and military families. everybody got a white house cookie and a presidential eminem. that sounds good, make sure you get your trick-or-treat done early because we will be here at 7:00 p.m. tomorrow night and we will see you then. tucker is up next. ♪ >> tucker: good evening and welcome to "tucker carlson tonight." we have exclusive new reporting on a story that has turned washington upside down and caused more intrigue than anything in the city i've seen in 25 years. of course you've heard independent counsel robert mueller's investigation has zeroed in on its first targets. today, former donald trump campaign manager paul manafort and his business associate rick gates were both indicted on charges of money laundering, tax fraud, and failure to report lobbying arrangements. the indictment, among other things, offers tantalizing details about how foreign lobby actually works at the highest levels in washington.

manafort allegedly used laundered offshore cash to buy range rovers, expand his wardrobe, somehow spent $655,000 on landscaping for his house in the hamptons. manafort's indictment comes as honestly no surprise to anyone who has been in washington for a while and has watched him operate, but of course the legal system will make a final call on that. it's pretty clear that paul manafort is just the first in a series of people in d.c. who are suddenly in deep deep trouble. who is next? reading between the lines for the indictment and talking to a number of our own sources, we think we have a pretty good idea of that. keep in mind that today's indictment never mentions donald trump's presidential campaign are the 2016 election. it only mentions russia in passing, even though russian meddling was the pretext for this investigation in the first place. instead, the indictment catalogs manafort's efforts to lobby on behalf of pro-russia groups in ukraine. the indictment goes into great detail on the relationship

between manafort and to cope mysterious groups described in the document as company a and company b. those companies we can report to make our mercury llc led by former republican congressman ben weber and the podesta group, founded by tony podesta and his brother john, who you remember as hillary clinton's campaign chairman. none of this will come as a shock to viewers of the show. last tuesday we told you that the mueller investigation is no longer primarily a search for russian collusion in the 2016 race. it is now a much far-reaching inquiry into lobbying practices across d.c., one that is very likely to ensnare figures close to hillary clinton. press accounts mueller's investigation is a hunk of fur collusion between donald trump's presidential campaign and the government of russia. our source says investigators are in fact very interested in manafort's behavior while he ran the campaign, but otherwise that description is mostly bogus. the investigation has broadened

to determine which people in which organizations in washington have spent years working secretly as de facto operatives on behalf of russian government and business interests. the podesta group's chief among these. "there are more focused on facilitators of russian influence in this country than they are on election collusion." the podesta group he says is in their cross wars. >> tucker: that segment last week provoked a snarling legal threat to shut us up, that's not going to happen. we will tell me more about it just a minute. last week we explain how paul manafort used a sham group called the european center for a modern ukraine to lobby on behalf of pro-russian forces in ukraine. those forces sought a number of changes to american policy, changes to the republican platform. some of the changes are obviously contrary to america's interests and values. among them, they wanted the u.s. government to support the imprisonment of one of the

presidents' political opponents. shady does not begin to describe this operation. even some of his own employees thought the whole thing was disgusting. today's indictment confirms our reporting on this, it describes the center for modern ukraine as a fake organization, merely "a mouthpiece for the ukrainian president, yanukovych." it also confirms that the lobbying groups he hired in washington, including tony podesta's knew perfectly well that it was fake when they signed onto represented. according to the fence, his company was called explicitly they would be lobbying on behalf of the ukrainian president. in november 2012, the indictment says, manafort's business partner explicitly requested reports on lobbying activity by both those companies so that he could brief the president of ukraine. it couldn't get dirtier. but despite apparently knowing they were acting as foreign agents, agents of a foreign government, the podesta group

never registered as foreign agents. failure to do that is against the law. in april 2012 the podesta group file documents with congress relating to its work with the center for a modern ukraine. at the time they falsely claimed that group was just a foreign ngo. the finely contained a declaration by the center for modern ukraine that "none of the activities of the center are directly or indirectly supervise, directed, controlled, financed or subsidized in whole, or in part, by government or foreign country or a foreign political party. that declaration, false, was endorsed as true by kimberly fritz, now the ceo of the podesta group and a former jeb bush staffer, all apparently a lie. moreover, according to the indictment, the podesta group must've known it was a lie when they signed that document. under the law, the firm should have immediately registered with the government, the u.s. government, under the foreign agents registration act. instead they wait until spring 2017, this year, to do that, and

that somehow apply the status retroactively. by that point, the center for a modern ukraine had effectively been out of business for three years. it was a little late. interestingly, the podesta group file those white papers just weeks after media outlets began reporting that law enforcement was investigating manafort's offshore bank accounts. why would ukrainian interest higher tony podesta in the first place? according to a former podesta employee we spoke to over this weekend, even foreign officials in distant lands understood that tony podesta's brother was john podesta, a key clinton confidant. it was widely known the two brothers had dinner together every sunday night. "that's not something we had from clients of the firm, they love hearing that." even a native russian speaker can grasp the point of all of this. if the podesta group was hired by paul manafort on behalf of foreign clients because the company was perceived to have a direct line to powerful politicians. john podesta was hillary's

campaign chairman, tony podesta had been president of bill clinton's in the midterm elections of 1970. influence-peddling 101. how sensitive are the connections to their profit model? consider this: the firm's billing drop dramatically almost immediately after hillary clinton lost the race for president. that tells you a lot. mueller's investigators apparently figured this out. today tony podesta resigned as head of his company. his excuse? us. that's right, he blamed us. in his parting statement, he said this. "it is impossible to run a public affairs firm all you are under attack by fox news on the right-wing media." podesta isn't just complaining about us, he's threatening us. this afternoon we got a letter from jeff, a lawyer, so much from a big law firm here in d.c., the letter demands that the show "immediately cease and desist disseminating false and misleading reports about mr. podesta and the podesta

group." it demands we retract and delete all our prior reporting on the podesta group and warns that if we don't do this "mr. podesta may pursue legal action, including for damages in order to fully protect his rights." the letter doesn't stop there, it also warns us that we will face legal action under the copyright act merely for quoting from this letter publicly as we just did. the most amusing line is this one. "paul manafort did not work with the podesta group in its representation of the european center for a modern ukraine. that's what the letter told us. apparently that lawyer hasn't read the manafort indictment ye yet. in paragraph 22 of that indictment we read this. "at the direction of manafort and gates, companies a and b engaged in extensive lobbying on ukraine. the indictment also says the podesta group in mercury were selected personally by paul manafort to lobby on behalf of of ukrainian interests. if john podesta's legal team has a complaint, it's not with us,

it's with the department of justice in the mueller investigation. maybe we are being too literal about this, probably so. his lawyer wasn't trying to inform us of anything, but to threaten us, to shut down our reporting on his client. one where we talked to earlier today said the podesta people have used this tactic with others before, it's common. it's an effort to use fear to control press coverage. we are not intimidated. we have ample evidence from mueller's indictment, from a number of confidential sources to paint occluded clear picture of exactly what the podesta group was doing for years here in washington. let the facts speak for themselves. we are confident the mueller investigation will be revealing a lot more about his lobbying practices in the near future. in the meantime, if you're looking for a summary of all of this, here's the one sentence cliff fell to the whole affair. the chairman of one major presidential campaign colluded with the brother of the other major presidential campaign to enrich themselves by secretly advancing the interests of a foreign adversary. that happened. that's the swamp they told you

needed to be trained. jonathan turley teaches law right in the middle of the swamp, refresher at george george washington university law school. you don't often hear of people prosecuted for violating that act, legal requirement to register as a foreign lobbyist when you -- a lot of people do it, very relatively few register. why is that unenforced? >> it's only been a handful of prosecutions and they have it in this mix is odd. being chased by a bunch of rottweilers and a chihuahua. if not exactly a fierce charge to face, but it was brought in his case and i think it sends a signal to others like flynn and tony podesta that these are charges that could be brought. i think this indictment is saying that the special counsel is prepared to indict anyone for anything with his within his mandate. he's clearly focusing on these types of financial transactions and registration violations. these violations are a bit

deadly in one sense, so many violations are registration violations. jurors tend to treat those as basically cut and dry. if they are convinced you had to file, then you are guilty. you can secure these types of convictions, but they are in a mix with very serious crimes. >> tucker: they seem serious. it looked, this whole investigation appears to be focused on the question of foreign influence. how to foreign governments affect american policy. the decisions our government makes. if there's a law, it seems to be a meaningful one, saying if you are doing the bidding of a foreign power you have to tell us about it. why is that a small violation? >> it's small because it's often been dealt with administratively. when you violate it, the response like the podesta group did was to retroactively file and the department of justice has allowed that. clearly mueller is not following that pattern. he is taking the view that if you violated it, you can know my stomach we can charge criminally and we will.

hard to see that charging up brought against people like flynn, who could white out manafort's name and put. so this is a signal to others that these charges are likely to be brought. >> tucker: if these violations are basically looked past and you can retroactively file four or five years and call it good, this is an editorial comment, but i'm interested in your view, maybe that's one of the reasons d.c. is so corrupt, i'm throwing that out there. >> when this first happened, my first response was washington is awash with russian money. the public are about to see that. this city has a real sordid side to it. >> tucker: not just russian money. >> absolutely. people do influence-pedal. it's not exclusive to any particular party. so i think with the democrats are experiencing with republicans is that investigations are a lot like saturn, they devour their own. you were going to see an expansion here clearly bringing in other people. the focus does appear by mueller

to be on the lobbying aspect, and you are right, this could actually be a historic series of disclosures for the public. i think the public has no idea the level of influence. >> tucker: i don't care who was swept up in it. if you're working on behalf of a foreign power against american interests i hope you are exposed. >> i think it will be. >> tucker: thank you, great to see you. a democrat were presenting the state of california joins us tonight. have you ever had contact with people from the podesta group? >> yes. i've met tony podesta and john podesta before. >> tucker: tony podesta is the one who runs it, john is just his brother. >> you should mention george papadopoulos. he pled guilty to working with the russians and then lying about it to the fbi. >> tucker: is absolutely right right. there are many stories of the day. it's not the story of the day, it's the story of the last 30 years that i've been in d.c. were foreign governments control with the u.s. government does

and nobody out there beyond washington even knows that it's going on. >> let's just be clear. russia attacked our democracy today. someone pled guilty to lying about working with the russians. >> tucker: with mercury, which is run by a former republican congressman, i'm not flocking for them, i'm just being honest, i think it's a big deal if foreign powers give money to lobbyist and then it changes the way the rest of us live. >> if the podesta group is never given money to me but what i do know is the russians worked 12 donald trump get elected. donald trump's team went over to russia and tried to get information about hillary clinton. >> tucker: we also learn from the indictment today that paul manafort, who chaired trump's campaign but was working with this democratic firm to influence members of congress. we don't know which members of congress because you guys haven't disclosed it. why should the congress be allowed to hide their meetings with foreign lobbyist from the public? >> they never worked with me. >> tucker: i'm not accusing

you. but there are a lot of -- 534 other people in both houses and they meet with foreign lobbyist and they don't have to disclose it. >> i'm all in favor of as much disclosure as possible. that's why it's so frustrating that donald trump's team applied over and over and over. >> tucker: you are part of the body that is routinely -- hello, this is in the process of being exposed. this is going on it many levels. >> doesn't that bother you? >> tucker: a lot, that's why i'm asking these questions. the body you serve and hides it from the public. why is congress allowed to hide meetings with foreign lobbyist from the public? i don't understand that. >> on doggedly focused right now in a country that attacked us, a campaign that worked with them. >> tucker: i'm asking you. >> i'm in favor of more disclosure. >> tucker: how about total disclosure? any country meets with any member of congress, wise and it disclose now? >> it should be. >> tucker: but why isn't it? >> it should be.

i will be the first run out there and say let's do that. >> tucker: it's almost like congress has the special carve out where you can do whatever you want and no one knows. >> have an issue right now i'm trying to get as much progress on an investigation where barriers are being put up every day. >> tucker: i think -- the investigation today told us, it was an indictment, i know you read all 31 pages. >> there's actually more pages not. 14 pages of a guilty plea. >> tucker: that's great. he was a senior foreign policy advisor at the age of 34 no pay. the indictment says that these guys, manafort, who just got indicted, worked for him. he hired these two firms, primarily i think the podesta group and they sent lobbyist up to the hill to lobby on behalf of pro-russian ukrainian politicians. they met with a bunch of members of carlos, when will we find out who they met with? >> after which i out one

doldrums team -- why they continue to obstruct >> tucker: why are you obstructing? why don't you demand that nancy pelosi order every democratic member who met with the podesta group on behalf of ukraine to admit it. >> to mike this is our democracy being attacked. if our legislative body in which you serve met with russian agents and they are not telling us who, and i don't know why. at the very moment we're talking about what did russian due to hack our democracy. it should be voluntary because what member of congress would say i was part of the hacking of our democracy. when we make them? >> russia. we are under attack. way to stop a country -- >> you are right there. don't act like this was happening with somebody else's in congress. you are here is not just a congressman, but the member of a larger body, a member of congress that was obligated to date by the justice department as part of this conspiracy to support our democracy.

what are you doing? >> a country attacked us, presidential campaign worked with a country. i can to make it my republican colleagues to be curious enough to understand. that's a challenge. >> tucker: a moment of bipartisan comedy is the to call it and when we both agree that every member of congress should voluntarily tomorrow morning reveal every foreign agent he or she has met with in the last ten years. let's call for that right now. when you do that? >> else we did you tomorrow morning. >> tucker: my college, if you met with the podesta group's agents of ukraine, please admit it. >> my college should be worried about a democracy that was attacked and a campaign that covers it up. >> tucker: the campaign is over, the congress is still there i noticed. >> let's get traction on that. >> tucker: how much money do you think tony podesta gave to the d triple c last year? he gave 30,000. all the people were benefiting from russian money flowing through the podesta group, are they going to give it back? >> let's just talk american to

american. politics aside. do you agree that russia attacked us? >> tucker: it sounds like they were up and walking the halls of your building. >> the trunk and pay lied about contacts with russia? spin what you don't see me defending it. >> tucker: by starting in their own backyard, admitting their own complicit nest. >> i can come here to defend this. >> tucker: you didn't come here to have the truth count on my thrown at you. the body and what you serve is every bit as much of the problem as every other part. it's influenced all the time and they won't admit it. pico i think a trump campaign worked with a foreign power, now we have to unwind and figure out what happened. >> tucker: harassment, you are a brave man, as always. we can never get democrats. thank you. why have calls to investigate hillary clinton's connections to the russians been ignored for months, we will investigate it ourselves, stay tuned.

♪ when you have a cold stuff happens. shut down cold symptoms fast with maximum strength alka seltzer plus liquid gels. (honking) (beeping) we're on to you, diabetes. time's up, insufficient prenatal care. and administrative paperwork, your days of drowning people are numbered. same goes for you, budget overruns. and rising costs, wipe that smile off your face. we're coming for you too. at optum, we're partnering across the health system

to tackle its biggest challenges.

♪ >> tucker: today's revelations about the podesta group provide further reason to believe that ties between pro-russian pro-russian interesting hillary clinton deserve a second look. republican congressman represents california says he spent months trying to get a house hearing on russia, manafort and the clintons, all without success. joins us tonight. congressman, thanks for coming on. we spoke to one of your colleagues also from the california delegation. nice guy. about the connection between the congress and paul manafort.

i think you met with paul manafort, a lot of people met with paul manafort. >> i've known paul manafort for 40 years. >> tucker: why shouldn't all disclose that? >> i don't know exactly how much relationship he had. he was a major lobbyist as lobbyist on the democratic side in the republican side. but what's important right now at this moment is the paul manafort has not been charged with something that he did during the trump campaign. what we were told was this special prosecutor is supposed to look at what was going on wherefrom supposedly colluded with the russians and the stealing of the democratic national committee emails exemplified that theft. paul manafort has been charged with basically tax evasion and money laundering for something that happened way before the election. it had nothing to do with the trumpet that. if we are going to do that, why are we looking into hillary -- i think paul manafort $18 million,

evaded taxes on. what about hillary, $150 million for the clinton foundation and bill clinton, who got $500,000 in his pocket by these very same russian oligarchs, and guess it was supposed to investigate that? mueller himself. he was the director of the fbi and let me just say this, tucker. i had a witness that was basically a secret witness, he was an informer to the fbi, they had an operation going there watching what was going on with the clintons and is russian oligarchs, and he was placed under a gag order. mueller kept him under a gag order all this time, although no charges were ever filed against the clintons. that gag order, we finally got it released a couple days ago. when people look back, who is being corrupt, okay, no

corruption is good. that's a simple as that. but having these people claim -- you realize now, they never talk about the emails that were being hijacked by the russians from the dnc because now we know that the russians didn't do it, so they've dropped that. now they've got paul manafort on something he did way before the election. the american people have to understand, their attention is being diverted from the wrongdoing of the clintons and his power grab of trying to prevent president trump from assuming the powers that he received from the voters in the last election by disrupting that with these phony charges of collusion with the russians. >> tucker: a lot of people are making charges about things they themselves have done. freud had a term for that, transference may be. thank you, i'd appreciate it. >> god bless, thank you. >> tucker: new ad in the virginia governor's race

portrays the republican as racist murderers trying to kill children. i think we are overstating that? stay right here. that make everything from cell phones to rail cars more efficient. which helps improve every aspect of advanced rail technology. all with support from a highly-educated workforce and vocational job training. across new york state, we're building the new new york. to grow your business with us in new york state, visit esd.ny.gov.

to grow your business with us in new york state, our recent online sales success seems a little... strange?nk na. ever since we switched to fedex ground business has been great. they're affordable and fast... maybe "too affordable and fast." what if... "people" aren't buying these books online, but "they" are buying them to protect their secrets?!?! hi bill.

if that is your real name. it's william actually. hmph! affordable, fast fedex ground. ...has grown into an enterprise. that's why i switched to the spark cash card from capital one. now, i'm earning unlimited 2% cash back on every purchase i make. everything. what's in your wallet? >> tucker: and new ad by latino victory fund and the virginia governor's race portrays supporters of republican ed gillespie as violent racists who want to murder kids. think we are overstating? watch this.

>> wrong, ron, ron! ! , on ! >> tucker: campaign director for the center for american progress action fund and she joins us. thanks for coming on. i watched this ad, i've seen a lot of tough political ads over decades of watching it and they are actually just pushing a race war here. this is the single most disgusting, unfair thing i've ever seen. i'm not any ed gillespie partisan at all, but i don't see any dust so my justification running something like that. >> i think the justification is the fact that it's really just putting a mirror up to the campaign that he's running. i know a lot of republicans are really disgusted with a campaign that he's been running. that's a lot of race baiting. i don't know what's in his

heart. >> tucker: give me one example -- give me one example of his race baiting. >> by putting the confederate statues at the center of his campaign. by running ads that apply that most people are immigrants are related to ms-13 or defending i it. >> tucker: he hasn't said that most people are immigrants are connected to ms-13. i've watched it really carefully. by the way, ed gillespie is on the liberal scale on emigration to put it mildly. he's nowhere near donald trump on immigration, or me for that matter. where has he said that they sympathize with ms-13? i've heard him say point-blank ms-13 ms-13 praise upon immigrants. >> the ads that he is running our race baiting because they're making people fearful. they are bringing out the worst in people, trying to drive people to the polls. 2006, they were a long time ago. i think it really shows that he's really willing to say whatever it takes to sell people out and try to get votes. >> tucker: u.s. defending an ad that is driving

a racist trying to murder children anywhere defending by saying that he's running an ad that makes people fearful? i don't think there's ever been an ad like the one we just watched. have you ever seen anything like that? >> i think we are living in an era that we have never lived in before. a lot of people are coming forward with statements that used to just be dog whistles, they are now overt racist statements. that's based on an actual event that happened. >> tucker: what does ed gillespie have to do with that event? >> i don't know what he has to do with the event necessarily but he's creating a racist environment where people are feeling emboldened. he's never disavowed president trump saying on the heels of the charlottesville riots that there are good people on both sides. >> tucker: it's not mine to disavow. i didn't say it. >> it's not yours to disavow. it's at gillespie's when he's running for governor of virgini virginia. >> tucker: so refusing to disavow, whatever that means, something somebody else said now

makes you morally equivalent to what you say the first person i is? >> when he's running a campaign that actually goes right to the core of it, he actually talked about our heritage when he talked about the confederate monument. >> tucker: it is the heritage for a lot of people in virginia. half of the confederacy was in virginia. you don't have to be for racism. that's real. that happened there. what are you supposed to say for what, just say it's not true? >> the fact that he won't actually come out and say with both his policies and the rhetoric of his campaign this is not something we allow. it sort of ironic. that's hardly the case. >> tucker: you are playing with fire here and the fire is race and you were telling voters that ed gillespie hates them because they are not white, and there's no evidence of that at all. yet some people are going to watch that and believe it and it's going to bring us closer to some real conflict based on

race. it's irresponsible to run an ad like that, don't you think? >> i don't see that ad saying that at all. it's reflecting what communities of color, hispanic communities are feeling by the rhetoric. >> tucker: maybe ensure that it's not true. people have fears that are unreasonable and that's an unreasonable fear. he will not run your get down with the truck. >> i don't think the ad says he would himself will be running people down. there's a real fear about an increase in violence but we have this from teachers. from teachers in virginia that the violent rhetoric against students of color is increasing. and bullying is increasing. >> tucker: we can debate it, but i'd gillespie, here i am flocking for at gillespie. i'm not a huge supporter of ed gillespie, but i'm offended by the unfairness and the creepiness and the race baiting quality of this ad. you don't see that at all? you are suggesting that ed gillespie wants to kill minority children, that's not a problem at all? >> i'm not suggesting that but i

do think it does need to be called out that this is the impact on communities of color and minority communities when you run a race baiting campaign. >> tucker: to minority communities and say you may fear that i gillespie wants to kill you because you are nonwhite, but that's not true. we don't agree with a gillespie on a lot of things but he's not a klansman who is going to murder you. wouldn't that be more helpful, why don't you do that? >> it would not be more hopeful. >> tucker: because that wouldn't help you win the race. >> that's exactly the point. he may actually have a different perspective on immigration, but he's willing to run these ads that are race baiting. that's exactly the point, he's willing to do whatever it takes. >> tucker: defined race baiting to be whatever we disagree with, i've noticed that. i think he's way too liberal on immigration, so where does that put me? >> it puts you as a dissatisfied republican who should be dissatisfied, because at gillespie will say and do whatever it takes to try to get votes. >> tucker: i'm more confused than ever, thank you. kevin spacey accused of making sexual advances on trial.

they told you the big news that kevin spacey came out. what was the real story? we will discuss that next. ♪ ♪ come on mom! ♪ let's go! ♪ mom! slow down! for the ones who keep pushing. always unstoppable. that's why feeling safe is priceless. with adt, you can feel safe with an adt starter kit professionally installed for only $49.00. call today, and install an adt starter kit that includes security panel, keypad, key fob, entry and motion sensors and for a limited time, get a camera

included and installed at no additional cost. that's a $449.00 value, installed, for just $49.00.

>> tucker: have you heard the breaking news? kevin spacey is gay, like you care. oh, yeah, they're something else. he may have tried to force on the child. that was buried. on sunday after anthony rapp anthony rapp accused the "house of cards" star of making advances on him when he was 14, that's a big story, obviously, but many news outlets focused on spacey's response to it, that was written by publicists in which he came out of the closet as gay. all headlined with spacey's announcement. rather than the child molestation allegations, and i'm sure that was of course exactly the point. a gay writer and journalist joins us.

it seems like the most cynical possible response. i don't have any idea what happened with kevin spacey, who i have nothing against, by the way. this guy, those many years ago. whether or not he gay hardly seems like the headline. >> it's extremely cynical and it started to work. when i saw this last night, i saw his press release, i thought brilliant p.r. this will be on every daytime talk show, you will become a hero, his professional value will go up, talk about the troubles of being closeted in hollywood and homophobia. and that is what started to happen, as you mentioned. at the headlines out, abc news, the headline was about kevin spacey's emotional tweet coming out. for many of the stories you didn't get down into these sexual assault allegations. and it started to work. what they weren't counting on, like a scooby-doo villain, all of these meddling internet trolls were going to step in and

ruin it for them, and that's exactly what happened. now we have big powerful figures on the left in the entertainment like o'donnell, who are really going after kevin spacey for this. >> tucker: other than that, mrs. lincoln, how was the play? talk about burying the lead. why would news organizations play along with what is so obviously a public relations strategy? >> i 30 show got canceled, it's a shame that we don't have a metaphor for a crumbling failur. it's difficult the that these people are in bed with one another. the people would catch on to this and see how disgusting this was. don't be mistaken for one second. if kevin spacey had been a good gay in hollywood. if he had come out years ago, because people have known that he's been openly gay, basically living for a long time. if he had been at the glad awards every year, if he had

been this outspoken member of the community they would not be dragging him like this. they would be trying to bury these allegations that this person made when -- about things that happen when he was 14 years old. >> tucker: i notice a trend here, which is that when people on the left or accused of wrongdoing they immediately go to politics, harvey weinstein's famous response, i will develop my life to fighting the nra. it tells you they think their politics will buy them, like an indulgence from the medieval church, a pass on their behavior. >> it's worked for so long. this response from his team was not negligent, it was brilliant. it was quite smart. they were counting on this working and it was beginning to work. the reason why this worked -- has worked for so long as we are used to treating certain groups of people as victim groups as deserving special treatment, and this kind they thought they could get away with it and now

you have the gay community saying you can't wrap yourself in the flag. you haven't been standing with us, it's not working. >> tucker: the internet is unpredictable. thanks for joining us. >> thanks. >> tucker: 's dilbert creator scott adams was one of the very first to say donald trump might in fact when the presidency. people laugh, you're just a cartoonist. he was right. he's next. with us, his take on the russian news. stay tuned.

we create machines that make every experience more real.

because the best feature of a pc gaming machine is the power to make you forget it's there. get $200 off at dell.com/gaming. ( ♪ ) get $200 off at dell.com/gaming. [notification tone] ♪ in the modern world, an app can help you find your perfect match. ♪ and with esurance, coverage counselor can help you find great coverage that's a perfect match too. esurance. an allstate company. click or call.

the energy conscious whopeople among usle? say small actions can add up to something... humongous. a little thing here. a little thing there. starts to feel like a badge maybe millions can wear. who are all these caretakers, advocates too? turns out, it's californians it's me and it's you. don't stop now,

it's easy to add to the routine. join energy upgrade california and do your thing. ♪ >> tucker: scott adams created the dilbert comic strip. a genuinely interesting thinker whether you agree with them or not. key blogs online. he was one of the very first people to explain donald trump's appeal and suggest he might be able to win the presidency. he has a new book coming out

tomorrow, persuasion in a world where facts don't matter. he seemed like the perfect person to ask. if persuasion is everywhere and facts are irrelevant, what will be the recent revelations about russia? joins us tonight. congrats on the book. if what do you think the take away -- you are always arguing that things will happen but people perceive them very differently from you intended. what's the take away from the russia investigation so far? >> i think the biggest fact that's going on here, there's so much russian stuff that people are overwhelmed. i've lost track. are there six scandals, seven scandals? it's turned into -- russia is like the harvey weinstein of countries. you think it's done but there's always just one more horrible thing coming at you. i think people can't really follow the complexity of it. they are just sort of lost in it so they will default to taking

the side that they were going to take anyway. >> tucker: sort of where we started out, which is if you don't like trump, you think he has something bad to do with putin, and if you do you dismiss it? >> there's a strange situation going on. look at the whole drama, the whole totality of it. if you look at the players. in a sense got the lowest rated popular present ever but he's in and hillary clinton. he found the only trauma or he's the most popular person in it. i don't know what were the odds of him being the most popular person in the biggest story, but somehow we found a set of characters who are less popular than he has. i think it will come out okay because you can't really get your hands on what really is the problem here. he doesn't seem to be indicted for everything, we are just confused. >> tucker: things occur to you that do not occur to smaller brands like mine. that's always fun to talk to you. your book is about persuasion in this weird world,

internet-infused world we are living in. if you could give one piece of advice about persuasion, what would it be? >> keep it visual. visual persuasion is the best. scaring people is the best, but i don't like to give that advice. >> tucker: that is true, it works. >> if you will try to sell a border solution, don't say i would like to put together a patchwork of different border security depending on the terrain. you want to say it's a wall, a big beautiful wall. if you want to say we've got to do something about isis, don't say i have an ideology that could be dangerous to us, they are bad people. you want to say they are chopping off heads, they are putting people in cages and drowning them. that's the president trump method and it's very powerful. visual persuasion is always the best. >> tucker: visual persuasion. and you can kind of stick -- you could use it for deception, but you could also tell the truth with images if you wanted.

>> yes. we've got to aware point in history. we used to say that pictures don't lie, but now they lie all the time, and not just because they are photoshopped. stuff taken out of context. you see any photo of a bad person with another bad person and they seem like they're hugging hugging, you always wonder is that head photoshopped on their? is kevin spacey really with this person? is weinstein with this person? you can't trust anything anymore. >> tucker: i work in tv, i know. great to see you, congrats on the book. >> thank you. >> tucker: today is one of the biggest news days of the earth and fox is covering with a full slate of prime time shows. a couple of them brand-new. shannon bream will be live at 11:00. her show debuts, but you will see her after the break on their show. we are happy to have your her. be right back.

with maximum strength alka seltzer plus liquid gels. this is not a cloud. this is a tomato tracked from farm to table on a blockchain, helping keep shoppers safe. this is a financial transaction secure from hacks and threats others can't see. this is a skyscraper whose elevators use iot data and ai to help thousands get to work safely and efficiently. this is not the cloud you know. this is the ibm cloud. the ibm cloud is the cloud for business. yours. ♪ ♪

... dealership has great customer service ... (muffled voice) ... and has great deals! ... and has ... ... complimentary donuts. ... that's the one! cars.com. over 5 million expert and user reviews. a farmer's market.ve what's in this kiester. a fire truck. even a marching band. and if i can get comfortable talking about this kiester, then you can get comfortable using preparation h. for any sort of discomfort in yours. preparation h. get comfortable with it. ♪ ♪

>> tucker: it's a huge night of news. the perfect night to launch two brand new shows which we're doing tonight. laura ingraham is on tonight at 10:00 for the first time and after her shannon bream anchoring a full hour of live news at 11:00. i don't think we have done that permanently ever. that's our reair, normally. >> i know. >> tucker: under normal circumstances feel like losing air. i don't feel that way. gaining shannon bream one of the nicest people to ever work in television. what's your show tonight. >> very newsy. two lawyers on back-to-back tonight. so much to unpack from legal indictments today. we are learning about papadopoulos and why we didn't learn for weeks what's going on there was he wearing a wire? >> tucker: was he wearing a wire? >> we don't know. the fact he was arrested july 27th and didn't find out he was charged the first of october and made a plea deal and find out today. some of the unsealed file today it said that he was a proactive cooperator. and that if they had released that he had this arrest and appearance that

it may tip other people off and they might start destroying evidence. it makes you ask all those weeks we didn't know anything about. it was he wearing a wire? >> tucker: i'm glad i didn't have drinks with him during that period. >> or did you? >> tucker: i absolutely didn't. live at 11:00. are you ready for it? this is two weeks. >> we have no choice. do or die time. federal prosecutor worked with a lot of the mueller team. we have senator mike lee to talk about the russian investigations continue on the hill. and we have got a head-to-head debate about this case out of texas, illegal minor crossed over into the u.s. and wanted to get an abortion. the aclu, the naral on one side versus the attorney general ken paxton. both of those folks joining us live tonight to debate that. >> tucker: shannon bream not only super nice but super smart. you are going to kill it i'm going to watch. i will be home. shannon bream. first episode fox news tonight debuts. laura ingraham launches too at 10:00.

it's going to be fantastic. she interviewed white house chief of staff john kelly for tonight's show. good luck to them both. not that they need it. good night from washington. sean hannity is next from new york have. a good night. >> thanks, tucker. good night to shannon and laura tonight. we have more of that in a little while. you do not want to miss a minute of tonight's show. welcome to hannity. this is a fox news alert. this may be one of the most important monologues i will ever give on this show. tonight we have a major crisis in this country. does america have equal justice under the law? it appears tonight the answer is no. because from everything we now know there is one justice system for the clintons, the left, liberals and all their cronies and another one for everyone else in america. and tonight on this show, with the result of the indictment of paul manafort and his associate, we will show you right here how there is zero evidence of trump/russia collusion. zero evidence of campaign collusion. in spite of all of that the media has been