>> ed: serious stuff. >> the american people don't know what bad shape we are. in it will take time to dig us out of this hole. >> ed: that is the story this thursday night. see you back here tomorrow night at 7:00. tucker is up next. ♪ ♪ >> tucker: good evening, and welcome to "tucker carlson tonight." got to be honest not many of us in the press are looking forward to the 2020 democratic primary. just hours ago it felt like it was going to be an exhausting miserable affair. the current field is a mixture of fossils, extremists and power hungry cynics willing to say anything and hurt anybody to get a hold on the white house. things have changed. a new candidate has entered the race a man untethered from the old ways. possibly even from the conventional restrictions of physics, time and space. more a spiritual force than a temporal leader. more a poet than a politician. ladies and gentlemen, the author of our redemption,

beto o'rourke. >> beto o'rourke the social media phenom. >> despite his loss to ted cruz, the rock and roll loving 46-year-old caught the nation's attention. ♪ his offbeat social media posts appealing to a younger generation. even taking a skateboarding at what a burger. his senate candidacy winning the endorsement of celebrities like beyonce. >> tucker: beto loves rock and roll says gma. he is not like everyone else. he doesn't do stuffy speeches or policy programs. he is not going to bore you with entitlement projections or some scary stuff about the korean peninsula. beto has a skateboard and wears nirvana t-shirts his vision for this country is 1995. s that the year he was living way uptown walk up and working as dude on 112th street with. so stickest bud in manhattan,indica a good time.

beto wants to bring us back to that time and the press is totally on board. >> i saw him for the first time a month ago when he sat down with oprah and me and the rest of the people in the audience thought wow, this guy has this dynamic, positive energy. >> yeah. he has that raw talent. is he very kind of obama-esque indeed. >> women voted for him in the suburbs of houston who hadn't voted democrat for had beto crush going on. >> he has that magic his son is named ulis cease. >> gleam in his eye. evan smith in the texas tribune seeing him like a jesus christ super star seeing this guy in front of people. he has that celebrity ora about him and in that moment he was owning that. >> you heard it beto has that magic dust oh, yeah he does at least an 8 ball. the guy on 112th street has more if you need it. great hair, too. beat that combo. actual voting doesn't begin for months but beto is already america's spiritual president. and by the way that's a much

cleaner way to run for office. real elections the ones with voters sometimes end like this. >> so we have quite a bit of big news to report. we can call now that the texas race will go to ted cruz, the incumbent republican. >> the ted cruz win over beto o'rourke significant. >> tucker: well, that election was a bummer. so beto split soon after on a solo road trip. it was a whole me and you and a dog named boo kind of thing. the sort of trip that steinbeck would have taken, a hum of the engine and black rib of the open road time to feed the soul also a time to stage a series of publicity shots for snapchat and instagram blogging the whole thing timeless stuff all-american redemption story. beto came back a better man. he understood the running for president thing was not for him. >> is there a scenario where you run for president in 2020 or beyond? >> no.

>> no? >> no. >> unequivocally you will never run for president. >> no punto, no period. >> tucker: no punto where people are authentic and speak various languages at once. >> yes i am hiring a staff as soon as i can find billionaires. for now i will lie about my plans. that's exactly what beto did. here we are in the age of beto. what's the plan, man? what are we doing? what's next? what's next beto says is understanding that the things that we think of as terrifying threats to the country are actually perfectly cool. like more than 20 million people using fake identities to live illegally inside the united states. that's not a problem. that's the best, man. >> all of us, wherever you live can acknowledge if immigration is a problem it's the best possible problem for this country to have. >> tucker: yeah, it's the best problem.

hard to think of a better problem. illegal immigration is such a cool problem to have, we ought to have more. let's knock down the border wall, dude. >> if you could, would you take the wall down now here. >> yes. >> like you have a wall. >> absolutely. >> knock it down. >> i would take the wall down. >> do you think if there is a referendum here on this city that would pass? >> i do. >> tucker: yeah. it's fine. but that's not to say beto doesn't see problems on the horizon. he does. and when he does, his dough brown eyes cloud a little and he stares off in the distance to consider holistic solution just like james dean would have done if he would lived to be beto's age and could skateboard. global warming could make us goics ticket like the dinosaurs in the museum, dead forever. >> some will criticize the neil for being too bold or being unmanageable. i will tell you what i haven't seen anything better that addresses the singular crisis that we face, a crisis that could, as its

worse lead to extinction. >> tucker: extinction, that's what beto is fighting against. what else is he for? that's a fair question but honestly it's not really clear. we checked his campaign website there is a picture that says beto for america in english the won in spanish says beto for all. they couldn't find any actual policies even about fighting extinction we did find a sweet beto tote bag just 30 bucks you don't have to pledge to npr to get it although you probably have. you should get it it's awesome. chris joins us tonight. rather than ask you the conventional political questions about who is up or down in the race. i want to do a very quick quiz because it's thursday and it's called stoned tenth grader or beto. i will read you a couple of quick quotes. stoned tenth grader or beto. i'm quoting now. i'm going to take my sweater off and it's not because he asked about marijuana. who said that? >> i'm going to go with beto on that. >> tucker: there is a reach you won jeopardy.

yeah. here is the second. when i was 6 and 7 years old i didn't know i wasn't a mexican. >> i am going to go with beto on that one, too. >> tucker: man. okay. you are right on that again. okay. here's the last one. and i'm quoting. i don't know if it's a speech or not, but it felt amazing. because every word was pulled out of me like by some greater force which was just the people there. everything that i said i was like watching myself being like how am i saying this stuff? where is this coming from? stoned tenth grader or beto. >> can i combine the two and maked it a stoned 6-year-old? >> tucker: yes, you can exactly. [laughter] >> tucker: that's so good. so what is -- so obviously this is a campaign microtargetted at morning shows on the other channels. i mean, i get that to the

media class. but who else might be taken by this candidacy? >> well, he has all the qualities as you described there to be dj on an mtv show or to win the bachelor and get a rose. and win the date or whatever it is they win on those shows. but now, the process we have instead of winning a rose and getting a date at the end, you get the white house. that's whether a it is a game show. beto is the hero of the morning shows he was called a rock star at least twice. i was only watching for a little while on cnn this morning. rock star. they will couldn't be more excited they were giddy and didn't bring up anything. there was nothing discouraging or critical that you can say of beto. he is nearly perfect. is he going to prevent the secular apalm lips which looms large in everyone's mind. i know we have 12 years. have you noticed we have a 12-year countdown clock but the countdown clock never. they will keep using it for years and years. six years from now we will still have 12 years and

that's their timeline for saving us from ourselves from the dreaded secular apocalypse. today some of the audio i played of him today talking about countries where people now live which will soon be under water and be uninhabitable and hundreds of millions of refugees are going to flood to us and we better take them in and learn their languages and do whatever. barack obama claimed he would slow the rise of the oceans. i think that beto's claims are much more grandiose than obama's. >> tucker: can i ask you a non-beto i just cannot resist since you have been in the media so long and you know it so well. linguists have shown that the use of cliches is a marker for low iq. dumb people speak entirely in cliches. what does it tell youd that the every political reporter uses the same cliche every four years he is a rock star? is there no original language allowed in political coverage whatever. >> more and more the candidates are using the same bumper sticker language and keep it brief. keep it to the point. keep it simple, stupid. hope and change.

this, i have got -- today there was no hope and change. it was all horror and apocalypse and we are all going to die. it was the most uninspiring and uninspired message i had ever heard from a presidential candidate in the united states and their first day running. it was grim and glum and you know, the woman had you on a couple nights ago who doesn't want to have children, that's because she was listening to people like beto o'rourke. and we're all going to die. it's utterly apocalyptic. if that's an inspiring message for the democratic party in 2020. hello president trump second term. >> tucker: so i got to make a correction. apparently we just got a call in the control room we made a mistake the quote when i was 6 or 7 i didn't know that i wasn't a mexican is not from beto it was from beto's dad and not from a stoned tenth grader either. i just heard that in my ear so i would like to apologize and correct. >> beto's father was a big -- he has changed party beto's father. he is now a republican apparently. he did campaign for jesse jackson for president

repeatedly. and his father used to be maybe he put down the bong too. i don't know. i read at least that you can't believe everything you read that he has come over to the bright side. >> tucker: interesting. we have to drug test at some point for candidates. chris plant, nice to see you. >> thanks, tucker. >> tucker: a lawyer and form are advisor to president obama's campaign david tafuri he joins us tonight to assess this newest candidate to the primary field. >> hi, tucker. >> tucker: if you could summarize the candidacy of broker. how would you? >> on behalf of the republicans it's fear. you just spent 10 minutes being sarcastic of beto o'rourke as did chris. you are pretty funny. came up with good attacks on him. some of the attacks that the republican also use. >> tucker: easy. >> there is a super pac in iowa fund for growth that's already put up ads against beto. they started last week before he even declared for president. that's because republicans are scare of him as a candidate.

why are they scared? number one reason is because he ran for senate in texas which is a red state. >> tucker: okay, can i pause really quick and say if republicans are afraid of him that means that he is harmless. i mean, republicans also thought jeb bush was going to be the nominee. republican con sebaaliconsensusr right. that's not a good marker. why sea good candidate he lost senate race. >> he almost won a super red state texas. that means can he bring over independent voters to vote for him. no other candidate on the democratic side has been able to show that they can do that in a red state statewide. he also is a prey dij just fundraiser. he raised $70 million for his senate campaign. that's a record no. other candidate on either side of the aisle has ever raised that much money. that makes him a formidable candidate. he doesn't have a. >> tucker: he has the billionaire class behind him. okay. >> he doesn't have a full platform of issues yet. >> tucker: he has a tote bag. and some talk about

extinction but he doesn't have really a platform at all. why would you announce for president before coming up with maybe answers to some of the basic questions where the country should go? >> it's a good question strength and weakness for him. obviously the weakness is he doesn't have a full platform of things can he run on. though he was a congressman for six years and he did vote on lots of different legislation. but, he has to now build his platform but it can be purpose-built for 2000 20 aimed at the regional medical center. is he a moderate democrat. is he distinguish himself from the left wing part of the party. is he going to distinguish himself from bernie sanders and from elizabeth warren and is he going to go on that track. >> no, you are supposed to be defending him and now you are attacking him. you just said he would build his platform purpose built for this election. in other words, he would be whatever he thinks he needs to be he is totally as hollow as he seems. >> that's not what i'm saying. >> tucker: if he believes in something tell us what it. >> one of the reasons he is

appealing people view him as genuine that's born out in the senate campaign in texas and polling as well. is he going to build an agenda. it's going to be consistent with his own values what i'm saying is he is not on the record on lots of different issues. so he can build in a way that's consistent with his own values but tracks towards the middle of america and shows a serious contrast with president trumps who poll numbers are still very low, historically low. >> tucker: let me ask you really, really quick, i think a democrat has a shot for sure. beto specifically very quick he on camera said that we should tear down the border barriers that separate the united states and mexico. are you for that. >> he did not say that. we should tear down the wall in el paso where is he from because actually the crime rate went up in el paso after they built the wall. that's a fact. >> tucker: the city on the other side. the city on the other side is one of the most dangerous places in the world el paso. >> but not el paso. >> tucker: there is a wall between them.

you think we should tear down the border wall between el paso and juarez? >> i don't. i do not think we should tear down the wall. >> tucker: that's insane actually. >> immigration is going to be an important issue for beto. what he is going to have to be able to show because is he from a border town and he is from a border state and he has been in local government and in congress. that he knows how to deal with the issue of immigration. he certainly cannot. >> tucker: not dealing with it. >> he can't be for open borders because america is not for open borders. >> tucker: he is. >> he can come up with reasonable solutions and compromises that all of america would support. >> tucker: tear down the wall. >> protect our country and path to legalization for some people like tps and dreamers. >> tucker: some would say tearing down the wall between el paso and juarez you don't support it. >> i don't support it i agree. >> tucker: thank you,. >> thank you, tucker. >> tucker: newly released transcripts from peter strzok reveal the scope of

the fbi's insurance policies. famous insurance policy which, of course, was the russia investigation. we have details on that after the break. ♪ ♪ want more from your entertainment experience?

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>> you republican doug collins today released a transcript of disgraced fbi agent peter strzok's testimony before the congress. the transcript shed some light on his handling of the investigation into hillary clinton's email server as well as his now famous text message to his girlfriend lisa page assuring her that the fbi had a quote insurance policy against candidate donald trump. fox washington correspondent kristin fisher has been on this story and has more for us tonight. >> hey, tucker there are several revelations in the transcript released today from peter truck's closed door testimony. perhaps the biggest is despite all of those anti-trump text messages strzok told the committee that special counsel robert mueller never once pressed him on political bias. the transcript also reveals that the justice department essentially cut a deal with hillary clinton's attorneys that laid the ground rules for fbi access to her personal email servers and strzok said part of that deal was that the fbi was not given access to any

emails about the clinton foundation. republican congressman doug collins who released the transcript explains why he did it. >> i believe the american people deserve transparency and what transpired at the highest echelons of the fbi during this at the meltous time at the bureau. >> put out a statement release of the transcript pete at all times discharged his duties honorably, patriotly and without personal varadkar to political opinions. the justice department's own inspector general concluded he did not have confidence that strzok's decision to prioritize the trump investigation over the clinton investigation was from from bias, tucker? >> tucker: kristin fisher for us in washington. thanks very much. a former doj official and trusted voice, we think, on this matter and she joins us tonight. fran ifrancey, thanks for coming on. what's your reaction to this transcript. >> tucker, unfortunately it doesn't surprise me at all i

think anyone who thought that the fbi was making decisions alone without prosecutors from the department of justice doesn't understand how the department of justice works. fbi agents cannot file an arrest warrant. they can't get a complaint. they can't get a fisa warrant for sure. they can't get a search warrant or a grand jury subpoena without a federal prosecutor. and they certainly can't go to grand jury and get an indictment. so they needed federal prosecutors to agree to prosecute. >> tell me what we know about the insurance policy that seems like the most ominous phrase to come out of all of the declassified and unethed documents in the last two years. and nobody has ever explained sufficiently what they were talking about. >> no. they really haven't, tucker. it's actually sad when you see a career man like peter strzok coming out and saying through his attorney that he was a patriot and free from bias when it appears very

clear that he had a preference in the presidential election and his text messages with lisa page show that he was acting on that bias. i just don't know how you can argue otherwise. partisans certainly do. people with a brain certainly can't. and it looks clear to me that they were putting their thumb on the election and the insurance policy with this bogus counterintelligence operation that started with nothing and was lies to the fisa court. and we are here two years later still talking about collusion. >> so a functioning government would see this as a threat to people's faith in government itself. and so the power that the doj wields over our lives and will go in there and make absolutely certain that none of this crap remained and that people were fired over it and show the public clean agency. that hasn't happened, why? >> i don't know, tucker. it really really baffles me that the president has not fully declassified

absolutely everything and made everyone give statements about what their moat violations are there are lots of people w we have never heard from. i have no idea hot prosecutors were in the clinton matter or for that matter worked early on the trump investigation and counter intelligence and who sought the fisa warrant. we don't know their names and their moat vases. we don't know why they did it and why they lied to the fisa court. i don't understand why this hasn't been declassified. i hope that soon we have all the answers so everyone can evaluate it. >> tucker: of course. because i mean trump is at the center of the story but the story isn't really about trump. it's about whether can you trust that your government isn't lying to you and trying to hurt you for political reasons. all of us have a right to believe that and we don't. francey headaches. i hope you will stick with us as this story continues. >> thanks, tucker. >> tucker: outrage is spreading tonight after dozens of people were

indicted accused of engaging in a massive scheme to cheat college admissions to game the system. now several colleges are themselves being sued in. this we will have the very latest on it stay tuned. ♪ ♪

tuck stuck over the last 30 years the southern poverty law center has a power force. it has a lot of power and gets it by systematically slap derg those on the left. practice conventional christianity believe in the differences between the sexes and host a show like this one and can you expect the splc to brand you as extremist, hate crimea group. they have gotten rich doing it endowment of $500 million. but even as it called all of its political enemies evil, the splc was and you will not be surprised to hear this operating on a very different standard within their own offices. today, the group abruptly announced the firing of its founder morris disease. the group has not revealed what diaz did.

statement implies behavior was severe and widespread. the spl said not only fired des bring in outside investigation to work of the entire group. a reporter cites internal splc email and says dees was fired for sexual harassment and buckle your seat belt for this one racial bias. despite calling the group the southern poverty law center nothing impoverished at all about his lifestyle. he lived very well probably better than anyone else in the state of alabama. he was 82. he was the splc's highest paid employee and lived in luxurious place on a couple of hundred acres. got rich by frightening grand mothers sending them direct mail and hurting his political opponents. that pays well. this evening dees spoke with a local reporter and denied all wrongdoing. that's not surprising. dees set himself up as arbiter of good and bad. he is by definition a good

person. you disagree with him and you are by definition evil. we will continue to follow this story because we think it tells you a lot. meanwhile the backlash continues tonight after dozens of people caught taking part in elaborate effort to rig the admission process. yesterday a class action lawsuit was brought against 8 colleges by individuals who claim the schools share the blame for the rigged admissions which of course they most likely do. last night we told you this simply example of a wider trend of the rule class looking down on people and gaming a broken system in order to get ahead of them while keeping them out. but no need to take our word for it we have the numbers. 33 parents so far have been indicted in this scandal. we took a closer look at all of them. they are overwhelmingly from the coast. primarily from the state of california. then we took a look at political donation history and it was interesting. of the 33, just over half had made political donations that we were able to find. 11 were democratic donors to barack obama, hillary

clinton, kirsten gillibrand and others. 8 were republican donors. but here's the interesting thing. the politicians they backed mitt romney, bob corker and john ensign, not a single one of these people we could find donated to donald trump's presidential campaign. now of course nobody is obligated to donate to donald trump now or then or to vote for him it goes without saying. there is a huge split within the republican party right now and the side that they found themselves on tells you a lot. this is a class of people that is absolutely and thoroughly satisfied with the status quo. they are happy with how things have gone in america. they don't need poll police politics. they think populist politics are disgusting because they are a threat to them. they derided the middle of the country. clinging to guns and religion. they say they are bitter about the fact they are losers in the modern economy. even as they do that they have been using their power and their connection to make certain that that part of the country stays the losers in this modern economy. they tout diversity as the nation's greatest strength.

they point to all the foreign workers they have hired at rock bottom wages then they made sure their children counted as diverse. while powerless kids in west virginia were either held down as punishment for so-called privilege for living in. so poorest states in the country. in other words they erected a fence around the meritocracy to make sure it would never apply to them. that's the scam. it happens every day. heather mcdonald is a manhattan institute fellow and author of the diversity delusion and she joins us tonight. great to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> tucker: you are a thinker about big trends in american life. what do you think this reveals about this country? >> well, it reveals that college has taken on a grotesquely inflated importance. that it does not deserve. the real scandal is how little learning actually goes on in colleges and, yet, you have parents who are absolutely obsessed to credentialize their kids simply for the status. they don't give a damn about whether their child actually

learns something. it also speaks to the grotesque power of the sports industrial complex within the universities that sports directors get a say over who gets admitted. and it also speaks to the fact that this admissions is a black box. it should be transparent, people should know how it works. this was a scandal waiting to happen because nobody understands how this process works. what i want to say, tucker though, apart from the fact that colleges do not deserve the tuitions they are getting. they do not deserve the role that they are playing in american life because they have utterly betrayed their responsibility to educate and to pass on the civilizational legacy good fortune to have. also not really about white privilege. there is a whole set of preferences going on in colleges. legacy minute the story is being played by the left at least in a way that i don't

think is completely accurate. >> tucker: interesting. so, one thing you said really struck me which is why don't we know the criteria that colleges use to allow young people through the gates onto the path of success in this country? we are paying for these institutions. they are in no sense private. none of them. i think two hillsdale and grove city. everyone else takes federal funds. why shouldn't we know? why do they hide from us how they make these decisions? >> the main reason is because of the size of racial preferences. that's what they don't want anybody to know the fact that if you are applying to harvard being black gets you four times greater chance of being admitted than anybody else. this is much greater than legacy preferences. but, also, they just see themselves as these artists, it would be wonderful to be able to put every admissions officer out of business by going to a purely americratic objective system that would destroy the ability to game the system by allowing people to know

how you get in and going by an objective test. if the left believes that we are so racist they should not want to put this much discretion in the hands of admission officers and go to an objective test. >> that is such a smart point. always great to see you. >> thank you, tucker. >> tucker: well, you would think max boot would be a very grateful man despite having literally zero expertise or experience really in the military or foreign relations. he has somehow considered an expert on both of these. who knows how. he even has his own column in the "the washington post." not worth reading but still it's a column. i guess it pays. but despite all of that max boot is not happy. for one america is still at peace with both iran and russia. that drives him insane. he is mad for mother reason. he complains that people keep using the word neo conservative to describe people like him. he wants that word retired

permanently banished from the language and public discourse. it's an unfair term, he says, even an offensive one. people call him a neocon they are suggesting that he somehow provided ideological justification for the iraq war. they are calling him a clueless warmonger who cease every international incident as an opportunity to launch new wars that other people will die in. they are calling him a person who can't learn from his mistakes and instead wants to repeat them over and over and over until his country has depleted all the prosperity it took two centuries to build. now, you may be thinking at home, wait a minute, all of those things are true about max boot. and, of course now you know wimax boot is so eager to abolish the term neocon it's become a slur. people like max boot are the reason why it's a slur. well, up next a prominent figure in the media is in the news tonight. and we are going to take a very close look at why. it's also time for final exam. can you beat the professionals at remembering these strange and obscure news events that took place

in the last week. lauren blanchard up tonight aiming to ty our all-time record. her challenger raymond owe fende they were able to restore my good name. if you're under attack, i recommend calling reputation defender. and consider joining their groundbreaking campaign to give every american the right to remove old, inaccurate search results by going to righttobeforgotten.org. vo: if you have search results that are wrong or unfair, call reputation defender at 1-877-492-6705.

♪ ♪ >> tucker: oh, it's time now for final exam. your break late in the week where the news professionals

compete against one another to see who has been paying the closest attention to what's going on in the news. after a brief hiatus tonight we are happy to say that fox correspondent lauren blanchard is back to defend her 8 game winning streak. sean spicer and ed henry have are among those buried by blanchard. if she wins she will tie katie pavlich and shannon bream for the single longest winning segment. this week her challenger one of her all time favorites raymond arroyo has a new book out will wilder the amulet of power. so happy to have you tonight. i don't want to come off that high and have you have you suffer at the hands of lauren blanchard who as i know you know is deceptively good at this game. we will see. i know you both know the rules. i am going to read them for the sake of our audience just tuning in. your hands on the buzzers. i ask the questions. the first one to buzz in

gets to answer the question, of course you must wait until i finish asking the question before you answer. you can answer once i acknowledge you by saying your name. every correct answer is worth a single point. each incorrect answer detracts a point from your total cruelly. best of five wins. are you ready? >> yeah. >> we are ready. >> tucker: okay. question one, over on social media, where you shouldn't go but you may anyway, people could not stop talking about a video of a myth romney this week that showed his very unusual method of doing what? >> blowing out. >> tucker: raymond arroyo. >> blowing out candles. >> tucker: i'm not sure if that's right. go to the tape. >> senator mitt romney is being mocked on social media after sharing this video as you can see picking up each individual candle. >> why did he do that. >> i'm sure it's more sanitary. >> one by one. >> it's bizarre. >> tucker: there is a lot of

character revealed on this which we won't unpack tonight. >> tucker: i'm with you on that, raymond, i have to say. we are not going to go farther. this is a game show, not a political -- this next is multiple choice. wait until i finish offering all the options before you weigh in. which famous woman now in her 1990s mad 90 made first insm post a doris day, b betty white or c the queen? >> lauren blanchard? >> it was the queen. >> tucker: the queen in the script does not specify which queen was it the queen? >> queen elizabeth the lady from england just got on instagram. the queen who is 92 years old made her first ever instagram post today. there she is. [laughter] showing off her revenge body. >> qui should clarify queen latifah or queen elizabeth? i want a clarification from

the rules committee. >> tucker: it just says the queen. all right. question three. now, i want you to brace yourself for this question. it is multiple choice and is difficult. vegans have come up with a new way to save animals 3-d printed steaks. it's fake meat comes in the form of a vegetable paste skirted ouskirt squirted out ofa nozzle sounds appealing. which vegetable is used to make cab bulge and s soy. broccoli and green beans or c, rice and sea weed? >> i believe it's the first. >> tucker: raymond arroyo, it's a cabbage and soy; is that your answer? >> yes. >> tucker: is it cabbage and soy to the tape. >> who doesn't love a delicious mouth watering steak like this one? watch it being lovely prepared by a 3-d printer. yeah the chef is basically a fax machine with a nozzle. worse, it's a vegan steak

not made from vegans the ink from a cartridge is made from rice, peas and sea weed. yes, sea weed. scrumptlicious. >> tucker: don't berate yourself in every contestant who faces off against lauren blanchard has moments like this. question four. unbelievable new photograph shows south africa can wildlife photographer getting too close to a subject and winding up in the animal's mouth. what kind of giant beast tried to swallow him? >> tucker: lauren blanchard? >> it was a whale. a big whale. >> tucker: like a jonah situation? >> yes. it was one of those. >> tucker: was it a whale? >> this has to be an unprecedented picture. take a look there, the jaws of a whale and there arms and flippers of a man dangling.

>> a wildlife photographer just his legs showing. >> took less than two seconds and amazingly survived. >> tucker: that's unbelievable lit a fire inside the whale's belly. our judges in new york are calling an audible the final question is now worth two points. >> love it. >> tucker: kind of like a handicap in golf. >> got to give me a chance. i don't want to end up on a tombstone. >> tucker: you would join a long list of worthy opponents. final question a wild video out of australia shows a man pair gliding against the countryside of that continent/country. when he finally hits the ground is he violent a. tacked by what? lauren blanchard? >> kangaroo. >> tucker: kangaroo. would make sense. probably not a koala bear. we will find out. kangaroo is the answer. >> a man spent two hours paragliding across the australian countryside the

real danger came after jonathan bishop landed safely on the ground. >> you can't do anything like you are at the membersy of the animal. >> pushed twice by one of the kangaroos before they both bounced away. >> tucker: lauren blanchard there is not a fact you don't know or viral video you haven't seen not a single piece of minutia of american life you haven't totally internalized raymond there is no shame in being where you are tonight. congratulations. >> not just a head stone. >> tucker: your name will live forever. >> congratulations. >> thank you, so nice. >> tucker: congratulations to you and to you, lauren blanchard we have the eric wemple mug for you. you have 9 of them now, almost an entire set. congratulations. >> so close. >> tucker: thanks, guys. that's it for this week's final exam. excruciating close attention to the news all week. tune in next thursday to see if you can beat our experts. we'll be right back.

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♪ >> tucker: actor jussie smollett has pleaded not guilty to 16 felony charges to the hate crime he apparent live1 fabricated two months ago he is following it and. >> no surprise the not guilty plea came today despite overwhelming evidence against him the actor vehemently denies the charges. smollett claims back in february two men beat him up, put a noose around his neck poured bleach on him and shouted racial and homophobic slurs and said this is maga country. those two men said he orchestrated the whole thing and where to buy the noose and bleach. envelope white powder turned out to be final that smollett is accused of sending himself a week before the attack is now being investigated by federal authorities. mail fraud often leads to jail time. now it appears that when smollett was still considered a victim a former

senior aide to michelle obama told chicago's top prosecutor kim fox saying smollett's family was concerned about the police investigation and wanted the matter turned over to the finn. fox later emailed chen quoting spoke to superintendent johnson chicago's top cop i convinced them to reason out to take over the investigation. fox said unnamed smollett family member nearly the same message. family member responded quote, oh my god this would be huge. fox who recused herself before smollett was charged the family was worried about media leaks. johnson says he spoke to the fbi but in the end of investigation stayed where it should have. tucker? >> trace gallagher good to see you. well, last night a group of highly paid media figures gathered in washington, d.c. to do what they do best congratulate themselves on being such incredibly good people. annual first amendment awards this show wasn't nominated by the way and

might seem a little odd. we spent the last two years almost alone in washington by the way defending the idea that the unpopular ought to be allowed to say uncomfortable things in public. that was our understanding of free speech. but this is 2019. the point of the first amendment award is now just the opposite. it goes to the media executive who was horkd most tirelessly to punish the people he doesn't agree with. and force them to be quiet. given those new criteria this year's award went to, of course, cnn president cnn jeff zucker. >> the day that we allow those in power to determine who gets to ask them questions and what kinds of questions we ask, that is the day that this dinner ceases to exist. >> tucker: who gets to ask the questions? now whatever you think of jeff zucker is not encumbered by shame. keep in mind it was his network cnn that argued in public that fox news should not be allowed to ask any questions of the candidates

in the democratic primary debate. that just happened. it was also cnn that demanded that radio show host alex jones be silenced because jeff zucker didn't like what he was saying. cnn waged a long campaign against jones. it worked. jeff zucker's silenced and deplatformed his show. it was a stunning defeat for free speech. so naturally, jeff zucker just won the first amendment award. >> whether you like donald trump or disliked donald trump, the one thing that i think we can all agree on is that donald trump has made american journalism great again. at cnn our core mission is to tell the truth. to hold those in power accountable. even when it's uncomfortable. especially when it's uncomfortable. >> cnn's mission is to tell the truth. well, maybe someone ought to tell carter page, cnn falsely suggested he was a russian agent and helped destroy his life. or tell to the covington high school student.

jeff zucker's network shamed and slandered them on the basis of lies. the truth mayb he is facing 250-million-dollar lawsuit over fraudulent covington coverage. lots of luck. zucker doesn't want to talk about that. as always he changed the subject to, you guessed it, fox news. >> this administration has made it abundantly clear that they do not have respect for or tolerance of a few and independent press. they call us the enemy of the people. they limit our access. they selectively grant interviews most often to outlets that assured them that they will follow the script. quite literally, they put our lives at risk with their words and their actions. >> tucker: fox news follows a script? right. this is the only network on television where you won't hear the same script every night. it's the only news channel that deviates in any way from the other 10. they are united in total conformity. we are different. zucker hates that he prefers

strict obedience. jeff zucker would shut down fox news tomorrow if he could. just the other day zucker says that fox news has, quote: done tremendous damage to the country. how? by disagreeing with him and his friends. this is not the behavior of someone who supports free speech. it's the mark of someone who wants to crush free speech and has. and, yet, in washington, people like that get first amendment awards. it's grotesque. well, a collection of 9/11 calls released by the daily beast show the miserable often suicidal environment that prevails inside amazon's many warehouses in this country. >> hi this is the amazon. >> amazon.com. >> okay, what's going on there. >> we have a male, 34, suicide. >> they have a female associate they believe is overdosing at the moment with a possible emotional disorder. >> he intended to cut himself three or four times tonight. >> what did he attempt to cut himself with. >> one of our safety box

cutters. she has very specific plans. she made a threat that she says she has enough pain pills in her car to basically end it. >> has he said how he would kill himself? >> has he said how he would kill himself? blow his brains out. >> shannon alan is a former employee of amazon and she knows what it is like inside their warehouses. she has joined us before and she joins us again tonight to give us some perspective. shannon, thanks very much for coming on. those recordings are horrifying. what kind of conditions could have led to 911 calls like that? >> the excessive pressure that you feel when you are at work, the constant hounding from the managers to always do better. your best is never good enough. it's never good enough. you can't take bathroom breaks. you can't take water breaks without it counting against your rate. and if it counts against your rate, that means you have to work harder to be

able to make up that rate because you took time away from standing there scanning or counting or picking to, you know, go use the bathroom or get you some water. so you have to make up those rates. >> how closely does the company keep track of where you are when you are in one of these warehouses? >> oh, very, very close. you are on camera 24/7 from the minute you walk in to the minute you leave. if you are not standing at your station scanning or picking or stowing. a manager will come around and want to know where you are at from the time that you are not scanning until the time that you start scanning again. >> tucker: you are on surveillance camera for every moment you are at work? that seems orwellian and terrifying. >> right. we have direct cameras on us from behind that watch every move we make. you know, from -- i mean it doesn't matter if you are

scamping your nose or coming down off the ladder they watch -- to me, the only time they ever take care of safety issues is if you do something wrong. but as far as the safety issues from when i injured myself back in october 2017, that was a big issue and dave clark had made a statement on nbc saying they had gotten the station fixed immediately right after my injury which was another lie that they had told nbc because, in january, 2018, when i went back to work, they had -- the station still was not fixed and i reinjured myself on the same station. so, the mental that you have to put up with keeping rate, the safety issues that to me did not seem like a big deal because i reported this station nine times it still is not fixed. >> tucker: here you have a company owned by the richest man in the world politically

powerful man jeff bezos who owns a media outlet he clearly could afford to fix the problems you are describing. people are calling 911 because they are threatening to kill themselves. why do you think he hasn't taken steps to make this better? >> i don't know his reasoning behind not making sure that the issues of safety are a top priority. but i do know that his amazon winnings are his top priority and not the safety of his employees. nobody should ever have to go to work and feel like they are -- their job is in jeopardy or they are going to lose their life at their job because of the pressure that is put on you. >> did you know people who were driven to the brink of harming themselves by working there? >> tucker, i'm going to just go ahead and be honest with you, my very first youtube video i ever made, i mentioned something about driving my car off of eagle mountain dam because i was

more -- worth more dead than i was alive and let me tell you what? that was so surreal to me because i mean, that's the kind of mindset that they put you in is you are not important. what you are giving to him, his wealth, his amazon winnings? that's what's important to him. not your mindset or your health. >> tucker: i wish we had more time and i want to issue a public plea will the "the washington post" please cover this i know jeff bezos owns your paper. show some independence and journalism thank you so much. >> can i say something please? >> tucker: almost out of time give it to me quick. >> yes, if it wasn't for the world socialist website putting out my story it would have never gotten out there. >> tucker: because sometimes it takes the fringe press to cover the truth. that's true. good to see you. >> thank you. >> tucker: we'll be back tomorrow night 8:00 p.m., the show the show that's the

enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and group think. dvr if you can figure that out. sean hannity is standing by battle stations. his show is at 9:00 p.m. you should watch. >> sean: let me say one thing. i'm really gel his. you have had a week vacation. i called you. you are fishing. you were fishing. >> tucker: i was. >> sean: anyway, tucker. >> tucker: caught a nice red official. thank you, sean. >> sean: welcome to hannity. we have two huge massive breaking news stories on the deep state. one how incontrovert tillable exculpatory evidence was purposefully held from the fisa court. the evidence is in. that blockbuster news and peter strzok's hidden testimony tonight. we have all the details. we begin with other news. of the system was rigged now countless students will apply to georgetown, usc,

stanford, yale, all these other top universities were