night at 10:00 eastern. that is all the time we have left this evening. we'll see you back here tomorrow night. >> good evening and welcome to "tucker carlson tonight," barack obama attempted to show his legacy today. here is democrats trying to rescue republicans into brand any new law as a trump care. this is now set for a fiery health care debate. >> the first order of business, the republican plan to cut

medicare, medicaid, repeal the aca will make america sick agai again. >> this law has failed. >> americans are struggling. we need to reverse the damage that has been done. >> in this case, all politics is personal. >> we are going to work hard not just everyday, to replace obamacare with reforms that put people back in charge of their health care. >> we are going to repeal obamacare. >> the only thing that has going for it is alliteration. >> he joins us now from the russell rotunda, congressman, thanks for joining us. >> hi, tucker, how are you? >> tucker: i am great. i understand that this is the president's signature achievement and there are probably some things about it that we can agree are fine.

but basically, it is a flawed piece of legislator that the public can never fully embrace. why are democrats defending as strongly as they are? >> you said the public has never embraced it, you are right, it's always been 50/50 here and there. when you talk about the various elements of it, you don't get turned away if you if you havey existing condition. to stay on your insurance until you are 26, if you list the five or six things that are core to obamacare. people will love it. so now the republicans find themselves in a position of having to navigate that paradox. >> tucker: is that really your argument, that people don't like it because they've been lied to? i just watched the tape of you admitting that, that was the

core of obamacare. health care cost out of control. why don't you just admit that? >> that wasn't the core promise, the promise was for the first time ever, the united states would have the ability to cover all of its people. and i will read it what i've said, the cost of the industry under control the way we would like to but at the end of the day, this isn't about who says what and yes there was a lot of lying. we've got 20 or 30 million americans who have insurance that they didn't have before. you have seen seniors that areg less for their drugs. this idea that it's an amount of failure crumbling under its own weight is something that is a bumper sticker that most americans -- and that this will be the test, if there is a repeal and they realize oh, my god, look at what just happened, they will be infuriated.

we can't do a repeal, we have to talk about replace. >> tucker: i'm sure you agree with lots of parts of that, all of that is fine. but you are making a nonsensible argument. you are saying the public loves obamacare but pierce also saying they don't love obamacare. does not have the majority of the support nastily. that is a public failure, isn't it? why don't they love it? i don't understand. >> it is a very comp located thing and part of the reason is they don't love it is because the conservative right wing with death panels. whether grandma lived or died. every single moment in states that if they had in fact extended medicaid, very poor states like mississippi and alabama, they would have much healthier populations. they did not do that. i promise you this, tucker, the

public perception goes here or there. as complicated as health care, it's not surprising that it's not up at 70 or 80% approval. >> tucker: look, you are a smart guy, you are in business before you went to congress. do you really believe that because conservative web sites criticize obamacare, americans are still ignoring their own best interests because they look believe sarah palin from seven years ago? that's not a win, is it? >> i am not making the argument that obamacare was perfect. we are talking about a massively complicated thing here. so, yes, there is some ability to change there. where premiums have gone up more than we would've liked. but you cannot argue with the fact that every senior on medicare on there is now paying less for their drugs.

20 or 30 million americans now have coverage that didn't. we don't need to argue about this because republicans repeal this thing, without a replacement you are going to see an uprising. you're going to see anger. two months from now -- >> tucker: so you are saying it's on the republicans now. because they run everything? the cost falls just proportionately on the young and healthy. that is the poorest segment of our society. >> the richest people are the oldest. the old and the sick, it is the most regressive possible way to pay for anything and as a democrat who believes in helping the needy, i'm surprised you would support something like that. >> well, actually, i think you've got it exactly backward. the poor and the elderly are precisely the population that is

taken care of by medicaid and medicare respectively. >> tucker: another obvious question is, you've never explained why obamacare is not as popular as medicare or medicaid. that's just a very basic problem but it's also basic unfairness. the poor in this country are playing the back paying for the richest. >> on their passive income, on their dividends. you got it exactly backwards. let's go back to the other people because i think they're really important. you hate the mandate. the republicans hate the mandate. i don't like that. i don't like the idea that the government tells me what i have to do. but look, the idea -- i was 23 once too, and i was immortal.

but what happens when i get hit by a bus and i am not insured? when you and i with health care plans, could get treated in the hospital. >> tucker: is about personal responsibility. >> as a father for 22-year-old, i can tell you, my child will be happy to buy care coverage for the incident you referred to and yet we all have to -- breastfeeding coverage, birth control coverage, why can't my children who don't make much money buy catastrophic care coverage? because they they're subsidizig other. >> let me answer that question with a question to you. no coverage for pregnancy or for breastfeeding, is it possible tucker, that your 22-year-old might someday have a child? is that possible?

>> tucker: probably unlikely that my son will have to pay for his breastfeeding. >> he may not have to breast-feed, but his wife will. come on. >> tucker: it's possible that we will be stuck with the cost. so why should they be able to buy insurance against that? cover the service i represent. cover the company i represent. this was h rauf. it shafted young people that don't have any money. part of the problem is obamacare. you know that. >> : >> i have never had a car accident in my 30 some years and yet i pay my car insurance monthly. number two, they don't have the

money to do it, as you know they don't have the money to do it, they get subsidies, to help them by plans. that's a big part of obamacare. >> tucker: why can't they just buy catastrophic catastrophic t their needs? >> you know that is true. >> tucker: well, how about this. you said your 22-year-old son -- >> how about if i introduce the men that said will cut his premium if he sends a paper that says i will never had children? what you think about that? >> tucker: i think that's the kind of solution you may come up with. the government telling you how many kids you can have and under what circumstances. thanks for your game attempt. well, presley elect donald trump spent the day in the city also our correspondent is right

outside trump tower tonight. >> the head of the intelligence agency does not blindly trust are on their way here to trump tower for a briefing on friday. the top five are going to bring the evidence they have the make some so sure it was russia and not somebody else meddling with the u.s. electoral process. at some of the names on the guet list are james klapper, cia director and fbi director james comey. for making official update on the clinton email case just days before the clinton emails -- before people headed to the polls. the intelligence briefing on so-called russian hat thing was delayed until friday, perhaps more time needed to build a cas case. very strange. and not is not the only thing that should make friday's briefing very interesting.

julian assange said a 14-year-old could have hacked podesta. why was the dnc so careless? well, that is all happening in d.c. the west wing today is soon to be out, kellyanne conway. remember, valerie jarrett said the results of the november election were soul crushing. kellyanne conway was the last thing to do with that. so far, longtime obama aid jarrett has been very civil during the transition. >> tucker: when they tried and failed to got the office of independent ethics.

fox news senior analyst joins us now on to explain what happened. all the coverage as you know has been on the republicans trying to do away with a ethics watchdog effect. what is the other side of the story? >> this oversight ethics board really didn't do that much at all in the first place. the only official power it really has, it had no subpoena power, were highly limited was to make recommendations to the house ethics commission which remains in place. they did however have the ability to receive anonymous tips, investigate them in whatever way it could, and then publish them. that what you had was kind of half finished, half baked investigated material being released. material that may or might not be the subject of the recommendation of the house i do back of ethics committee.

it was very real and the potential for views and release of these materials were very real as well. gutting is a sort of useless word to apply to announce something that really didn't have any initial power. >> tucker: it does sound like some sort of justice panel on a college campus. but i did wonder, if you are coming into a new congress, and your first order of business appears to be making the aptitude later on yourself, it was probably an unwise thing? >> in political terms, it was ridiculously poorly timed, clumsy, and in the end, ineffectual. if so now we still have this weird unelected body of people who is blinded to the house ethics community and it's still there. and they're going to try to take this on later in the year, which

is regrettable all the way around. it was very badly handled. no question about that and of course the trumpet tweet which got everyone talking about it. had a lot to do with the outcome, the public was alarmed to hear this. this watchdog a body which ever they imagined -- it was very and very useful but tucker, you've got to ask yourself this question. how much at had either of us ry heard about a consequence of this outfit and what they did? not very much. >> tucker: it certainly does. and of course it looked terrible, that was made to appear that they were doing something in the dead of night, to got the ethics watchdog. kind of a ridiculous exaggeration.

you do but wind up at lunch with lobbyist here, what do members think of trump? they are terrified of his twitter account. that he could marshal all his public attention on them. they are afraid to run afoul of that. if that is what what they're afraid of, is that why he's keeping his twitter account? even the tone and substance of any of his twitter account has not been effective for him. >> if you look at the upcoming legislative battles that are ongoing, one of them will be to keep the republicans in line. in-house and senate. and it will also be important for him to successfully pressure to make democrats, with the

filibuster supreme court nomination. he's got this dartboard called twitter and he can aim these little missiles at various members and take them on. it doesn't mean he will win the argument but has the power to start the argument and to call attention to all kinds of things. i think it's interesting that there are afraid of his twitter account and i think they have a right to be. >> tucker: more about government or politics than anyone ever met. thank you. >> thank you, tucker. >> tucker: twitter storm. the forecast on social media, a dark cloud of ignorance and a lead of some over hollywood. that's always the forecast there. humidity for progress. featured a video with a number of celebrities and semi celebrities begging congress to

obstruct presley elect strom's agenda. here's all a bit. >> we didn't need you and we expected to have our backs. and to use powers. >> to obstruct. >> obstruct. >> defeat. >> anything. anything that defiles our core values of american values. >> the majority. >> the majority of american people. >> tucker: there was episcopal priest in there. not surprised by that. they should totally continue to lecture americans. carlos tweeted this. these people never stop, do they? now they want to run the country? unbelievable. one wrote, they are part of the reason trump was elected.

probably not his real name wrote sally field and rosie perez qualify as celebrities still. finally, come on celebs, you are ruining my good movie memories. that is tonight's twitter storm. coming up, the wikileaks interview exposed many journalists. radio show host is here to talk about it, what it means, that's next. calling on trump to quit twitter entirely. he'll explain why. and then a terrifying and awful new video. we will see this disturbing footage up ahead.

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all on the go. you can even download from your x1 dvr and watch it offline. only xfinity gives you more to stream to any screen. download the xfinity tv app today. >> tucker: as you know, a ton of journalists were completely disgraced after wikileaks revealed. now rather than being drummed out of the business, they are back at the white house as if nothing ever happened. we are here to discuss what exactly happened and how it happened. so i am in the gym today and i look up on one of the screens and they are standing in front of trump tower with a microphon

microphone. >> you said that they disgraced themselves, no, they were building their resume. he is sending, trading emails with podesta. they are strategizing. they are just kind of spit bowling and they are on the same team, it's quite clear that they have common goals. it's almost like the soviet union. but honestly, it's worse. because of the soviet union, there is a penalty for not collaborating with the state. they do this quite voluntarily because they are on the team. who is with the political was caught sending emails to the clintons for prior approval.

he confessed himself that he was a hack. here -- >> tucker: he was out of journalism, right? >> well, we like the cut of his jib. so they hired him right away from the political. >> tucker: i don't believe you you. >> it's true. political is a little kind of a left wing broadcast. and they hired him away. from the political. >> tucker: so i'm confused. you are a liberal paper and you want to also be america's paper. so why don't you just hire people that are secretive

liberals? >> look, the news media is conspiring out in the open against the trump administration. against the republican congress. obstructionism is now a virtue. remember when it was horrible? when mitch mcconnell said he would not support barack obama's agenda? now it is not noble. the dreaded normalization don't know normalize trump. and members of the media are chastising one another if they even meet with trump in an off the record session. or their people behind closed doors. they are being chastised by other journals. >> tucker: the same people that were sending campaign advice to the hillary campaign? >> sending his work to the clinton people for their prior approval, they get editorial

control over stories in "the new york times" ," "new york times" magazine, the "politico" ," this is no conspiracy theory. >> tucker: he's really talented. john harwood? has he ever written a sentence that stopped someone in their tracks? >> he suggested during the debate to donald trump that his candidacy was a comic book candidacy. mocking him openly on televisio television. >> tucker: to think the smartest people go into journalism customer to think that top 10% at mit are rushing into our newsrooms? >> another part of our pipeline, and journalism schools, are run by old, tired has been journalists for the most part. who teaching the next generation of journalism that

it's about the crusaders, about the cause. it's about the fight. also caught at "the new york times" ," politicl reporter. award-winning. these are all award-winning journalists at the top of the industry in the united states of america and they've all been proven to be hacks. if you ever caught one, collaborating with trump behind the curtain like this, that would be the end of their career. >> tucker: i don't think we are getting those reports. your work is excellent. thank you. a professor from california says trump needs to stop talking on twitter. the professor joins us next. and a very upsetting video protesters

>> tucker: well, a man was taken hostage in chicago. and all of it was broadcasted live on facebook. you can find a the video onlin, it is awful. in the clip people say believe donald trump, [bleep] white people.

>> tucker: fortunately the man is alive. for people in custody so far, no charges have been filed so far. the story is continuing to break and we will learn more. another person is learning urgp to get off the twitter too. professor joins us now, thanks for coming on. i am assuming you were not speaking literally but figuratively about trumpet being banned from twitter. i don't imagine it as a professor you imagine you would want people to be banned from expressing themselves. >> i think what happened was is visiting family in wyoming and

they are very excited about the fossil fuel boom and some of my relatives believed that they were using technology to come prove that on the internet and i thought it's kind of ironic for people who kind of denounce science in one area that they don't want to believe but then they benefit from science in these other areas and -- >> tucker: you said that -- >> you are talking to a person who's the first in his family to go to college. let me clarify. it was a rhetorical point that i accept the science of climate change, i've been told even rex tillerson does now and the pentagon does. and here i am in the state capital, the governor, the legislature, it was uncontroversial for me to accept the science of climate change

and 98% of the world scientists believe it is true. what i meant was it was misconstrued on some of these right-wing web sites. i think they came up with some really catchy headlines. >> tucker: i get it, i get it, i am giving you the benefit of the doubt but i am interested in the claim you made that climate change is settled. how do you know that, are you a scientist? where did you get that figure? >> that's another one of those interesting kind of questions is that that wasn't what the blog was about. >> tucker: you just said, i'm not holding you to account for censorship. 90% of the world scientists believe in climate change. first of all, how do you know

that all of the world scientists believe what you believe? >> are you a client change denier or a skeptic? is that where you are at? >> tucker: the science of journalism is skepticism. as a statement of fact, you just said 98% of the world scientists believe what you believe. i'm wondering how you know that. >> science is not just what i believe, tucker. >> tucker: i often hear people say that. how do you know that? >> with your giant research team, you can send people out and find out about that. i am accused of advocating censorship by right-wing web sites. you tell me, a professor in california, to censored the

president? you can't pick or choose scienc science. >> tucker: i am not accusing you of anything. you just said live on her show, i want you to explain that. you have no idea. that's the answer. that's unknowable, right? >> let me tell you. they predicted that we would have high precipitation and low precipitation. in california, we have both. we are having high precipitation events. >> tucker: who is that they, be way? >> do you believe in nasa? the pentagon? really, tucker, you're going to contradict the pentagon? please. >> tucker: anybody who doesn't agree with what you believe is a heretic. i am just asking questions.

but you have no idea what the answer is. you are running around saying science this, science that. >> so okay, fine. you don't say i need heart surgery to a doctor but how do you know how to do it? there are trained scientists all over the world. >> tucker: you don't not ask questions. they are not shut it down for it. what you're trying to do to me is calling me names. >> i am not calling you anythin anything! >> tucker: i'm a denier? >> when you get on a plane, are you skeptical of a pilot trained to fly? >> i am an adult who is

skeptical of everything. i think you know that i am righ right. >> you should read the war on science. >> tucker: all right, professor, we are out of time. >> tried out. >> tucker: i believe in reading. >> thanks for having me on. >> tucker: well, professor was at palermo.

>> our nation's colleges are kind of liberal, how it liberal? liberal colleges outnumber conservative, 28 to one. this echo chamber, this

left-wing echo chamber it's ruining college for liberals and conservatives alike. i went to college in new england, you seem pretty liberal but 2821 trend? that's like soviet level. >> with the professor by the name of sam abram who looked into this and started crunching the numbers, in new england, it is 28-1 and out on the liberal west coast, it was 6-1, but in new england it was 28-1. >> tucker: that is amazing. they have some of our most famous colleges and secretary schools for that matter. there is something intentional going on. they are only hiring people who

agree with them, is that what you think? >> tries to get into this a little bit for my reporting. i could never get a one explanation as to why this is such a phenomenon in new england. some people said that it is self selection. liberals live where you work. so i think i was part of the problem. everyone kind of has their own views as to why it's this way. it's a matter of history, some say. if this is always been a progressive area. a lot of the great universities were progressive colleges. >> tucker: isn't the whole rationale for the diversity aspect -- is no one at say,

harvard, brown, maybe we should live by the rules we impose on others? >> this is an issue that is getting a lot of attention now. whyty is essentially nonexistent in new england. you know, looking for ways to address this. >> tucker: it probably doesn't sound very fun anyway. that really would be looking in the mirror all day if you were surrounded by people who always thought the same as you. what is the other side? >> it really undermines the college education. you are so's to be exposed to afflicting conflicting viewpoints. when students are coming out of college and they are going to the workplace or whatever the next step is, you have to wonder whether they are actually prepared to step out of that bubble into the real world. >> tucker: that such a good point. he wrote this piece for boston

magazine, is that right? what kind of response did you get to that? did people get your car? >> surprisingly, what we've noticed is there are a lot of old-school liberal saying this is a major problem. a few nasty emails but i was shocked at the number of people who emailed us saying i'm a bleeding heart liberal, and i am shocked to read this. it wasn't as vicious as i was anticipating. >> tucker: i believe that. a lot of the old school liberals, they believe in free speech. the young ones are scary. thank you for joining us. that was a really interesting piece. the first inauguration sense marijuana was legalized in d.c. will it be reefer madness?

back due to popular demand, in the friend zone tonight. stay when you have digestive sensitivities, life can feel like a never ending search for food that won't cause bloating, gas, or inner turmoil. introducing pronourish. a delicious nutritional drink that makes a great mini meal or snack that has protein and fiber. and pronourish has no gluten or high fructose corn syrup. and is low in fodmap ingredients that can trigger digestive sensitivities. the search is over. new pronourish. nutrition you can feel good about.

well, here is something new. the inauguration will feature free marijuana, thanks to a group of d.c. pot activists. they will hand out thousands of free joints on inoculation inan morning. 4 minutes and 20 seconds into trumps speech. the group's founder said we need to give as legal unless the back -- that's how we are dcs, it's

legal on regular grounds. not on government property. signing out from the friend zon zone, one of our friends in the building on fox. we are joined by cohost, k.g., how are you? >> very well, tucker, very well. >> tucker: i hope you will come on every night. because every night you do, ten or 15 years ago there with a famous dog case in san francisco where a woman walking back to her apartment was killed by two dogs and they were owned by lawyers who got the dogs from a white suppresses supremacist. you were on that case expect >> yes, i was. i charged the two attorneys that

owned the dogs with the murder, brought it to the grand jury and changed it down to los angeles so i tried the case from the jury's downtown where o.j. simpson was tried. was able to get a second degree murder conviction, i had a contract on my life that may killed because they didn't like the puerto rican lawyer that was prosecuting these people that were there lawyers. they said no, we don't want her. so i stayed on the case, had security sleeping with me. in the room. and managed to survive and convict and persevere. and it's actually how i got my start in television. because after that, then i got the call to come work in television. >> tucker: that is amazing. the guy was pelican bay. >> they were running a dog

breeding business out of pelican bay and then these two attorneys fell in love with this guy. i am not making it up. they adopted him and took these two dogs, the two dogs were the ones responsible obviously for mauling the woman to death. very sad case, national lacrosse championship player. it was a pretty amazing experience. i still think about it to this day. i have the medical examiner on the stand for four hours. 76 straight and defined areas of injury. >> tucker: i remember that so well. how would you compare the intensity of trying a case like that, a murder case, to cable news? >> these days?

[laughs] cross examination, it really did make me being a lawyer like tha that, i tried everything up through death penalty cases. it prepared me for the friend zone. back and forth and i say most especially, for the five. right? >> tucker: and most other people, like most journalists, has lived her life. >> thanks, tucker. >> tucker: we make you kimmitt for a day. we have that authority.

>> tucker: i now retrieve your crown. you are caring for a day. if you had absolute power and you could do one thing to change or improve this country, what

would it be? that's a question we ask every week. this answer, give everyone a four-day workweek. volunteer for their favorite charity one day a week. in other words, become france. create moving sidewalks just like at the airport inside large cities and minimize inner-city vehicular traffic. wouldn't help the obesity crisis. take all the calories out of carbs so the more you eat, the skinnier you get. super dave wrote this. i would like everyone to get drunk and ask their opinion. sounds like hell. and finally, have the perfect brilliant ten ambitious, capabl capable, funny men fall in love with my daughter. #makemeagrandma.

they had come true. what is the most pompous or ludicrous thing you've heard? ♪ >> tom: welcome to "red eye" hello, i'm tom shillue. let's check in with tvs andy levy on the "red eye" deck. >> good news for white people, there's a brand-new way to alleviate your guilt. soon you'll all be as woke as i am. just kidding, you'll never be that woke. stay tuned for our excessive interview with the college. and finally, fisher-price releases and exercise bike for toddlers. they've got to lose that baby fat somehow. >> tom: let's welcome our