Tucker: Trudeau used COVID to short circuit democracy in Canada
‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ host examines how the Canadian Prime Minister’s policies have changed the country.
This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," January 31, 2022. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: Good evening and welcome to TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT.
You ever notice how almost all the leaders of almost all the countries in the Western world, particularly in the English-speaking Western world seem kind of the same. They're all what we call neoliberal. They're all weak and fearful, if you think about it, and yet, if you listen to them talk, you'd think they were omnipotent.
We're going to reverse global climate change. We're going to vaccinate the world. We're going to end all human prejudice and replace it with equity. We're going to spread democracy to the untutored nations with guns, and they're going to love us for it. We can do all these things, because we're all powerful. We're like gods. You shall have no gods before us.
Now, mostly, they are puny people. But when they speak, they sound like Caesar, standing in purple robes in the forum commanding the known world.
Joe Biden very often sounds like this, so does that squeaky little woman with weird teeth, who runs New Zealand. They all sound like this. They're unbelievably grandiose. It's by design. They'd rather talk about redeeming humanity than bother to fix your kid's school or replace a stop sign at the end of your block.
So you've got to wonder, why do they talk this way? And the answer, of course, is because they're terrified. They claim to be powerful because they know they're not. It's a bluff. It's a calculated pose. In fact, they know exactly how weak they are. They understand how little popular support they actually have, and they can feel their grasp slipping.
And if you wonder if that's true, notice how they overreact to the slightest challenge to their power. Remember, a year ago when the QAnon Shaman skipped through Congress on his mescaline trip, giggling and spreading good vibes. It was kind of amusing, but Democrats in Washington were panicked by it, so panicked, they called in the U.S. Army and sent that poor guy to prison.
It is weird how touchy they get when you suggest they stole the presidential election. I wonder why. But this is not the behavior of secure leaders. This is how despots act when they fear they're about to be overthrown, and there's no more fearful despot in the world than Justin Trudeau of Canada.
Over the span of just a few years, Trudeau has turned a nation long famous for Molson and sled dogs and niceness into a relentlessly punitive surveillance state. People have long whispered in dead seriousness that Justin Trudeau is the biological son of Fidel Castro.
You could laugh it off, but now it's becoming pretty easy to believe. Trudeau has used systematically COVID to short circuit democracy in Canada and to end organized Christianity there. Canadians can no longer travel freely within their own country, they can all go return to their own country at certain parts. Pastors have been imprisoned for holding church services. The unvaccinated can be sent to jail for buying certain products in stores.
In the town of Gatineau family members were arrested for celebrating New Year's Eve in their own home. Every large institution in Canada pretends like all of this is perfectly normal. It's always been this way.
Canadian media, which are largely controlled by the government support these policies and Trudeau uncritically. In Nova Scotia, protests against Justin Trudeau's vaccine mandates are now banned by law.
Rarely has a nation changed this quickly or more unequivocally for the worse, and last week, thousands of Canadian truckers reached their limit. A convoy of truckers converged on the capital city, Ottawa, to demand peacefully, cheerfully, but persistently an end to Justin Trudeau's tyranny.
Justin Trudeau's response to this display of democracy? He fled the city.
Trudeau evacuated his official residence and hid in an undisclosed location. He is still cowering there tonight. Will he come back? Has he abdicated? Will Canada be ruled by a junta of truckers? Well, not at this point.
He emerged by video conference from his lair to declare that Canadian citizens who disagree with them are in fact, attacking democracy. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: There is a right to protest, there is a right to make your voices heard loudly and clearly.
But there is not a right to shut down our democracy and our democratic processes. There is not a right to abuse, intimidate, and harass your fellow citizens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So expressing your views is an attack on democracy. And by the way, how dare you express your views as if you were a free people, that's tyranny. Democracy is when you obey like serfs. Trudeau just effectively said that.
And then because he has no self-awareness whatsoever, Trudeau announced that he has contracted COVID, which is perfect. In other words, take this shot or else, as you can see from the fact I am now sick, it works perfectly. If Canada weren't a country, it would be a remarkable dark comedy.
So may be wondering about these hordes of Visigoths who has descended on Ottawa, the ones who drove Justin Trudeau out of the city. What do they look like? Well here they are.
[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS]
CARLSON: Freedom, love, patriotic displays, waving Canadian flags. Terrifying. But if you look closely at those pictures, you can see the real problem. These were working class people. They are the guys who deliver your Amazon boxes -- and Justin Trudeau is repulsed by them. These people have stepped way outside. They're like: Just leave the package on the porch and get the hell out of here.
But they haven't gotten the hell out of there. They are still in Ottawa and Justin Trudeau won't meet with them because he never meets with people like this, not simply because they are blue collar and dirty, though obviously they are, but because they disagree with him.
As a reminder from Justin Trudeau, that's what democracy is. Democracy is lecturing people who nod a lot in response. Watch him explain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUDEAU: I have attended protests and rallies in the past. When I agreed with the goals, when I supported the people expressing their concerns and their issues, Black Lives Matter is an excellent example of that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So, I'll meet with the people at a rally as long as I agree with their goals. As long as they agree with me, it's totally fine, like Black Lives Matter. You get the sense even someone as dim as Justin Trudeau realizes this is not a winning argument. He needed his friends in state media to help.
So they trotted out some attack lines against the truckers, lines they borrowed directly from CNN and NBC News here in the States. So here is Canada's state broadcaster inventing a claim out of nothing that Vladimir Putin himself may be responsible for this trucker convoy. Watch,
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NIL KOKSAL, TURKISH-CANADIAN JOURNALIST: You know, given Canada's support of Ukraine in this current crisis with Russia, I don't know, if it's far- fetched to ask, but there is concern that Russian actors could be continuing to fuel things as this protest grows, but perhaps even instigating it from the outset.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Russia. You've got to love Canada. Let's be honest, they always steal our ideas and produce a slightly shoddy copy of them. We have Walmart, they have Canadian Tire -- not to be mean.
Russia. Of course, Putin did it.
There is no evidence of that. No sources. They've just been reading American Twitter, and the state media anchor is deeply concerned. Who buys this? No one's going to buy this. It's so prima facie absurd. So they just kept going.
Here is Justin Trudeau from his bunker offering yet another reason to distrust the junta running the newly formed nation of Truckistan, formerly known as Canada. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUDEAU: We won't give in to those who fly racist flags. We won't cave to those who engage in vandalism or dishonor the memory of our veterans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: "Dishonor the memory of --" too many Canadian flags. There are like three bad people in the crowd, so ignore the ball, ladies and gentlemen. Thankfully, by contrast, no one in the BLM rally ever torched the courthouse or shot at anybody or burned down a building.
But these truckers, apparently there was a racist flag. So pay no attention.
Now in the United States, we probably wouldn't fall for this at this late date. We're a little jaded at this point, because we've seen it so many times. Oh, they had a confederate flag. Never mind, we can ignore their concerns. The election was totally fine.
So again, we've seen it before, but in Canada, they probably haven't seen it. They're a few years behind us. And so, you know, they're kind of impressed by it.
Claims like this happened here a few months ago, as you may remember when Democratic operatives carried around tiki torches to smear Glenn Youngkin as a white supremacist. Again, Trudeau had reason to think Canadians hadn't seen that and he might be able to get away with it.
Trudeau has been honing this line of argument for months now. Last September, you may remember he accused people who opposed mandatory vaccination, getting a shot because the government requires it of being racist. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUSTIN TRUDEAU: (Speaking in foreign language).
TRANSLATION: But also, there are people who are fiercely opposed to vaccination.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking in foreign language)
TRANSLATION: They are extremists.
TRUDEAU: (Speaking in foreign language).
TRANSLATION: Who don't believe in science. Who are often misogynist, often racist, too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Poor Canadians, they're good people. They don't have a lot of news sources. They've been exposed nonstop for two years to this kind of propaganda. If you don't believe in mandatory injection with an experimental medicine, you're a racist.
Apparently, some believe it. At least one counter protester this weekend believed it. Watch this. One of the most humiliating scenes ever caught on tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did it say? Sorry?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So it says, eff your white nationalist agenda.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am not a white. This has nothing to do about being white. This is nothing to do with truckers. This is about freedom for all Canadians. You can be brown, black, white, blue, whatever color you want to be. This is about freedom.
And Trudeau has no right to put us in this condition or mandates towards the country, children are not going to school. It's a terrible thing to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Thank God for "Rebel News." It may be -- you think FOX is an anomaly in the United States. How'd you like to be "Rebel News," literally the only people at all of Canada who are playing it straight.
So they are trying to tell you that some guy from the subcontinent is a white nationalist. They're trying, they're trying hard. And now they have evidence. It's brought to you by CNN naturally working in tandem with the CBC. Apparently -- brace yourselves -- there was a Trump sign in the crowd of truckers. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Given the potential risk, Jim, Justin Trudeau and his family, he has three kids live about a mile from Parliament Hill, they have now been moved somewhere. We don't know where, it's an undisclosed location out of an abundance of caution.
I will also say that former President Trump certainly is supporting this group. I've been out there. I've seen Trump supporter signs out there, and this leads to a larger question. Jim, they're still in the downtown core. Police just released a statement saying: Look, we need the trucks to leave. We need people to leave. This city has to start functioning again.
And the issue is how to leave? The people who have organized this say that they will stay out there months if needed.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: All right, and we know you'll see on top of it, alarming situation there in Ottawa.
Paula Newton, thank you very much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Now, we don't know who that woman is, but she should be completely ashamed of herself. She is a journalist, and yet she just told you that the ruling party of Canada wants the people who are protesting their policies to leave, and then she nods bravely, and they need to leave.
Things need to get back to normal. They've got to run the city, doing all the important things that Canadians do in Ottawa.
CNN is siding openly with the Trudeau government because you can't challenge power. I mean, that's what we do in the media, it is to remind you, obey, accept your fate. Rich people have spoken, get in line, and we've got a Trump flag to prove it.
But it gets worse. There were more racist flags this weekend. One of them imported conspicuously from this country. Now, we have definitive evidence of this. We're getting this from Canadian media.
If there was a racist in the crowd, watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, he is going. Now he's gone. We called them out. He knows. He's going to hold his head in shame now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Oh, it's so great. You'll notice in the shot, there's only one person who has his face completely covered, and he happens to be carrying a Confederate flag.
Now, the crowd looks at him and says: Oh, wait a second. We know who you were. You're Ray Epps. Oh, sorry. But we don't trust you -- in exactly the way the crowd in Washington the night before January 6th of last year said to Ray Epps: Get out here, Fed.
So the people on the scene didn't believe that guy was anything but provocateur. Now, we don't know exactly who he was. We will let you make your own conclusions from that. But we're supposed to believe that this one guy in the full face mask with a Confederate flag proves the entire protest is racist. Justin Trudeau has every reason to run away, like a terrified wuss that he is and we can ignore the concerns of the people in the trucker convoy.
But we've got a couple of questions. Who exactly was that guy holding the flag? And where is Justin Trudeau right now?
It's not clear where he was broadcasting from this weekend. But what is clear is that unlike Saddam or Muammar Gaddafi, we're never going to be able to find out. Now, you think to yourself, in a democracy you should know where the head of state is, right? Don't you have a right if you're a voter? Shouldn't Canadians have a right to know where he is?
Yes, but it doesn't matter because Justin Trudeau can hide anywhere. He is a master of disguise. Any place in the world, Justin Trudeau could blend in, and you'd never know it was him. And to prove it, we're going to show you a series of photographs right now. All of them are real and all of them depict the Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.
So here he is looking very much not like a French-Canadian. Looking pretty dark actually. This is an "Arabian Night" themed gathering when he was a high school teacher. Oh, he's got blackface on. Interesting.
And here he is blending in convincingly as a Bollywood star in India. Hands grasped together in reverence and prayer.
Here he is flanked by his new countrymen. They have no idea they're in the presence of a Canadian politician. That's how convincing Justin Trudeau is when he decides to play dress up. They think he's one of them.
I love some samosas, Justin says. We do, too, said the Indian. They have no idea they are talking to a Canadian. But when he is not fooling people in India, he is fooling Native-Americans, and yes, there is a difference, bigot. Not all Indians are the same.
Here is Justin Trudeau wearing the traditional headdress of one of Canada's many indigenous tribes, like the Aztecs of yore, Justin Trudeau will rip your heart out, ladies.
And yet, what's this? Is that Clark Kent of "Superman" fame? No. Once again, it's just Justin Trudeau. He can impersonate fictional characters. Here he is looking like a stranded pilot in the desert from one of the "Star Wars" movies.
He could literally be hiding on a soundstage in Hollywood as we speak. He can even be at a ranch as these pictures demonstrate. Look at that hat. Unbelievable.
As long as no one hands him a gun or ask him where food comes from, that is a convincing rancher right there. So yes, Justin Trudeau can change far more than his skin color. Get a close look.
If you see this man and he has various disguises, do not approach him. He might be hiding in a nondescript cabin in the middle of nowhere, but he's very much in control of Ottawa, at least for the moment.
Chris Barber is a Canadian trucker who joined the convoy and joins us right now. Chris, thanks so much for coming on. How does it feel to have your concerns described as extremist, racist, and anti-democratic?
CHRIS BARBER, CANADIAN TRUCKER: I've been called a lot of things this week, I guess the fringe group or movement. Yes, we're white supremacists, apparently. It's getting a little tiring knowing our Prime Minister is using such rhetoric against his own people, right?
CARLSON: So the pictures that we've seen, well, it is disgusting. That's my evaluation.
BARBER: Absolutely.
CARLSON: Totally disgusting, actually. Attacking your own people. But from our -- the pictures that we've got here in the United States, you know, these seem like cheerful people. They seem like very patriotic people. I see Canadian flags everywhere. Be as honest as you can, is this a bigoted crowd?
BARBER: No, absolutely not. I've walked through this crowd for the last two days. I've spoken with multiple law enforcement agents and asked every one of them if there's been any trouble at all. There has not been any trouble.
There's been a few. We're calling them radicals, I guess dressed up like us, try to blend in with like us to try and make us look bad.
My guys are all peaceful and we're doing our job here. We're doing what we need to do to get the job done for the Canadian people.
CARLSON: So it sounds like your creepy and cowardly Prime Minister owes you an apology. Do you think you'll get one?
BARBER: There's a few people in the politics that owe us an apology. There's a few high-ranking members of each party that have said some things that were completely uncalled for. We were the ones like the frontline workers, like the medical workers, like law enforcement, we worked right from the start of this pandemic and all the way through it. We were we were heroes back then, and now we're zeros.
So we've decided it's time to put our foot down, and we're going to do this and with that, Canadians came out in huge droves to support us. We have united a complete country.
Regardless of the outcome of this, we have already won. Canada is united right now, and it is -- I have never seen so many smiles. I lost my voice from, you know, the excitement here for the last few days.
CARLSON: Man, I hope you keep your foot down, as you put it. Chris, thanks for joining us tonight.
BARBER: No, we are not going to give up.
CARLSON: Good.
BARBER: You bet-cha. Thanks, Tucker.
CARLSON: Thank you.
So here you have Justin Trudeau ignoring an actual debate about his policies and instead trying to make Canadians hate each other. That is a very familiar tactic we see a lot in this country.
Stephen LeDrew previously served as the President of the Canadian the Liberal Party, which Trudeau now leads. He joins us to assess. Thanks. I appreciate your coming on tonight.
So tell us why you think the Prime Minister is in hiding. This does not seem he has presumably police bodyguards, the military. Why is he hiding from these people do you think?
STEPHEN LEDREW, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE CANADIAN LIBERAL PARTY: Well, I mean, he does as you say, have RCMP bodyguards, heavily armed, and he is quite safe. He did not want to be in the same city as these truckers. As you put it, as Chris your previous guest said, they are average Canadians, middle class Canadians. They are fed up with the Trudeau government.
Not just on vaccines, Tucker. This was a culmination of a lot of frustration, you know high produce prices, high gas prices in a country that has unlimited gas and oil. People are very, very frustrated.
Trudeau did not get the most votes in the last election, but because of Parliamentary anomalies, he is still the Prime Minister. And with pent up frustration, so as you pointed out earlier, the mainstream media has been pointing to the one Confederate flag or the one Nazi flag in a group of over a hundred thousand protesters saying, you know, there are obviously a bunch of racists here.
And Trudeau is afraid of the middle class. If it had been a few students, which last summer, there were a number of student groups which toppled statues of Prime Ministers, defaced public buildings, nothing would have happened.
But with a group of middle class Canadians, he is afraid of. He had to leave because he didn't want to be accused of not meeting with them. And by the way, to echo what Chris said, the Ottawa Police said there was not one arrest, not for bad behavior, not for drunkenness, not for anything, not one arrest out of a hundred thousand protesters all weekend.
CARLSON: Do you think, very quickly, it's possible that these protests could topple the Trudeau government? And I say that prayerfully.
LEDREW: No, no, it couldn't. I mean, they are not ready. I mean, they're not a people who are ready to take over the government who wants to be the government, and so it's not going to get toppled.
I think that the protest was very successful. I think that mainstream media, as you put out in Canada has been just playing up a few negative people in there. I think they've made their point. And as Chris said, he said Canadians from coast to coast to coast Tucker, are agreeing with them.
I think that they should probably just disband and let the opposition party politicians in Ottawa do their job now because clearly, there are no guns, there are no arrests. Nobody is going to be taking over the government or setting fire to buildings or anything like that.
CARLSON: We've seen -- we've seen something very close to this. Stephen LeDrew, appreciate coming on tonight. Thank you.
LEDREW: Good to see you.
CARLSON: So most Republican voters don't believe whatever their sympathies that Ukraine is worth going to war over. But unfortunately, there are quite a few zombie Republican senators who haven't received that memo yet. We will introduce you to one of them.
Plus, Lindsey Graham says -- speaking of zombie senators -- he wants to throw all the participants in January 6th into prison. Whose side is he on?
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARLSON: Over the past few weeks, we've asked a very simple question, because that's what we do and we've asked it over and over again: Why is Ukraine important enough to go to war over? Since when did this semi- obscure Eastern European country most Americans know nothing about suddenly become our most important ally in the world?
Yes, Joe Biden's son did take huge amounts of money from Ukrainian oligarchs, but is there another reason we should side with Ukraine over Russia? Russia is a much more significant country by every measure. We certainly don't want Russia forming an alliance with the Chinese government. That would be a disaster for the United States. So why are our leaders pushing Russia toward China?
It all seemed crazy to us. Until yesterday when we saw Senator Jim Risch of Idaho explain it on CNN. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JAMES RISCH (R-ID): The people who were saying that we shouldn't be engaged in this at all are going to be singing a very different tune when they go to fill up their car with gas, if indeed there is an invasion by Russia, because as Bob pointed out, there are going to be sanctions that are going to be crippling to Russia, it is going to cripple their oil production.
And as we all know, Russia is simply a gas station that is masquerading, a thinly disguised and masquerading as a country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country. It's a good line. Here's another version of it. Jim Risch is a moron masquerading as a U.S. senator. How else could you explain what you just heard? Risch promises to throw more sanctions on Russia, which are going to make your gas prices go up here in this country. But somehow that's your fault, because you're not patriotic enough to defend Ukraine. Got it?
How do people like this get elected in Republican primaries? Well, here's one clue. We checked and among Jim Risch's top donors are Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman, the war lobby. So maybe it's not entirely surprising that Jim Risch wants war.
Risch cannot admit that in public, of course, so when CNN used a line you so often here in Washington from war enthusiasts who are trying to hide the real motives, quote: "Ukraine is a democracy. We side always with countries that are democracies." Pretty familiar stuff.
But we wondered, can that really be true? Is all this really about democracy for Jim Risch? So we checked that, too, and it turns out this very same Jim Risch, the arch enemy of non-democracies everywhere has heaped praise on the corrupt theocratic petrol monarchies of Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
Senator Risch calls them partners and says we ought to send them more weapon systems, even though those countries do not allow voting. But wait a second, Jim Risch of Idaho, you pompous, neocon buffoon. Those places aren't democracies. They're the opposite of democracies. What's going on here?
We called Senator Risch today. We asked him to come on this show and explain, he refused, but we sincerely hope he will reconsider.
Well, a lot of January 6th defendants have been languishing in pretrial detention for months. They were denied bail. They have not been convicted of any crime. Some of them have been accused of nonviolent crimes. That's not supposed to happen in this country. It violates our Constitution, but it is happening anyway.
And this weekend, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina announced, he applauds it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I don't want to reinforce that defiling the Capitol was okay. I don't want to do anything that would make this more likely in the future.
I want to deter people who did what they did on January the 6th, and those who did it, I hope they go to jail and get the book thrown at them because they deserve it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: I hope they go to jail, get the book thrown out. Okay, that's fine. We're all for prosecuting crimes. But if you don't prosecute them equally, then you don't really have a justice system, you have arbitrary politically driven punishment, and with that in mind, because of course, everyone in America knows that's exactly what's going on right now, we will tell you this.
We have uncovered the Justice Department asked for a lenient sentence for a rioter who killed a man after burning down in Minneapolis pawnshop in 2020. The D.O.J. asked for a sentence of only 12 years, that's about half the sentencing guideline. Now why didn't they want to send a murderer to prison?
Well, the Biden administration lawyer noted that the defendant, quote, " ... credibly states that he was in the streets to protest unlawful police violence." Oh, he was a BLM protester. He wasn't upset about Biden stealing the election. Therefore, let's half his sentence for murder.
Julie Kelly has followed this story, the January 6th story, more carefully than any other journalist. She is the author of "January 6: How the Democrats Used the Capitol Protest to Launch a War on Terror against the Political Right."
Julie Kelly joins us tonight.
Julie, thanks so much for coming on.
We are going to give Lindsey Graham the benefit of the doubt, though. He is smart, I will say and assume that he has no idea what he is saying when he applauds the treatment of January 6th defendants. Give us a sense of what Lindsey Graham is on TV supporting.
JULIE KELLY, "AMERICAN GREATNESS": So apparently he is in support of the more than 70 men who are under pretrial detention orders, about 40 of them in a political prison in D.C., just in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol Building where Lindsey Graham works.
They have been denied bail repeatedly as their trials continue to be delayed into the middle or even end of this year. Important to underscore, these defendants have not been convicted of any crime. Some of them Tucker, maybe Lindsey Graham will be happy to hear this, have been in jail for over a year now, and awaiting these trials. They can't even see their evidence against them, so hopefully that makes Lindsey Graham feel good.
Seven hundred and thirty Americans have been arrested and charged for mostly misdemeanor offenses related to January 6. So, hopefully this will make him feel much better. I don't know where he is getting his information from, but what's happening -- I talked to the wife of a detainee again tonight, and what I hear people say to me repeatedly, Tucker, is they can't believe this is happening in the United States of America. These things should not be happening.
But Lindsey Graham, instead of defending the Constitution, the rule of law, the presumption of innocence, everything that's being trashed by this D.O.J., he actually is playing along once again with the Democrats. Really shameful stuff.
CARLSON: He is selling out his own voters. The only relationships in Lindsey Graham's life that he cares about, the most significant ones are his relationships with the national news media, and he will never do anything to earn their displeasure and it's on display now. What a disgrace he is.
Julie Kelly, great to see you. Thank you.
KELLY: You, too, Tucker. Thanks.
CARLSON: So the Disney Corporation has just pledged to remove dwarves from their upcoming adaptation of "Snow White" after actor, Peter Dinklage, criticized the movie. But the dwarf acting community is not on board with this. Several dwarf actors could now lose their jobs because of this virtue signaling. We've got details on it next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARLSON: So "Game of Thrones" actor, Peter Dinklage went on a podcast the other day and declared that it was quote, "offensive and backward" that Disney was planning to hire real life dwarves, little people for a remake of the film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Listen.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
PETER DINKLAGE, ACTOR: I was little taken back by the very, very -- they're very proud to cast a Latino actress as Snow White.
HOST: Yes.
DINKLAGE: But you're still telling the story of Snow White.
HOST: Still Snow White. Yes.
DINKLAGE: And the Seven Dwarfs.
HOST: Sure.
DINKLAGE: Take a step back and look at what you're doing there.
HOST: Yes.
DINKLAGE: You know, it makes no sense to me.
HOST: But so --
DINKLAGE: Because you're progressive in one way, and then, but you're still making that [bleep] backward ...
HOST: Oh.
DINKLAGE: ... story of the seven dwarfs living in a cave thinking what the [bleep] are you doing, man?
(END AUDIO CLIP)
CARLSON: So in response to that podcast, podcasts have real power now, the Disney Company said it was quote, "rethinking" its use of dwarves in the "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" remake.
Now, some dwarf actors are asking, who put Peter Dinklage in charge of the dwarf community?
Dylan Postl played Hornswoggle, the leprechaun in the WWE for 10 years. He also act in "The Muppets." He joins us now.
Thanks so much for joining us. So, I think a lot of people hear this podcast and they think well, you know, here's a guy who's got the authority to speak on this and that's his view and no one kind of questions it. Tell us what your reaction to it was.
DYLAN POSTL, HORNSWOGGLE, THE LEPRECHAUN: I mean, my biggest thing is, he wants to be progressive, and it's all about progression and I support that completely.
But the issue is, him being progressive is eliminating seven potential dream jobs from the dwarf acting community, and that's my issue. Here he is, he is saying he wants to move forward and do good for the community when -- these are dream jobs.
I got hired by WWE. WWE was my dream job since I was four years old. Since I was four years old, all I wanted to be was a WWE superstar, and in any other circumstance, it wouldn't have been able to be done by me. I'm not six foot, I'm not 250 pounds.
But they were looking for a person like me, a little person to fill this role. They hired me and I got to live my dream for 10 years.
Now, there are dwarf actors out there that their dream is -- their dream is to start in a film, especially a Disney film because as we know, Disney doesn't do remix or any of their movies at a small scale. They were going to blow this movie up, obviously.
And these are seven roles that are few and far between for dwarfs anyways that were made for us and that is what is ridiculous to me about the whole situation is, it's not being progressive, you're hurting the community by what you're doing.
CARLSON: You make a really good point. And the film is called "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," so I mean, if there was ever place, it might be in this, right?
POSTL: It's not Snow White and the seven normal sized humans. I get that. We have to be progressive. We have to move forward. But you're changing one of the most known fairytales and one of the most known Disney adaptations of all time. Why?
And also, I hate to say it and the king dwarf thing, I said, and I mean that. Who put this guy in charge? And why is he the single voice like for a whole community? For a whole community of people.
I can argue I was on TV for 10 years, I was in film, not at the scale he was. But why? Why? Because he throws the red flag is everything stopped, and that is just what upsets me.
CARLSON: That's such a great point. So one guy has an opinion on a on a podcast and he gets to take control of your career going forward. That's a little strange. So have you met with -- I mean, I think you make a very fair point. Have you met with Disney?
POSTL: I have not. And I would absolutely love to and I'd absolutely love to give my opinion as well as -- I've had people from the dwarf community reach out to me saying how this is crazy that -- to recast or to make it you know the normal humans or normal size. I use that term. But normal humans and normal sized humans for these roles. It's just -- it's insane to me and it just doesn't make any sense.
I say it all the time, Disney, I know six dwarf actors with myself that would love these roles. I'll play Sleepy or Grumpy or whoever or I'll be a stunt double for one of them for all I care. These are dream roles literally made for our community, and I just think it's crazy to recast it.
CARLSON: You makes such a good point. It's a metaphor, a small number of unhappy people get to wreck it for everyone.
Dylan, I hope you get exactly the role that you want, and I hope you reach Disney. Thank you for coming on tonight.
POSTL: Thank you very much for your time.
CARLSON: So you often see Jason Whitlock on this show if you watch, we're always honored to have him. He began as a sports reporter at a newspaper. He learned a lot.
We sit down with him for over an hour, really one of the most interesting conversations we've had in a long time. We'll show you part of it, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARLSON: Well, if you watch professional sports on television, usually football or basketball, you know the broadcast all of a sudden are highly political. They're highly left wing. It's mostly propaganda and they're relentless, just pounding you in the forehead with this stuff. What is that? Why are they doing this exactly?
So Jason Whitlock has covered sports all his life, almost 35 years. For a recent episode of "Tucker Carlson Today," we asked him, what are we watching here? He's the one man who could tell us.
He said sports are the one way ideologues on one side of the political scale can reach everybody. He has an interesting explanation. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON WHITLOCK, HOST, "FEARLESS WITH JASON WHITLOCK": Sports are basically the only way to reach a massive audience on live television.
CARLSON: Yes.
WHITLOCK: It used to be the TV show "Dallas" or "Hill Street Blues" or what -- they could all reach pretty substantial audiences because of DVRs and just people watch TV when they want, they fast forward through commercials. But the only way for advertisers to reach a large amount of viewers and have them captured is through live sports.
And so once that became the reality, sports became more of a target of the left in terms of, if you want to reach a large segment of Americans and move them politically or whatever message you want to get out, it really has to be done through sports, you have to have an alliance with the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball.
And so sports became a target, and people on the left realized that sports had been a pretty conservative endeavor, messaging, the values in sports align with conservatism. Sports tied to religion, coaches pray before and after the games, lead the team.
And I think the left figured out that, no, we have to move and change sports if we are going to get our message out in a big way.
And so, you know, it started before this, but I said earlier on in 2016, when Kaepernick started kneeling, like he's the Trojan horse. He is going to empower the left to basically take over the sports world, and they've done that. He changed the entire discussion around sports by kneeling and created the opportunity for the sports media to come in behind him and support what he is doing and make it this really polarizing issue. And if you don't support Kaepernick, you're a racist.
And, and next thing, you know, Roger Goodell and the NFL, they start to fold. They don't want to be criticized by the left, by "The New York Times," by social media, and so they started incorporating all the Black Lives Matters sloganeering and messaging into their endeavors.
And so now, when you look at the NBA or the NFL, the commercial breaks, the slogans on the back of helmets and on the field, it is all the BLM Marxist stuff, all the leftist stuff baked right into the game, and they are using sports to move people politically and to redefine American patriotism.
And so sports used to be this great celebration of the best values of America, and now they've turned it into a platform for the very wealthy athletes to wag their finger at America and say, you know, you've screwed over black people and people of color, you've screwed over the gay community, you've screwed over everybody. It's been pretty brilliant the way sports have been manipulated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Amazing conversation with Jason Whitlock, my personal favorite, him describing how he became Jason Whitlock growing up in Indianapolis at his dad's bar. Great conversation absolutely worth listening to.
You can get it free at tuckercarlson.com. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARLSON: Oh man, the bragging promo. Sorry about that.
We had a great time tonight. We'll be back tomorrow hope. You'll join us then. By the way, a brand new episode of "Tucker Carlson Today" featuring Jason Whitlock, his life story. Worth watching.
And of course, we'll be back every night at 8:00 PM, the show that is the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Great Sean Hannity.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: By the way, it is not bragging. It's just telling the truth. Telling you a story.
I'm in favor of being honest. Let's take it as it is.
CARLSON: Thank you.
HANNITY: I'm cool with that. You don't need to apologize for that commercial. That's awesome.
Anyway, Tucker, thank you.
CARLSON: Thank you.
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