Updated

This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," May 7, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: Good evening, and welcome to TUCKER CARLSON
TONIGHT. Happy Friday.

So what would happen if you gave a group of angry ignorant ideologues, the
same people who tell you that all lives don't matter? What would happen if
you gave them the keys to the U.S. economy? We don't need to guess about
that, we are finding out now because all around us, there are signs that
under this White House, things are getting dangerously flaky in our
economy.

Here's one example.

The official government jobs numbers came out today. Unemployment is up,
far higher than expected. Close to 14 million Americans say they want to
work but cannot find a job. That's an old story. Here's the new twist.

At the very moment that unemployment is rising, fewer people are working,
American businesses say they can't find employees and it is obvious they
can't, go to the nearest strip mall and count the "Help Wanted" signs on
the doors. They're everywhere.

Restaurants are closing because they can't find anyone to hire or
manufacturing plants. That means American now has far too many workers, but
simultaneously, far too few workers. How can that be?

Another question: what happened to all the consumer products? Many of the
things that you buy and need to buy are more expensive than they've ever
been. Inflation is real, it's galloping. Yet at the same time, a lot of
products seem to have gone missing completely.

The United States is currently experiencing shortages of chicken,
generators, roofing materials, lumber, ketchup, bicycles, diapers,
ammunition, automobiles, plastics, appliances, chlorine, pork, propane
tanks, among many other things.

Keep in mind, this is peacetime. We haven't mobilized for a foreign war.
Yet, we're now getting reports that we should brace for a gas shortage this
summer. Why is this all happening? Well, because things are so great in the
economy. That's what they're telling us on television.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This week, there were more signs that the U.S. economy
is roaring back to life and they come as President Biden is proposing
trillions of dollars in new government spending.

JILL SCHLESINGER, CBS NEWS BUSINESS ANALYST: It's really good news, this
week, we found out that in the first quarter of this year, the economy
expanded at a 6.4 percent annualized rate. That is huge.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Could we see a great economy and a lousy return for
the stock market?

KATIE KOCH, GOLDMAN SACHS ASSET MANAGEMENT: I think the good news for
everybody is that we're actually probably going to see both, that we're
going to continue to see a strong economy and we also are set up actually
for some great equity market returns here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: There's an awful lot of lying in financial journalism. No one ever
says that, but it is self-evident.

But they are telling us things are great. Why are they telling us that?
Well, because the stock market is way, way up. Could it be overvalued? I
don't know. Take a look at those price to earnings ratios. Can they
continue? Is that reality based? Should we be worried?

Oh, just relax, but be sure to stock up on gasoline and diapers if you can.
We could be looking at Soviet grocery shelves soon.

And whatever you do, keep ignoring the inflation right in front of you. Oil
prices, for example, they've risen 12 percent in a single month. Steel
prices have tripled since last year, chicken breast prices have doubled
just since Biden became President.

The price of eggs has increased by almost five percent. Major appliances up
almost 15. Ground beef and fresh fruits both up almost six percent. The
median sales price of existing home sales shot up by 16 percent.

And then there's lumber. Have you noticed lumber? Since last year, the
price of dimensional lumber has gone up by almost 300 percent. Want a
thousand board feet? That'll cost you $1,359.00. That price has never been
higher.

According to the National Association of Homebuilders, the cost of building
materials adds more than $35,000.00 to the price of an average new home.
Why is this happening? Well, there's too much cash in the system. That's a
big reason for it.

When you print too much fake money, the value of that money declines.
People start to figure out that it's not real and you get inflation. That's
always true. No one disputes it.

The White House just doesn't care. Here's the new Treasury Secretary
telling you not to worry about inflation because it's not a concern.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANET YELLEN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: And I think the economy is going to
get back on track. I don't anticipate that inflation is going to be a
problem. But it is something that we're watching very carefully.

I don't think there's going to be an inflationary problem.

You know, President Biden has also proposed further substantial spending
packages we would love to see enacted into law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Oh, so just keep spending trillions of made up dollars to pay off
your political constituencies because there won't be an inflationary
problem. Right. Thanks, genius. How'd you get the job anyway?

They're hoping you won't notice you can't afford anything anymore. You'll
be too distracted by the fact that you don't have electricity.

"The Sacramento Bee" reported a few days ago that California energy
officials quote, " ... can't promise they'll be able to keep the lights on
this summer." Oh, no lights in your home. Big deal. Just use candles and
dig a pit latrine.

Meanwhile, in Texas, which is supposed to be saying that, they always say
they are, "The Dallas Morning News" is telling us that, quote, "inefficient
homes" are to blame for the state's massive power outages this winter. So,
it was your fault the power went out. You have the wrong kind of house.

It definitely was not the fault of stupid and corrupt renewable energy
schemes, the ones that were forced the entire state to roll in and
windmills which froze when it got cold. No, it wasn't their fault, it was
your fault. Your house did it, so get a better house. Too bad lumber is so
expensive.

But the question is, even if you can afford the lumber, who's going to do
the construction? As we said, in the middle of rising unemployment, somehow
we don't have enough workers.

There is, they keep telling us in Washington, a labor shortage and that
presumably is why we need to open the borders and let in millions of new
foreign workers immediately.

So what is going on here? Probably a lot of things; it is a huge country
and a pretty complicated country, but here's one reason behind what we're
seeing. The government is paying people to stay home. Thanks to Joe Biden's
$2 trillion Coronavirus Relief Bill everything, by the way, done on the
justification of the pandemic, some people in this country are getting
checks for up to $700.00 a month not to work.

This is true across the country, even in Louisiana, and that's the state
with the lowest weekly unemployment benefits, you can still make almost 500
bucks a week for not working. For a 40-hour workweek that works out to
about 12 bucks an hour, a little more actually. That's above the minimum
wage.

In the states with the highest unemployment assistance, you can be making
close to $20.00 an hour for not working. And we're not attacking anyone or
calling anyone lazy, it is pretty easy to see why people aren't working.
They're not nuts. They're rational.

So no wonder the economy is sputtering in bizarre ways. America created
just 266,000 jobs last month, that's in a nation of 350 million people.
Economists, the people who predict these things very often incorrectly were
expecting four times that number. The result, the unemployment numbers were
so shockingly bad that even CNBC didn't believe them at first, they had to
double check those numbers on the air.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks like 266,000. It looks like it was a big
disappointment at 266, but maybe I have that wrong. Let me double check the
bureau website here. One second. Yes, 266 is correct. Unemployment change,
a little change, it is 6.1 percent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So there's not, to restate, an actual shortage of American
workers, citizens who could fill jobs. They're just telling you that so
they can justify opening the borders and changing the electorate, so they
never lose another election, and no one ever takes their power away.

But that's not true. What is true once again, is that the government is
paying people more not to work than to work, and so why would they work?
Would you?

The question is, what do you do if you're an employer and at some point
when we devalue the currency so completely that printing more dollars won't
help, we are going to need actual employers in this country, and what do
they do?

Well, a reporter called Nate Doughty, at "The Pittsburgh Business Times"
looked into this question. He talked to businesses around Pittsburgh that
had managed to hire people. How do they do it? What was their secret? Well,
they just had to double the wages.

A place called Klavon's Ice Cream Parlor had been around since 1923, hiked
it starting wage from $7.25 to 15 bucks an hour. They more than doubled it;
a nearby Sports Bar now guarantees waiters and bartenders 20 bucks an hour.
That's happening in a ton of places around the country.

And big companies, needless to say, could compete more effectively because
they have more money.

A Burger King in Washington, Pennsylvania is offering a $1,500.00 bonus to
new workers. A McDonald's in Florida is giving people 50 bucks just for
showing up to a job interview. A company called Sisu Energy in Texas is
offering new truck drivers $14,000.00 a week.

Walmart, the largest private employer in the United States has raised wages
for nearly half a million employees in February. The company's average
wages now over 15 bucks an hour.

In some ways, that is good news. You want to see people make more. Of
course, you want dollars to be worth more and now they're worth less.

But there are effects of this that we could be living with for a long time.
There are millions of small businesses that cannot afford to compete,
they're not Walmart, and many of them will go under, because of the
pressure applied by the U.S. government on the labor market.

And when those small businesses do go under, what will be left? Amazon.

Andrew Gruel has thought a lot about this. He is a chef. He is the owner of
Slappish Restaurant, there are several locations of it in Southern
California. He is now paying for some reference here, dishwashers, 21 bucks
an hour to start. He joins us now.

Andrew, thanks so much for coming on tonight. You know, I think all good
people look at rising wages and applaud for the people making those wages,
but there are also some very strange incentives being forced on our economy
by policymakers. Tell us what the effect has been on your business.

ANDREW GRUEL, CHEF AND OWNER, SLAPPISH RESTAURANTS: Well, yes, thank you
very much for having me. And I wish we were talking more about ketchup and
not necessarily about labor. But in any case, look, there's multiple
factors that are leading towards this, and this is what I see with boots on
the ground, right?

You know, I'm not throwing out economic platitudes here. What I see is,
first and foremost, in states like California, where schools are still
closed is that it's forcing people not to work because they stay home and
watch their children or they have to hire somebody to watch their kids,
right?

I would watch my own kid.

CARLSON: Good point. Well, of course.

GRUEL: So there's nothing wrong with that. You know, and laziness is not
the factor here. That's the most important thing.

CARLSON: Right.

GRUEL: And number two is that people are weary about coming back to work if
they are only going to be shut down again. In California, as I mentioned,
again, you know, people came back to work, they were fired, came back, they
were fired, came back, they were fired. And then in the last time in
December, they couldn't even get unemployment benefits because of the
misappropriation of so many dollars in California, the whole system was on
gridlock.

That's when we started a fund, we raised over $400,000.00 to give
struggling out of work restaurant workers money because the state couldn't
do it. And now those same people are telling me, look, Oregon and
Washington just shut down again, how do I know I'm not going to come back
to work and then bam, I'm shut down?

And look, the third reason is, is that a lot of people in the restaurant
industry specifically, they don't want to come back and work in an
environment where perhaps it's been vilified as this kind of epicenter of
spread and they've got to wear, you know, triple masks and work behind all
this Plexiglas and, and it's just not the environment in which they want to
work.

So they're either going to sit on the sidelines and see this thing through,
or they're going to enter another area of retail.

CARLSON: And the fourth factor would be, if you make more by not working,
why would you work? And I agree with your assessment. That's not laziness.
That seems like a rational decision. I mean, these are not people making
these policies, they are people responding to the policies in place.

My concern is what happens when you kill these businesses? What are you
left with at the end?

GRUEL: Well, look at what we saw through the pandemic, right? Corporate
America merged with the government, and they got all of this corporate
welfare, and then all of us small business owners who are paying on average
22 to 23 percent taxes when Amazon is paying one or one percent taxes, we
are the villains, we are the bad guys. We lose our businesses, and then
what happens? It gets swallowed up by you know, Walmart.

CARLSON: Right. I mean, are you seeing that? I mean, the businesses that
are still open, particularly in a state like California have weathered a
lot. I mean, they've done a lot to persist to this point.

How much more can they take before they just give up?

GRUEL: Yes, well, it's already happening. People are giving up left and
right. And, you know, one of the situations here is, is that we're now not
just competing with, you know, a government institution, but a lot of these
large multi-unit corporations that have a ton of cash in the balance sheet.
They're offering excessive amounts of money to draw people in, and most
likely, not even treat their employees well, like a small business owner
would.

CARLSON: It does seem like the system is stacked against people who run
small businesses. I mean, I don't -- I don't see another conclusion.

GRUEL: And look at how many jobs small businesses in America actually
create and are independent and innovative and are working and boots on the
ground? I mean, you know, that's where there's a huge disconnect here.

CARLSON: That's for sure. Andrew Gruel, I appreciate your coming on
tonight. Thank you. Good luck.

GRUEL: Thank you.

CARLSON: Well, it's almost Mother's Day, we're going to have to change the
name because "mother" has been banned. Two sexes. Fortunately, some Members
of Congress have a new name for mothers. Wait to see if it applies to you.
We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: What will they destroy next? If you've been asking yourself that,
here's the formula. The more wholesome it is, the more people like it, the
more likely they are to wreck it and that means Mother's Day is in the
crosshairs. That's coming up soon.

Some Members of Congress -- in fact, it is Sunday -- have decided that the
very idea of mother is sexist, it is dehumanizing, so they've got a
solution, one that respects the dignity of mothers everywhere.

Democrats are now calling mothers "birthing people."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CORI BUSH (D-MO): I sit before you today as a single mom, as a nurse,
as an activist and as Congresswoman and I am committed to doing the
absolute most to protect black mothers, to protect black babies, to protect
black birthing people and to save lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Imagine if that was your nurse? Whoa. Get someone else to
administer the IV drip. That was Cori Bush. She's a Member of Congress from
Missouri somehow, referring as you just heard to black birthing people, in
other words, mothers.

That happened during a House Committee hearing entitled "Birthing while
Black: Examining America's Black Maternal Health Crisis." Because
everything is about race now.

As you can imagine, some people thought this language about birthing people
was in fact kind of dehumanizing, reducing people to their biological
function though that of course would be par for the course for Cori Bush
and her friends.

But a prominent abortion providing group, the abortion lobby, NARAL jumped
to Cori Bush's defense. Of course, they did. They tweeted this: "When we
talk about birthing people were just being inclusive," not Stalinist, not
Orwellian, not fascist and crazy, but inclusive quote, "It's that simple."

"We use gender neutral language when talking about pregnancy because it's
not just cisgender women (whatever that means) that can get pregnant and
give birth. Reproductive freedom is for everybody."

Okay, so it's not just women who can give birth says a lobby that claims to
be protecting healthcare. Right.

Sandy Cortez, of course, jumped in. She came to the defense of men giving
birth. She's a Biology major, too. In the process, she got so confused that
she seemed to take the pro-life position. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): If we want to talk about Planned
Parenthood, let's talk about how many lives Planned Parenthood has saved
and how many babies have been born because of the prenatal care provided by
Planned Parenthood.

And if you don't -- if you don't believe it, and if you've never met a
Planned Parenthood baby, I'm happy to let you know that I am one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So America's biggest abortion provider is actually all about
childbirth. But what's amazing is Planned Parenthood, of course is a huge
supporter of Sandy Cortez's and there she is, cutting an ad for them. It's
almost like a radio show host reading an endorsement on the air.

I wear Ray-Ban sunglasses because they protect my eyes. There is Sandy
Cortez telling us how great Planned Parenthood is. Shamelessness.

Well, a new bill working its way through the legislature in the State of
Texas would ban castration, chemical and otherwise, gender reassignment
surgery for children, for kids. But the bill is being held up, why? Because
some Republicans are holding it up.

Apparently, they are caving to pressure from corporate interests. You've
seen that in a lot of other states. One Republican who is distressed by
this is Sid Miller. He is the Agriculture Commissioner of Texas. He is
saying it out loud, and we're happy to have him on tonight.

Mr. Miller, thank you for coming on.

So let's just get right to it. There are not a lot of Republican voters who
are in favor of this, not a lot of Democrats, but not a lot of sane people
are for mutilating children, but some Republicans are holding up the ban on
it. Why?

SID MILLER, AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER OF TEXAS: I can't believe this in
Texas? Really? We're going to let our children be mutilated? Tucker, we
don't want our minors smoke cigarettes, we don't let them drink alcohol. We
don't let them engage in sexual activity.

You can't even get a driver's license when you're 16, but we will let them
be mutilated. Mastectomies, castration, gene and hormone therapy, you know,
this gender modification has got to stop. It's just cowboy logic. We
shouldn't be doing it.

Who has a problem with this? I don't know. They're nuts. But it is. It's
stuck in the legislative process. It needs to move.

I wish our Governor Greg Abbott would use some of his, you know, political
powers and political capital to get this thing moving and would get it
passed. We've only got six days -- six days, if this bill doesn't pass, it
is dead for two years before the legislature can come back and I'm fed up
with it.

I mean, it is embarrassing for our state. Some of these children have this
done to them as young as two years old. Can you believe that?

CARLSON: No, it's beyond belief. And it's not only something that obviously
should not happen to children. These are not adults, they are children. But
it's also a metaphor for something bigger. I mean, if a Republican Governor
can't even weigh in on this, to what extent is he representing his voters,
honestly?

MILLER: Well, you know, he's just silent on it. We need him to weigh in on
it. You know, I'm a statewide elected official, you know, I'm Ag
Commissioner, but I'm weighing in, I think it's that important.

CARLSON: Are you are you worried that under the leadership of your
Governor, nothing personal and people like him that Texas will become a
Democratic state soon?

MILLER: Well, I think we have very well will be if we don't stand up for
what people really believe in, and get rid of this woke business. I don't
even like that word. It wasn't even a word a year ago, but we need to act
like Texans. We need to act like Americans. We need to act like responsible
adults, responsible parents, and responsible legislators and politicians.
We need to take action. This is an easy one. I can't believe we got hung
up. We need to move and need to move now.

CARLSON: A small group of crazed ideologues came into the State of
Virginia, took it over politically, won one election and changed the state
completely and forever. Do people in Texas ever look over to Virginia and
say that could happen to us? We better take steps. We better get real about
what could happen to us.

MILLER: Well, you know, Texas used to be the shining light for the whole
nation. Other states used to look at us for leadership and what we're doing
on job creation, taxes, regulation, and now not so much.

You know, they look at Texas and see something like this and they laugh at
us. I can't believe though Texans are allowing that to happen.

CARLSON: Right.

MILLER: Wake up, people. We've got to get a hold of our state or we are
going to lose it.

CARLSON: Amen. When I when I saw the power go out because your windmills
froze, I began to ask real questions about your governor and others. So I
appreciate your standing up. Sid Miller, thank you very much.

MILLER: God bless. Thanks.

CARLSON: So Disney used to be an entertainment company, now it's the
entertainment arm of the Chinese government, it appears that way. They used
to be a company that represents what Americans like.

We have some exclusive reporting from inside Disney that tells you
everything about what they think of America. That's straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Well, for generations, The Walt Disney Company was the most famous
entertainment company in America. In fact, it represented America to the
world. It was in some sense synonymous with American culture.

Disney, of course, produced all kinds of films during the Second World War,
encouraging United States to defeat fascism. So when you hear Disney, you
think of something that's very American, very wholesome, something that
your kids would watch.

It's changed.

Disney has started producing propaganda films, not for the U.S. government
but for the Chinese Communist Party. Not surprisingly, its senior
leadership has denounced its own historic cartoons as racist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNY COHEN, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, THE
WALT DISNEY COMPANY: One of the things that we actually did during the
course of that work was to conduct focus groups with our black colleagues
and we got some really tough but incredibly valuable feedback, including
the following statement, which I will never forget when I read it in the
research results. "I'm not comfortable with Disney commercializing racist
content."

So what this remark is referencing is the fact that there are titles in our
library that include, frankly, racist characterizations, and we're not
talking exclusively about obscure title. There are titles that include
that, like "Fantasia" or "Dumbo" and "Aladdin."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: It's almost we're saving that tape. So here you have someone who
is clearly not very smart, rolling her eyes, and because she does some kind
of in-house focus group with like, 11 people, your kids don't get to watch
the movies that you grew up watching because of an unhappy person whose
name we will never noticed that they were racist.

It was Jenny Cohen, by the way on the screen. She is the Executive Vice
President at Disney for something called Corporate Social Responsibility.

Now, we're learning that that's just the tip of the iceberg. Disney is
training its employees that the United States, the country that produced
Disney is in fact evil. Chris Rufo is a journalist who has obtained a trove
of internal documents from Disney. They're all part of a program the
company calls "Reimagine Tomorrow."

In one part of the training, which is called "Allyship for Race
Consciousness." Can you even imagine? Disney claims that, quote: "The
United States has a long history of systemic racism and transphobia." By
the way, transphobia is a word that didn't exist like 20 minutes ago, what
do you mean a long history of it? Nobody even heard of that until some
unhappy Sociology major from Wesleyan made it up and imposed on the rest of
us.

But the training, totally ahistorical training goes on to tell white
employees to quote, " ... work through feelings of guilt, shame and
defensiveness to understand what is beneath them and what needs to be
healed." Right, targeting employees on the race.

Disney specifically tells employees to quote, " ... challenge colorblind
ideologies and rhetoric such as ..." and we're quoting, "all lives matter."

You can't say all lives matter, so which lives matter? Why don't you tell
us, Disney?

In a separate training, Disney demands its employees reject the concept of
quote, "equality." So crazy, hard to believe it's real. It is real though,
Chris Rufo broke this story. He joins us tonight to confirm that.

So you can't say all lives matter. I am starting to get caught up on this
one turn of phrase, but it's just so revealing. Is there an indication of
which lives matter and which lives don't matter according to The Walt
Disney Company?

CHRISTOPHER RUFO, DIRECTOR, DISCOVERY INSTITUTE: Yes, there is. And what
Disney is saying is that we should reject the idea of equality, that people
should be treated equally, regardless of their skin color and they say we
need to pursue a strategy and a policy of equity, where people achieve,
quote, "equal outcomes."

And this is again, the tip of the iceberg. Disney created and sponsored a
21-day racial equity challenge, and told employees to complete a white
privilege checklist and passed around a worksheet saying that white
employees should defund the police, participate in reparations, and even
decolonize their bookshelves, whatever that means.

CARLSON: So Disney is encouraging book burning, telling us that equality is
wrong, that we're not all equal, and that some of our lives matter more
than other lives. That is so dark. I wonder where they think that's going
exactly, all lives don't matter. We're not equal, like what's the end point
for this? Any indication?

RUFO: Well, I mean, the great irony of this is that the people who are in
charge of Disney are some of the richest and most powerful and privileged
white males in the history of humanity and they are pushing this divisive,
critical race theory based ideology as corporate dogma and the only end of
this is division. It's self-hatred.

And I think it should be very clear that Disney makes its money on Middle
Americans who go to their theme parks, who buy their content and those
people should know that this corporation hates you. It hates your culture,
and it hates the color of your skin. And I think Americans should reject
this kind of politics and reject the companies that are pushing it.

CARLSON: Well, I couldn't agree with that more. And just to be -- I just
want to nail this down completely. You are certain that these documents are
real.

RUFO: Yes, that's correct. I've confirmed them with multiple sources around
the company, done screen sharing, done internal verification. These are
genuine documents and videos.

The video doesn't lie and this is the new ideology of The Walt Disney
Corporation. And it's really sad because it used to be a great American
company. Now, it's telling us that America is a fundamentally racist
country, founded on discrimination. They couldn't be more wrong. I hope
they right the ship, but I'm not optimistic.

CARLSON: Yes. And they're lying, too, because we are all equal, actually.
We're all created by God. We're all equal and all lives do matter. That's
just true. Chris Rufo, I appreciate your coming on tonight. Thank you.

RUFO: Thank you.

[A Walt Disney spokesperson pushed back on Rufo's reporting.

"These internal documents are being deliberately distorted as reflective of company policy, when in fact their purpose was to allow diversity of thought and discussion on the incredibly complex and challenging issues of race and discrimination that we as a society and companies nationwide are facing," the Walt Disney spokesperson said.

"The Disney brand has a long history of inclusivity, with stories that reflect acceptance and tolerance and celebrate people's differences, as we have consistently demonstrated in such popular films as Moana, Coco, Black Panther, Soul and Raya and the Last Dragon, and as a global entertainment company we are committed to continuing to tell stories that reflect the rich diversity of the human experience," the spokesperson continued.]

CARLSON: Well, Stacey Abrams, candidly one of our favorites, not just the
real Governor of Georgia, you've heard that a lot and we believe it. She is
also, and you may not have known this, an accomplished romance novelist,
who has written under the plume -- nom de plume, Selena Montgomery.

As promised, we got a copy of that book. We found someone to do the
voiceover and we promise you, it'll make your week.

Plus, we told you earlier in the week about an arrangement between a Google
lobbyist called Frank Luntz and his roommate who just happens to be the top
Republican in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy.

We asked how much exactly was Kevin McCarthy paying to live with Frank
Luntz and we found out tonight. We'll tell you after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: You may know Stacey Abrams as the one true Governor of Georgia,
never elected, but still spiritually in charge, but she is more than that.
Stacey Abrams is one of the most talented and sauciest romance novelists of
a generation, but like so many great artists, she can be under appreciated.

And that's why our senior editorial producer, the Great Tom Fox, spent
$7.00 to track down a copy of one of her steamier novels, the 2006 tour de
force, "Hidden Sins."

Now, most of the novel is a mystery and to be honest, we didn't really
follow the plotline. It's not because the writing was bad, oh, no. This is
Amanda Gorman level stuff. Really, it's because our eyes were drawn
reflexively to the more salacious elements of the novel, like moths to a
very, very hot flame.

How hot? Well, our senior producer Alex McCaskill volunteered to perform a
dramatic reading of the most titillating moments in Stacey Abrams's
novelty. He is still recovering from that.

The recording session began innocently enough

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

ALEX MCCASKILL, FOX NEWS, SENIOR PRODUCER (voice over): Heat, like an
inferno blazed in his veins. Temptation, like a song clouded his mind. It
demanded that he slide his arms around her, that he trail his hand on long
her spine to sink into the silken curls, and her nape.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: "Heat, like an inferno, temptation like a song." Now we know what
you're thinking, grammarians, hitting the simile is a bit hard. At first we
thought so, but then like a half empty train at Penn Station in the middle
of the workweek. We thought we could just pull away, oh, but we were wrong.
We had to continue.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

MCCASKILL (voice over): Their tongues tangled, danced, and she reveled in
the movement. She splayed eager palms against his chest and tormented the
flesh he found there. Too far away, she gripped his waist to pull him
closer, until she stood cradled between his hard thighs.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

CARLSON: "She tormented his flesh with her palms." We were tormented as we
read it. As we read it more, we noticed our thighs were also getting
harder, much harder.

But Stacey Abrams wasn't done with us yet. We hadn't encountered any of her
dialogue yet. It was all exposition, and then it hit us, a full line of her
characters actually speaking to one another, not just grunting, but
speaking in the language. It sent us over the top. Listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

MCCASKILL (voice over): Hunger raged inside her, demanding to be sated.
Wicked thumbs teased her too sensitive flesh and stole her breath, but it
would mean nothing if he didn't understand, "You're all I've ever wanted."

(END AUDIO CLIP)

CARLSON: Wicked thumbs. Will we ever, going forward, ever be able to call
Stacey Abrams, anything but wicked thumbs? We'll see, probably not.

The book is called "Hidden Sins" and frankly, we feel like we've just
sinned in public. You can have that feeling, too, for the low, low price of
just $7.00.

Get it. But go easy on your thighs. It'll wear them out.

Peter McCullough is an eminent physician. He's an internist and a
cardiologist. We had an amazing conversation with him that lasted for more
than an hour on "Tucker Carlson Today." We covered a lot of ground.

It was mostly about the coronavirus and how to respond to it. But one part
of the discussion stuck out and we want to share it with you tonight.

It turns out there is still no treatment protocol for physicians trying to
treat patients with coronavirus. What? It's true. Here is part of our
conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PETER MCCULLOUGH, INTERNIST AND CARDIOLOGIST: I'm a doctor, I treat
patients one by one, and I can tell you and I testify to this, I have
treated all my high risk patients. I think it would be immoral, unethical,
and from a civil perspective, illegal not to do that.

So that question is best posed to all the doctors and medical centers and
groups that have been treating COVID-19. We are a year into this. Where's
the Mayo Clinic protocol? Where's the Harvard protocol? Where's Johns
Hopkins?

CARLSON: There isn't one?

MCCULLOUGH: Do they have a COVID treatment?

CARLSON: I don't know.

MCCULLOUGH: Have they helped people avoid hospitalization and death? Or
have they just sat back and just received the cases as they've come in?

I'm telling you, something is up. The entire world has been on defense.
Maybe it's all driven out of fear, but we are not treating something that
is a treatable problem early. We are making this so much harder than it
should be.

CARLSON: And people have died as a result of that, obviously.

MCCULLOUGH: I testified in the in the U.S. Senate, I thought -- at November
19th -- I thought 50 percent of the deaths could have been avoided because
there was a learning curve of how we put this together.

Remember, there are no large randomized trials of multidrug therapy. None
are even forthcoming.

And our naysayers have said listen, Dr. McCullough, you don't have enough
evidence.

It's like, of course, I don't have enough evidence. That's five years away.
And the guidelines say well, there's not enough evidence to treat patients.
But what am I going to do? Let them die? Of course not.

I'm telling you, I have no agenda, but I am deeply concerned that something
has gone off the rails in the world. It involves science. It involves a
medical literature. It involves a regulatory response. It involves
populations kept in fear and in isolation and despair.

CARLSON: Okay, so you -- this is upsetting, but it's also fascinating, I
think. You've alluded a couple times to something being up, I think is the
phrase that you used.

Can you put a slightly finer point on that? Do you believe that NGOs, the
enormous nonprofits that have a lot of sway, it seems like in the public
health arena are exercising influence over COVID policy and the direction
that you are describing. Is it that? Is it some international regulatory
body? Is it W.H.O.? I mean, like, what is this, do you think?

MCCULLOUGH: That is really going to be the goal of investigative reporters
to figure this out. There must be stakeholders, or there must be some
fundamental drivers for groupthink -- now, this is a group think. It is in
the minds of people.

CARLSON: Is anyone profiting from it?

MCCULLOUGH: I have no idea. I'm just focusing on the sick patient right in
front of me, Tucker. I can't tell you. But I have seen things in the last
year that I can't explain as a doctor.

Why are other doctors not helping with a simple illness to help these
patients avoid hospitalization and death? Why are they not doing this?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: So the question Dr. McCullough asked and that we spoke about for
an hour is that why isn't the medical establishment making a greater effort
to treat people who have COVID until they get to the hospital, where some
of them die?

All the emphasis is on getting the vaccine, but not on the treatment. As we
said, there is still no treatment protocol produced by Mayo or Harvard
Medical School. Why is that?

The conversation was fascinating. It is on "Tucker Carlson Today" on FOX
Nation. Highly recommended.

Well, "The Daily Mail," one of the last trusted news sources in the world,
has uncovered some amazing text messages between Hunter Biden and his
secretary, who has direct ties to China. We will tell you what that means,
next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: Frank Luntz is a pollster in Washington, D.C. who advises the
Republican Party. His real job is working for Google and promoting
OxyContin in the middle of an opioid epidemic.

Whatever you think of Frank Luntz, he is great to live with, to share a
toothbrush with. We know that because Kevin McCarthy does it. How much does
he pay for that? That's a question we had asked because there are of course
rules in the House about accepting gifts at under market prices.

Well, we learned that Kevin McCarthy paid $1,500.00 a month to live in
Frank Luntz's apartment. That sounds fine until you learn the apartment is
7,000 square feet and it's a penthouse.

McCarthy's spokesman defended that saying that that's fair market rate
because McCarthy is renting only one of 12 bedrooms in the apartment and
it's only 400 square feet.

So I guess that means that he doesn't use the kitchen or the living room.
It was just a 400-square foot bathroom. It gives the term friend and family
discount a whole new meaning. Wish you had a friend like Frank Luntz.

Well, we have learned a lot more about what Hunter Biden has been up to.
New messages between Hunter Biden and his Chinese-American assistant have
just been published in "The Daily Mail," which all of a sudden is an
essential news outlet. Have you noticed?

Our own Matt Finn has digested this story and has it for us tonight. Hey,
Matt.

MATT FINN, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Tucker. "The Daily Mail" reports
there were some unusual messages recovered from Hunter Biden's laptop that
was supposedly abandoned at that Delaware repair shop.

Biden's Chinese-American Secretary, JiaQi Bao, offered Biden anti-Trump
talking points as Biden's father was preparing to run for the White House
and apparently had in her possession, Biden's dog tag chain necklace that
he was pictured wearing in at least one shirtless photo.

The secretary was assigned to Biden in a joint venture he and his uncle
established with Chinese oil giant, CEFC, that venture went belly up in
2018 when businessman Patrick Ho who Hunter Biden reportedly referred to as
the Spy Chief of China was indicted by U.S. officials.

In an e-mail from 2018, the secretary suggests Hunter Biden take as much
money from that failed venture writing in part, quote: "I'm a bit hesitated
to say this to you because I don't want you to have misunderstood me as a
messed up bad girl. Here's my two cents whatever money from Hudson West,
please take them as much as possible."

The secretary also messaged in 2019, quote: "If there's anyone who deserves
to be scrutinized for doing business with Chinese it would be Donald
Trump."

What's not clear from "The Daily Mail's" report is whether Biden responded
to any of these e-mails, in fact, the secretary, Tucker complained that he
did not -- Tucker.

CARLSON: Amazing story. Matt Finn, thanks so much.

In that story, in "The Daily Mail," there's also the claim that that
Chinese woman sent oppo to Hunter Biden for the campaign. The journalist
who broke the story joins us Monday with more details.

A new episode of "Tucker Carlson Today" came out this afternoon. On Monday,
Dave Portnoy joins us on our set.

Have a great weekend with the ones you love.

Sean Hannity takes over now.

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