>> shannon: our heroes tonight, firefighters rescuing these ducklings. most-watched, most trusted, most grateful you spent the evening with us. good night from washington. >> tucker: good evening, welcome to "tucker carlson tonight." the democrats say they despise donald trump, they seem to meang it, they tell us they will do anything to prevent him from continuing as president. but if that is really true, why are they working so hard to sabotage their own chances of replacing him? why are democrats suddenly saying things that almost guarantee trump's reelection as president? in just the past few months, democrats have said things that are so out of the mainstream that it is very hard to imagine

voters will back them. just last night on cnn, watchh bernie sanders, the front runner, endorse voting for felons who are currently behind bars. watch this. >> if somebody commits a serious crime, sexual assault, murder, theyul are going to be punished. they may be in jail for 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, their whole lives. that is what happens when you commit a serious crime. but i think the right to vote is inherent to our democracy. yes, even for terrible people. >> tucker: terrible people. so how terrible is sanders talking about? cannibals? convicted spies? how about terrorists who killed children?d oh, yes, said bernie sanders, they get the vote, too. unlike the first or second amendments, that is in the constitution. senator kamala harris seemed to agree with that. >> people who are convicted, in prison, like the boston marathoe bomber, on death row, people convicted of sexual assault. they should be able to vote? >> i think we should have that conversation.

>> tucker: okay. let's have a conversation. best to do it right now, because whenever the left tells you they want a conversation about something, you can be certain that any dissent on that subject will be banned a year from now, like 2020 questioning whether imprisoned terrorists should vote should warrant a trip to the hr department and a lifetime ban from paypal and twitter. while we still can, consider the story of dzhokhar tsarnaev, first to the united states on a tourist visa with the rest of his family from kyrgyzstan, all of them promptly claimed asylumm here, they were given it. over time, they collected more than $100,000 in taxpayer finance coverage benefits. in 2012, he received u.s. citizenship, and less than a year later, he murdered three people and maimed hundreds with a pressure cooker a bomb at the boston marathon, now he is on death row. democrats share that story and feel outraged, not that they repaid our generosity with a terror attack.

it might bother you, but it doesn't bother them. they are enraged that a convicted terrorist might not be allowed to help pick our next apresident. that is outrageous, in their view, the kind of institutionalized bigotry that kyrgyzstani refugees have faced in this country. they need reparations, too. they definitely need a voice. convicts of louisiana, of the 15,000 people who live in one parish, one-third of them are inmates at the maximum-security prison farm.f they are the single largest bloc of voters in the area. according to bernie sanders, this is bad because they are being denied democracy. that is racist, and once bernie sanders is president, they will be able to elect the city council and the sheriff, may be warden too. that is the kind of progress we are talking about. piers morgan is the editory of dailymail.com, and he joins us tonight. without mocking this, let's take

it seriously for a second, the idea that people currently behind bars, who have not completed their sentences but are serving them, should be allowed to choose our leaders, is this a good idea? >> you know, tucker, i was watching the cnn town hall when bernie sanders said what he said about the boston marathon bomber, and i literally spat my drink out. it was a nice glass of red wine, so it was a senseless waste of good alcohol. i started out, i couldn't believe what i was hearing. this is a guy, a front runner, as you said, to be the potential nominee for the democratic party to beat donald trump, that is their plan and what want to do. and their main selling point right now on a cnn town hall is they want the boston marathon bomber to be able to vote while he is in prison? while he is on death row? and while you say do not mock it, how can we not? this is the stuff of ultra lunacy. it is the kind of stuff -- watching the show for a long time, this kind of invasion of woke thought, which is now really sending people nuts, i think it is now being extended

to areas like the penal system. they are looking at this and saying "that makes perfect sense, it makes perfect sense that rapists, pedophiles, terrorists, people guilty of treason, mass murderers,ng seril killers, they should have the right to vote, that is the most important thing." here's what i've asked them, and there is an irony of me putting this question, which you will meet at the understand, but if you ask the very same democratic candidates who support, who want the right to vote to exist for felons -- >> tucker: i know what you'ret going to say. would feel about the right to own or buy a gun. i would love it if somebody who has a view completely different to you about gun control, i would love it if felons, treated as they are, are not allowed to have guns. they are not. it is very difficult for a felon in america to come out, if they had more than a one year

sentence, to own or buy a gun. logically speaking, that is an h infringement on their infringement on their constitutionalti rights. so why aren't they campaigning at the same time for felons to have the constitutional right to own and buy a gun? >> tucker: what they're saying is we don't trust you to go deer hunting, but we want you to choose our leaders, our next president. what they are really saying isis we don't care at all about anything, we are nihilists, all we want is power, and if we see a reservoir ofof potential vote, we will tap that. >> you touched on another issue, a serious one, which is look at the voting intentions of some of what these felons would be having. say you are a convicted mass rapist, raped 20 women, how are you going to cast your vote if you are allowed to vote?ed it will not be for anyone promoting the safety of women. so there is a direct consequence, a direct electoral voting consequence, in allowing serious offenders to vote. i would extend it -- i wouldn't

allow any felons to vote at all, while they are in prison. they are not allowed to walk out free, back into the streets. don't let anybody have a vote while they are there, that is what punishment is about it. you lose your rights to a normal life.wh i would extended, certainly for anything over the most tiny, minuscule offenses. look, you can come out, and we are going to watch you five years, and we are going to see if you are genuinely rehabilitated. if you don't reoffend in five years, sadly many felons do, if, you don't reoffend, then we will look at you and if we perceive you not to be a threat to society, not to be a potential reoffend there, then we may consider restoring your right to vote in this country. but i certainly wouldn't ever extend it to anyone guilty of any major, serious offense, whether they are in prison or whether they get let out later on. to me, atin some point, there hs to be genuine punishment. for seriousse offenses.

you don't get to vote. >> tucker: we want a country that is well-run. the enfranchisement ofnt everyoe is a goal, but the overarching goal is a peaceful, placid, noncorrupt, prosperous, well-run country, right? so why would you ever want -- >> and there is an irony,ht tucker, the same democrats screaming every single second of every day about trump and collusion, he is a criminal, we can't have a criminal running the country, and yet at the same time, they are campaigning for every criminal in the country to have the right to vote for president. again, this is full of ludicrous irony, so when you say to me, piers, i don't want you to mock this, i am finding that instruction very difficult, mr. carlson. >> tucker: you would have to think, if you are the democratss and all you care about is taking power, seizing it back from thel trump administration, that you would have thought this through. there are smart people in the democratic side, ruthless players, nothing they have been

talking about the last twomo months has broad orhi even majority appeal in this country. they are losing the election already. why are they doing this? what is happening? >> i think they are on a mission, andcide i've said this for quite some time. i felt with the mueller collusion of session, which many of the mainstream media have had, many democrats have had, all of the usual suspects, democrats, have had. this collusion obsession has turned out, as it had, that mueller find out there was nolu collusion, that would actually act as one of the great voting bonuses for donald trump imaginable. it was two years of the establishment, the media, celebrities trying to depose him as president, basically a fake news story that he colluded with the russians. so here we are, we are now 18 months from an election, and the democrats, rather than just take their punishment on the mueller report and say, you know what, there wasn't collusion, mueller, our knight in shining armor, has

concluded that, so we need to move on and try to get behind the candidate who has a positive, brilliant idea and vision for the country, which they can offer up against trump, who they see as their nemesis. instead, you have all of these candidates last night, led by bernie sanders, kamala harris, who is a lawyer for goodness sake, all basically standing there saying "here is a great idea to win over middle america, the heartland that donald trump got away from us in that last election. we are going to really campaign with the boston marathon bomber should be allowed to vote." what part of that does not scream to the democratic leadership, this is madness! this is a way to get trump reelected. maybe they are all sleepermp cells. >> tucker: i'm starting to think that. tsarnaev should be voting?o unbelievable.. piers morgan, thank you for that incisive -- >> where does this end? >> tucker: piers morgan, great to see you.

thank you. almost two dozen democrats vying for their party's nomination, and most have just one strategy: prove they are the farthest out person running for president. you have a crazy idea? they have a crazier one. next. ♪ i have a vision correction number, but i'm more than a number. when i'm not teaching, i'm taking steep grades and tight corners. my essilor lenses offer more than vision correction with three innovative technologies for my ultimate in vision clarity and protecti the essilor ultimate lens package. so, i can do more of what i love! buy two pairs of essilor's best lenses

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- there but what are wes to get our messactually saying?ys. any message is a story. and all stories tell the tale of the times we live in right now. how do you want to be remembered? how do you want your story to play out? our own experiences make the best stories, and your words carry a lot of weight. think about what you want to say before you say it.

or send it. ♪ >> tucker: d >> tucker: democratic presidential field as of right now is one of the largest --

probably the largest, actually, in u.s. political history. everyone in it struggling to stand out. if you are amy klobuchar, for example, how do you demonstrate you are very different from kirsten gillibrand and elizabeth warren?ou not that easy. if you are beto o'rourke, how de you get your mojo back from pete buttigieg? there is only one way, prove you are the most left-wingng person ever to run for federal office in the united states of america. and that is what they are doing. lisa boothe has been watching carefully, a senior fellow at independent women's voice, and she joins us. >> hi, tucker. that sums it up: be as crazy as you can possibly be. one thing i think is interesting, tucker, is this normalization of socialism that is happening on the left. bernie sanders is noem longer an outsider candidate. he is a mainstream candidate.

policies like medicare for all, that used to be outside of the mainstream, are now mainstream policies, and the irony is that bernie sanders rails against the government, but his policies would empower the, government ad embolden the ruling class, but he does a good job of selling it and downplaying it. i want you to listen to this clip from last night, when he is asked by a harvard student at the cnn town hall, whose family fled soviet russia, who aptly pointed out that t socialism ner works. listen to this, this is what he said. >> democratic socialism means to me is we expand medicare, we provide educational opportunity for all americans, we rebuilder our crumbling infrastructure, and in other words, government serves the needs of all people, rather than just wealthy campaign contributors. >> it is not just bernie sanders -- essentially advocating for upending major industries. people like senatorca amy klobuchar, who is supposed to be a moderate in this race, advocating for the green new deal. listen. >> i think what is important, as you look at the goals of the green new deal, i know whenhe things are going to dot every i and cross every t in a short period of time, but we need those goals. as a nation, we need to come behind goals. we need the energy of young people and people that really

want to move on climate change. >> and tucker, mind you some groups estimate the green new deal would cost each household $600,000 over a ten-year period of time, not to mention the facn fossil fuels make up 80% of our total energy consumption, but let's just move right off that. >> tucker: may i ask a question? they are for medicare for all, and actually there areue some support in this country for that. but all americans, everyone in central america too, everyone who wants to come here? did anyone point out how hard it is to have entitlements with open borders? did anybody mention that? >> they didn't, and that is a great point. president obama in the past has made that point in one of his books that he authored. and that is a problem, but nobody mentioned that. kamala harris also tried to downplay theno impact it would have on private insurers, she also made this comment because guns are at risk with the second amendment. here is kamala harris talking about gun control efforts she would want to take up.

>> upon being elected, i will give the united states congress 100 days to get their act together and have the courage to pass reasonable gun safety laws, and if they fail to do it, then i will take executive action. >> so tucker, basically what we have seen is a huge movement to the left, and considering the candidates, what that ultimately is going to do is keep bringing these candidates even further to the left. it is going to be quite the show. >> tucker: outside of brooklyn, not going to see that. good to see you.u. julian epstein, former democrat for the house judiciary committee, been in d.c. a long time, joins us tonight. julian, thank you so muchrm for coming on. they say they want to beat trump, but i've been keeping track, in the last two months, here are ideas presidential candidates have: scrapping the electoral college, eliminating all private health insurance, packing supreme court, lowering the voting age to 16. at least eight democrats have endorsed an energy plan that

calls for banning cars and airplanes, four have supported financial reparations on the basis of race. cory booker enforced reparations for drug dealers, i could go on. bernie is now endorsing voting from prison. there is not majority support for any of those things. >> i agree. >> tucker: so why -- it would be easy to beat trump. you would just run on the issues that trump ran on. why are they doing that? they are going to lose if they run on this stuff. >> i don't think there is a lot of support for a lot of issues that trump ran on, the tax cut for example, corporate tax cut, not a lot of support for it. i think it is a reflection ofut the age we live in, tucker. when you have a combination of middle-class frustration, the middle class have been frustrated for five decades in this country, and you put that in an environment, twitter

saturation, noise constantly, it is very, very difficult to break through. i think the tendency occurring in both parties is for the extremists to be able to break through the noise. i think extremism and taking the far left or the far right position in either case is sometimes confused with being a stronger position.ar and what people want, when they're frustrated, is they want someone to come up and offer strong, bold solutions. but i don't think medicare for all -- i think it is pie in the sky, i understand the reasoning for it, but i think it is pie in the sky. i think there are better options -- >> tucker: there is no doubt -- >> i think democrats should make themselves clear on immigrationa they have to be clear that they are a party for legal immigration, but zero-tolerance for illegal immigration. >> tucker: that is so far from where they are now that no -- i don't think i'm overstating this are making a partisan point, i'm making a sincere point.

no democrat running for president could say anything like you have said, i've always thought of you as a liberal democrat, but what you said would get you booed off the stage at cnn. >> "the new york times" did a great -- i know you're not crazy about the publication, but they did a very good chart a couple of weeks ago that basically argued that the elites and the twittere crowds and the democratic party are not where the voters are. voters are much more moderate. >> tucker: i saw that piece. >> exactly. voters are nonideological, looking for practical solutions. most voters want a solution on immigration, they want premiums down on health care. most voters want to see sensible reform with education, so students aren't bankrupted for the rest of their lives. most voters want both parties to govern. and i think that is why joe biden, who is getting in the race on thursday, is i think the front runner of the democratic party, and i think will continue to be the front runner. i think it is going to be a biden-sanders race, the way it looks right now, and i think

biden has the ability to appeal to a lot of the working -- >> tucker: i'm not even >> tucker: i'm not even disagreeing, i just wonder if that is really the democratic party of 2019. if it turns out that it is biden versus sanders, that is like a white privilege fiesta from the point of view, i'm serious, identity politics, i think they are in charge of the party. how can the democratic party run two white guys over 70? let's be real, they can't. >> because i don't think that identity politics is getting the country anywhere, and i don't think it is where most voters are. i don't think it is where most voters are, and i think that you are making the mistake that a lot of democrats are making, and this goes back to "the new york times" piece, which said most voters are nonideological. they want practical solutions. but they do want a strong

candidate. i think the reason donald trump ran was that the strength -- >> tucker: the identity stuff -- >> i think people are confusing let me go as far left as i can on health care and do single-payer, medicare for all, confusing that as being the strong position. and something less than that is being a weaksi position. i think voters want strong but not necessarily that. >> tucker: it would take a lot of bravery to make that point in the democratic field right now.l if somebody does and gets the nomination, i will feel better about the country. i hope you're right.ss i mean it, i really do. jussie smollett hired two brothers to attack him in a fake hate crime, now they are suing smollett's attorney for defamation. another twist in that story. we will tell it to you after the break. i have a vision correction number,

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♪ >> tucker: jussie smollett hired two body builder brothers to pour bleach on him, wrap a noose around his neck in an attempt to frame his political enemies and boost his career. after being caught doing that, smollett and his lawyers tried

to keep all of the blame on the brothers, but now the brothers are filing a t lawsuit. trace gallagher has been on the story since day one and hasth developments for us tonight. trace? >> hi, tucker. the lawyer for the osundairo brothers says it is time for the city of chicago and the clients want the reputation restored. the reason they are suing smollett's attorneys is because they continue to say the brothers "led a criminally homophobic, racist, and violent attack against mr. smollett," even though they know it is not true. watch. >> the chicagoan brothers told the truth. they could have remained silent. but instead, they told the truth to the police, and with their right hand in the air, they told the truth to the grand jury. >> the brothers say because their reputations have taken a hit, so have their livelihoods, and they can barely make ends meet.

remember, the brothers testified that smollett hired them to help him stage a hate crime hoax and orchestrated the whole thing, including giving them money to buy a rope, gasoline, ski masks, and a redcap resembling president trump's "make america great again" hat. and there is surveillance video of them buying the items. jussie smollett still maintains the brothers attacked him without cause,in and his attorns called a lawsuit against them "comical." quoting, "while we know this ridiculous lawsuit will be dismissed because it lacks footing, we look forward to exposing the fraud the osundairo brothers and their attorneys have committed on the public." prosecutors dropped the charges against smollett but also said that does not mean he didn't do it. tucker? >> tucker: trace gallagher, thanks for that update. tammy bruce is a radio host, president of women's independent voice, a frequent guest on this show, and joining us tonight. mark geragos, who i think about

up to 20 minutes ago was a cnnqu legal analyst, is staking out a pretty aggressive position here, which is it is all lies, my client is innocent. is that a tenable position for him to take? >> i don't think so. there are very few situations in life that are so clearly obvious in our world.. this is one of them. he has his own problems with his association with michael avenatti. he's had a bad month in these kind of situations, but now his clients are really himself and the woman he was working with in this case, and their problem is, lawyers can say what they want to in the court room, but they are not protected when it comes to what they say outside of the court room, and this is what the problem is for them. all of us are looking quite perplexed, i think, once those charges were dropped, which in and of itself was bizarre, but they didn't just go away and be happy they got away with something, counting their

blessings. mr. smollett continuedhi on arguing that this really did happened to me, that all of this, i've never lied, this is all really true, which means two young african-american men that have worked with him, that were his trainers, that acted sometimes as fill-ins on the "empire" show, wanted to beat him up. and for some reason, wanted to look like trump supporters, and for some reason in all of this, one of the arguments mr. smollett's lawyers, i should say the brothers' lawyers, is making, is that they would have to put on white face to confuse him, and none of this, tucker, is mr. smollett explaining why those two particular young men would have done this toye him. the bottom line is, and this is the good news, tucker, either this case or the case of chicago suing smollett for the money he owes them will go to court.

if it does, that means we might find out more information about why this happened in the first place, this dropping of the charges, in addition to anbo inspector general for the county there, i think it is lake county, is also investigating the prosecutor and why these charges were dropped in the first place. >> tucker: i wonder about, i've always been less interested in jussie smollett, who seems like a very troubled character, than in some of his promoters and hangers-on, so kamala harris, or that phony senatoram from new jersey whose name i can never remember, also running for president, cory booker. both describe this as a lynching, have they revised their view? have they apologized? are they following this case carefully do you know? >> kamala harris was asked about the strangeness of the charges

being dropped in a, television interview, i recall, early on, and she, almost in a coy, smug way, says i have no idea what happened, no idea why this woulo have happened, but there was no normal reaction to any of these events, and may be in chicago it is normal, but they have a mayor coming up in chicago,, a woman, and she also said -- takes office on may 20th -- that she too doesn't like how this turned out and is curious to find out what transpired. she ran as a reformer, very well could be. it will be interesting to see if she delivers. in the meantime, look, it wille be interesting to see if people in certain positions in government, in fact, knew things, or threatened, perhaps, things they didn't want discussed in aa trial that would explain why these kind of charges are dropped. it could be anything. the number of investigations going on, and maybe this lawsuit will help us come to a conclusion about what really

happened. >> tucker: i hope so. >> we deserve it, so do the people in chicago. >> tucker: tammy, great to see you tonight. 19 american troops died trying to protect somalis from starvation since 1992, but to congresswoman ilhan omar, probably the least grateful person in this country, they were villains. we will speak to a u.s. soldier that was there when we come back. er that was there when we come back. ♪

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♪ >> tucker: this show is committed to exposing pollution that is taking over our nation's metropolitan area. the people that should be watching pollution areat so besotted with climate theology that they don't care, but we do, so we're hitting the road to show you the fastest crumbling

american cities in the nextt couple of weeks in the hope that they will get their act together and become what they should be, which is beautiful and clean and orderly. last night, we showed t you exclusive footage from los angeles, where sprawling homeless encampments have taken over parts of downtown, but l.a. is not the only ones great california city crumbling. san francisco may have fallen even further. the nonprofit organizationmb opn the books has created a simple map that shows every instant in the last eight years were human waste has been reported on the sidewalks of san francisco. at least, we assume this is san francisco, there is so much brown that you cannot see the map. it is easy to laugh about this, and we do sometimes, but imagine what it would be like if you are from san francisco, if you can remember when sann francisco was still a great city, livable, a place where ordinary people lived, not just plutocrats. imagine if you watched your own home sink between piles of garbage, used needles, human waste. and then imagine instead of fixing those problems, yourrb

governor flew to el salvador to talk about fixing poverty there. imagine if he lectured you about your privilege, and how your community needs to accept more illegal, foreign workers, and if you are not for that, you are a bigot. then it probably wouldn't be that funny, actually, it would be a tragedy. that's exactly what it is. speaking of tragedies, in the early '90s, somalia was rocked by war and famine, and the u.s. sent troops not to conquer land or steal resources, but to save lives. we did that, saved about 100,000 somalis. that was 1993, not 1992, i misremembered it. seems like just yesterday. somali-american congresswoman ilhan omar is not grateful for what the u.s. did on behalf of the country she was born in. no, she thinks american troops are the bad guys in that conflict. a couple of years ago she responded on twitter to a user

who was remembering the 19 american troops killed during the battle, she wrote this, "in his selective memory, he forgets to also mention the thousands of somalis killed by american forces that day! #nottodaysatan." sergeant major kyle lamb fought that day in the battle, the author of the book "leadership in the shadows," and we're happy to have him tonight.he thank you very much for coming >> thanks for having me. >> tucker: when you read ilhan omar's remarks about the battle you fought in, what is your response? >> normally it is humorous, but at this point, it is kind of disturbing. first of all, she wasn't there, she had already left the country. we were there, and i've never heard numbers quite that inflated. we wish we could have done that much damage, but that didn't happen as far as i know.

>> tucker: what is so striking is, and the u.s. has done things i disagree with around the world, but in this case, it seems like the mission was purely altruistic. we were only there to help. we didn't take somalia. did you steal gold or natural resources when you were there? >> [laughs] we didn't do that. we are trying to take out a clan leader that had taken over the town, they were taking the food, any of the aid we were giving to somalia, also weapons, running drugs, a big drug over there. he needed to be eliminated, so we could get peace back in that town. we were actually there to help some of the lesser tribes, the lesser clans, such as her clan, which obviously they were already gone. but we were there to try to do the right thing. the other thing is, we didn't say "hey, let's pick out somalia as a great place to go hang out." the president of the time, president clinton, said this is where we are going, this is the mission, and our commander said "roger that, we can do it," and

we all signed on the line. that is why we served. you can make ae difference and you go to those countries. >> tucker: does it strike you as odd, i don't want to pick on ilhan omar, but she is a member of congress, and so her statements get a lot of attention. here's someone who was brought to the united states at public expense simply because we are a kind country that accepts a lot of refugees, and rather than being grateful for that, she spent the rest of her life attacking this country. why? >> as they would say down here in tennessee, bless her heart. we want her to understand that she is h living large now becaue of her family being able to escape the atrocities of mogadishu. it is disturbing, we watched our friends get drug through the streets by the people she says are her people. we got to watch that on tv, once we got from the crash site i was at and got back to our hanger, that is what we got to watch. yeah, we take it personal when you attack us like that. once again, it is not surprising to hear that. there has been kind of a long list of things she said, i don't know if she meant them or not,

but she continues to say them.t yeah, i feel bad for her. >> tucker: yeah, i do too. what about the families of americans who were killed there? what do you think they think of this? >> i haven't talked to any of the families, but it doesn't take her saying something to remind them of what they deal with every day. whenever they go to a baseball game and they hear the national anthem, they look at the flag, that dad is not there with his kids.t that's a story, not just from somalia, but all the other conflicts i have been in, and that i haven't been in, that is the story of a soldier.. that is what we deal with on a daily basis. and really, we just want people to help us out when we get back, which reason we need a mission, guys to get help if they have drug or alcohol issues, which sometimes can be prevalent in the military if guys are suffering with injuries that they try to continue to fight

with. we try to get them the help we can, that is what we want to do. yeah, it is the soldier's story from the last 10,000 years. >> tucker: the last thing you need is a lecture from people like her.00 sergeant major, thank you for coming on tonight. >> thank you again, god bless america. >> tucker:r: god bless. democrats say the country needs open borders because our population is shrinking otherwise. here's an idea, why not make it easier for americans to have the children they say they want to have instead? no one's thought of that for some reason. we will be right back. ♪

♪ >> tucker: bernie sanders calls himself a democratic socialist, yet he supported socialist governments in very nondemocratic countries, like venezuela and nicaragua. but sanders says he doesn't like

the really bad socialists. last night at cnn's town hall he was asked if he supported the soviet union. "i don't and never have," he replied. sanders' defense sounded authentic, the only problem would be if there was a video of him going on a honeymoon in the soviet union, taking his shirt off, and singing "this land is your land" with aet group of soviet comrades. oh, wait, it turns out there is footage exactly like that. in fact, you are looking at it right there. the burlington soviet trip. look at those rippling pecs. a symbol of the man who once was bernie sanders but is now reborn as the new socialist man, the man who wants to be president, and may be. save that tape. there he t is. red square. it was a different world. well, democrats are united that america needs more people, and there's only one way to get new people -- no, not the obvious way, not going to help americans have more kids, even though they

are currently having fewer than they want to have. no, as julian castro explained on msnbc this morning, we need to increase the population right now by opening the borders. >> we have an aging population, our birth rate is declining, we see countries around the world like japan grappling with aging issues. we need a young, vibrant workforce, which means we need immigrants who are coming to this country. if we don't get this right, 20 or 30 years from now, we are going to be begging immigrantsse to come to this country. all of these issues are tied in, so it is about raising revenue, and we are going to show how we would do that, but it is, also about being smart about our economy and about the population growth of this country. >> tucker: smart, that is one thing these people are not. they always cite japan, its aging population. has japan opened its borders to immigration, any immigration of any kind? oh, no, i wonder why. it doesn't matter. mayor buttigieg of south bend

agrees with mr. castro. he doesn't care how few skills immigrants h have or whether thy know english or not. if there's one thing south bend, indiana, needs more of, it is illegal immigrants. in fact, they are better than legal immigrants, says buttigieg. >> we've got plenty of room for more residents and taxpayers who want to help fund the snowplowing and firefighters that i got to have a 130,000 people's worth of a city with only 100,000 people to pay for it. and let's not forget that in many respects, from property taxes to sales taxes, undocumented immigrants are taxpayers, and the truth is, in many respects, because they are not eligible for a lot of benefits, they are subsidizing the rest of us. >> tucker: yeah, so says mr. corporate mckinsey guy. definitely believe them. that's a good idea. but the other candidates do believe that. this is democratic consensus, we need more people, but only the rest of the world to supply them. america cannot produce its own children. we need to take those from other

countries. here is a novel alternative: what if instead of giving up on america, we helped americans have the children they would like to have?ri right now, elizabeth warren is campaigning on a promise to give $50,000 student loan amnesty to every borrower in the country. it's an expensive proposal, and warren wants taxpayers to pay for the whole thing, instead of asking the colleges that got rich off all those loans to pitch in. we have a counter proposal. what if we gave a complete student loan amnesty to any american who gets married and has two or more children? what if we drastically cut the taxes ofat middle-class families who have three or four or more children? what if helping american families have children was as much of a priority as protecting central american families from being deported? i know it sounds crazy. maybe if you acted on behalf of your own people, they would be grateful once in a while. eric metaxas is a host and best-selling author of many

biographies, and we're happy to have him tonight. joining us now, eric, great to see you. >> always great to be with you. thank you. i'm stillo trying to get over te topless bernie sanders video. >> tucker: that was a lot, and we should have put up some kind of parental warning, but it slipped our minds. socialism.we anyway, leaving w aside the debe over details of student loan forgiveness or whatever, why isn't the conversation about how to help americans have the number of children they say they want to have but can't because they can't afford it? why does no one bring that up? >> it's rather simple. the secular left has decided that to be pro-family, to be pro-child,at is somehow a patriarchal, bourgeois idea, whose time has come and gone. oh, of course, hitler talked about german women having a lot of kids. we don't want to do that anymore.ut fundamentally, when you have a secular worldview and a leftist

worldview, you are talking about a zero-sum game, a fundamentally hopeless idea that says we can't grow, we will never grow. we have to import people from someplace else. we don't do growth anymore. and by the way, the european west is not reproducing itself. as secular values encroach and biblical views, be fruitful and multiply, children are a blessing from the lord, as those ideas go away, you have a staggering situation. it is much more hip to have an abortion than it is to bring a child to term and to say "i'm going to raise this child because children are a blessing." all of these ideas have gotten us to where we are now. it is very strange -- >> tucker: i'm confused. i agree with your analysis, but what is the point of life? going on more trips, buying more crap, clothes? i'm serious.

what is the point? >> you're right. that's exactly right or nobody really says this because it is too ugly to say it, but if you actuallyhe believe that we evold out of the primordial soup and through happenstance got here by accident, then our lives literally have no meaning. we don't want to talk about that because it is too horrific, noea one can really live with it. what we do is buy into that idea and say, well then, what can i do?de since there is no god, now i can have guilt-free pleasure, so i'm going to spend the few decades i have trying to take care of number one, trying to get as much fun aso i can. by the way, having kids requires self-sacrifice. i don't have time for that, i won't be able to have as much fun.fi >> tucker: what a lie. as you lie there, life ebbing away, do you l think, man, i'm glad i made it to prague? actually, people don't think they die. all that really matters is your family. >> you know that, i know that, most americans know that, but the secular left, most of whom are the media pundits, don't know that. most of the people who are the cultural elites don't knowow th,

and they live in a world where to talk about being pro-family or have a lot of kids is unthinkable, it's distasteful, we need to keep talking. >> tucker: you are right that it is really a change in religious orientation, no one ever says that but it's true, and it's also immeasurable. the religious landscape in this country has changed a lot. according to a general social survey which the university of chicago has been doing, i think since '72, great survey, for the first time ever, the largest single religious group in this country is people with no religious affiliation at all. almost 1 in 4 americans don't belong to a religious group. we think of this as a religious country, but it's not, so maybe that's why it is falling apart, not to simplify too much, but seriously. >> that's part of it. conservative orthodox jews, conservative muslims, conservative christians, have tons of kids. again, it is the secular, liberal elites, who live close to where you live, and who live where i live, they don't have children and they live in

expensive apartments, they can't afford children. it is a cultural divide, and i think it is an issue, but when you talk about atheism or people who don't -- say they have no affiliation with religion, which is quite different from atheism, that number is growing. i don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. i think what we need are christians who are serious christians. i think we have a culturalia christianity inhi america that sometimes when people talk about the good old days, part of it was good, but to have people go to church but don't really know why, or don't really believe those things, we have a lot of those, i call them mainline protestants. there are a few people, like yourself, who may attend mainline protestant churches, believe the nicene creed, but most people who go to mainline protestantos churches, why have they ceased going? because at some point, it became culturally acceptable to stay home on sunday because nobody believes that, anyway. if you are serious about your faith, you're inclined to have a hopeful view, and say i want to

have children, w even though the world is difficult, it is worth the trouble, the most wonderful thing i can do, and frankly, it is happening in the heartland, and i'm glad that it is. >> tucker: as you age, you realize it is all that matters. i just can't -- i think i'm going tott start asking people when they come on this show, if children aren't the most important thing, what is? quick, what's the answer? >> if you really believe what the bible says, the bible says children are a blessing from the lord. it doesn't say, sometimes you don't want toth kill them, righ? but the pointou is, the things that are difficult in life are the most, well, let's put it this way, we know the things that are the most difficult typically are the most rewarding, and at the end of your life, you say i am so glad that we stayed married. i love her more than ever. i'm so glad i raised my children, where would i be without them? we need to talk about that more, and i'm grateful to you for bringing it up. >> tucker: it's all that matters. eric, it is great to see you tonight. >> thank you for having me.

>> tucker: we are out of time. we will be back tomorrow, 8:00, the show that is the sworn enemb and sincere enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink. goodnight from washington. very talented singer, joining us from a surprise appearance. >> sean: if tucker was on the west coast, it would be too late to go to in-n-out burger. >> tucker: [laughs] it's true! man, i've eaten too many burgers in my life. >> sean: that, and crown burger in salt lake city, you cannot go wrong, you will love it. obviously, i like hamburgers. welcome to "hannity." we are witnessing what is a radical, major shift in american politics. like you've never seen. the new, far left, extreme socialist democratic party, they are hitting new levels of radicalism. mueller didn't deliver on their collusion fantasy, and by the way, rush was great earlier tonight when he said, "oh, hillary needs to be in jail and indicted, if you did what she did, you would be in jail."d the trump agenda