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An interesting Tucker Carlson interview with previous Trump Chief Strategist Steve Bannon ! https://t.co/GYYQJ8Hfbv
Video Transcript AI Summary
Tucker Carlson discusses his concerns about potential US involvement in another Middle Eastern war, particularly with Iran, and the forces driving this push. He criticizes media outlets like Fox News for promoting such conflicts, despite claiming to like the Murdochs personally. He believes a war with Iran would undermine Trump's domestic agenda and fears the US is sleepwalking into a larger conflict.
Carlson expresses frustration with the political system, which he feels is ignoring the will of the American people and is being influenced by a "deep state" that has existed since the Kennedy assassination. He suggests Trump should resist being "bum rushed" into a war and prioritize American interests. He also accuses some individuals and groups of misrepresenting Trump's motives regarding peace in the Middle East. Carlson emphasizes his desire to avoid becoming consumed by hate or obsession with the topic, but feels compelled to speak out due to his concern for the country's future.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: We've got Dee Tucker Carlson in the war room. Brother, thank you. It's good to see This is by the way, you were here years ago, Andrew Breitbart. When Andrew Breitbart lived here, you were up at the top.
Speaker 1: I was joined the day it opened,
Speaker 0: and Yes.
Speaker 1: It looks exactly the same. I can't believe you're still here. I mean, that was fifteen years anyway.
Speaker 0: Fifteen years. So 02/2011, fourteen years going on fifteen to ten. Crazy. I know since you left DC, you're you're very hesitant to spend a lot of time here. Yes.
This is you're not you're this is not your favorite town anymore.
Speaker 1: I spent my whole life here. I have family here. I have close family here, so I I come back to see them, but not not very often.
Speaker 0: Why are you in town? You're gonna spend a couple days in town, which is quite
Speaker 1: I'm interviewing various people. The president's gone, but I'm seeing a bunch of people and, you know, there's a lot going on and I feel like there aren't many people representing the, hey, let's have less violence and focus on America side of things. So it's worth coming just to say that out loud. Of course, you're hated for it. It's crazy how the people who are against killing are the criminals all of a sudden.
It's wild. And I thought the other day, you know, this is accelerating and I was hearing all this, you know, I'm going to war with Iran and I was the party was like, oh, we're not really gonna do that. After we have this election whose core point was, hey, can we just pay attention to this amazing nation that we have that's suffering and people are taking loans out to buy groceries? And, like, we need attention and money. Micropayments.
Speaker 0: They they buy now and they pay micropayments over time Food. For food.
Speaker 1: For food. But, hey, let's pay for somebody else's missile defense. No. So I I start to think I start to hear this stuff and I'm like, this can't be real. But then it's it becomes obvious to me that it is real.
And I think that is the last conversation I wanna be part of. I have zero interest in this conversation at all. I know it's all downside for me. It's like I'm gonna get, you know, rich and make more friends trying to stop
Speaker 0: But why why why why is the the the argument that you're making I'm making a slightly different argument, but it's trinity. Why are you being vilified? So maybe we just had Tom Cotton. We played clips before he got here. We had Mark Levin, Tom Cotton, we had BB.
BB said last night to Brent Baer, oh, it's twelve to thirteen months away from you know, we're supposed there was supposed the bomb was supposed to be on Friday or Saturday. Now he's telling Brent Baer on Sunday, really, we got intelligence, but it's twelve to thirteen months away, which is something they've been saying forever.
Speaker 1: Why funny that Beebe's more honest about it than than his water carriers here in The United States. Like, you would never get Barry Weiss or Tom Cotton to admit that.
Speaker 0: Well, Tom Cotton took a shot. He said the, you know
Speaker 1: He's mad at BB now. BB's No. No. No. He took a shot.
Took a He's
Speaker 2: not from Israel enough.
Speaker 0: He took a he took a shot at the same podcasters and influencers, right, or don't have the accountability, the responsibility here.
Speaker 1: You know, yes. I I really try I've spent a lot of my life being cruel and really cruel, and I'll have to answer for that someday and at times dishonesty. What do
Speaker 0: you mean cruel?
Speaker 1: Just going after those weaknesses. No. That's my instinct always. I mean, I grew up as a debater and I'm nasty in some ways. And so I look at some of the players in this whom I've known since they got to Washington, since, again, I'm from here.
I had breakfast at the Metropolitan Club this morning, alone. And, no. This is like my city. Right? My dad worked for the government.
This is where we're from. And and I look at these people who I've known since they, you know, came in from the provinces, including the senator you mentioned, who's from a state I used to live in. And, you know, you could really be mean about it, and they are mean. You know, they've attacked my family and all this stuff a lot. But I'm trying not to respond that way.
My interest is really simple. I don't want The United States enmeshed in another Middle Eastern war that doesn't serve our interest. I saw that last time. I covered that war. I had a friend killed in that war.
Speaker 0: Talk about Iraq because Iraq is saying some of the same voices at the Fox platform who was so
Speaker 1: You know, the Fox platform is just it's so disgraceful. What's you know, there's so many good people at Fox. I worked for the Murdochs for, you know, all in over twenty years. I always liked them. I like them now.
I'm not attacking them personally and tons of people at Fox are my friends. And I there's a lot about Fox that I love, and they were kind to me, always. Even when they fired me, they were nice. I just wanna say that. But the one theme that runs longitudinally through the history of Fox is the promotion of wars that don't help The United States.
And I don't know is why is that? It's the owners are committed to that vision, and, and they are elaborately polite, nice people. You know them, Rupert and Laughlin. I mean, they were sitting here. There's no chance you wouldn't like them, and they're interesting, and they're smart, and they're just nice.
They're super nice, but we disagree fundamentally on that. And the claws really come out at moments like this. You know, most of the time, it's, you know, it's fine. But when it really comes down or when it's a question of whether US military power will be exerted on behalf of a foreign country thousands of miles from here, they are all in and anyone who stands in the way will be destroyed. I don't think it's personal, by the way.
I like Tom Cotton. I always like Barry Weiss. Barry Weiss is very charming person. I like all these people. I always like Mark Levin.
Like, I got along with him. I mean, he's blowhard, sad personal life and all that, but I I was never mad at Mark Levin or Hannity. I like Brilliant
Speaker 0: brilliant constitutional guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah. There there are great things about all these people. I don't think they hate me personally. They know I'm not working for Qatar. I feel like maybe I should be working for Qatar.
Like, what the hell at this point? I've never taken a dime from any foreign country or anybody, actually.
Speaker 0: In fact, you just bought out I think it was announced you bought out your investors.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Not a money guy. Mean, they're projecting. If you could see my house, like, I've made more money than I deserve, but I've not gotten rich. And I don't live like a rich person.
Everyone knows that. They're money people. That's why they're projecting or they're people with opaque motives. My motives are I'm, like, autistic about my whole life. I just I'm totally happy to tell you why I'm doing what I'm doing and I wanna be transparent and I think pretty much I am.
They're the ones who have these weird complex motives and so they project onto everyone else the same. Oh, you're getting paid by somebody. You you're not sincere. You don't really think that you're saying it in order to get clicks or it's also dumb In my case, untrue. You may dislike my views and you may have good reason to dislike my views and I understand that.
But they're totally sincere. Anyway, my temptation in a moment like this is to go low and to note that a lot of the people pushing for this stuff have really empty tormented personal lives. That's true of many in Washington. And that this is a way to kind of feel powerful. I mean, nothing makes you feel more powerful than killing other people.
That's the ultimate power. And and we talk so much about money and sex and those are drivers of human behavior. Of course, those are powerful impulses in people to accumulate more of both. But really, the ultimate power, the Promethean power, the core power is the power to kill. And when you deny that to people or you seek to deny that to people or you raise the point that actually you can't kill people and that when you do, you will suffer for that.
As you said the other day and I and I just I loved it. I meditated on it in That moment in Matthew, and it's not just in Matthew. It's in John. It's in a number of gospels where Jesus scolds Peter for raising the sword in his defense. They're they're hauling off Jesus to torture him to death for no reason.
All he did was heal people. And his closest disciples seeks to defend him with violence, and Jesus scolds him and then gets hauled off
Speaker 0: to a They torturous could have made a break. They would would have stood up, and Jesus wouldn't have been seized, and it had all gone on. But he told him right there, live by the sword. Die by
Speaker 1: the scolds him. It's unbelievable. He's mad at Peter. It's just incredible. Anyway, whether or not you believe in Christianity, whether or not you're a Christian, it doesn't matter.
It is true that people who espouse violence suffer in the end. They do. I have seen it a lot. And I grew up in a world that have espoused violence. That's what the US government does.
My dad was involved in it. And I just I just believe that. And maybe you don't believe that. That's fine. That is my core belief.
I I sincerely think that. But why the hate towards someone who's just like, hey, I I'm not I'm hard if you think and I said this to an Israeli official. If you think I'm anti Israel, man, you are you have lost the plot, son. If you think I'm your enemy, not at all. I like Israel.
Are you kidding? I've spent a lot of time there. I continue to like it. I pray that Jerusalem is not damaged. I feel so sad for the Israelis who've been killed in the last couple days and the Iranians who've been killed in the last couple days with nothing to do with any of this.
But the point is, if you think that saying, hey, let's focus focus on my country where I was born, where my family's been for hundreds of years, that was the promise of the last election, please do it. If you think that's hate, you know, you've really lost perspective, I guess is what I would say. But they do think it's hate and I've and what's happened is what I knew it happened, which is just like, oh, attacks I don't wanna deal with that are affecting personal friendships that I care about. The viciousness and the dishonesty is almost unbelievable. Anyway, not to whine.
I never whine about stuff like that. It's just that I knew this was gonna happen. I didn't wanna talk about it at all. I'd much rather talk about immigration. I'd much rather talk about keeping the dollar stores out of rural America.
There are all kind I'd much rather talk about people taking out loans to buy groceries. These are the declining life expectancy in this country. Fentanyl? I mean, someone else I know just died of fentanyl last week. It's like all of that is now ignored because a leader of a country who does not have majority support in that country, probably 30% support, wants a course of action that includes The United States.
And I just disagree. And, anyway, I think it's gonna happen. I don't know, here's what I
Speaker 0: You you think that do you think we're enjoying the combat offensive combat opera? Well, we have to we have to we can't assume that we have
Speaker 1: to stop the product of, like, look
Speaker 0: We have to stop that.
Speaker 1: You've actually helped run the governments. I don't need to tell you. You've been there. Decisions like this are never explicitly made. They just sort of happen.
Yes. Sort of like living with your girlfriend. Like, you you you know, you wake up hungover one morning and she's there, and then she just kind of doesn't leave. And then next thing you know, you get married and have kids. Like, that's how most people make decisions, just sort of on the basis of facts on the ground.
And these things move inexorably toward what they're moving to now, which is full scale war that includes lots of other countries, either explicitly or not, but the effect is the same. It's a world war. It's a war in which the world is participating.
Speaker 0: Well, we're we're I think we're in the kinetic part from Ukraine, but today, they just moved the carrier battle group from the South China Sea. The Nimitz is heading toward the North Arabian Sea. So they're they're they're they've got the the the tankers have flown over there. So we're prepositioning the assets Of course. To get involved.
And you think that this is gonna happen. There's no way we can stop it.
Speaker 1: It's too I mean, I think there are ways to stop it. Oh, you are such a nice person. Sorry. I needed the sacred beverage. No.
Of course, there are ways to stop it. It's just that unless you take it's like gaining weight, which I have, you know, lived with. It's like unless you are a crazy person devoted to being thin, you will get fatter in your fifties. Like, you have to take active steps to prevent the inevitable, something that is inevitable otherwise. And in this case, what's inevitable absent those active monomaniacal steps toward preventing it is is a is a much larger war.
It's too easy to pull The United States into. Have too many assets in that region. We're too dependent on the energy from that region. International oil markets are mean, there's so many things that could go wrong, actually. It's horrifying as the the exchange between Israel and Iran has been.
Horrifying in the sense that innocents have died, which, let me remind you, is horrifying always and everywhere.
Speaker 0: No. Have to believe that. Tehran's got hit. Civilians are dead.
Speaker 1: In both places. Right. And if we don't think that that's sad, then we're not fully human. Like, you have to believe that's sad and you have to really mean it. Whether or not, you know, you can hate the Iranian government.
I'm not for the Iranian government. But if you don't see the death of innocence anywhere is sad, then you are gravely diminished, certainly as a Christian. Hey, whatever. But there are so many ways to pull The United States into this, and the incentives to pull The US in are so profound. I guess, if I could just say one political thing, the watching Donald Trump, who, of course, you know very well, who I think at core is sincere about peace.
Oh, big time. Yeah. Big time. Yeah. Big time.
I mean, that's that's real. Watching him done so wrong, the lies, oh, he knew all along, you know, that the peace process was fake. Steve Witkoff was playing along. That is a lie. That's a lie.
I know. That's a lie. Those guys meant it.
Speaker 0: Bald faced lie.
Speaker 1: It's a total lie. And all these people that that Mark Levin and and all of the minions who are running cover for a foreign government, they're all telling that same lie. And I just I feel for president Trump, and I think I don't know this. I'm just guessing. But at this point, I feel like he just has to kinda roll with it.
You know, what do you say? You can't you don't wanna get in an argument about that right in the middle of a war.
Speaker 0: No. I think he reiterated last night that we gotta get back to the peace part. They gotta lay down the
Speaker 1: lying about him. He sincerely even now, he sincerely believes whether he's right or or not, I I can't say. But that this could be a predicate to a peace deal, what we're seeing now. He really thinks that and wants that, and the and the other side is just like, no. We a peace deal is the world.
Speaker 0: It's the other side, but the other side also has app the apparatus here. This is
Speaker 1: what happened in The US.
Speaker 0: When Ukraine attacked when Ukraine attacked, we still haven't asked Ratcliffe. Was the CIA involved? That is zero probability Ukraine could attack that deep into Russia Exactly. With without without some involvement. Here, the exact same thing.
Why was Tulsi Gabbard not invited to the Camp David meeting all day? You know why? Why Tulsi Gabbard still to the American public is is has said the last public statement is that the the program was not back up and running. And now we have from from Beebe by himself on Fox by Brent Bear that the thing was twelve to thirteen months away. It wasn't this weekend.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 0: And this is by his own thing. And we also know that it was a decapitation. As we said on Friday, it wasn't just about the nuclear program. It's a decapitation of total leadership. So this is a total regime change, which, by the way, you may have a plan for regime change is fine, but you gotta bring the American people on.
Let me go back.
Speaker 1: I by the way, I said that publicly last week. This is the point of this is regime change. I know everyone involved. I know I'm I'm telling the truth. I have no weird motive here at all.
I don't need Israel. Let's have a rational conversation about what our aims are here, and maybe you can convince me that we need to support a regime change war in Iran. Tell me how that plays out in a country of 90,000,000 people. Have you thought it through? Do you even care?
And the answer is no. We have a economic and political and demographic crisis in Europe because of US backed, Israel backed
Speaker 0: Syria.
Speaker 1: Wars Yes. In The Middle East. That's what's destroyed Europe where my ancestors came from. And I I spend a lot of time there, and I love European culture, which is Christian culture. And it's destroyed that.
And, you know, shut up. You're not allowed to care. Who's making the rules here? You know, I I don't hate anyone. I don't see conflict with anyone at all.
I have no weird biases. All my biases are out in the open. And but I I I really resent being told who my enemy especially with foreigners. Some foreigner shows up and tells you who your enemies are? Really?
I've been here a long time. I live across from my parents' graves. You can't tell me who America's enemies are. At least I have a right to weigh in on that also. Oh, shut up, says Mark Dubowitz or something.
It's like, you are you even
Speaker 2: from here? What do you who are you anyway? This is so bonkers.
Speaker 1: I don't hate Mark Dubowitz. I don't hate his agenda. What I hate I disagree with his agenda. I'm not mad at him. I'm not mad at any of these people fundamentally.
But what I seek is an honest, open, transparent conversation about what we're doing and why. And I don't think that's too much to ask for considering it's my tax dollars and my money that you're seeking to use to achieve it. If that's radical, then, you know, we've distorted the terms beyond recognition.
Speaker 0: If you look at the debt, $9,000,000,000,000 associated with Iraq and Afghanistan. I wanna go back to Iraq. We played on Friday. We did the whole opening thing of the bombing, everything going everybody on TV beating their chest because at that time, it looked like Israel was telling, hey. This thing's over now.
People jumping in. And we finished with shock and awe from February. And I said, hey. Look. If you go back in that time, they're all beating their chest then in the march up country to Baghdad, and they couldn't be better.
Remember, they're throwing roses on the ground, all that. And it was twenty years later, a complete fiasco because it's always a law unintended consequences. That's what we face here. This thing has not been thought through. Right?
It does not have the commitment of the American. We have to bring the American people. The American people are not there to get into another war right
Speaker 1: now. And why is the congress not actively debating this? There's one person. Marjorie Taylor Greene is, like, the only oh, and now Levin says this morning, she's not MAGA. Okay.
Alright now. Now we're really in the last scene of Animal Farm.
Speaker 0: No. She she's just she's just some tiny congressman from rural Georgia.
Speaker 1: She's some liberal from Suburban Atlanta. I mean, it's also mind bending. And I have to say, you know, the the level of unanimity, the sort of instantaneous response from 535 members of congress that we're gonna do this one thing, No debate. Anyone who says otherwise is evil. It does make you wonder, like, what is this system?
Are you an appeaser?
Speaker 0: You've been called now an appeaser? An appeaser? What? And a pacifist.
Speaker 1: Right? A pacifist.
Speaker 0: Why why why have they thrown what have both Well, they're literally a fact
Speaker 1: that my family
Speaker 0: What have you said here in the last seventy two hours as a factual matter that would make you an appeaser
Speaker 1: and make you American above all. I am not a genius. I'm not a prophet. I've been wrong many many times, and I it's possible I'm wrong now, but my motives are transparent. I love this country.
Have nowhere else to go. I don't I will not go anywhere else, and I just want what's best for it. We can debate what's best for it. But to tell me that I'm working for a foreign nation is like by people who are literally working for foreign nations, it's like so nuts. I will say this.
Our political system is paralyzed in the face of this completely. It's not doing what it was designed to do, which is channel the views of the people through the apparatus of government. It's not doing that at all. It's short circuiting and ignoring their opinions. And you have to kind of wonder why, and I don't fully understand it.
I know that our system is not working, and I don't think there's any country in the planet looking at us saying, oh, I want that system. Oh, wow. That version of democracy, I think What if
Speaker 0: look at Trump as that trade deals to bring jobs back, seal the border, and deport the illegal aliens, and no more forever wars as the basic planks in November of last year that won Yes. I wanna speak with back. It it is at least working at that level that the message can get out, and we have a new coalition. We have African American men, Hispanics, families, know, Star County, Texas, the the most Hispanic county in the country, 97% hard bitten, blue collar Hispanic citizens. We lose by to Hillary by 60 points.
Trump wins in November by 16 points. It's coming our way in this new coalition. Incredible. Including even the summit, and I get limited appetite from even the tech bros in that crowd. It's a new coalition like 1932, right, where FDR had professors at Harvard and cracker democrats down down South and ranchers out West and and people in inner cities and Irish and Italians and all that.
A new coalition that could govern for
Speaker 1: fifty years.
Speaker 0: One one one. But it's something that could govern for fifty years. That's out. Now we're into the governing of it where those are the priorities. And particularly, president Trump has now tripled down with the ice raids and saying, hey.
These sanctuary cities are gonna go. We're gonna get these people out of here. That to me is the top battle in this third world war. That we've had 10,000,000 illegal aliens just on Biden's watch. Is it not able to go able to win elections, but not able to govern?
Is that the issue?
Speaker 1: You know, I really don't know. I I there's something really wrong. There are certain red lines that you can't cross, and and they're almost all foreign policy related. I do think that, you know, the people pushing hardest for American involvement in a war with Iran really hate Trump's domestic agenda. Mark Levin was a never Trumper in 02/2016, of course.
They all do, the Bill Crystals. They all hate what Trump is trying to do in The United States.
Speaker 0: Which is populist economics. Yeah.
Speaker 1: They hate it. They hate it. That's exactly right. Look. We'll see this in the tax bill.
For Trump with Trump. I I I gave up this sounds so whiny, but, like, grouse season, which is my favorite time of year in in October and left my dogs at home suffering. Like, where are you? And I went on the road with Trump, and I loved it. And I was with him.
I was standing right next to him when he won. I have a picture of phone of that, which I would never show anybody else, but I look at it because it was one of my happiest moments. It was the happiest moment in politics and I've seen a lot that I've ever participated in. And look, of course, governing's really hard and you're never gonna do everything you promised you would do, but on the big things, it's really important that they not get totally subverted because it makes people lose faith in the system. And I do think
Speaker 0: But the systems run this is the deep state part of it.
Speaker 1: What is the system?
Speaker 0: We we barely have a grip. We have two good guys. Cash Patel is like a brother to me and Dan Bungino, great guy. We have two people at FBI. We barely have a grip there.
We have a handful of people at justice. We barely have a grip there. We have two people at Ellis and and Radcliffe at CIA. Right? We have a handful of people with with Tulsi.
On the security, we have Christie and and Corey and a couple other people, you know, the home and at DHS, but DHS is still getting people out here the old fashioned way. That's where they're burning through cash. In these central apparatuses of the deep state, we barely have a grip on it, and they're running the deal.
Speaker 1: The Kennedy files out sixty two years later. And by the way, somebody murdered the president of The United States and lied about it for sixty years. Okay? And we still can't get those files. There we there are thousands of documents that have not been released as of today.
And everyone seems
Speaker 0: to All of it related all of it related to somehow CIA activity or CIA suppressing information with the FDA.
Speaker 1: Just CIA. Okay? So until look. We're living in a post coup country. The coup from Everything the that happened After that.
Post 1963. Every elected official, certainly every official elected at the national level lives with that hanging over him. They took out this guy, and whoever did it is so powerful that we can't even know today when John McCone is fifty years in the grave, head of CIA then. Everyone's gone, and we still can't find out exactly what happened today.
Speaker 0: Sources and methods.
Speaker 1: They don't even say that anymore. They don't say anything. They're just like, we released y'all. No. You didn't.
You lie. You lie. I know. I'm from here. I, you know, I I know.
So I do think there's a sense in which some of our leaders feel the presence of a physical threat.
Speaker 0: I don't think that I know it. So Well, to when Trump is a two assassination attempts.
Speaker 1: Well, at least two. And you can't have Not
Speaker 0: from Iran. Two that were Not from Iran and for For BBSA's got two.
Speaker 1: It's That's that's reaching. I mean, I do think that Netanyahu could make his case by telling the truth. I don't think there's any reason to lie. Again, that's a lie. He knows that Iran and then he Brett Bear pressed him and he's like, oh, it's your proxies anyway.
But the but the point is the point is you know, as a high school debater,
Speaker 0: I know how this works.
Speaker 2: Pivot. But the point is over here, it's it's
Speaker 1: a three card money. It's the gypsies. You know? Okay. No.
Iran did not try to assassinate the president during the last election. And by the way, if Iran did try to assassinate Trump and we know that, then why are we not at war with Iran? What are you saying, Bibi? Are you saying that the president of The United States is such a cuck that a foreign country can try and murder him and he won't do anything about it? Is that what you're saying?
I mean, if if the administration believed Iran was behind two assassination attempts against Donald Trump, trust me, We nuked the country. You can't do your own murder an American president. So, we that's not true and everyone knows it's not true. But what is true is that the American president was murdered and we're still not allowed to know who did it and why. And I just think until that is cleared and I've never been a Kennedy obsessive or whatever, not interested in the Kennedys especially.
I'm not I'm not Irish. But as a matter of like governance, how can you have a president or a senator who truly does his best to uphold the core idea of a democratic republic, which is like the people's opinions matter? You can't have that because he's worried about getting killed. That's just true. And nobody says that.
I don't know why don't they say that. Oh, you know. If this were happening in Liberia, you'd be like, it's not a real government because whenever the president try and, you know, strays outside the pre prescribed boundaries, he gets murdered or worries about getting murdered. Pretty much the same thing. You would not describe that as a functioning democracy.
And yet, we just pretend that this is not happening, but it is happening. And, boy, do you see it on foreign policy? It's the only issue they care about. You really think that ended Mark Levin, like, cares how many Somalis are in Minnesota? No.
Not at all. The more the better. What he all he cares about is the projection of force using American service personnel to fight faraway wars that have no material benefit, in fact, massive downside for The United States. That's his whole orientation.
Speaker 0: But why is that the platform of Fox, though? It's just not Mark. So but why is Fox, like, all weekend, it's just cheerly it's the same it's exact you can play side by side Iraq in 2003 Oh, I was there. In here. And and what's happening today?
Why is it that why is this apparatus?
Speaker 1: Well, Levin's the funniest because he's terrible on TV. And, again, I never had any problems with him at Fox. He kinda controls Hannity in this weird way. I never understood what that was about. I never really cared to learn.
Sean was great to me, always nice, and so was Levin. So I just, like, kinda stayed away. But they didn't wanna put him on TV because he's, like, screechy and he's just not a coming president. Michael on TV. Like, oh my unless you're literally floating in and out of consciousness and the attendant has taken the remote to go have a cigarette, you're gonna flip the channel when my Michael Levin gets on TV.
It's like listening to your ex wife screaming about alimony payments. It's like not appealing. So they wouldn't put him on TV and then, you know, Sean pushed and they gave him some kind of weekend show that nobody watched. Now, I don't have a TV, but someone was just who had who owns a TV was just telling me that he's, like, all over prime time. So what is that?
That's not by popular acclaim. It's not like their viewer surveys. Like, you know, we need a lot more Mark Levin. Less Jesse Waters, more Mark Levin. Mark Levin.
Speaker 2: What they're doing is what
Speaker 1: they always do, which is just turning up the propaganda hose to full blast and just trying to, you know, knock elderly Fox viewers off their feet and make them submit
Speaker 0: This is this is where the this is where the population, the voters are ahead of the political class in the media. The American people do not want any more engagement in a foreign war. They just they saw Iraq. They saw Afghanistan. We're just out.
I think twenty
Speaker 1: years racist. I think is that what you're saying? They're just bigots.
Speaker 0: So so so why is why is Fox continue to pound that?
Speaker 1: Because they really really mean it. And you saw they really mean it. I mean, there is a kind of sincerity there that I respect. It's I I don't know why they fired me, but I think it no one ever told me. And I just wanna say for the fifth time, they could not have been nicer when they fired me, and they couldn't have been, you know, more friendly.
I I talked to them recently to the owners recently because I still like them even though we disagree. So I'm not whining about them as people, but I think they can me from Fox or shut down my show because I criticized Zelensky and Zelensky's close to the owners of the company. It's like, well, how did that happen? Why is Zelensky I don't know. I don't understand.
There's a lot I don't understand. All I know is and it's not just Fox News. It's the American media generally. It's it's government institutions. It's this city.
It's the people I used to live next to on Cambridge Road Northwest in DC. They are deadly serious on the subject of projection of force abroad. That is the one they have no sense of hearing about at all. They'll lecture you all day about the gays and the black people and, you know, in this house, we believe in science. They don't give a shit about science or black people or gays or transgender.
What they care about is the projection of force against their enemies on the other side of the globe. That's why the Pentagon has a trillion dollar budget when the country is protected by the Atlantic and the Pacific.
Speaker 0: And and president Trump's strategy is a hemisphere defense. What then are the steps that you're recommending if the if the program is we must take down the deep state or at least make some effort at at it? What would be your recommendation to the
Speaker 1: process? Under control.
Speaker 0: And how would you do that?
Speaker 1: By adding the number of political appointees. You know, I think CIA has know, it's a federal agency whose budget we don't know, of course. And it's not just a federal agency.
Speaker 0: And I say this in all Syrians. The the special government employee where you still had your podcast, you still had your the Tucker Carlson network, would you go assist the president like Elon did with Doge? Would you go assist him to say, hey. Give me a hundred and twenty days. I will give you advice.
CIA? No. I've the whole thing. CIA, Pentagon, DIA, the the DNI, all of it, FBI, DOJ to say, hey. Look.
Here's the battle map. Here's what we have to do, or we're not gonna have we don't really have a constitution republic.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm unable to organize a sock drawer, so I don't think that I have the temperament. I don't think I have the skills for that. I'm doing Do you
Speaker 0: have the insight to do that if you had other people who can organize it?
Speaker 1: Grew up around it. Yeah. I know.
Speaker 0: I know a lot about it. And I think this has to happen. And I'm being some very serious.
Speaker 1: Killed immediately, of course.
Speaker 0: I mean, you think you would be subject to assassination?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think I I think that would be perilous. I would do it. I would do look. I feel like what I'm doing now, I love Trump, and I mean that.
I've never Does Trump frustrate you? Of course. I mean, you've you've certainly been through that. But my dog's frustrated. My kid's frustrated.
I mean, you get frustrated when you deal with people you love. But I'm my core feeling about Trump, I think it's obvious in the way I talk about him, and I didn't I don't I don't need any more money. I don't need anything from anybody. If I didn't like Trump, I'd just say so. I actually really love Trump.
I think he's a deeply humane, kind person. And I am saying this because I I'm really afraid that my country's gonna be further weakened by this. I think we're gonna see the end of American empire, obviously. Other nations would like to see that, and this is a perfect way to scuttle the USS America on the shoals of Iran. But it's also going to end, I believe, Trump's presidency and effectively end it.
And and so that's why I'm saying this.
Speaker 0: What do you mean by that? That's that's coming from you.
Speaker 1: That's You get look, I knew Bush. I knew George w Bush. We family connections to Bush. I knew Bush. Personally, I still see Bush sometimes.
And, know, of course, he he hates me and he does because I criticized him on Iraq. And that war is the sum total from historical perspective of his administration. But I knew him and he had all kinds of plans for the things that he wanted to do. But once Domestically. Domestically.
Right. To improve the country. Right. And you may agree or disagree, but like in his mind, he wasn't just about the invasion of Iraq in March of
Speaker 0: twenty He was gonna redo Social Security. He had all his 100%. Aug types of he was gonna take care of the entitlements issue.
Speaker 1: And he really thought it was gonna work. Yep. And you could laugh at that or whatever, but the point is the second you get enmeshed in a real war, not a fake, let's go bomb the villagers and declare success, though we don't even have a good track record. Like, why are the Houthis still there? I mean, there's a whole other question, which is how prepared is the US military for real conflict?
And the answer is totally unprepared. Scary unprepared. I don't think people understand that. But anyway, the only reason I'm saying any of this is because I really, really care. And it's been what a disaster for me personally.
I mean, it's like the last thing I wake up, you know, there are all these texts going, well, I can't believe you're so evil. You hate this and that. I I just wanna restate. I don't hate anybody. And to the extent I do hate people, I try to repent of it.
I don't want to hate anybody. I really don't. I just don't want my country to be further weakened or destroyed by another one of these wars. And, boy, if you can't connect the dots after twenty five years of this shit, you're either too dumb to participate in the conversation or you're, like Mark Levin, just a liar who doesn't care.
Speaker 0: I know you gotta bounce. We're gonna hang up this afternoon. One question. If you were able to see the president in the next couple days when he gets back, what would be the two or three things you would tell him? Mister president, this is my this is my heartfelt advice about where we are right now for
Speaker 1: the country. Because I think I try to speak exactly the same well, you know me. I speak exactly the same in private. I use the f word more. But in in general, I say the same things.
And I would say to him, like, you're the only person who can bring peace. You should continue to try and do that. It's difficult. It takes a long time, but your timetable is the only timetable that matters. Don't get bum rushed.
You don't need to fix this because there's political turmoil in Bibi's coalition. Right. It's not relevant
Speaker 0: to the military. He's at 30% approval is not your problem.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Just because some ultra orthodox party doesn't wanna be conscripted or whatever's going on in Israel, these are long time problems that that country has had. That's not relevant to our plans or to your plans as the leader of the free world. Okay? A.
B, if you get involved in a war that includes American troops and force, if you're lobbying missiles from submarines into Iran
Speaker 0: Or combat sorties. You're doing combat sorties. You're I actually say we're combatant now, but, I mean, you could basically argue maybe not what the air
Speaker 1: defense I just wanna pretend we're not.
Speaker 0: Okay.
Speaker 1: Because Yes. Of course, we are. And but I wanna pretend we're not because we're in the final stages of being able to pull back, and pretty soon, there's no pulling back. You know, we're still sending money to Ukraine to fight Vladimir Putin. Like, how did that happen?
It happened because nobody just stopped it. Nobody said, hey, Zelensky. You're not even elected. You're a dictator. Off the stage.
Run to Switzerland. You know? Get out of
Speaker 0: The intelligence services are helping from to plan the 3,000 mile strike into their strategic assets in the country.
Speaker 1: The US services are also fully aware of the many assassinations and assassination attempts against opponents and critics of the Ukrainian regime. Many, including someone I know. So, The U this is super dark, man. The more you know about it, it's like The U The US the IC, American Intel community, is aware that the Ukrainian Intel community is murdering people, including Americans? Like, how can that even happen?
So there's a lot. But the last thing I'll say is the second I've seen it. The second the killing starts, the calculations change. People become much less principled, much less reasonable, much less able to
Speaker 0: see Vengeance and annihilation. And they can't
Speaker 1: see their own interest clearly, and so don't don't go there.
Speaker 0: And you think right now we're on the cusp of that?
Speaker 1: I'm an optimistic man, and I think that we could I think we could pull back. And I I wish the president wasn't in Canada. I don't wish a trip to Canada on anyone because I think it's a really dark country. Hope I he gets home soon because you don't want any of that Canadian to rub off on you while you're there. But, yeah, I mean, I think that this can be can be stopped, but it it it's gonna require a really tough step, which is to say to our client state, we love you.
We wanna help you. We don't think you're acting in your own interest, but, you know, we could debate that. But what we're not gonna do is imperil American national security or the American economy or America itself on your behalf. We're not gonna do that because that's that's immoral for us to do that. Our population doesn't want it and we're saying this with love, but no.
No. As you would say to a child. I mean, you've got a bunch of kids, you say no to them? Of course, do because you love them. It's okay to do that and and, you know, there are proxies in The United States and Barry and that Levin character will jump.
You hate them. Don't hate them at all. I like them. This is crazy. What's the endgame here?
The endgame, of course, is to topple the regime and just have this 90,000,000 person civil war and further destroy Europe and the world. You know, it's like, we're not doing that again. We've already been through this. We're not doing that again. And this is big boy stuff.
This is not Gaza. And I, you know, I never say anything about Gaza because I really try. I'm very offended by it. They blow up a church in Gaza with my money. I'm a Christian.
Like, no. How about no? I said one thing about that, man. I've never heard the end of it. But I've tried to stay away from Gaza, but now we're talking about a huge country.
We're talking about Southwest Asia, one of the biggest energy And and
Speaker 0: and ancient civilization. This is not
Speaker 1: Also, since you're not gonna convince me that the Iranians I don't like I'm not a Shiite. I'm not, like, on the side of the Shiite clerics. I'm a freaking Episcopalian. Settle down. However, you're not gonna convince me that the Iranian people are my enemy.
Again, we're going down this here. Here's who you're required to hate. It's it's Orwell, man. You're not I'm a free man. You're not telling me who I have to hate.
I'll decide who I'd like and don't like on the basis of my values and what I believe my interests are. They spent, you know, five years telling me, Vladimir Putin is your enemy. No. He's not. I'm not mad at Vladimir Putin.
Tell me why I should be. I'm mad at you. You know what I mean? I'm just like whatever. It's all so fake.
I'm not playing along.
Speaker 0: And here, you're gonna be doing interviews to take this actually take it up a couple of notches.
Speaker 1: I really just wanna get away from this topic because it's one of those topics that intersects with a lot of other things. So it's not like Belgium is getting frisky with Liechtenstein and, like, I have an opinion on that. This is a country that's the, you know, the very center of the three biggest religions in the world that is, you know, a Jewish state. So whatever that means exactly. And so it it has an emotional resonance for Jewish people in America, some of whom are my close friends, that is different from any other country.
It's not like, you know, when things happen in Sweden or The UK where my ancestors are from, people aren't quite as emotional. It's very emotional. So, I don't want anything to do with it at all. I don't wanna criticize. Bibi, I don't wanna talk about Gaza.
I don't want look. I feel completely backed into a corner here where it's like we are on the cusp of entering a war on behalf of a political leader in a faraway country that's going to really hurt my country. I've got four kids. I wanna have grandkids. Like, are you even joking?
Stop. And I tried to be, like, quiet about it. I don't I don't wanna get involved in any of this because, again, people are so emotional. How could you I mean, you should see my text this morning. I got threatened by someone this morning, actually, who I
Speaker 0: Threatened as by a friend, a colleague, or somebody that just came and said you're it's too much.
Speaker 1: It's very careless what you said. It's very careless. Careless. I was like, hey, asshole. I know what you're saying.
I got it. Very careless. Anyway, whatever. I don't wanna get I'm not whining. I'm not AOC.
Oh, I'm under such threat. I'm not under threat. I'm but what I'm saying is I don't want to be involved in this at all, and I think most Americans don't. And it's only because We're actually getting drawn into a war. A tiny and by a tiny minority of people, like, know a million people who are pro Israel and Jewish or pro Israel and not Jewish like me.
I've always been pro Israel. Who are like, I don't think this is good. It doesn't like, why do we allow 3% of the participant or the participants in this conversation to define the terms? You know, if you are okay with any, you know, Iranian enrichment at all, you're for the Ayatollahs and you're against Israel. Shut up.
No. I'm not gonna allow you to define the terms. You're a total liar. I mean, these are liars, like, real will say anything. I'm working for Qatar.
Trump was actually pretending to go through a peace process and
Speaker 0: No. That thing was terrible.
Speaker 1: And Steve Witkoff was, like, who I know very well, who's one of the most pure hearted people, whether you agree with him or not. If you're calling into question Steve Witkoff's motives, like, Witkoff doesn't need any of this. He's just doing it because he wants to help. That's it. That's the only he's paying for himself.
And if you're telling me that Steve Witkoff is working for Qatar, that's what set me over the edge because I know Witkoff well and I really love Steve Witkoff and I think he's I agree with him on everything, but I think he's like a decent man who wants what's best for Donald Trump, his best friend, and The United States. And that's enough for me. Like, I see his motive as pure. It is pure. I know him well.
And when they're calling him an anti Semi, it's like so nuts. That's when I was like, ugh, I can't believe I have to get involved in this, but because it's too much. It's just too much. You can't let that go unresponded to you. You have to stand up and say, I'm sorry.
That's just not true. That's a lie and you know it's a lie.
Speaker 0: But you're not gonna back down from this. You're gonna you're gonna I
Speaker 1: wanna back down immediately. I just wanna get away from this. I wanna go back. You know, I'm missing a lot of my favorite things and a lot of my favorite people. I don't wanna argue about Israel of all subjects.
Oh my gosh. And I don't wanna become I'm not gonna become a crazy person or a hater. Part of the dynamic here is you become the things they accuse you of being. Like, I've seen this happen to many people, not many, but I have seen it happen, where they say, you love Putin. That to me for years now.
And then one day you're like, fuck it. I love Putin. Okay. I I just mean, I actually I kind of I think Putin's, an amazing leader. I'm not I've always thought that, but I'm not, like, a close friend of Putin's.
They can drive you to become a worse version of yourself by accusing you of being it. You sort of grow into the attack. And there's no chance I'm not letting that happen to myself. There's just no chance. I'm not gonna become a hater.
I'm not gonna become obsessed with Israel. I just wanna get away from the topic. Lot of other things going on. Just stop trying to drag my country into war. That's it.
Speaker 0: Tucker Carlson, thank you so much for coming by. Good
Speaker 1: to see you.
Speaker 0: I'm just in the neighborhood. Drop by. Tucker and I will be hanging out this afternoon. I guess we'll meet
Speaker 1: I can't wait. I'm gonna ask you lots of hard questions.
Speaker 0: Lots of hard questions. Hopefully, I have some answers. Let's take a short commercial break. We got a rolling break. Let's go and take a short commercial break.
Tucker, thank you for coming by.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Oh my gosh. I love it.
Speaker 0: We'll see you here this afternoon. Thank you for remember the old days? The the right party
Speaker 2: at all. Like, at
Speaker 1: all.
Speaker 0: It's still very gonzo.