free health care to undocumented workers, when so many americans are struggling to pay for their health care. i, quite frankly, don't think that that is an agenda that we can move forward on and win. we've got to talk about the working class issues that. the people who take a shower after work who haven't had a

raise in 30 years. if we focus on that, we can win the election. >> tucker: not a lot of applause for that. then when former congressman john delaney tried to encourage his party to restrict its ambitions to the physically possible, elizabeth warren ordered him to be banished from wonderland forever. >> so, i think democrats win when we run on real solutions on impossible promises but when we run on things that are workable, not fairy tale economics. >> you know, i don't understand why anybody go through all the trouble of running for president of the united states just to talk about what we really can't do and shouldn't fight for. i don't get that. >> tucker: you and your reality-based ideas. how dare you! be gone! demented, obviously, but as a political matter, it has been highly effective. when he dropped out today, congressman moulton noted that quote, "it's evident this is now a three-way race between biden and warren and sanders, and really it's a debate about how

far left the party should go." except, there isn't really a debate. the farthest-left candidates are winning. of the nearly 20 people in the field, only biden, warren, and sanders can muster more than 10% of support. which, in fact, makes it a two-person race, if we are going to be honest about it, and why wouldn't we be? biden may be a decent person, but he's fading. he says weird things, a lot, and he did it again today in new hampshire. listen to this. >> martin luther king and bobby kennedy. my senior semester, they were both shot and killed. imagine what would have happened if, god forbid barack obama, had been assassinated after becoming a de facto nominee. what would've happened in america? >> tucker: imagine that you are biden's clinical director sitting offstage and all of a sudden he wanders into unscripted territory and says "imagine the assassination of barack obama." you've got your head in your

hands and frequently texting reporters, trying to get them to deemphasize it. this is not an attack on joe biden. he's knocking to he's not going to be the nominee. he's not. i mean, seriously. he is not. so the actual race comes down to warren and sanders. sanders. competing visions of how to achieve the same socialist fantasy. warren's promising reparations based on skin color. that's popular. sanders wants a government takeover of the entire energy sector. okay. they will be working to out crazy each other for the next six months. that is a dynamic guaranteed to produce yet more extremism. and it has some democratic leaders worried. yesterday, for example, the dnc voted on a proposal to hold the debate focused exclusively on climate change. why would they do that? well, because the solutions the candidates would promise live on television are insane. spend $16 trillion, ban airplanes, seize control of the entire u.s. economy.

uh-huh. the trustafarians love stuff like that. normal people find it terrifying. even the party hacks here in d.c. don't like it, and that's probably a compliment, honestly. you really think nancy pelosi believes climate change is an existential crisis? of course she doesn't think that. it's why she flies private. barack obama can say whatever he wants about carbon emissions, stroke his chin, and be very concerned, but when you are spending 15 million of your own dollars on a beachfront date in martha's vineyard, you are not too worried about the oceans rising. the problem is, the democratic base doesn't get the joke. democratic primary voters believe the talking points. and very soon, they will be powerful enough to nominate their own presidential candidate. and, when that happens, it's gonna be a very different party. david the ferry is an old-fashioned kind a democrat, a lawyer and former obama campaign advisor, and he joins us tonight. so, david. you're not gonna put this on tv but i think --

let's just stipulate that it's very likely that joe biden is not going to be the nominee. you have the other two, the only ones that are getting real poll numbers, are on the record supporting a series of proposal, may be good ideas or may be bad ideas, but they're really unpopular the country. race-based restitution, reparations, i mean, nobody's for that. i could get down the list. i don't think these guys can get elected on this stuff. do you? >> well, first of all, i don't agree with you about biden. he is the front-runner. i think a lot of things are gonna happen between now and the primaries and then going through the primaries, anything can happen. one thing to make clear to your audience is that the issues the voters care most about, like health care, gun control, and abortion, actually all of the democratic candidates basically agree, and they are more in line with that the majority of voters

than president trump. if you look at the recent polling, even a fox news poll from last week, shows that 60% of the electorate favor an trump is against against it. >> tucker: here's what they don't favor. let me just first, joe biden, i think is a total hollow person and will say anything and has no moral beliefs, but i think his temperament is basically moderate. i think he likes other people. i like that about joe martin. i'm not attacking him for ideological reasons. i just think that he's flaky and getting flaky here. i think, you don't, i'm talking about and i really just don't think that anybody really believes he's going to be the nominee so there's that. second, on gun control and abortion, most people say yeah come on for gun control, i'm pro-choice, but the democratic candidates have come out for taxpayer financed abortion in the ninth month of pregnancy and this come out on the gun question in favor of forced gun

grabs, like cops showing up your house and saying give me a gun. they are on the record saying that. people don't support those things where that's too far. that's too radical and you know it. >> well, i don't know which candidates are talking about right now. the eight to ten candidates that actually have a chance to win do not support radical positions like that. >> tucker: that's not true, every single one of them supports taxpayer-funded abortion through the third trimester of pregnancy. >> no, no. they support taxpayer-funded abortion according to roe vs. wade. >> tucker: hold on, is there a single -- you're wrong! >> roe vs. wade has made it clear that states can regulate abortions in the third trimester. >> tucker: i know what the decision says, but i'm just asking, is there is a single candidate running right now, of biden, warren, and a bernie sanders, those three, the only three getting over a 10% polls, any of those support restricting abortion at any

time, in any trimester, and restricting federal funding for it, at any time, and the answer is no. that's so far out of the mainstream, it's unbelievable. they also support, all of them, giving free health care to illegal aliens. what percentage of the population supports that? >> biden is not trying to change roe vs. wade, and roe vs. wade makes clear that states can regulate abortion in the third trimester, so you're wrong. he does allow and support those states that decide to regulate it which almost all of them have for the third trimester. now, with respect to the fact that -- you keep saying that if someone kind of pollution that sanders and warren are going to enter it at some point not true. the top person is biden and there are several others who are more moderate than sanders and warren who also have a good chance of getting hot, catching fire, and -- >> tucker: i don't believe it. that is so far away from the primary, still. we'll see. it looked, i want a moderate person in the race. i don't want crazy people on the

stage. but i'm not in control, and neither are you. we are going to get a crazy person. anyway, we are out of time. >> there is a lot of fatigue or trump. if the democrats put up a moderate candidate, they likely will win. >> tucker: they have a decent chance with a moderate, no chance with a socialist. good to see, david. thank you. bernie sanders already known for being a hard-liner, and now he's proving his credentials on both global warming. his newly announced climate plan says that the government federal government is going to take over the entire energy sector. watch this. >> we need to do is have an aggressive federal government saying that we are going to produce a massive amount of electricity from solar and from wind and other sustainable energies, and we will travel it out, and by the way, we are going to make money doing that. you can't nibble around the edges anymore but we have to transform our energy system. that means a massive increase in sustainable energy. >> tucker: this guy literally knows nothing about energy. howie carr is a radio host, he joins us tonight.

so, howie, the plan that he is outlining is, in any normal year, it would be considered the most radical thing any presidential candidate has ever proposed, from the founding of the republic until the present day, yet in this environment, it's gone without notice appeared what exactly is he calling for? >> as you said, he's calling for the nationalization of the energy industry. you know, remember, barack obama said we can't drill our way out of this. well, we have drilled our way out of it, and, you know, if we want to prove barack obama right in retrospect, will nationalize the energy industry, and then we won't be able to drill our way out of it. i mean, look at venezuela. once a prosperous country, one of the world's leading exporters of oil, more oil in the ground in saudi arabia. now, they not only export not

much oil at all, but they have a blackouts all the time. i mean, that's bernie sanders view. look, he got called out by a college kid yesterday in chico, california. the kid said, look, why don't you put your money where your mouth is and bernie got all huffy as he did with martha maccallum a couple months ago. he said, well, i'm not gonna walk to california, why don't -- what do you and i have to walk? as you pointed out -- >> tucker: why doesn't he fly commercial, by the way, like everyone else, like i do. i'm serious. how can you call for other people to make deep sacrifices in the way they live and their standard of living and the way they heat their homes, for example, and you are flying private? how does that work? >> look at leonardo dicaprio. look at these conferences in davos to save the world. you know, you mentioned barack obama buying the beachfront mansion on martha's vineyard for 15 million. how much do you really think is a problem, i mean, what about al

gore on the west coast? he bought the place in montecito a decade ago. he obviously doesn't think there's a problem. i don't think they want to debate on climate change because it's a loser issue. i mean, jay inslee was the climate change candidate, and he dropped out of the fight. people understand this. and if you give in on climate change and have a debate, i mean, what's next? they going to have a debate on abortion or repealing the second amendment? or do they want to talk about genders? you know, msnbc, you probably saw this, one of the hosts today said it's incendiary to say there are just go genders. joe biden said there are three genders. dependent on the facebook page you go to, there are eight, 773. the democrats want to have a debate on how many genders there are. >> tucker: it would be nice to get a coalition of high school biology teachers. you know what i mean? to kind of stand up and stand up for science, please. howie carr, great to see you tonight. >> is it subtle science? not the democratic party.

>> tucker: apparently it's not. talk about deniers. great to see you. well, leaked emails made it clear the 2016 democratic primary was rigged against bernie sanders in favor of hillary clinton. now it's looking like the 2020 race may may have similar problems. tulsi gabbard has logged at least 2% in several dozen polls but the dnc does not want her on the debate stage, and they are claiming now that those polls are not certified polls, so garber likely won't make the next round of the primary debates. michael tracy has been following this from the very beginning and he joins us tonight. so, i don't know exactly how many of our viewers are going to vote for tulsi gabbard, probably none. but we can all agree that tulsi gabbard is a valuable voice, and we should hear from tulsi gabbard, and it seems to me, i do want to be paranoid, but it sounds like the democratic party, they don't want her voice included. am i being a conspiracy person? >> you might be surprise, she

does tend to generate actually a somewhat significant among even conservatives and libertarians, notwithstanding the fact that she has a fairly straightforward left-wing policy agenda, but she has something about her, i don't know, ambience that draws an idiosyncratic range of support from across the spectrum, and i think that has rubbed certain people the wrong way. i'm not going to allege a conspiracy as to why she is likely going to be excluded from the next debate, but i'm going to allege that the criteria the dnc is using to determine who is included and who is excluded is laughably arbitrary. as i mentioned in an article that i wrote this week in "real clear politics," gabbard has gotten over the required polling threshold in two separate polls in two separate early primary states. "the boston globe" as a

newspaper with the widest circulation in new hampshire and the post and courier is the newspaper with the wildest circulation in. gabbard has got her place at 2% or more in both published by those two newspapers but the dnc and its bizarre mysterious infinite wisdom has decreed again arbitrarily that those polls are not approved. they are not, you know, they don't satisfy some weird criteria that that nobody can quite ascertain, so while i'm not going to allege an overt conspiracy -- although it's true that everybody from donna brazile to elizabeth warren alleged that the previous primary cycle was "rigged." but you'd be forgiven for having that impression, given how obscure, and sort of inscrutable, the criteria that the dnc is using this time around r. i'm not saying that tulsi should necessarily have special privileges, or the rules weren't laid out a month ago, which they were, but the rules don't seem to hold up to any kind of logical scrutiny. that's a problem. >> tucker: and we know for a fact they despise her because

she's challenged their neoconservative assumptions about foreign policy and god bless her for doing that. michael, thanks very much for joining us tonight. >> thank you, tucker. >> tucker: good to see you. we learned today that supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg has been diagnosed with another occurrence of pancreatic cancer. ginsburg is 86 years old. last december, she was treated for lung cancer. ginsburg is an impressively tough person. we wish her the best and hope for her recovery. at the same time though, we are hoping for the nation's recovery as well. today is another reminder that ruth bader ginsburg won't always be on the supreme court. and we fear that her exit, whenever it comes, will unleash yet another wave of hate, threats, and cruelty from the institutional left. it's been less than a year since it happened the last time. progressives then were willing to destroy any reputation, any institution, any human life to prevent preserving their grasp on political power. they held the entire country

houses with a mixture of viciousness and insanity. we can't survive repeated outbreaks like that. here's to hoping that this time our friends on the left can take a deep breath and calm down. yes, everyone wants political power, we understand. but a supreme court seat is not worth destroying the country. well, the ceo of overstock.com, just gave one of the wildest interviews in the history of this channel. martha maccallum talked to him, and she joins us to discuss what happened and what it meant. it's a really interesting story. and then, cnn spent two years pushing the russia collusion hoax. now, they've hired one of its chief perpetrators as a contributor. a proven liar to tell us the truth. all right. we will tell you when and why next. ♪ ♪[upbeat music]

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♪ >> tucker: welcome back to our inside-the-issues special edition of "tucker carlson tonight." overstock.com ceo patrick byrne resigned yesterday from the company he founded after baffling investors with the press release about the american deep state. martha maccallum hosts the story with martha maccallum of course every night, 7:00 p.m. eastern, right before the show. she spoke with byrne right after he resigned and it quickly became one of the weirdest things i've ever seen on television. you can judge for yourself. byrne says his relationship with russian national maria butina who is now in prison was a political espionage scam set up by the feds against america's top politicians. here is part of what he said.

>> so, you help the government a couple of times, they reach out to you, what did they ask you to do? >> i don't want to go into the nitty-gritty right now. here is what it is. this was all political espionage conducted against hillary clinton, rubio, cruz, and trump. this is not a theory of mine. i was in the room when it happens. i was part of it. >> tucker: he went on to say his handler in this operation was none other than disgraced fbi official, peter strzok. watch this. >> the men in black, as i call them, showed up and ask for this third favor and anyway, i'm not going into the details right now, but i didn't who sent the orders but i did then last summer watching television and here's the punch line. here's the punch line people. last summer watching television and some congressional hearings i figured out where those orders came from. came from a guy named peter strzok.

and carlin, mccabe, comey, that was who sent the orders. >> well, you are naming a bunch of fbi people, there. >> well, peter strzok, it has been confirmed to me that my instructions came from peter strzok. >> tucker: he constantly predicted that the story that he is explaining would expose jim comey in the end, too. >> peter strzok would watch the show and say that he's full of it. i haven't no idea about anything that he is talking about, i would imagine. >> he won't, i can tell you. peter strzok, you want to see a former director crap his pants? pardon me. go stick a television camera on peter strzok, or let's just say james comey, and say the name patrick byrne, you will see a former director of the fbi crap his pants. >> tucker: what to make of all of this? we can dismiss it out of hand

and say he is crazy, but maybe we shouldn't dismiss it out of hand, actually. we talked to martha maccallum about it just moments ago. here is the conversation. martha, thanks for coming on. like everyone in america, i watch that interview. just spelled-bound. i'm not exactly sure what to make of it so i'm grateful that you are here to tell us your impressions. what'd you you think? >> you know, it was a surprising interview. it's a very surprising story. but i had spoken to you a couple sources that are close to the investigation who said that it's possible that he may be telling sort of the way they are looking at at this point, he turned over his tax documents and emails to the justice department back in april. he met with them twice, back on april 5th and april 30th. there is at least enough of a thread that they are hearing him out. he says this is the key to everything. he says i was there, i saw what happened, and basically he is suggesting that what he thought

was part of, he worked as an asset for the federal government a couple of times before on different things, just to be helpful, and when they reached out to him this time, he thought he was doing the same thing, but it became clear to him that it was now a law enforcement issue, but a political espionage issue, and that's when he says, you know, his feelings about the whole thing started to turn. that being said, andrew mccabe has responded, james comey has responded, they say they never heard of him. nothing about what he described is the way things happened in these investigations, so there you have it. >> tucker: so he does a pretty good imitation of a delusional man. i mean, that was my instinct watching it. that this guy is unbalanced. but the allegations he's making are -- some of them are general others are specific, and they're serious, and so you would imagine that the agencies involved would immediately shoot it down, but you said you have spoken to high-level sources who haven't shut it down. >> yeah, you know, and i think the way to describe it is that they are saying that, you know,

he may be telling the truth. there may be something there. they don't know for sure. this is obviously part of an ongoing investigation, john durham's investigation, and we will see if anything comes of it but he claimed when we spoke last night that he claims that they are going to uncover what he says is the greatest american political scandal of all time. he says i'm not the only one who is involved in this, an asset that is part of this -- and i also think there is enough, kind of, mention out there, surrounding this investigation, that there is a belief that it wasn't just carter page and the fisa application. that if there was this kind of attempt, this kind of effort to sprinkle some scandal around and see where it would land, and see if they could find something that connected to president trump, an insurance policy, if you will, that it was likely they tried it in a number

of different places. >> tucker: interesting. it has been confirmed that he had a romantic relationship with a russian woman now in jail, supposedly the spire. in his allegations, he was asked by the feds to have that relationship, is that right? >> he says he met her on his own, and then began becoming interested in her because she was a russian in the united states and meeting up with all of these political types, but he says then they started encouraging the relationship, and he claimed on another interview that they told him to go back and re-initiate an intimate relationship with her. but here's where things are fuzzy, because he said to me, i never touched her. we were close friends, he said he respected her. he thinks she is a very smart person. but he sort of -- once it became clear that she was looking for ways to connect with the trump administration, she mentioned, he says, donald trump jr. wanting to connect and meet with him, and she sort of moved away

completely from wanting to investigate the democratic side of the equation. he said about a third of him believed that there was definitely something that was up with this relationship and with her. >> tucker: what a story. what an unbelievable story. >> it is. >> tucker: it turns out it may be as your reporting suggest, it's possible that some of this is real, which i guess shouldn't surprise us. >> yeah, it's interesting that andrew mccabe says some of what he describes is not the way we do things, and then he went on to say, you know, i don't know, i've never heard of him before a few days ago. so we will see where it leads. >> tucker: martha that was great. great interview. thank you so much for coming on tonight. >> thanks, tucker. great to see you. >> tucker: well, former acting fbi director andy mccabe disgraced himself may be more than any other single person during the more than two years of the russian collusion hysteria. the hoax. he was one of the perpetrators of that hoax. as recently as last february, he

was suggesting and live television interviews that the president of the united states might be a russian spy. at the time, we noted this. americans put a lot of trust in the fbi, they have no choice. it's our top law enforcement agency. fbi officials are supposed to be adults, supposed to be immune to hysteria and fads and above all, immune to political pressure. and when it comes to russia, andy mccabe sounds worse than any cnn anchor. not to brag, but that was a preciouprescient observation, a, andy mccabe literally became a paid cnn contributor. joe concha writes about media for "the hill," and he joins us tonight. so joe, the question is, andrew mccabe is a liar. he was fired for lying from the fbi. did cnn hire him in spite of that, or because of it? >> i think it shows that this is now strictly more of a business than anything about journalism.

it seems like the prerequisite now is, where you in a position of power? do you hate the president? okay, here's your stage. go ahead, go on. look at michael avenatti. he got on cable news hundreds of times in a small span because he hated the president and spoke about politics and even russia when he wasn't qualified to do it, and with mccabe, by the way? he lied under oath three times to the fbi, as you said, told anderson cooper that the president was a russian asset, so think about this. if he lied to the fbi, and we are applying the michael flynn standard here in terms of sentencing and going to jail, andrew mccabe shouldn't be on cnn. he should be in jail because he's committed the same crime that michael flynn has, but instead, he will go ahead and you will see him on cable news and it's a complete disservice to cnn viewers, where their integrity is going down, for lack of a better term, a black

hole. >> tucker: cnn this morning suggested that he had been wrong to because he was fired two days before his pension was to be investigated. shame has no role there. joe concha, it's great to see you tonight good thank you. have a great weekend. no place in america welcomes more illegal aliens then merrill lynch. maryland. now, two illegal immigrants have been arrested for raping an 11-year-old girl. that story is next as our special continues. ♪ lt withdrawn, alone... having to live with bad teeth for so long was extremely depressing. now, i know how happy i am. there was all the feeling good about myself that i missed. i wish that i had gone to aspen dental on day one and not waited three years. at aspen dental, we're all about yes. like yes to flexible hours and payment options. yes to free exams and x-rays for new patients without insurance. and yes, whenever you're ready to get started, we are too. call now at 1-800-aspendental.

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♪ >> tucker: welcome back to our inside-the-issues special. the bureau of justice statistics has released a new report showing that noncitizens have dramatically increased as a proportion of federal arrests. in 1998, for example, 37% of all federal arrests were of noncitizens. last year, noncitizens had risen to 64% of all people arrested by the feds. again, 64% of everyone the federal law enforcement

officials arrest is not an american. amazing. overall, the raw number of noncitizens getting arrested more than tripled despite being just 7% of the country's population. at least officially. noncitizens are 24% of direct federal drug arrest, 28% of fraud arrest, and 15% of all prosecutions in the u.s. district court for nonimmigration arrest. so the next time they tell you immigrants are more law abiding than we are, they are lying. of course they're lying, they are always. they are definitely lying about that. so, it's easy to have this data remain abstract, though, until it actually affects where you live. montgomery county, maryland, is a place that has been affected. it's a place that's fallen all over itself to accept illegal aliens. now two illegal immigrants have been arrested for raping an 11-year-old goal. one of the perpetrators received an order for removal. he was never deported. a host of wma radio here in washington, d.c., and he joins us tonight. thanks a lot for coming on.

so, it sounds like there have been quite a few alleged sexual assaults by noncitizens recently. >> yes. particularly in montgomery county, maryland. one of the richest places in the entire country, and it's right here 20 miles away from where we are sitting right now, and this county has been dominated by the illegal immigrate rapes over the last month. we have four illegal immigrants confirmed, who have been arrested on rape charges in montgomery county, maryland. now, what makes montgomery county unique is that it's a sanctuary county, they don't like helping the feds with illegal immigrants for it when they'd take a look and illegal immigrant into custody, and could do ones that have detained is by the federal government, they don't tell them. the won't let them know. in fact, just last week, we had an illegal immigrant who committed a rape allegedly against a woman when she was blackout drunk had they taken into custody, he has since been released on bond and they never turn him over to i.c.e. >> tucker: that's unbelievable he had so this is -- we've seen other examples but

i'm not sure we seen a concentration this intense, of ways that ordinary americans are being hurt, physically hurt, by the political imperatives of the left. >> the irony of this is just not americans that are being hurt, it's also illegal immigrants who are being victimized by the people that are committing these rapes. what we are finding is disproportionally the people were impacted by this are often on the same immigrant communities so the counting is negative is a man named mike county executive is a man named mike eldridge. he says i.c.e. and trump are committing acts of terrorism by enforcing the law. he said it brings fear to the community. well, i've got to say, mr. county executive, what brings fear to the community more, enforcing a illegal immigration laws or allowing to be released into that community so they can commit crimes again? >> tucker: has anyone noted this to him? >> well, what's interesting is the story of the 11-year-old who was were repeatedly raped by two illegal immigrants, it was radio

silence from montgomery county leaders. they didn't want to talk about this, because they know how bad it is for the signs of their leadership. in fact, they were partying on the beach in maryland, in ocean city, maryland, during this period having a conference, refusing to respond to any media requests. it was our 24 hours later, the first response came from the county spokesman, and blame the federal government for the fact that these illegal demands committed these crimes. they said it's their responsibility to enforce federal immigration law. they should've done it. if they would have it, this wouldn't have happened. >> tucker: that's unbelievable. >> montgomery county residents are furious. they are absolutely livid. and they are not the only ones. they don't know what the rules are put in there and are not supposed to talk to i.c.e. you montgomery county leaders are so consumed with self-loathing over all of this and trying to get us out of the way that they have told the cops, well, you can actually the jailers, you can contact i.c.e. in the case of severe

crimes, but what that means, totally opaque. not clear at all to local law enforcement officials, and they say these guys, these leaders, are making up the rules as they go along. >> tucker: a little late for the children who have already raped. quickly, with the name of the county executive again? >> mark eldridge. he's a montgomery county executive and is at the center of all of this chaos. he hates donald trump more than he likes his own residence. >> tucker: yeah, well, he's not the only one. thank you for that report. president trump just escalated the trade war with china. can the u.s. win that war? that's next, as our special continues. ♪ that's next is our special continues. it

♪ >> tucker: welcome back to our

inside-the-issues special. america's brewing trade war with china just became a lot more intense. earlier today, china announced new tariffs on $75 billion worth of american goods. as is his habit, the president responded on twitter, announcing a 5% increase in tariffs on $550 billion of chinese goods. bill gertz here's the obvious thought. trump is the first president in my lifetime to challenge china in this way on trade. the chinese don't like it. they have an opportunity to hurt the american economy going into a presidential election, thereby getting rid of trump. why won't they do that? >> of course they would try to do that, and i think that's what they are trying to do right now with these tariffs, and also retaliating against u.s. companies. but tucker, the whole thing about this is that they are running out of bullets. first of all, they sell us a lot

more than we sell them. also, you know, they can go after u.s. companies in china but the problem is, they then undercut their reputation for being a reliable number of global supply chains and that's what made china rise. getting factories into china, now they are pushing factories out of china, and that is really bad news for the chinese communist system. >> tucker: but maybe that's the key to it. it is a communist system, if not a democracy, so its leaders can absorb a lot more pain than our leaders can, because they are not accountable to voters. they can kind of do what they want. doesn't that give them an advantage in a short-term? >> it gives them a little bit of advantage, but, you know, we have seen president trump show so much more will than xi jinping, and by the way, xi jinping of course doesn't have a formal election coming up like president trump does next november. but xi jinping actually

has an election every day. remember, he is now totally accountable because he took power from everybody else. also, he has the institutionalized communist party, which means he no longer has those rules that protect him, so i think he has a very low threshold for risk and i think he is much more vulnerable than president trump. president trump can lose the election, but president xi jinping can actually lose his life. >> tucker: that's a smart plan. what's the next step in this point that you anticipate? >> more tariffs, more tariffs, more tariffs. the chinese are supposed to come to washington next month for the 13th round of negotiations. like the 12th round, those were not important. those were like an hour or so, they were in shanghai, they were just talking points. i think that if the chinese actually do come to d.c. next month, it's going to be basically the same thing. the chinese need to hurt a little bit more before they become realistic but xi jinping right now is it a point where he can avoid to compromise so i see more friction ahead. >> tucker: interesting. do you think that the chinese

will be willing to damage the u.s. economy? >> yes. i mean, they already have tried to do that. they will continue to do that. that's the only thing they can do, try to affect the american electorate. you know, people in the united states are now starting to see how maligned china is, and they are starting to rally behind the president. not everyone agrees with what the president is doing, but i think everyone agrees with his goals, and that is really important. that's the first step to getting a unified country. >> tucker: i think a lot of people in washington side with china in this dispute. outside of washington, i think you are right. gordon chang, thank you, you are such an assessor of this. thank you. it's friday it so it's time for the dan bongino news explosion. our favorite former secret service angent joins us ahead with his top stories of the week. that's next. ♪ ♪[upbeat music]

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>> tucker: it's friday, so of course we want to cap off the week, as we always do, with a dan bongino news explosion. our favorite former new york city cop is here with a rapid rundown of the top stories from the past week. dan bongino, ladies and gentlemen. >> tucker, always good to see you. i have my three favs for the week. let's start with number three. oh, boy, is this a doozy. listen, there's no better way to establish your credibility as a news network when you promoted the collusion hoax for two years cnn, in case you missed it, folks, hired andy mccabe, former deputy director of the fbi. you know, tucker, i wonder who went into the room with a focus group at cnn and said yes, this is a great idea. let's hire this guy.

i mean, i get it, only ten people in the airport actually watch cnn but still, not the best move towards getting your credibility back. i'm not crazy, right? probably not the best guide. just throwing that out there. >> tucker: a guy that just got fired for lying about 20 minutes ago? yeah, probably not. not the most trusted name in news, no. >> and he takes shots at us? it's hysterical. i love it. moving on. we can't go a week without a de blasio story. of course, socialist mayor of new york, bill de blasio, who had a little bit of a mishap. he was supposed to make it to this union meeting to give a speech, and his flight was canceled, so he decided to remote in, but there was a little bit of an issue with his voice. check this out. this is kind of hysterical. >> we are passing legislation this year, i guarantee you, working people, like every industrial country in the world, i guarantee people by law, paid vacation, two weeks, every year. >> that is now -- listen, bill is holding steady at 0%. he is hanging in there. he is holding a study zero. don't worry.

i know you are a big fan of bill de blasio. there is nothing happening. his campaign is holding rock solid at 0%, but talk about a jinxed campaign. we did not manipulate that, by the way, that was the actual voice that came over. there was some kind of a sound problem, but it was so perfect. >> tucker: every time i hear bill de blasio, i think we have a real problem with democracy. i don't know a single person, including liberal democrat, who doesn't think de blasio is lazy, dumb, incompetent, and wrong. there's not one person i've ever met who admires bill de blasio. i've never met someone who voted for him, and yet he is a two-term mayor. >> the guy gets up at like 8:30, 9:00 in the morning. is that even if it is logically possible after 40? i'm serious. like we were kind of joking like one was the last time you got up at 9:00 a.m. like when he went to sleep at five? does that even happen? like, who does that is a normal functioning adult, no less than mayor of new york city?

no wonder the guy's magically holding at the astounding doughnut of 0% in the polls just phenomenal. all right, my last story, our number one story of the week, joe biden just cannot -- what a gaffe machine. it just never stops. we have to update the fox news channel to update for the gaffes. but this one, i just want to throw this out there. the golden rule of politics, don't ever ask a question you don't know the answer to. well, joe biden decided to interview peter doocy at the network and ask them, well, have you seen any bigger crowds out there? to which peter doocy responded, well, yeah, we had heard elizabeth warren had like 12,000 people last week. biden looked totally shell-shocked. don't ask a question you don't know the answer to you. that's the golden rule politics. >> tucker: poor guy. it just seems like he is fading. >> it is. i almost feel bad for him.

i really do. >> tucker: dan bongino, great to see you. uc berkeley has introduced a new class for its very woke student body. it's a student-taught class called "adulting." it'll cover skills like doing taxes, saving money, coping with stress, all skills they don't have, apparently. it's easy to make fun of all this, but actually, we support this. we support anything that makes america's young people more capable and independent and more mature. we've got some of our own suggestions for classes we would like to see, like how to disagree with someone without ruining his life or how to consume facts and enjoy your own conclusions without being bossed around by "the new york times" or how about, why your mechanic may know more about life than your college professor or how to fly fish, because, in the end, nature is bigger, prettier, and more important than the internet, something we should all remember, every day. including this weekend which is here. enjoy it. that's it for us tonight. we will be back monday, and every week night, 8:00 p.m., the show that is the sworn enemy of

lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink. by the way, i'll be gone monday and tuesday for a work-related trip, but i will be back again on wednesday, and i will see you then. have a great weekend. "hannity" is next. ♪ ♪ >> dan: welcome to this special edition of "hannity," issues confronting america. i'm dan bongino in tonight for sean. we start with some shocking news from the u.s. supreme court. over the last weeks, 86-year-old justice ruth bader ginsburg was treated for a malignant tumor on her pancreas. joining us now with more is the host of "fox news @ tonight" who is also fox news chief legal correspondent, shannon bream. >> tonight, we are learning more details about the health challenge for the supreme oldest supreme court's oldest justice. she announced that she has undergone radiation therapy in new york for that cancerous tumor, and other than canceling a quick summer trip, she has maintained an active