hero. most-watched, most trusted, have a fantastic weekend. we will see you next week at 11:00 p.m. eastern. good night from washington. i'm shannon bream. ♪ >> tucker: good evening. welcome to "tucker carlson tonight." just 24 hours ago, this country stood on the brink of cataclysm. after weeks of slow escalation and without a single vote of the congress we came within minutes of war with iran. after destruction of unmanned drone, american forces nearly launched airstrike on iranian targets. some reports say our planes were literally in the air. but in the end, it didn't happen and the president pulled back. this morning he explained why. >> president trump: they said sir, we are ready to go. i'd like a decision. i said i want to know something. m how many people will be killed? in this case iranians.

i said how many people are going to be killed? sir, i'd like to get back to you on that. great people, these generals. they came back and said, "sir, approximately 150." i thought about it. i said, you know what, they shot down an unmanned drone, plane, whatever you want to call it. here we are sitting with 150h dead people that would have taken place in a half an hour after i said go ahead. and i didn't like it. i didn't think it was proportionate. >> tucker: how many people will be killed? the most basic of all questions. but a question too rarely asked by leaders contemplating war. 150 people wiped off the planet in retaliation for a broken drone. every one of them, the president reminded his staff last night, someone with a family. the whole thing, in the end, offended his sense of decency

and he said it seemed disproportionate and it was. moreover, airstrikes would have led to a wider conflict with iran. that was the entire point of it. policy makers in washington crave a war with iran. last night was supposed to be the first domino. at the last minute, the president thwarted their plans. for that, he is vilified. watch cnn 36-year-old national security analyst attack the president for not killing enough people yesterday. >> this is kind of a worst case scenario. the president showing he essentially made a decision, had a national security council meeting and wasn't willing to follow through. all in all it shows a gross disorganization and a president who can't make up his mind even on something as important as a military strike on iran. >> tucker: only in foreign policy circles do people say things that stupid. in fact, last night was a high point in the trump presidency. bombing iran would have ended his political career in a minute.

there would be no chance of re-election. it's like doing cocaine. the initial rush rises your poll numbers but the crash is inevitable. at this point it'd be horrible. the hangover from an iran war would last decades. they have an ancient culture and a cohesive population. in many ways, it is an impressive place. this is not like the capital of arab world like riyadh ords dubai. we could beat iran but it wouldn't easy. i would cost trillions of dollars, many thousands of americans would likely die. china would love it. they would be the only winners in the conflict. donald trump was elected to keep us out of disasters like war with iran. how did we get so close to starting one? simple. the neocons still deal with the enormous power. they despise donald trump. now, one of the key allies is the national security adviser of the united states.

john bolton is an old friend of bill crystal's and together they helped plan the iraq war. when bolton made it to the white house, neocons cheered. they took a break from attacking trump to celebrating his hiring. stephens assured the msnbc viewers he was a great choice because he would push the president to war. >> he is not the caricaturish hawk he has been made out to be. bolton will restrain the isolationist impulses at the heart of trump's policy thinking. >> tucker: got that? john bolton is going to restrain donald trump from avoiding war. of course, that isne exactly what he has tried to do from the first day. shortly before bolton took the new job we incited him on this show to ask about the many, many, previous foreign policy positions. watch as bolton denies ever

being wrong ever about anything. not even a little bit. >> tucker: so you called for regime change in iraq, libya and syria.o in the first two countries we had regime change. obviously, i'd say it's a disaster. i think we agree.ha >> i don't agree with that. >> tucker: you don't think it's been a disaster? >> no. i think you need to understand that life is complicated in the middle east. when you say well, the overthrow of saddam hussein was a mistake, it's simplistic. >> tucker: i would argue i'm the one that understands how complicated it is. a but that's my view. >> it's your long experience in foreign policy. >> tucker: i have a better record than yours, i would say. >> tucker: got that? hillary clinton's toppling of the libyan government was not a disaster says john bolton. keep in mind there are literally slave markets operating in the street of tripoli now. but no problem. bolton is fine with that. he is fine with the outcome in iraq, too. it's not a disaster either. according to john bolton it's

a raging success. we killed hundreds of thousands of people, lost thousands of our own troops. spent $1 trillion all to eliminate a w.m.d. threat that despite john bolton's assurances never existed in the first place. bolton is glad we did all that. really happy about it. that is demented. normal people don't talk about that. there is nothing normal about john bolton. check out this piece of tape unrecovered recently where he promises we'll overthrow the government of iran. keep in mind, this was filmed before the iranians shot down a single drone. >> i had said forg over ten years since coming to these events that the declared policy of the united states of america should be the overthrow of the regime in tehran. [applause] >> that is why before 2019, we here will celebrate in tehran. thank you very much! [applause] >> tucker: in other words,

last night has been in the works for years. john bolton is a bureaucratic tapeworm. you can't expel him. he seems to live forever in the bowels of the federal agencies reemerging to cause pain and suffering. but critically, somehow never suffering himself.ng his life really is washington in a nutshell. blunder in to the obvious catastrophes again and again, refuse to admit blame, then demand more of the same. that is the john bolton life cycle. in between administration jobs there are always cushy speaking posts, cable news contracts. war may be a disaster for america, but for john bolton and his fellow neocons, it's always good business. robert merry is the former editor of american conservative and author of "president mckinley, architect of the american century." he joins us tonight. thank you for coming on. >> thank you, tucker.

>> tucker: watching the last, the last few days. and one hates to be cynical about the federal government. it is our country after all. but you couldn't help but feel that what we were watching was a set-up. designed to get the country in to war from the outset. do you believe that is what we were watching? >> well, i try to be kind of careful about getting in to people's minds. but i think that the tape that you showed from bolton and many others indicate that at least john bolton, and there is evidence looking at it the same is true of the secretary of state mike pompeo, that the gentlemen really do want to get america in a war with iran. they really do want to change the regime. >> tucker: so why not be straightforward about it? it seems to me that it makes the rest of us cynical when we look on and we see people like bolton, and he is certainly not alone in this. but he is one of the main

drivers. pushing the united states to commit additional forces to the region, putting the forces in harm's way, clearly in the hope of spurring some kind of conflict to precipitate a war. why wouldn't it be easier for him to say i think we should overthrow iran, we're doing it? >> well, tucker, our history is replete with instances where the president and the people around the presidents wanted to get us in wars but couldn't say so because the american people weren't anxious to get in to wars. look at what happened withpe regard to the mexican war, james polk getting us in to world war i with woodrowk wilson and world war ii with roosevelt, vietnam. and the iraq war. all of which had lies, misrepresentations, and maneuverings designed to get us in to that war without saying so. >> tucker: so you are suggesting that voters -- since this is a democracy it matters. voters are not in favor of wars. but if you read the media

accounts, it makes it sound like america loves war but you say they don't. >> it depends on the circumstances. americans didn't want to get into world war ii. roosevelt did so there was a conflict he had to somehow do something about.g he did everything he could including actions that i would consider to be unconstitutional, impeachable to get us into that war. i think the same thing took place with regard to iraq. i don't think the american people were as intent on not going in to that war. but we genned up that war by suggesting there was weapons of mass destruction and collusion and the terrorists of 9/11. untrue in both instances. >> tucker: huh. so you are saying that there is a long, almost an unbroken history of lying our way in to war. >> lying sometimes. not always lying. sometimes it's manipulations. but, yeah.

we do have a history of that. america's war-making history indicates there has been significant instances of that maneuvering, manipulations and in some instances lying. to get us in to the wars that the american people were not clamoring for.. >> tucker: so you said you don't want to get into anyone's head. and that is an admirable impulse, i would say. but why do you think that john bolton is so fixated on toppling the government of iran, which doesn't appear to pose any threat to the united states? >> well, i have to tell you, i can't figure it out. i mean i know john bolton. i don't know him personally but i know his work for many, many years. it's clear that he believes that america as the unipolar power on the globe at this time should be bullying other nations.ul and deciding what other regions should be doing with regard to factors that are of

interest to america. in his mind. so he wants america to basically determine the regimes all around, and have to be regimes a he likes and that he thinks that america should like. that is his modus operandi for a very long time as you pointed out. >> tucker: it hasn't worked well. robert merry, it's great to see you. thank you very much. >> good to see you. thank you. yy >> tucker: glenn greenwald cofounded "the interceptor" and he joins tonight. the reaction of the presidentt not going to war last night has been striking. very little celebration about it. in certain quarters, out-right attacks. we played a tape of the cnn national security analyst attacking the president for it. liz cheney, the congresswoman from wyoming attacked the president. others did, too. what about washington makes war the first resort for both parties every time?

>> first of all, there is an obvious answer, which it is exciting. so it drives media ratings. it makes people buy newspapers. adam smith and the wealth of nations in 1776 wrote about how when a country becomes an empire, the people in the capital never get risk from wars. so cheney and the people who cheer war never are at risk. excitement, purpose, and power. ben shapiro said let's show iran we can mash them. that is something that people say when they go through life without purpose or strength. so it gives them strength. there is a deeper issue thatil after the iraq war, almost nobody other than judy miller the single scapegoat, no accountable for the people who lied the country into a war. if you look at the

award-winning articles that claimed saddam hussein was in alliance with al-qaeda. making people believe that iraq was responsible for 9/11. he is not out of journalism after there was no evidence of that. they are all embedded in washington culture.de the think tanks especially. they only become important and enlivened when the u.s. is at war. they get psychological, economic and the political benefits from it at everybody else's expense. >> tucker: if you claimed there was a direct connection between saddam hussein andnd al-qaeda, 9/11 and saddam, that is clearly untrue. how in the world could you stay in journalism? how could jeff goldburg go on to run one of the most famous magazines in english? >> the amazing thing is tucker, the more you promote war, even if you get it wrong, the more you are going to

prosper. that is the sickness, thee pathology of the d.c. mediaes and the political class.ol jeffrey goldberg's articles won a national magazine award for creating a grotesque conspiracy that resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of people. not only should he not be in journalism, he should be out of decent society. yet, when it came time to compete for whether he would say at "the new yorker" or go to "the atlantic," the owner of "the atlantic" gave him and his children rare exotic horses to lure him away from "the new yorker" and now he runs one of the most important magazines in world. you see it all over the media. the same people who cheered all kinds of wars in muslimia countries. they prosper from it. they are promoted and they continually get treated as the voices of authority. that is why this continuously goes on. >> tucker: it is so mind

bogglingly corrupt, it's hard to believe it happens in our city and our business. glenn greenwald, thank you for the perspective. i appreciate it. >> thank you, tucker. >> tucker: a judge has ordered a special prosecutor to investigate the jussie smollett case and potentially bring new charges over how that was handled. we have details on everything that is happening in that casepe after the break. (male announcer) summer fun starts at bass pro shops and cabela's with huge savings-- like bass pro flag chairs for under $10 each. and this stars and stripes tailgate toss game for under $30. now with free 2 day shipping.

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♪ >> tucker: well, the jussie smollett hate hoax saga is far from over. now, an illinois judge ordered the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate how authorities handled the case or mishandled it. fox's matt finn has the latest

tonight from chicago. hey, matt. >> tucker, today a veteran judge here in chicago saidid that the state's attorney kim foxx went against the law here when she recused herself and then assigned her right-hand man to be the, "acting state'sd attorney." the judge says there is no role of an "acting state's attorney" in illinois and when kim foxx recused herself in february, then and there, a special prosecutor should have been assigned. so now, a special prosecutor will examine the entiree smollett case and can bringth those same charges or even new criminal charges against the actor. and the special prosecutor will also probe kim foxx's office for malfeasance or corruption.in former illinois justice sheila o'brien submitted a petition in april requesting the special prosecutor, arguing she felt compelled to do so because the public deserves the truth.pe >> i think it will give all of

us answers. but the most important thing as the judge indicated, the confidence in our judicial system will be restored for all of us. this case will be handled by somebody who does not have a conflict. h >> justice o'brien feels there was a conflict here in part because kim foxx recused herself for communicating with some of smollett's family members. today, the judge gave an opinion and said he felt there was no conflict. in a statement, kim foxx responded a short while ago, "i am pleased that the court agreed there was no conflict of interest here regarding recusal. i followed the advice and counsel of my then chief ethics officer. i respectfully disagree with the court's conclusion in the absence of conflict the appointment of a special prosecutor is required." kim foxx can appeal. the f.b.i. is reportedly investigating the death threat

letter that the police say smollett sent to himself. and the cook county attorney general is also investigating the case. tucker? >> tucker: matt finn from chicago. thank you. senator cory booker of new jersey scrambled to call joe tn biden a racist -- a racist! -- for admitted he once worked and served in the senate with the segregationists democratic senators. but booker may be better off worrying about his own use of the racial rhetoric in support of jussie smollett's hoax. ed henry joins us. hey, ed.t >> how often do we hear the democrats attacking trump for tweeting first and then getting the facts wrong. but in this case booker got ahead of himself as they are jumping on former vice president joe biden for comments he made this week about working in the senate with segregationists like james eastland and others. when in fact the full context of what biden was saying he didn't agree with the segregationists. to the contrary, biden said he disagreed vehemently and

fought these southern senators and beat them on issues like voting rights and passing legislation that the segregationists wanted to block. but booker said that biden said one of the senators never called him "boy," that he called him "son" and booker thought it was offensive to him as an african-american. biden said he was trying to make a point he can be civilke with people he disagrees with. booker has a record of jumping to conclusions like in the jussie smollett case. at the beginning he tweeted b "the vicious attack on the actor jussie smollett was an attempted modern day lynching. i'm glad he is safe." booker is now all over biden for the use of the word "boy." watch this. >> joe biden should not need to be explained to about why that word is so hurtful. why what he said would be something that people would find offensive and harmful and not advanced, like we should

hope for for a nominee. or for the leader of our party to advance cause of racial reconciliation. >> biden called booker to try to smooth things over but it may have gotten worse. because booker got upset over that biden had the temerity that he put out talking points and that he worked with jeff sessions even though they disagreed on things. and booker himself in iowa recently insisted he would be all about getting along with people he disagreed withit during the democratic primaries. listen to what he said before. >> we are not taking swipes at other candidates. the reality is we need democratic party to show how to run campaign and respect people you run against. so i'm going to continue to conduct myself in that manner. >> that is what he said before. t so what changed? hmm, next week thehe democratic debates start in miami. like many democratic candidates, booker is stuck in the low single digits and he is now lashing out. maybe he wants to get attention and a chance to

break out. tucker? >> tucker: amazing story. yet, not surprising at all. ed henry, thank you for that. good to see you.tutu by the way, if you arere watching this at home and you can find a more fraudulent, not just united states senator, but a more fraudulent american citizen out of 330 million people, more fraudulent than cory booker, let us know. we would be amazed if there is someone more fraudulent than cory booker. up next, the mueller report was a big disappointment for hollywood. such a big disappointment, some of them have gone intoo denial, and they are insisting that the report is everything they wanted it to be. it's almost like a movie. that's next. ted it to be. it's almost like a mov

>> tucker: well, the tally >> tucker: well, the tally of mysterious deaths in the dominican republic is rising. the f.b.i. is now stepping in. fox news' jeff paul is in the dominican republic investigating for us tonight. jeff?ht

>> yes, tucker. everyone right now, they are waiting on the results of three toxicology tests that weth might not have results in until next month. these are the tests that the f.b.i. said to be assisting with because they are now involved in this situation unfolding here in the d.r. we also heard from the minister of tourism today who said that this situation is just one big exaggeration thatju has been fueled by a lot of speculation. >> translator: we have shown that first there is not an avalanche of dead american tourists in this country. all of the deceased that have occurred, the causes have been determined and the results are there does not exist, there does not exist any mystery. >> now the minister went on to say that the dominican republic has nothing to hide t and that it was the d.r. whoid reached out to the f.b.i. in the first place. but a lot of people within the community have said they have not been as forthcoming with information and updates. they are concerned, at least

from the tourism standpoint, that they will lose out on important dollars. there is a lot of jobs here that center around people who are vacationing in the d.r. but we also got a chance to ask the minister of tourism if he had anything to say to the families of the at least 11 americans who died in the past 12 months. the minister says he is sympathetic to those who have lost loved ones, but he continues to say that this is not a mystery. but if you talk to some of the families who have spoken out after hearing about what the minister had to say, they don't take this explanation at face value. they want to see the results of the autopsies.fa they certainly have a lot of d questions that they don't have answers to. tucker? >> tucker: amazing story. thank you for the update. well, the mueller report in the end, didn't quite reveal what the left promised it would. l spent two years telling us it would. millions and millions of taxpayer dollars spent.

thousands of hours of investigation. and in the end, no evidence of collusion. so if you bought in 100% tonth the idea that the mueller report was going to vindicatein all of your dreams, how do you respond? well, denial works. some are pretending it never happened. out in hollywood, a bunch of celebrities are fully in denial. they say the report did expose collusion, and you could discover it, too, if you'd just read all 448 pages slowly. watch. >> the russian government attacked our democracy. >> they interfered in thee presidential election in sweeping and systemic fashion. >> and made hundreds of contacts with the trump campaign. >> all this a part of thet massive covert operation.iv >> investigate connections between russia and the trump campaign. >> mueller delivered his report on march 22. and it contains the most damning evidence ever compiled

against a sitting u.s. president. >> yet, virtually no one has read it. >> and before the report wasas even released, trump's attorney general william barr lied about its content. >> all this is in the report. please just read it for yourself. >> no one -- >> no one --se >> not even the president of the united states -- >> is above thehe law. >> tucker: what percentage of those people move their lips when they read? >> great voices, though. that is for sure! tammy bruce!e! [laughter] it makes me laugh. >> it's like robert de niro. it looks like he just got out of the shower and was really upset or something in that imagery. the only thing missing from that tone and the nature of this was a discussion of crop circles and hieroglyphics and egypt and the pyramids were communications to the outer space people. look, this is pathetic. it's obviously a group of people who are embarrassed as they should be. not just because of the video

but because they did tell people for years that this was going to be the case. it wasn't just about collusion. it was that the president of the united states was a russian spy. but what do you expect from people who make a living by living in make believe? and this is it. now the other thing, of course, the next video that could follow would be all of them talking about that the government still has not arrested the corleone family, even though we have had three movies exposing what it is they have done. [laughter] >> it's true! you know it! a few days ago we had a number of senators briefed on the u.f.o.s. we know there was briefing about some of the navy sightings of the lights they can't explain. yet, decades ago we knew about darth vader and princess leah and luke skywalker and we didbo nothing about it then either. this is the same trajectory. they are telling people, look at the movie, read the book and you will believe it, too. but it's also insulting because they are behaving as though the american people or

their own constituency, other liberals, are too lazy to read or read it but didn't understand it properly, or have given up. that they are the only ones who understand what the dynamic is. there is rehab for people in illywood who escape reality using drugs and alcohol. there now needs to be one to get them out of this pathological fixation on donald trump. they need to admit they were wrong, which is what most americans do, and move on. >> tucker: it must be more boring than we realize to be an actor. you think if you are robert de niro you would think i'm enjoying my 11 houses and the private plane. the fruits of myne labor. i'm rich and famous. but no, he is sitting in a studio yelling about trump in a camera. i don't understand!za

why the fixation? >> a large part of the problem is you have a politician and hollywood who began to believe they are the ones that matter. that they are better than everybody else. that we're deplorable plebes out here ruining things. yet, we didn't listen to them in 2016. we rejected their advice. we didn't take them seriously. and we still aren't. so for them, it's their -- it is never about other people for these individuals because the narcissism is too much.er for them, it's about their own sense of seriousness. their own relevance. considering that no one is taking them seriously, it gets battered every single day. this is an effort to regenerate themselves. it has nothing to do with the country. it never has. >> tucker: the irony, of course, is their influence is waning. >> exactly. >> tucker: the business is dying. >> exactly. >> tucker: being a movie star is

not what i was five years ago. being tammy bruce is a bigger deal than ever.t check out tammy's new show. get tammy bruce on fox nation. >> thank you, sir. >> tucker: she's the best. >> thank you, tucker. >> tucker: we want to tell you about a new government official who vowed to deport 2,500 migrants every day and secure the southern border. he says his critics should start by welcoming a few dozen migrants into their own homes. who is this mysterious new official? we'll tell you after the break. we'll tell you after the break. (male announcer) summer fun starts at bass pro shops and cabela's with huge savings-- like 50% off 100 to 300 yard spools of power pro fishing line. and redhead men's 8-pocket shorts starting at under $10. now with free 2 day shipping.

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♪ >> tucker: mayors across the country are putting local police in open defiance of the american immigration law. the white house announced on sunday, this sunday, it will begin launching immigration raids in ten u.s. cities. the intent of the raids is detain and to eventually

deport thousands of people who have ignored existing deportation orders. this is a straightforward effort to enforce the law, which is what the government is designed to do. except in chicago where the new mayor laurie lightfoot announced that the police are prohibited from assisting the federal immigration authorities in any way. the city has even cut off the i.c.e. access to the police data bases. in the city of los angeles, the lapd announced it will not assist i.c.e. in any way. by the way, the feds assist those cities all the time when they need help. in san francisco, of course, mayor london breed issued a more absurd statement accusing the federal government of "targeting innocent immigrant families with secret raids that are designed to inflict as much fear and pain as possible." everything in that sentence is a lie.

the people targeted already have had their day in court. they lost. they were ordered to leave the country. they refused. removing them is the same as restoring the basic rule of law. mayors like london breed don't want that. maintaining the servant class at all cost is more important to them. but think of what we're degrading in the process. something important. we want to tell you about a new government official on the scene. this is someone who is in charge of controlling migration in his country. he has made a lot of promises. almost 400,000 people have entered his country just in the past three months. to fix this problem he says he plans to deport 2,500 people every single day. he says he will block all illegal crossings over the river on his country's southern border. he points out that illegal immigrants routinely get better treatment than the poor people in his own country. when he is attacked for saying this, he has a simple response. his nation is like a home. his job is to preserve the home's well-being for the people who actually live in it. if activists are so upset about deporting illegal aliens, he says, why don't

they accept 50 of them to crash indefinitely in their own homes? so who is this man? it's not the new acting d.h.s. secretary. it's not even our president. this person is called francisco garduno, the new head of the national institute of migration in another country. can you guess the country? mexico. good for him. ♪ well, for years america's tech monopolies have had the growth subsidized by the federal government, by you and the rest of the taxpayers in this country, thanks to section 230 of the communications decency act. the law protects tech companies from being sued for defamation and fraud on the grounds they simply provide an online platform for users that anyone can use. but that is a lie. facebook, twitter and youtube aren't open platforms. they are sensors. they are happy to ban and silence anyone they dislike, usually on political grounds.

a senator from missouri wants to change that and he has a new bill to take away a tech company lawsuit immunity if they carry out any politically-motivated censorship. we spoke to the senator about that bill. >> tucker: i characterized that correctly, this bill would remove immunity from companies that practice politically-motivated censorship? >> yeah. it's very simple. big tech has gotten giveaways from government, the sweetheart deal from government where they can't be held accountable. they can't be sued. if twitter decides to take aware your plat formed take aware all your social media, what can you do about it? currently nothing. my bill says if they have special immunity that nobody else gets, they should not discriminate on the basis of speech. they ought to embrace the same first amendment values that everybody else embraces. so no discrimination on the basis of your political views. if they want to discriminate they shouldn't get the special deals from government. >> tucker: that seems completely fair. what would be the argument against it?

first, why is it taking you, you just got to the united states senate 20 minutes ago. why is it taking you to do this? and how many people are on your side? and who specifically is against you? >> who is against me are all the big tech companies and all of their backers. they whine, oh, my goodness, this is going to break the internet. this will be the end of our great innovation. that is just not true at all. let's remember, these are the same people who last year said we can't possibly stop sex trafficking online because that was going to break the internet. because that was going to be somehow infringe on the company's rights. it's just ridiculous. all that we're saying is if you want to get special deals from government, if you want to be treated differently, you know what? quit discriminating against conservatives and libertarians. it's a common sense thing and i hope there will be bipartisan support for it. >> tucker: it's fascinating. would a utility, would a power company or an electric company be able to cut off service to

you if they don't like your views? >> no, of course not. look, these companies, these tech platforms control, the big ones, they control the channels of social communication, they control the news that people get and receive. they have enormous power. enormous power. they insist tucker they don't discriminate. oh, no, we don't discriminate. fine. all my bill says is submit to an audit. an outside, independent audit. prove that you are not discriminating on the basis of speech and you can keep your special immunities. but if you are discriminating, or if you won't open your books, you will get treated like everybody else. same standard. >> tucker: you said a second ago that the companies are discriminating against conservatives and libertarians and, of course, it's true. libertarians, however, would argue against what you are trying to do.

their answer would be if you don't like it, start your own google. >> right. the problem with that is when you have a monopoly as google does, good luck with that. companies try to start up. google buys them, or suppresses them or engage in conduct -- they are saying this is force speech. this is nonsense. i don't want them to speak in any particular way. my point is stop discriminating against conservatives. stop suppressing other view points that you don't agree with. it's just as simple as that. >> tucker: unless i'm missing something, what your bill would do would just remove special protections they have for example, i do not enjoy as a broadcaster. fox news as a news company, we can be sued. if we defame somebody, or commit fraud, we can be sued. we don't have the immunity. >> exactly right. >> tucker: your bill would just put them in my category. >> that is exactly right. to be clear, these big tech companies, facebook, google, youtube, twitter, they have a deal no one else has. no media company has this deal.

no other publisher has this deal. no other company has the deal. they have a special carve-out, from government. if they want to keep it, quit discriminating. but if they want to discriminate against conservatives, and push liberal agendas, fine. but they shouldn't get special deals that nobody else gets. >> tucker: then they can live like the rest of us. senator, god bless you for doing this. i'm so glad that you are. i look forward to finding out who opposing this. because it will tell us everything. i think. senator, great to see you. >> thank you for having me. >> tucker: it's friday. so as always, we are ending the week with a bang. dan bongino's news explosion. our favorite former secret service agent will join us with the week's top stories. stay tuned. there's just one thing hurting us millennials more than student loans: credit card debt. but with a personal loan from sofi, you can consolidate your credit card debt into one monthly payment. get your money right with sofi.

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♪ >> tucker: there was a lot going on in kansas city yesterday. yesterday afternoon, hundreds

of people in kansas city began spotting strange glowing objects that appeared to be floating in the sky. of course, they must be weather balloons, right? everything weird in the sky is always called a weather balloon. but not so fast. r people began contacting the weather service and they replied, on twitter, "we honestly have no explanation for the floating objects over kansas city."in huh. some outlets report that they were balloons released earlier this week by darpa, and yet darpa, at least so far, has not taken official responsibility for the balloons. so, as of tonight, they are probably or possibly balloons but maybe not. it would be nice if someone clarified that. we will keep you posted. time to close out the week with a bang, and what better bang than the dan bongino news explosion. our favorite new york city cop and secret service agent is

here to give us his top three news stories of the past seven days. the great dan bongino joins us tonight. >> you're lucky because i have four. it will be a nice segue from your ufo segment. apparently, some united states senators have received an actual briefing on the uso ufo phenomenon. now like you, i always wonder why this isn't a bigger story. tucker, we don't have to go all h.d. wells, "war of the worlds," there is no need for drama. but if you had some stuff flying over your country with the technology no one could explain, maybe it's kind of a bigger deal, right? maybe we should be a little more concerned.eouyb i'm just throwing that out there for the audience. >> tucker: that's a fair concern, i wouldg say. >> thank you, buddy. we think alike. a story number three, the iranians, a very serious story,

hit one of our drones. a $100 million plus drone. tucker, you and i don't agree on everything in politics but i have to tell you, you have my respect on the spine. you've been consistent on this from the start. around is clearly not a friend of the united states, but it was described in the book, "skin in the game," it's very easy to make these decisions about human lives when it's not your butt online. the way some of these people have casually thrown around war like it's a trip to mcdonald's, it's candidly of embarrassing for people with such high iqs. or who believe they have such high iqs. >> tucker: that's a better>> description. >> yes, he was great. so story number two, trump 2020 begins. listen, regardless -- listen, i am a supporter of the president and a conservative on

a lot of his conservative issues. i'm not a news guy, i'm an opinion guy and i don't think that's a secret.s but listen, tucker, energy matters, and this rally in orlando was a monster, and i mean that in a good way. i ran for office. do you know how hard it is to turn out 20,000 people? it's 94 degrees here in florida on christmas. it's the greatest state in the union, i love it, but you wake up christmas morning, and you can roast marshmallows on the sidewalk. you had 20,000 people sitting in orlando, in the pouring rain and 90 degrees, waiting to see this guy. the president has clearly tapped into something here that the american public needs and wants. honestly, tucker, the energy hasn't waned one bit. he packed that entire stadium. and listen, one quick thing, crowds are not necessarily dispositive. it doesn't mean he is going to -- i don't want to get hyperbolic. but the democrats ignoring this phenomenon again is going to be egg on the face twice if they

underestimate this man's capacity to win and election. big mistake. huge. to quote julia roberts from "pretty woman." do you like how i threw that in there? pretty funny. never laugh at your own jokes by the way. story number one, the biden boomerang. listen, if you're going to use identity politics, remember, talker, joe biden, mitt romney was going to put you back in chains. if this is going to be your entire political strategy, attacking people on the basis of race, disingenuously, by the way, 99% of the time. it's only a matter of time before it boomerangs in your face, and it happened this week with sloppyy joe. of course he made a comment about working with segregationists, and he gave an opening to people like booker and otherwise -- you don't really believe, by the way, that biden is a racist. but saw an opening and will attack him. >> tucker: dan bongino, thank you for that explosion. >> i will see you next week. >> tucker: that's itsi for us.

we will be back, 8:00 p.m. the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink. all next week from japan. before the g20. sean hannity starts right now. ♪ >> jason: welcome to the special edition of "hannity." fighting for america, confronting the issues. i am jason chaffetz in tonight for sean. president trump is showing restraint following the latest provocation by iran. calling offlo a retaliatory stre against iran after their attacks on a drone in u.s. internationl waters earlier this week. after their attacks, the president explained his decision to nbc's chuck todd, take a look. >> so they came and they said,c we are ready to go and would like a decision. and i said i want to know something before you go. how many people will be killed? in this case, iranians.