actually. >> martha: i got to go. sorry. i have to pick it up in the break. good to have you here. that is "the story with martha" on this friday night. tucker is up next. ♪ >> tucker: good evening. welcome to "tucker carlson tonight." there is a new congress here in washington. but the government shutdown continues as before. the stalemate over the border wall funding entered the third week. each side betting the other will give in first. negotiations continue at the white house today but apparently they bore no fruit. because afterwards the president emerged to say the situation on the southern border is so grave he may be forced to build a wall without congressional approval. >> have you considered using emergency powers to grant yourself authority to build this wall without congressional approval? and second -- >> yes, i have. >> you have? >> president trump: i have. i can do it if i want.

>> so you don't need congressional approval? >> president trump: no. we can call a national emergency because of the security of the country. absolutely. no we can do it. i haven't done it. i may do it. i may do it. but we can call a national emergency and build it quickly. >> tucker: democrats call that extremism. who are extreme? the one who refuse to defend their country. the speaker of the house said they will never allocate a single tax dollar to build a border wall. not because it's too expensive, these are the democrats. but a wall would violate a previously unknown and never explained moral code. watch. >> the fact is a wall is an immorality. it's not who we are as a nation. it's an old way of thinking. >> tucker: it's tempting to assume that the speaker misspoken there. but it's hardly the first time she said it. immoral. immorality.

she used the words repeatedly. democrat is the highest ranking democrat in the united states. the leader of her party. so we should not blow it off. we should take it seriously. as a matter of policy, democrats believe a border wall is immoral. that raises the question what do they consider moral? well, american troops stuck forever in syria for one thing. that is just fine. sex-selective abortions paid for with the tax dollars. can't get more moral than that. an tiff fa in -- and antifa in the street is all perfectly moral. walls can be moral in the right circumstances but can't protect america. they signed off for borders in israel, egypt and jordan. no problem. but here on behalf of our own people no. americans don't deserve that. they are immoral for asking. those are the parameters to the morality. what religion is this exactly? we are joined by an attorney, radio host, former aide to

chuck schumer and he joins us tonight. if you would, i think we talked about this before. nancy pelosi repeatedly called the wall immoral. at first i thought she talks a lot and sometimes you misspeak. i know the feeling. but now she is saying something as the leader officially of the party. so the democrats believe border walls are immoral. what does that mean? >> i don't think she means it in the good versus evil type of morality. but rather this is a waste of money since a ladder and a rope can beat a wall. >> tucker: let me interrupt you. what other sense of immoral is there? by definition immoral describes something not moral. in the scheme of morality, a religious precept. ma does it mean? how is the wall immoral? >> look. i don't think she means it in a good versus evil religious

way. >> tucker: what other way is there? >> it's stupid thing to build when a guy with a ladder and foot tall and rope to get on the other side could beat it. and frankly to borrow the n.r.a.'s argument, though, if we put a wall up to block out illegal -- people who come here to want to harm us. people who want to come here legally are the only ones stopped by the wall. people coming here illegally will figure out a way around it like they figure out a way to get guns. >> tucker: so they will get their own -- i think i'm following you. they will get their own wall and buy a wall on the black market and bring the wall to our wall and beat it? is that continuing the metaphor? >> law abiding people are stopped by the wall but people who wish to break our laws will avoid the wall. that is the right argument for everything -- >> tucker: i'm trying to -- >> it should be accepted here,

too. >> tucker: i'm trying to take you seriously. is that also true in prison surrounded by laws? laws meant to keep lawbreakers in? do they not work? >> a prison is a couple of acres. you have century point to monitor the wall. the president is talking about thousands of miles of wall. do we have centuries every hundred feet to watch the wall? we would be better off with the modern technology and use the drones and other things to monitor the border and make sure it's backed up by the appropriate border patrol. >> tucker: i'm trying to be reasonable. >> it doesn't make sense. >> tucker: we both know you are in favor of more people coming here illegally and i'm not. that is the actual debate. >> i'm not. i'm not in favor of anybody coming here illegally. >> tucker: of course we are not. i want to drill down a little bit on the idea of morality. i think it's important. the leader of a political party calls the other side immoral is not a small thing. the same day she said that she

pushed to allow taxpayer dollars from the united states to go abroad to fund abortions in latin america, among other places. so you are saying it's immoral to keep latin america out with a wall but is not immoral to pay for latin american abortions? that is what nancy pelosi is saying. do you agree with that? >> we would need a couple of hours to discuss the mor ralty of action -- morality of the action of choice. i'm pro choice. i won't push -- >> tucker: is it immoral to pay for abortions in other countries? >> tax dollars do not pay for abortions in other countries. >> tucker: they are trying to change that. >> so it will never go that way. to debate if it's moral or immoral is a lorg conversation. >> tucker: it's not. >> i am not asking you to conduct theology here. i'm asking for your view. taxpayer money for

sex-selected abortion, which pelosi is for, or building a wall? which is immoral? >> i don't believe that she is for sex-selective abortions. >> tucker: she is. she is. >> that is an overreach of what she is for. >> tucker: in fact she is. >> the more moral use of the funding for the wall is to fix bridges and roads crumbling in the country that knead repair and spend a couple of bucks on ring doorbells for the border security if you're worried about it. it's not as big of a problem. what is immoral is the president making a problem that doesn't exist. >> tucker: really quick. at the same tame again that she was pushing against american's ability to defend itself and the borders and for more taxpayer funded abortions in other country e is pushing for more foreign aid for countries some of which would go to border security. we funded with her approval border security and walls in a bunch of other countries. why were those not immoral but our wall is immoral? >> well, when we talk about the israeli wall, and other countries that have the walls

like that, they are in a constant state of the war with the neighbor. we are not in a state of war with mexico. >> tucker: not true. >> we are not having a try analysis of the border -- crisis of the border. people don't lob bombs from the country from mexico. they are the biggest trading partner. >> tucker: i understand that. there are a number of barriers in israel, some of them are designed to keep terrorists from coming in. i don't think anyone question the right to do that. good for them. but there is also a border on the southern border of egypt designed to keep immigrants from africa out of their country. i think it's israel's right to build the wall. i wouldn't contest that. i don't have a problem with it. but nancy pelosi doesn't have a problem with it either. that wall is not immoral. our wall is immoral. i don't understand that. what is the answer? >> you know, we are a nation of. i -- of immigrants. it makes us great and gives us competitive edge with the rest of the world. if the president and the party want to change that, that is what they should talk about.

but what they are doing demagoguing about a invisible threat that does not exist at the borderment. it's time to stop that and have a discussion about security. >> tucker: how many people are here illegally in the united states? do you know? >> i would think over 10 million. 10 to 14 million. >> tucker: try over 20. this is an estimate from the ivy league researchers. does it seem like a lot. does it seem like the current border security is working? >> it seems like a lot. it seems like a lot. 90% of those people, tucker, did not cross the southern border. >> how do you know that? >> they may have come hire on a plane or a boat. >> you don't know that. you don't know how many are here. how do you know how they got here? >> i wasn't prepared for that question. but every ivy league study i have read shows every ivy league study i read about the topic says the same thing. most people who are here illegally overstayed their

visas. building a wall at the southern border is not going to change that. it's a waste of money. >> tucker: we are just guessing that it's not going to work. maybe you are right. we'll see. chris, thank you very much. >> all right. thank you, tucker. have a good one. >> tucker: thanks. well, a new member of congress, the democrat made a sincere but a vulgar promise about her party's agenda going into the congress. lisa booth has the latest after the break. ultimate feast time it'sat red lobster.r own pick four of ten favorites to create the ultimate feast you've been dreaming of. like lobster mac & cheese. or tender snow crab. so hurry in before new create your own ultimate feast ends.

>> tucker: democratting leaders down played the odds they will try to impeach the president. i will never happen. you are being paranoid! that's what they said before the election. turns out, what we knew all along is true. they may not in the end be able to contain their party's own base. talib newly elected congresswoman from michigan. at thursday night event hosted by moveon.org, she delivered a vulgar promise about what her party would accomplish this year. watch this. >> when your son looks at you and said mama, look, you won. bullies don't win. i said, they don't. we're going to go in there and [bleep] >> tucker: impressive. the amazing thing is the moveon.org was founded -- i remember when this happened -- to oppose impeachment of bill clinton 20 years ago. huh. interesting. times change. lisa booth is following the story and joins us tonight.

hey, lisa. >> there is a little bit of irony. she said this at a moveon.org event. obviously started to encourage congress to censure and move on. she does not want to do that with president trump. irony there. this is not the first time she called for president trump's impeachment as well. this is something she fully believes in. >> tucker: it's interesting that a group like moveon.org which started with some principle behind it is completely dishonest without any principles at all. whatever it takes to achieve power we're for. does anyone say that? >> they don't. we are only in the first -- this is the first week, not even a full week of the 116th congress. this is what happened this week. you have comments from talib. jonathan, compared president trump to hitler. another member of congress introduce legislation to abolish the electoral college.

another one that brought forth articles of impeachment. it's been a banner week for democrats not even the first full week in congress. this is what we are facing for next two years. buckle up. >> tucker: hank johnson from atlanta, the democrat from atlanta said in a hearing he worried guam the island might capsize, flip over if too many american troops were placed on one end of it. did guam capsize? did you know? >> i did ceremony and they did not. not. -- i did some research and it did not. >> tucker: not all fears come true. >> foreshadowing was off there. >> tucker: i kind of like hank johnson. i can't help myself. great to see you. >> you, too. bye. >> tucker: we often hear people say donald trump driven the american left crazy. that is a talking point obviously. but also increasingly true. not just figuratively crazy, meaning zany or eccentric or

red in the face mad. but actually crazy. delusional, needs help, dangerous to self and others. this is a guy called donnie deutsche. reading aloud from a dream journey. watch he is completely serious. >> this is all that donald has left. this is not a wall. it's let's keep america white again. something that talks the 3789, 40, 41% base that says the black man, jewish man, banker man coming to take your life. you are not in the position you are in because of you, it's because of everything else. that is all he has left. >> take your wife? bizarre. what does it mean? who knows. easier to interpret is rick wilson. he has held just enough low level political jobs that cable television producers build him as a republican strategist. wilson seems to spend most of

his life opining opining in a st bask that the other channel specializes in. he is often shouting the loudest. what makes wilson notable like so many on the left he moved on from hating trump to hate people who voted for trump, which is to say a lot of the country. this is wilson last night on cnn. >> the wall has always been a con for donald trump's credulous, rude, tin-tooth base. it's always been a scam. it's always been a lie. nothing about the wall has ever been real. donald trump knows it. it seems to work with his base. because they believe it over and over again that nothing will stop the brown horde except the wall. >> tucker: imagine mocking people who can't afford to fix their teeth. there are a lot of people who did vote for trump and hope he

would care about them or not rub their faces in the poverty. what a cruel or awful thing to say. does it occur to him that maybe people lose their teeth because of cheaper dental care? no. it's easier to make fun of them and get rich doing it, something that wilson specializes in. >> the picture of the cruelty of the administration is deliberate. they want anyone darker than a latte deported. >> so not only are the poor toothless americans ugly, they are racist now, too. they are bad people. it's okay not to care about them. they have die young of diabetes and overdoses and we can feel good about it. we can secure the knowledge that dummy with the bad teeth deserve everything they get. they are immoral. unlike rick wilson. hanson is a fellow at the

hoover institution and he joins us tonight. professor, thank you for coming on. i keep noticing the phenomenal where the farther behind middle america, rural america falls, the longer, you know, the death rate continues to rise. the life expectancy is expected to fall. the more the people in charge hate rural america, they hate the people who are suffering the most. why is that? >> i don't know. i'm speaking from rural america and i can tell you that it's phenomenal when you see concrete evidence and the empirical fashion or when you have the 3% annual g.d.p. growth or the record low peacetime unemployment or 300,000 jobs created in a year. moral act, tucker. latino population, i live in a community that is 90% latino. at the record lows. you can see it. people are work and they have more disposable income. rather than fixate on that or

critique it, we get back to not only is trump a nazi, both of the clip that the speakers called trump and supporters in the past nazi like, but this is an attack on people. i thought that was the purpose of the politically correct movement. you don't stereotype an individual demonizing an entire group. we have to remember this is not new, tucker. all wilson was doing is rechanneling us think his name was caputo a political reporter, three or four months ago that went to a rally to say one person had more teeth than everybody in the rally. you remember peter strozk saying he went to a southern virginia walmart and could smell the trump reporter. there is another f.b.i. reporter that said the trump reporters were p.o.s. pieces of blank. this is the underbelly of the deplorables, the irredeemable and klingers that obama and clinton used.

it's ironic because they are very elite themselves. they think that by making fun of the poor white and mostly poor white working class people, that earns them their own exemption of their own people. and they believe they are exemption because they have the victim status and they can say whatever they want. it's a sad commentary when the entire political correct movement was designed to not use offensive speech and stair yestype people. turns out to be nothing to do with the principle but power all along. >> tucker: you are a historian. have you ever seen revolution aimed at the people below? about revolutions from below trying to take power from the people in charge? this this is like people in charge suppressing the people that don't have power. >> yeah. i think what we have, we have

a versi aristocracy. they worry that people are getting restless. we saw this in france. i think they understand whatever they were doing, that was a devotion to the globalization. optional wars overseas, stagnant economy. the green initiative that was hurting people in the middle. a lot of people were hurt by it. we created two americas. on the winning coast and they had to develop some type of reason to explain why people in the middle were not doing well. rather than saying the jobs were outsourced or we were offshoring or neglecting the manufacturing they came up with a self-fulfilling prophecy. they don't have teeth. they stink. uneducated. worry about the manhood. that explains, you know, "a" to "z" why they are not doing as well as people in malibu or the upper west side. people are sick of it. they're hypocrites.

rick wilson went around in 2012 in a red pickup and bragged he carried a knife and he was going to connect with the real people and help mitt romney get over the isolation on wall street. whatever if it paid better they would do something else. if barack obama wanted to build a wall and he did at one time at did hillary clinton they would say the wall is the greatest thing since sliced bread. it's political prostitution. it's sad because we have a revolutionary economic and the foreign policy cycle going on that is helping millions of people. if they don't like. criticize it on the principle. talk about the debt. >> tucker: stop attacking american citizens. totally fine to attack politicians including trump by the way. but when you turn around and attack tens of millions of your own countrymen, something is wrong. i think. thank you. >> i think so, too. >> tucker: great to see you. >> thank you. >> tucker: bernie sanders

could run for president once again. he may. but now the left is mounting a #metoo campaign against him. is it fair? is there some other reason they are doing that? after the break we explain. after walking six miles at an amusement park, bill's back needed a vacation from his vacation. so he stepped on the dr. scholl's kiosk. it recommends our best custom fit orthotic to relieve foot, knee, or lower back pain so you can move more. dr. scholl's. born to move.

>> tucker: no secret cities are the economic hub of america now. 150 years ago young people

looking for opportunity settled the frontier. now they go to big cities, new york, san francisco, boston and walk. in fact, those four cities accounted for the majority of the places last year graduating class at harvard went. why? that is where the jobs are. rural counties are shrinking. so that is a success for the cities. correct? but there is another side to it. cities may have the jobs for young people but they don't offer the life that america used to give children. homes are much more expensive. public schools are often awful. almost always awful. if the jobs pay more it's not enough to offset rising cost of healthcare and servicing student loans. as a result of this, dog dramatic and not often -- something dramatic and not often noted happening in the american cities. even though that is where the young people live, nobody in the cities is having children. birthrates are falling everywhere in america with the most dramatic drop by far has been in the urban areas. according to the c.d.c., from 2007-2017, birthrates in major cities fell by almost 20%.

at this point the city of san francisco has more pet dogs than it has children. if this comes, if the trend -- if this continues, if the trend purr cysts it doesn't matter how many jobs it has. if they can't reproduce itself it's failed. the cities are failing by the most basic measure. no one is paying attention. we are, though. bernie sanders may run for president again this year. but before the campaign can begin the media target him over the deeds he apparently committed in 2016. not policy decisions made. but #metoo matters. series of the "new york times" reports accuses the sanders campaign of having a toxic sexist atmosphere where the women were routinely mistreated without consequences. asked about this recently, sanders said he didn't know. he was busy trying to become president. >> i am not going to sit here and tell you that we did everything right in terms of

human resources, in terms of addressing the needs i'm hearing now that women felt disrespected, that there was sexual harassment and not dealt with as effectively as possible. >> you seem to say that you did not know at the time about the allegations. is that correct? >> yes. i was a little bit busy running around the country trying to make the case. >> tucker: podcast host and is joining us tonight. thank you for coming on. >> thank you. >> tucker: i'm not sure what to make of this. one hand there is an irony story that the progressive campaign had in an environment that women felt threatened by. on the other hand you have to wonder are the stories plants from another democratic campaign? what do you think this is? >> i'm not sure about that. i think this is a sad situation. apparently there are campaign workers who have been bringing this to the attention of bernie sanders and those around him since 2017. according to them, this is the first time that they have

heard from bernie sanders, actually acknowledging that this was a problem. so i don't think it is exclusive to his campaign. we know it's not exclusive to his campaign. but there is a special irony in someone like bernie sanders saying i'm really sorry. i was too busy to worry about harassment when he just very recently made impassioned ply to the president, or to make sure we didn't confirm kavanaugh because he wasn't a choir boy. we had to believe all women. it doesn't seem like he has the same consideration for the women on his staff. >> tucker: what kind of answer is that in 2019? when exquisite sensitivity is required to say you know, i was busy. i had other priorities. are you allowed to say that, particularly if you're a progressive standard bearer like bernie sanders? i was busy. is that adequate? >> certainly not. certainly not if you make accusations against someone else he has.

this is a generalization we see from many progressives that the #metoo movement is more of a conservative problem, that we are the ones perpetuating the toxic masculinity and the pateryiar i can and it doesn't seem -- patriarchy and it doesn't seem to be true. i hope he will be held accountable. >> if you go into a policy debate assuming you a good person you wind up excusing your crappy behavior. i never assume i'm a good person. i just want to get to the right answer. and the person who ran the "new york times" for a whale and has a -- for a while and has a new book out and recounts a moment that the publisher of the paper wrote a letter of apology to the fascist government of china after the "new york times" written a story about corruption in china. there is no indication and no indication that the story that the paper wrote was false. the problem was it was it offended powerful leaders in china. so in the letter, the "times"

apologized for the perception that the story created about the hell hole. i don't know what to say about this. i don't want to believe this is true. but if this turns out to be the case that the publisher of the "new york times" apologized to the fascist government of china for being rude, is there anything more craven than that? anything that contravenes the basic tenet of journalism than that? >> if it is true and she alleges that it is the publisher was embarrassed outed by her that he had written the letter all by apologizing because he wanted to keep the site open in china. the "new york times" is still been ad in china. he wanted -- it's still been ad in -- banned in china. this is that people here say president trump is shutting down a free press. but you can't simultaneously say that and then --

>> we lost her. she was on a roll. she was absolutely right. you have to wonder if that story is true, why didn't the times report on it at the time? by the way, i think around the time this happened the kid at the media reporter at cnn was the media reporter at the "new york times." did he report on that? i don't remember. you are back. why didn't the "new york times" report on this? if the editor knew that the publisher was sucking up to this totalitarian government in paper, i never saw a mention of that in the paper pages. did you? >> right. we don't know. we have also seen that abe -- abramson said they are passionately anti-trump. so they are not able to take on the self-awareness. if they are the stringent reporters and the journalists fighting for the facts then they should own the misdeed of

apparently the one publisher to acquiesce censorship. >> tucker: the paper is a joke. i wish that weren't the case. there are smart people there but in general it's garbage. it's sad. hacked by china mid-segment. thank you for coming on. >> that's what it was. must have been. >> tucker: appreciate it. >> thank you. >> tucker: well, you remember parkland deputy scott peterson? he did nothing to stop mass shooter nikolas cruz. he hid outside. the last to keep the massive mention. over $100,000 a year in taxpayer money for life anyway. why did that happen? we will tell you after the break.

>> tucker: one of the most

dreadful and the frustrating parts of the horrific school shooting that took place in parkland, florida, was the role played by the police deputy called scott peterson. peterson was armed and right on the scene but because of cowardice he stayed where he was and he didn't go to the scene. he was not fired. he now draws over $100,000 a year in pension. now we have a hint to why. correspondent matt flynn, fox's expert on parkland and he covered it extensively for us last year. and joins us tonight. good to see you. >> this week the stoneman douglas commission released scathing 450-page report. investigators on the commission interviewed hundreds of people and pored over massive amount of evidence to determine that the school resource officer scott peterson's response was, "abysmal." and that law enforcement's response overall was a failure. and that the massacre would not have happened if the

shooter nikolas cruz's mental health issues were adequately addressed. also this week, the latest in the series of reports questioning how disgraced parkland school resource officer scott peterson was able to retire with full benefit, six-figure salary even though he was caught on tape standing by outside. instead of rushing in the parkland school to stop the shooter from murdering more students. 2014 school incident report filed by the school resource officer scott peterson might hold the answer. the report indicates that peterson's boss, broward county sheriff scott israel had a son a student at stoneman douglas. according to the incident report assisted in the battery and perhaps sexual assault against a fellow student. peterson called for the sheriff's son to be suspended instead of referring him for criminal prosecution. perhaps a sheriff that sheriff scott israel never forgot. parents consulted said they were okay without the law enforcement action because they felt it would cause trauma to their son.

the office confirmed it received our request for a comment and we did not hear back. next week, governor elect ron desantis will be sworn into office and he has already indicated he is considering suspending sheriff scott israel. tucker? >> tucker: long overdue. matt flynn, thank you very much. jeff bales the president of the broward county sheriff deputies association. thank you for coming on. >> thank you. >> tucker: the last part of matt's report also corroborated by a long piece this morning, great piece in the real clear politics to suggest that there is at least an appearance of quid pro quo between sheriff israel and this deputy peterson. it's corrupt if true. do you believe that is what happened? >> there is absolutely the appearance that there was inproprieties of how the case was handled. all day, every day. the report made is absolutely a felony that is alleged to have happened to that victim. deputy peterson took the

report, which he should have and he did complete offense report. but in the body of the report, he described the felony as a misdemeanor to justify it to fit under the promise program to allow the sheriff's son to skate any type criminal prosecution or severe punishment. and it was allowed to be referred to the promise program where he was issued three-day school suspension instead of a felony on his record, which is what should have been the outcome of the case. >> tucker: peterson's behavior, you know, whatever the truth of what we are talking about, peterson's behavior on the scene of the shooting that day is especially infuriating to the law enforcement officers i know personally because it's such a perversion of the duty of a law enforcement officer, which is to protect the public with courage if necessary. do you think it's odd he wasn't fired for that? >> tucker, what we see from within the broward sheriff's office is completely different from what the average person on the outside sees looking

into our office. we are the employees realize there are numerous problems within the sheriff office that encourage bad behavior by the command staff. and encourage behavior by the people inside the school, juveniles getting away with arrest. it seems like the deputies are punished more for the actions than what the criminals get through the juvenile justice system. this is why we made recommendations to the governor we need to get tough on juvenile crime. in theory, the promise program keeps kids out of prison. but we are not arresting juveniles or showing them there are consequences for the action. we create a popline that there are no consequences for the actions. >> tucker: what about the other kids that want to learn something and go to college? what is their experience like going to school with kids out of control? >> those are the true victims

in this. you have a small percentage of the kids that go to school on a daily basis disrupt the school system. good teachers cannot teach in a classroom because they are constantly spending 90% of the time with 3% of the population of the school. if they cannot refer kids to the law enforcement, because they are forbidden to tell police officers on campus if there is a crime or not. the school administrator will take a decision whether to make a police officer. if they do they take at it step further where each child allowed four criminal offenses per school year before we are allowed as the deputies to act on reasonable suspension and probable cause. that is the problem with the school system today. we have the school administrators dictating to the deputies, law enforcement officers what reasonable suspension and the probable cause is. we need to remove politics out of the law enforcement. let the law enforcement personnel do their job.

to keep your kids safe. otherwise we will see this again and again and again. >> tucker: i suspect scott israel is not helping. great to see you. i appreciate that. >> thank you. >> tucker: the america borders are open tonight. its middle class in decline. the military greatly overstretched. meanwhile, the media are on top of it. they are asking nancy pelosi which ice cream she prefers. we have the tape. you'll want to stay for it. ...once a day... ...with nutrients that support 6 vital functions... ...and one healthy you. that's the power of one a day.

>> tucker: well, there isn't just one drug crisis going on in america at the moment. there is one you read about. drugover doses mostly by -- drug overdoses mostly be opioid. fentanyl plays a big part. they have been rising for years and kill more every year than the entire vietnam war did over a decade. there is that. it's horrible and it need more attention. but there is another drug crisis going on. may not be as deadly but worrying and no one mentions it. at this moment, more than one in six american adults is on some kind of psychiatric drug. among americans over the age of 12, one in eight take antidepressants. 65% increase compared to 1999. 20 years ago. among women, 16.5% are now on antidepressants. one in every six women in america is now taking a pill just to cope with feeling miserable. what is going on?

after anti-depresssant the most common drugs are. anxiety medication like xanax. they're abusive. try to get off one of the ben.o drugs, you can die from withdrawal. people do. frenzy for the brain pills is hitting kids as well. almost 10% of all american children diagnosed with something called adhd by the age of 17. half of the kids, fully half. one in 20 nationally take medication for it and some of the drugs are powerful. more than we realize. one of the most famous drugs is adderall. an addictive amphetamine. banned in japan. rarely prescribed the europe. but in america millions receive diagnosis and received it. since it can improve focus there is an upside. adderall is routinely abused by students to help with academic performance and adults for demanding jobs. forget coffee in the morning.

many people take amphetamines to service the market. is it making the country happier or making the country more sane? of course not. the proof is in the numbers. suicide rate is highest it has been in half a century and still climbing. among those who haven't taken their own lives self-reported happiness is lower than it was a decade ago. this is particularly true in our country. this is not something happening worldwide. they looked at the antidepressant use in the 25 wealthy countries and the u.s. was far ahead of every other except for iceland. they compared the other children with german and dutch kids. american children take three times psychotrophic drugs to fight adhd and twice as many antipsychotic drugs. we don't have data for every country worldwide but it seems possible that american children and adults are the most medicated group in the world. why is this happening and is

the country doing anything about it? to the extent that the country is we look for a new drug to fix problems. legalizing marijuana is very popular. a lot of republicans is behind it. the downside is suppress. they are happy about the tax benefit. there may be medical benefits to marijuana. there may be. probably are. but there are downsides. once it's illegalized everywhere there will be another drug that is touted as the fix. like micro dosing for l.s.d. at some point we begin to wonder is it america's brains sick or something bigger going on. like a problem with the society. everywhere you look things to make people happy are vanishing. miles per hours have fewer close friends, getting married less, fewer children, some are having no children because they can't afford it in a lot of cases. the families are smaller and they live farther away. confidence of government decline something people feel like they look control over the lives.

demographic change means many americans don't recognize where they grew up. their own towns are unrecognizable. they can't relate to the neighbors and sometimes they can't recognize the language. in real life people worry about this. and massive obesity ruining public health and causing misery as well. a lot of stuff going on. but the point is instead of addressing the crisis politicians focus on the economic growth rather than the problems that caused all of this in first place. income doubled more than 40 years ago but are we better off? probably not. maybe we should stop and think about that for a minute. as we said, there is a lot going on in america. so time to ask serious questions of america's leaders, maybe the new speaker of the house. cnn had a chance to talk to nancy pelosi yesterday. what did they ask? about her ice cream choices. >> she attributes her boundless energy to italian genes. it's not a balanced diet. dark chocolate and ice cream.

chicaros her favorite since she was a little girl. >> not the chocolate chip. the chocolate. i like my chocolate unadulterated. >> that was fascinating. she likes her chocolate undull rated. i didn't know -- unadulterated. >> no white chocolate or milk chocolate. dark chocolate, period. >> a former secret service agent and author of "spay gate, the attempted sabotage of donald trump." dan bongino you have talked a lot about the press hostility toward trump. i'm much less bothered by that than i am by the fawning suck-uppery we just watched. if the president was hostile to everybody in power i'd be satisfied. but to see them suck up to someone who is third in line in esecession in the country, one of the most powerful people in the world and ask about ice cream at a time like this, what is that? >> remember the beto o'rourke phenomenal in texas. the left wing media type walk

with them through the rallies and said you are a rock star! you are a rock star! listen, you are a journalist. you are supposed to report on him, not fawn over him. might as well asked pelosi for an autograph after that. a selfie on instagram. what is funny, you are right. i don't care about the soft lifestyle pieces happen all the time. but the problem is when they happen on donald trump it's always painted to paint him as transactionm. and greedy and self-centered. perfect example. talk ice cream. talk turkey and ice cream now. remember the ice cream story with trump? trump gets two scoops of ice cream and everybody else at the table when he is around gets one. this is one of the dumbest stories. we were all dumber for having heard it. similar story as a lifestyle story about trump meant to paint him as a self-centered jerk. but it's probably not accurate. it's stupid. >> tucker: i couldn't help it. we called over to the weird kid at cnn who does the media

criticism. and we asked the simple question. his puppet. we asked an obvious question. is this journalist? he didn't get back to us. but why not again, if you are going to be hostile to one side, why not say we have a permanently hostile posture toward people in power. we'll grill all of them. wouldn't you feel like you had integrity? >> i know what you are talking about. he watches fox news all day. i want to thank you for watching. he always tweets about it. he tweets when i'm on, too. that is terrific. i know you get this so i don't want to sound -- i hope you didn't take it as condescending at all. but these are people who have grown up in the left wing academia and they surrounded themselves with the left wing media bubble type. i gently don't think that they think any of this is unusual at all. like nancy pelosi is a good person just because she is. we have been indoctrinated

around the liberal nonsense that it is the default position. trump is the automatic skelator to he-man because we're told the he-man is the good guy the whole time. so they don't think it's unusual. they think nancy pelosi, this is great. chocolate ice cream story. this is wonderful. we should all do this professionally to take her look good. this is what we are supposed to do. >> tucker: i keep wondering if these are people who are the short-term horlyson. not long-term thinkers. most in the media to be honest. at some point trump will be gone. presidencies don't last forever. we'll have another president at some time. what about the press? is anybody ever going to trust the "washington post" again? i mean it's not a real newspaper anymore. what are they going to do when this is over? >> that is a good point. you say trust them again. i don't know if you trusted them recently. in the last two decades we have seen a general dem in addition of the credibility -- demunition among the credibility. i wondered about the start, in the last line of work i travel with the media and they act in

the acting environment. media people can't even do journalism. why do we take their opinion on economic, healthcare, economic, education policy. what makes them an expert? i'm not sure. this is a serious question. in anyone in the media wants to tweet to me. >> tucker: you are right. >> i'm wondering. >> tucker: let me ask you quick. we are almost out of time. we did a segment. rick wilson and i never met him, and he was attacking trump supporters for not having good dental work. do you know this guy? >> i have the unfortunate displeasure of interacting with him often on twitter. tier one level loser. i know that is not the most elegant way to say it. but he is known to attack people. he made a target of me in the past. >> tucker: attack people but don't attack the poor people for having bad teeth. one of the meanest things i have seen and it enraged me. >> he was on the wrong side of the trump prediction. >> tucker: whatever. that's okay. dan bongino, have the best

weekend. >> thank you. >> tucker: thank you. we're done for the week. sadly wish we could keep going. we'll be back monday at 8:00, the show that is sworn enemy of the pom'ty, smugness and group think. sean hannity is next. >> welcome to "hannity." spitting out of control. beyond even my predictions. calls for impeachment. vulgarity raids. plans for a being 00% tax hike. a bill to radical alter the constitution. it's only day 2 of the demic controlled, hate trump, howls of representatives. the wheels are coming off. it's not a pretty picture. as you watch tonight, be sure to