>> martha: thank you, eric erickson. good to see you. we will have continuing coverage of the story throughout the evening and we will see you back here tomorrow night with "the story," whatever it may be, when we arrive here at 7:00 tomorrow. tucker carlson is next. ♪ me >> tucker: good evening and welcome to "tucker carlson tonight." among the many lessons those of us watching at home i've learned this evening, probably not a good idea to humiliate your fbi director on his way out. he will get you in the end, as indeed james comey just has come a licking the contents of a memo he wrote back in february, that alleged president trump encouraged him to drop the investigation into former national security advisor mike flynn. in other words, to obstruct justice. the white house as this did not happen. it's the biggest story in the world right now. there is one problem with that, though, the fbi -- excuse me -- the fbi director did not notify

the justice department about this. so, if it was an uptime to obstruct justice, what do we have? watch this. a clip from earlier today on another network, someone tries to raise that question. watch. >> two former officials knowledgeable of the situation confirmed to cnn -- two former officials. i will tell you what, nameless people, then, we will have something to talk about. >> it is not just cnn. it is "the washington post," "new york times," "wall street journal," cnn, abc, nbc. >> who are the sources? >> who are the sources? >> please! please! you are just going to attack sources! that is ridiculous! >> you are at mcmaster's lying? >> i am not saying mcmasters is lying! >> that is his opinion. >> you cannot attack -- you cannot attack the stellar report as of cnn!

>> tucker: . skeptical says the retired navy seal, be quiet screams the 33-year-old news anchor, clapping her hands and rage. how dare you -- a lot of table panels have unfolded like this recently, and that is a shame because as we noted earlier, the world is a very complicated place. washington especially. what you think is happening often really isn't happening. here's what we know. there are an awful lot of people in washington who would like to remove the president from office and they are using leaks to do so. what are their motives? in a lot of cases, those are completely unknown. a lot of what you hear and accept uncritically, you ought to question. take the russians for example. just a few years ago, the russians were considered harmless, toothless, drunken, and anyone who suggested otherwise was considered a holdover from the cold war. now, the russians are considered evil, and , in fact, our most

dastardly enemy, and anyone who questions that, is probably a tool of vladimir putin and therefore, a traitor to our country. one current member of the house intelligence committee put it this way. >> why were the russians in the white house? and i mean that seriously. they had just attacked our democracy. they are being there is exactly what we have all feared all along, is that donald trump would say something to them that is not really in line with u.s. policy. they are not our friends. we should share nothing more than pleasantries, certainly not national security secrets. >> tucker: congresswoman stephanie murphy, a democrat from florida, went a step further than this. she demanded the u.s. government stop speaking to russia at all in any way. "there is no such thing as appropriate contact with a hostile foreign government." no word on whether she applied that same standard to barack obama recent deal with communist cuba. nobody is arguing here, even a

trump administration, that rush is a close ally of ours about the putin government is rooting for america success. they're probably not. but when a country goes from being an afterthought, as russia was just recently, to the target of war drums, as it is now, it all changes in a single election cycle, as it has, it's fair to ask, what exactly is going on? almost certainly more than meets the eye, probably a lot more. if you live in washington, you know for a fact that there is a lot happening behind the scenes. the press out to be asking questions about this. but they haven't. instead, they've attacked anyone who does. not on this show. with those questions hanging in the air, we are joined by one of the very few people in the country who might credibly answer them. he is stephen cohen prayed for decades, he taught and researched russian politics at e joins us tonight. professor cohen, thanks a lot for coming on. to start with the first of these two stories, the president is accused of passing critical intelligence to the russians in a meeting at the white house.

do you believe that happened? >> no. and nor have i in these decades you mentioned ever heard an elected member of congress say that we should have no relations with the russians at all. presumably, that would include a nuclear weapons control, when i see, i guess it was a democrat come on the bottom of your screen, asking what are the russians doing in the white house anyway, well, they are doing what you president trump, the national security of our nation, because what is at stake here is a proposal by putin of russia, by trump of america, to join handsn an alliance against international terrorism. i would have asked you, if you had asked me a few days ago, what is the number one threat to the united states day, i would have said international terrorism. i don't know if you agree, tucker, but it is up there. today, i would say, it it is ts assault on president trump because it has been going on a

year. can we be clear? what he is been accused of is treason. this is never happened in america where there is a russian agent in the white house. and we have had a whole array of accusations, putin helped him get into the white house, his associates are doing wrong things with russians, that flynn did something wrong in talking with his former national security advisor, did something wrong with talking to the russian ambassador. there is no evidence that there was any wrongdoing, and indeed, flynn should have talked to the russian ambassador. that was his job. so, this is beyond belief now and has become covered by this, i mean this assault on trump and his loyalty, this has become a national security threat in its. >> tucker: is the heart of this, i noted -- russia went from being an afterthought for most people, to being at the very center of this very complex conspiracy theory. it is not all about trying to get trump out of office by this? or are there other motives?

>> i think two motives have driven this, i think i'm a false narrative against trump, that he is somehow a kremlin agent. two forces. one is the clinton wing of the democratic party, which doesn't want to admit she lost the election, wants to say, i, clinton won, but put in and stole it from me. then, maybe she wants to run again. i think that is the possibility. at the same time, there has long been in washington, a powerful, let's call it, the fourth branch of government. the intelligence services, who have opposed any cooperation with russia. remember, and 2016, president obama worked out a deal with russian president putin for military cooperation in syria. he said he was going to share intelligence with russia, just the way trump on the russians were supposed to do the other day. our department of defense, they wouldn't share intelligence. a few days later, they killed syrian soldiers, violating the agreement, and that was the end

of that. we can ask, who was making the foreign policy in washington today? >> tucker: who is making our foreign policy? of the president is elected in part to do that, he ran explicitly in a closer relationship with russia, not everyone is for that, but he won the election by saying out loud, we have a common enemy and islamic terror, and so, isn't it constitutionally the president's role to determine our project for the rest of the world? isn't the whole point of electing a president? >> you and i have to ask a subversive question. are there really three branches of government? or his or her fourth branch of government? these intel services. what we know as a fact, obama tried, not very hard, but he tried for military alliance with putin in syria against terrorism. it was sabotaged by the department of defense and its allies in the intelligence services. trump says, he said in my campaign trail, wouldn't it be great to cooperate with russia?

my answer is, it would be great. president trump seems to want that to happen but he is being thwarted every time he gets close, we get the newly created >> tucker: of what you are saying is true, and his attempt to change the course of american foreign policy was sabotaged by a government agency without his permission, i mean, that a sort outside the bounds of constitutional government and i hope you are wrong. professor cohen, thanks for joining us. recently, the house minority leader, nancy pelosi of california argued that simply because there was so much from us about russia, so much shouting, naturally, there must be something there, as she put it. >> as yogi berra said, it is too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence. there is just something wrong with this picture. all of the same time, as people are saying, you know, you have to be careful because this is its own incident, but it's about russia. and every day, i ask the question, what do the russians have on donald trump?

financially, politically, or, ts catering to them? >> tucker: in other words, people are upset about russia, there must be something there because they are upset and therefore, we should be upset. mathematicians have finally found the perfect circle and it lies in nancy pelosi's logic. joe manchin joins us tonight. senator, thanks for coming on. you brought into this. what did you make -- first off, what are professor cohen just said. he believes that president trump's foreign policy objectives, syria for example, were thwarted by members of his administration, staff working in the agencies, who disagreed with him? >> i can go back, i was listening to the hole into for you had with him. he goes back basically, we shouldn't be talking to russians, other powers of the world. russia is the only country that can do any harm to the united states of america. it is foolish not to think that we should try to build a relationship with them. >> tucker: they are the only country that can do harm? >> they have basically the

missile capability to do harm to the united states. i have asked that question many times on armed services. which country is capable of doing harm to us? russia. not turning out, not north korea, as much as they are trying and want to. russia has the ability within nuclear weapons to do harm. so, you have to have the report. you have to have some type of communication. >> tucker: sure, but don't we also have common interests? >> most certainly. pushing the button on both sides. >> tucker: my question is -- look, i think there is probably a balanced view of russia, you recognize they are a threat militarily but they also can be an ally in the fight against terror, a massive energy producer, we could benefit from a relationship with them. when did we become so evil that talking to them is itself inactive -- >> tucker, i don't think tucker has ever been our ally. i don't think they have our best interest. basically, we know the hacking that has gone on, we know the intensity of the hacking this last election.

but there is no proof that anything changed. president trump won by 43% in west virginia. i can assure you, they couldn't have altered that outcome. >> tucker: you don't think the russians were involved in a boating in west virginia at all? >> i don't think wheat they were involved in the outcome. we have seen no proof that their intention to be involved to change the outcome of the election. with that being said, we know they have attempted more, dunmore, put more effort. the trolls and everything else that is going on, the hacking that is going on, all of these things, and basically, something that we should accept or allow whatsoever. >> tucker: as you know, since you live and work here, this is shoving down our government. i think the trump administration is partly to blame. i think his conduct is unflattering. basically, it has ground everything to a halt because of this russia question. i just wonder if voters are in favor of that. like your voters? today think this is more important on coal jobs? >> i don't like it is going to

get to a halt. if you want to see a halt, it was ground to a halt under the obama administration basically because of mitch having the power to grounded to a halt. two wrongs don't make a right. i'm the first to tell you that. i didn't like what happened the last eight years, the last four years that i was there. now, what is happening today. >> tucker: i for democrats of it they won't vote on fbi director. until we get an independent investigation of russia. >> first of all, i think it is important that we have a special prosecutor. some people don't believe that. i respect that. the bottom line is, we stop in government, give me a good sip, centrist, as far as an fbi director, doesn't have any political ties, we should vote for him. >> tucker: regardless. >> that's mine. i am doing my own thing, which i always am. >> tucker: i'm not saying that the russia question should be ignored. i don't know what is at the bottom of it. i don't think anybody else. i resent people pretending they do when they don't. let's look into it.

is it more important than the stated goals of the administration or the opioid crisis in your state? russia seems like the most important by far to the democrats right now. >> the report that came out this morning, today's a bad day. we have been hearing things hour upon hour. i am on the intelligence committee and i have said this. there are 19 people privilege to testify information at that level, supposedly, that is that. we are told early on if you discuss this, you can discuss it with her colleagues and no one else, staff, nobody. so, we don't talk about things, you're not supposed talk about things. if we do, will get thrown out the committee. if it's serious enough of what we were veal, then, could be federal charges. i take that very seriously. the president operates under a different set of rules than we do. >> tucker: executive branch employees, everything we are talking about now is the result of leaks presumably by people who work for donald trump, career employees i would bet,

who are leaking this stuff and basically making it impossible to govern. >> my recommendation would be this. i would like to visit all of our intel sites and to meet with all of our intel people, they are the rest of the world by the need to have some type of correlational relationship, a dialogue. the president need to patch this up. we have the best and we have people, basically our allies around the world, tucker, that have gone to battle with us, they have fought with us, they have died -- >> tucker: are you suggesting that trump is getting leaked on, basically -- you should create a personal relationship with people who work in the intelligence community. >> they are professionals. >> tucker: civilian control of government, they should do what he asks or leave, is another way it works? >> these are career professionals. >> tucker: shouldn't they be accountable?

>> they are accountable to the country. everybody who take that oath is accountable to the country. the country comes first. there is no person, the president, me or anybody else, the country comes first. >> tucker: of course. i'm dressing under my system, their bosses the guy who they elect. they have to obey him because he was elected by voters. they weren't. so, when they ignore him -- >> they are doing their job day in and day out. thank got for that. they are basically monitoring and talking with our other allies, gathering information that keeps america safe. >> tucker: the elected guy gets to set the policies. they don't. do they? >> he can set them. he can set the policies but they have to enforce it, they have to follow through. the end policy, i would think i'm of the policy would be the same. collect all the information, possible. prevented from doing us harm. who are our allies around the world? because people are trusted afraid we put people in harm's way?

what came out today put -- could put in all a lot of people in harm's way. we are concerned about that. >> tucker: senator, thanks. abu comey memo, could this just be the latest case of a lot of people in washington going too far too fast? brit hume here to tell us what we know and what we don't and what we can speculate about. plus, hillary clinton has launched a new political action committee. what happened to the clinton foundation, by the way? we will talk to the author of "clinton pac" just ahead. ♪ i accept i take easier trails than i used to. i even accept i have a higher risk of stroke due to afib, a type of irregular heartbeat not caused by a heart valve problem. but no matter what path i take, i go for my best. so if there's something better than warfarin,

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>> tucker: every day seems to bring a new story about brush our dreams call me or the president's ice cream preferences, and the press grabs every single one like it's the worst scandal since watergate. but if every single story as watergate but if any story as watergate? if so, what story is watergate. brit hume covered watergate and he joins us tonight. brit, i cannot resist replaying the piece of tape that we played in the previous segment, from earlier today on another network. there is a guy on there called carl higbie, a former seal, how to mount here before. he is trying to make the point to the panel that anonymous sources are not always right. we should be skeptical about that. here is how the anchor responded on that show. watch this. >> two former officials knowledgeable of the situation confirmed for cn on the main points of the story. two former officials, i'll tell you what, come on, name those people, then, we'll have something to talk about. >> one, we protect sources, two, sinatra cnn,

"the washington post," "new york times," "wall street journal," cnn, abc -- >> who are the sources? >> carl. >> who are the sources? >> they are hiding behind this anonymity. >> please! you are going to attack sources! >> you are saying mcmaster is lying? >> i'm not saying mcmaster is lying! >> that is his opinion. >> you cannot attack the stellar reporters on cnn! >> tucker: we don't know if she bit him in a commercial break which he was moving into that direction. [laughs] what struck me, whatever you think of carl higbie's views, he is raising the possibility that maybe there are questions raining. that is not acceptable. >> it is always legitimate to question anonymous sources. sometimes, we in journalism have to use them because there is no other way to get the information, and we depend on our own judgment and integrity as to how credible they are. we try if we are professional about it, to be careful that our own biases are not making us

likely to believe things that suit our preferences. but if you are an anchor and somebody is critical of the use of anonymous sources, it you don't start shouting and shaking your finger in the person's face. >> tucker: part of it is, she felt he was attacking their correspondents, but not just their correspondence, the idea that anybody would dare question the received wisdom at the moment, is that trump is a tool of putin, there is some horrifying buried treasure underneath all of us. questioning that is like a sin. i just wonder where the press all the way saturn became the group enforcing certainty, rather than asking questions. >> we are in the most poisonous media atmosphere i think that any president in my lifetime has ever experienced. this is way beyond what we saw, even with nixon, for much of the time, even though he was cordially hated on the left end and much of the media. certainly, george w. bush was detested by the media to a great

extent. but nothing like this. nothing like -- barack obama was hated on the right but not to this extent. this is beyond anything i have seen before. now, the problem for trump is, of course, he is unfamiliar with how to operate in this atmosphere. the people around him don't seem how to do it. the reagan people know they were in a hostile media atmosphere because he was so conservative. but they were seasoned that they knew how to compensate for it. it's not fair, it's not fair that trump should have to do that. but you do have to do it. as part of the skill of the presidency and part -- one of the tools you have to have. you have to know how to plan for that, you have to know how things will be received, which is why, if you are in the white house, and there is an investigation of someone close to you, as into the case of general flynn, it's a bad idea to say to the fbi director, even though you feel sympathy for the person under investigation, and even all you are really asking the fbi director is, can you --

can we see our way clear? the way it was quoted, see our way clear to end that? that is not in order to stop the investigation. and we now have sworn testimony since then from the deputy fbi director that there have been no effort to impede the investigation. so, it appears that comey heard this, responded noncommittally, and the investigation went forward. this was unwise of the president to do this, if, in fact, he did. but it's not the biggest thing that ever happened. it is not worthy of the all-day firestorm we have -- the all evening firestorm we have been living and now all evening on this. that we have been living through. it is just, we don't know enough about it, we don't have the actual memo, we don't have the full context, we don't know how comey took it except to say that we knew that he said basically he understood that flynn was a pretty good guy, left it at that. he didn't seem to be under a lot of pressure to end the

investigation. of course, there is a problem when you fire an fbi agent, you better prepare the way. it's a good idea to have a successor, appointee ready to go, someone everybody can trust. for two reasons. one, it's the right thing to do, take the focus off the departing person. and if the person is credible, the focus has become the confirmation of that person. this is clumsy. ham-handed. it's you have to be proved to me that it was corrupt. >> tucker: why humiliate people on the way out? almost always? >> is just bad judgment. >> tucker: brit hume, thank you for joining us. new york city counselor wants to create a new law targeting a trump golf course in an effort to make the president release his tax returns for the lawmaker rule be here to explain how the law will work, the next ♪

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>> tucker: corey johnson is a city councilman in new york city. he has a lot going on there and new york city, but instead of dealing with those things come or may be in addition, he is trying to intervene in national politics. he has written a bill that would force all city concession contractors to release their tax returns but only if they have their personal name on their business. almost look like the bill was designed to force president trump add only president trump to release his tax returns due to his ownershid golf course on city land. councilman johnson joins us tonight. councilman johnson, one of the basic tenants of our system is

that government can't pass laws to affect individuals, they have to affect behavior. you can't just to single out one person with a law. yet, that seems like exactly what you are doing. >> tucker, thinks of all, -- first of all, thanks for havinge show. show. i admired you for years, i missed you on "crossfire." >> tucker: [laughs] >> this bill is not just about president trump. this bill would pertain to anyone in the future who goes for a city concession contract, who emblazoned their name on the property, and is making money off of the city of new york, i sorta feel like this is not to minimize this important topic. i am like a lowly little city council member on the west side of manhattan at i feel like there is much bigger news today, would you have been talking about during your show. >> tucker: i used to live in new york. and that is why the story caught my attention. you preside over a city that

just decriminalized public urination. okay? and the effects are really obvious, at least where i was living in midtown. there's a lot going on a mat hat on, not all of it good. and you are taking your time to basically grandstand on the national stage because you don't like trump. it's okay if you don't like trump. i'm not mad about that. but how about filling some potholes and arresting some public urinate or is? >> [laughs] tucker, this is the first time i have heard a connection between public urination and president trump. >> tucker: it's your city. >> this is really about getting some transparency and accountability. do you think the president should release his tax returns? >> tucker: i don't know. i am not a city counselor for the city of new york. >> you don't know? you are a smart guy prayed >> tucker: welcome i am not trying to pass a law designed to force him to release his tax returns. you are. and i am merely saying, he ought to admit it's about trump, it's not about any of your other concession holders in

new york city. and b, is it right for government, is it not an abuse of government to craft a law for an individual? was a pretty basic tenant of the british law we inherited. >> first of all, if we did pass the council, which i hope it well, i'm sure our litigious presidents will litigate it. he hasn't really had much respect for the courts in the past, or jurists, or judges. who knows what he will say or will be done. the thing i find more offensive here than they will be city councilmember writing this legislation, is the fact that he is not being held accountable, he is not being transparent, the revelations today about the conversation with comey, michael flynn's connection to russia, all of these things should want us to know what the president's connection is to russia. >> tucker: hold on. wait a second. we have an entire congress to deal with this. we have a home media that hates trump that can work on this. you are supposed to be -- i am

like one guy in a sea of people who wake up every morning seeking to get -- i am merely saying -- i making a point. you have a very specific job, to help her in a city of help her in a city of 8 million people, some of them unruly. have you been to penn station recently? it's like a homeless shelter it. it's disgusting. you give the speeches, i just read one, you said, "trump is bad," and ignore the guy living under the atm machine, relieving himself next -- i'm serious. >> tucker. to be when i go there every week. penn station is yours and you are worried about trump tax returns? are you joking? a dead serious question. have you been to the men's room at penn station? >> i'm asking you a serious question. >> i am like former republican senator larry craig, i avoid men's rooms. for me, i am focused on all of the issues in my district. >> tucker: what? [laughs] >> i'm here to talk about trump

tax returns. >> tucker: people use the men's room in the train stations, and now you're complaining about tax returns? >> one last thing, we need an independent prosecutor. >> tucker: first, we need clean men's rooms at penn station you are the guy in charge of that. why don't you get on those bathrooms? >> tucker, we needed an independent counsel to look at what is going on. >> tucker: all right. we are out of time. thanks. i am sorry. the bathrooms are horrible they are, by the way. congress banned insider trading years ago but a top expert on d.c. corruption said lawmakers are still making millions within inside information. sounds like a crime. it's actually happening. up next, we will talk to the author peter schweitzer. tim allen had a new sitcom called "last man standing," pretty good ratings. abc canceled it anyway. did he do it for political reasons?

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>> tucker: hillary clinton lost the presidency in part because of widespread popular disgust at the amount of money her family made from politics, hundreds of millions of dollars. the belief that she used her influence to cash in, which of course she did, repeatedly. now, hillary is creating a brand-new political action committee. peter schweizer watches this kind of stuff for a living. he's the president of the government accountability institute. he also wrote the books. 21 and a bunch of other books worth reading. he said the clinton business dealing are far from over, they are corrupt, by the way. while congress remains compromised, as well, thanks to a report of insider trading. peter schweizer joins us now to untangle this ugly web. so, peter, what is this new hillary clinton pack and how will she get rich from it? >> it's basically a basically a 5o1c4, which is a tax exempt organization, and it can take unlimited donations, those

can be secretive donations, and i think really come of this organization is going to serve two purposes. number one, the clintons have these people, guys like sid blumenthal, that need a place to hang their hat. an opportunity to do that, keep their network in place. number two, what is going to do is make them relevant in the democratic party. a lot of democrats want him to go away. the questions know if they can't be king, they want to be kingmakers. this organization will help them be a big player in the democratic party. >> tucker: you forget that the clintons are a sad version of the grateful dead. there's a whole bunch of camps, and the followers, and their kids community men? you are supporting a lot of people when you are a clinton. with the clinton foundation, there was speculation that it was going to go on to her failed to get elected. >> two things have happened. first, the cult clinton global initiative is gone, zip, it's g. this is something that happened in december, after she lost. essentially, interests and money dried up by the clinton foundation is not an much better shape. a lot of foreign governments

that gave the millions of dollars, the governor of australia for example has announced after the election if they are not giving them any more. the governor of norway has cut it back by some 87%. so, they'll continue to live a long but it's not going to have the $250 million budget door so that it has has had up until this point because it was a pay to play system. we know from the podesta emails, when the clintons to their own internal review of the clinton foundation, the fed is exactly what it was, that they were exchanging donations for favors. they can't really perform those favors anymore because they don't have any power or access to power. >> tucker: i'm confused. i thought the clinton foundation was its own good works and most of the children and the world would die work on for the clinton foundation. you are saying, the second is no longer have political power, people stop giving to this incredibly good institution? that is kind of weird. >> yeah, that's exactly right. i think they will have continued problems. my theory is, one of the reasons they talked about hillary running for mayor of new york or

chelsea running for congress is they need access to some formal power. they basically had it since 1992, if you don't count being governor of arkansas, they don't have access to power anymore. and there's not a lot of reason for people to get their money. >> tucker: i thought it was for the children. you know, silly me. political, what you are normally cited a positive way, did a pretty good piece, i thought, on the stock trading habits of a bunch of different members of congress. conclusively, as far as i could tell, show that they were trading against policy decisions they were making. still, even after your book. shoving how this is a long-standing and horrifying end of legal practice, they are still doing it. do you think that mr. true? >> yeah, that is exactly right. came out into out of 011, "60 minutes" that a whole floor outcome they passed the stock act, the problem is, tucker, the credibly hard to prove. also, you are relying on federal

officials and prosecutors to go after congress, which of course funds those very prosecutors. there is a very simple solution here, and that is the speaker of the house, paul ryan, the senate majority leader, can both decide that they are going to have new house rules and new senate rules that simply say that you cannot trade stock in a company that you have regulatory oversight on. if you are the senate armed services committee, you cannot buy defense stock, et cetera. they don't have to pass a law, they can pass house rules. if you violate those rules, you can be kicked off the committee. i think that would deter a lot of this behavior. >> tucker: it's just shocking that they don't have them already. there's a bunch of people named, i won't name them tonight. we've invited all of them on come i want to hear their side of it, but if you are buying ste company, touched by legislation you just wrote, i don't see how you can defend that. we'll find that out. peter schweizer, thank you for the ground breaking work you done on the subject. >> thank you, tucker.

we went up next, "saturday night live" having its most-watched season in decades. is that because comedy has gotten funnier? or because the political topics are more palatable to the audience? the panel discusses along with the fact that abc has canceled they hit new show that seems to be working. any other reasons they cancel it? up ahead. umped off a bridge, would you? you hungry? i'm okay right -- i'm... i'm becoming my, uh, mother. it's been hard, but some of the stuff he says is actually pretty helpful. pumpkin, bundling our home and auto insurance is a good deal! like buying in bulk! that's fun, right? progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, abreak through your allergies.? try new flonase sensimist allergy relief instead of allergy pills. it's more complete allergy relief

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♪ >> tucker: welcome at this time for the weekly segment on the intersection between hollywood and american politics. and much more common thing than it used to be. president trump vowed to save american jobs and he saved at least some prayed at nbc and cbs, ratings were "saturday night live" or at their highest and two decades, thanks to trump. >> i fired him because of

russia. i thought, he is investigating russia, i don't like that, i should fire him. >> and you are just admitting that? >> uh-huh. >> obstruction of justice. >> sure, okay. >> did i get it? no, i didn't cover nothing matters. absolutely nothing matters anymore? >> tucker: ratings for stephen colbert's "late-night show" are up, to come unexpectedly. >> "the washington post" reporting that donald trump revealed highly classified information to the russian foreign minister and ambassador. the article can't describe in detail what was shared but one official said, this is code word information. you have to say things like "the package has been delivered." "the squirrel is in the basket." "the idiot is in the oval." donald trump, if you are watching, first of all, you're a

bad president, please resign. the second... >> tucker: the managing editor at olympic media, a contributor at "the hill." so, katie, it seems pretty obvious that the numbers are up for shows like this, which people who hate trump on transformation, is that different from wanting comedy? >> the problem of a lot of them are falling into is that they are putting their own personal politics before actual comedy. the way to joke about trump, there's a way to talk about hillary that everyone could find funny. and they are not doing that. they are just being partisan and angry. but they are also taking bucket loads of money, i'll lock trump. he is all the ratings up, and all ratings up, colbert ratings. and they were saying that they have some folk moral problem with taking this quote unquote blood money. and yet, why are they donating it? why are they giving it to the people that trump was apparently destroyed them. they are just taking it and saying that they are very upset. >> tucker: one thing to have

political views, it's another to give people money, okay? there is no chance. >> i would be happy to take it. >> tucker: it's interesting, trump said i will help your ratings, i don't think he meant it this way. this is all people who hate trump. >> oh, yeah. trump is raining gold. the ratings are up on these anti-trump shows because liberal snowflakes who still won't accept that trump is our president, by the way, need tv safe spaces, where they can hear their own opinions reflected back to them over and over again. stephen stephen colbert in part, he really panders to the lowest common denominator of trump paid for his show isn't really funny. you just sit there and slit slanders trump. it is just so political. >> tucker: but it works. it's like that. if it works, it is like the rat hitting the cocaine bar? every time you had it, you get something, why want you -- --dash go >> the effectiveness of this will wear off over time. you got to keep in mind,

colbert, he is not changing any mines. his audience, they are 100% left-wing. >> tucker: i don't think anyone's mind to change at all. okay. it's one thing -- they do what works, i get that, i wouldn't watch. but i don't begrudge them. it's when politics become such a part of the television programming that the other side is not allowed, i get nervous, and the question is, did that happen to tim allen? he is the famous actor, he's been around a long time, he had a show called "last man standing." it did well, apparently. if portrayed positively a character was a conservative christian. conservatives are upset because they said it got canceled because tim allen is a conservative. you think that is true? >> there is a 100,000 person petition to boycott abc going on right now. that is us down again and of itself. the fact that they said that they were replacing such a high rating show with more superhero shows, that with their excuse, and tim allen came out and said that he was blind sided ends donned by this cancellation of what would be the seventh seaso.

they are not doing a lot to make it seem like it wasn't political. >> tucker: nbc gave up its own "access hollywood" tape and leaked it and lied about it to "the washington post." they didn't get anything out of it they just wanted to hurt trump. these people will actually hurt themselves in order to hurt trump. >> it's shocking. it's disgusting that abc canceled the show but i guess it's not really surprising, considering that abc's entire lineup of shows right now just mocks conservative values in every single episode. it's just these executives, these tv executives. >> tucker: i wouldn't watch them for a second. thank you. >> thank you, tucker. >> tucker: we'll be right back back. ♪ ♪ but with my back pain i couldn't sleep or get up in time. then i found aleve pm. the only one to combine a safe sleep aid

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they tolerate backward islamic values for the state of multiculturalism and on top of that, they say, the white left pity the rest of the world and think they are saviors. sounds like the chinese are watching pretty carefully. the term first became popular two years ago to describe abdallah merkel and her decision to welcome more than a million third world immigrants. chinese speakers claimed they had to work very hard to stay in europe while unskilled migrants would simply show up, claim a sound, and get welfare. they wonder why they're paying the price for historical wrongs that other people committed which is not a crazy question. described it as a spiritual epidemic that will destroy the west and destroy atomic if they

were foolish enough to follow their lead. donald trump once noted that the chinese are laughing at us and they have been more right than he knew. good night from washington. here's be one. >> hello everyone, i'm's ph and this is to be one. we begin tonight with breaking news, "the new york times" this evening reporting that trump suggested that then fbi director james call me that he drop the bureau's investigation into former national security officer michael flynn. according to the times, and february, he told comey "i hope you can let this go," citing a memo written by mr. comey. the white house said the report is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the president and mr. comey, proponents of the president are saying this new information is stunning evidence of obstruction of justice. it's the second straight night we've had breaking news about