Friday, FNC host Tucker Carlson commented his view that some of the punishment doled out to some of the January 6 U.S. Capitol protesters was “unequal” and that in some cases, prosecutors were using their opinions on COVID-19, vaccines and other personal information not relevant to the January 6 event in the court trials.
Carlson noted how similar crimes were handled by the federal courts, including Code Pink protesters during Supreme Court confirmation hearings, and argued that was “unequal justice.”
Transcript as follows:
CARLSON: So on Tuesday, three days ago, a 53-year-old hair salon owner from Indiana called Donna Bissey was sentenced in a federal courthouse in Washington. As the day began, it seemed pretty obvious that Donna Bissey was not going to go to prison even Joe Biden’s Justice Department recommended probation. That’s because the crime she was accused of committing was not serious by any measure.
The crime was quote, “parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol Building.” That would be on January 6. Donna Bissey did not set fire to any property, she didn’t attack police officers. She didn’t hurt anybody, she paraded as she thought was her right as an American.
Then the sentencing began and very quickly, it became clear that Donna Bissey would not be going home to her family and her hair salon. Again, that’s not because of anything she did on January 6, it’s because of what she believes.
A DOJ prosecutor, a fascist called Joshua Rothstein labeled Donna Bissey a quote, “avid consumer of conspiracy theories” including that COVID is a, quote, “hoax pandemic.”
Apparently, according to this prosecutor, you’re not allowed to believe that. Believing that is a crime, it’s a thought crime, and you can go to jail for it.
Keep in mind, again, this was ostensibly a trial about what happened on January 6, the physical facts of that day.
The judge also heard that Donna Bissey is not vaccinated against COVID-19, and of course that’s a crime, too. It’s a thought crime. She needs to go to jail and so she is.
Now, you’ll remember last year, the government released thousands of inmates telling us it was to protect them from the coronavirus, but no such sympathy was extended to Donna Bissey of the hair salon in Indiana, quote: “It’s one thing to believe in conspiracy theories in your basement,” the fascist prosecutor said, “It’s another thing to act out on them.”
Really? He’s a shrink now, too.
In the end, the judge overruled the prosecutor’s recommendation of probation and sent Donna Bissey to prison for the crime of quote, “parading in the Capitol Building,” and for disputing the official narrative on COVID. That’s now a crime and Donna Bissey’s life is now ruined. She’s in jail.
What’s interesting is that just a few months ago, Donna Bissey’s friend, a woman called Anna Morgan Lloyd was sentenced to probation for the exact same offense, that would be parading in the Capitol, so why the difference now?
Well here’s the difference, unlike her friend, Donna Bissey appeared before a judge called Tanya Chutkan. Tanya Chutkan donated many thousands of dollars to PACs supporting Barack Obama and then Barack Obama in exchange appointed her to the Federal Bench in 2014 where she has been in disgrace ever since, a real disgrace.
In the last few months, Chutkan has repeatedly overruled prosecutors to impose long prison sentences on January 6 defendants that would include Robert Bauer of Kentucky, Edward Hemingway in Virginia, Matthew Mazzocco of Texas.
And Tanya Chutkan is not the only run running political show trials in our formerly free country, the one which you are guaranteed equal treatment under the law, but no longer receive it. There is another Barack Obama appointee, Beryl Howell who has repeatedly overruled prosecutors to punish January 6 defendants far more harshly than even the DOJ asks for.
Now this is unequal justice by any measure. It contradicts the central principle of our legal system and our country, which is we’re all citizens and all of us stand equal before the law. It is not about what you believe, it’s about what you do. It has nothing to do with who you vote for, nothing to do with who you listen to on the radio, or watch on television; it has to do with when you violate law.
But that’s no longer what it has to do with.
You should know that none of the quote “pink protesters” who stormed Senate buildings during the Kavanaugh hearings wound up in jail, of course not. They weren’t tossed in solitary confinement, neither were the self- described environmentalists who just raided a Federal building in Washington.
This is footage from yesterday at the Department of the Interior. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CROWD: (Chanting “Go inside.”)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Protect the water. Protect the water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Back up. Back up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don’t do this. Don’t do this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the single worst attack on our democracy since 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and the Civil War. Oh no, it’s not. We’re not liars.
It is what it is. You just saw it. “Go inside. Go inside.” Chant the rioters. They’re on video trying to push through a police barrier. So by the standards now set by the behavior on January 6 that is an insurrection against the government.
So how did our government respond to what you just saw? Well, the Department of the Interior under Joe Biden just issued a statement that refused to condemn it or the rioters. We are quoting directly: “The Interior Department leadership believed strongly in respecting and upholding the right to free speech and peaceful protest.” End quote.
Oh so, they’re not insurrectionists, they are peaceful protesters because they voted for Joe Biden. This is what happens when law enforcement becomes partisan. This is the nightmare scenario. This is the country you don’t want to live in.
This is the country that judges you on the basis of who you vote for and will put you in jail if you vote the wrong way. This is not a defense of any criminal conduct that occurred on January 6, but the events of that day, keep in mind, were an organized demonstration against the unequal enforcement of law in this country for the past four years and that’s exactly what we have seen. Period.
That’s not a partisan point, that’s true, and anyone who is awake knows it’s true. And yet, instead of heeding the call, wait, people are upset. What are they upset about? Maybe we should fix the disparity. Our leaders double down on unequal treatment under the law, which is what they’re doling out in even bigger helpings at this point.
So criminals with the right politics suffer no consequences. In some cases, those criminals are put in charge of enforcing the law themselves. Here is one example.
The former Deputy FBI Director, Andy McCabe. McCabe admitted lying to Federal investigators. That’s a felony, by the way, unlike parading in the Capitol, but Andrew McCabe was never hauled off to jail, never lectured about his vaccine status by some lunatic prosecutor.
In fact, Andy McCabe just got his Federal pension back and he is bragging about it on television.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREW MCCABE, FORMER FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR: To have a settlement of this lawsuit and one that so clearly indicates this should never have happened, it is both an incredible relief. It is satisfying, but it’s also — you know it’s also kind of sad.
I mean, like this should never have happened. My family should never have had to go through this.
This is the current Department of Justice standing up for fairness.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: What? You’re the country’s second in line in our biggest law enforcement agency and you’ve admitted committing a felony and all that happened to you was that you lost your padded Federal benefits, and you say that was unfair and you’re still whining about it even after you got it back? Are you the same Andy McCabe who destroyed Mike Flynn’s life and bankrupted him, tried to send him to prison on a charge of lying to Federal investigators? Yes, that charge was in fact engineered by Andy McCabe for the sole purpose of getting rid of Michael Flynn at the behest of Barack Obama and his cronies.
And we’re not speculating about this because FBI documents prove it. On those documents, it’s literally written “Get him to lie.” Get him to lie.
Andy McCabe was never punished for that. He still has a seat waiting for him on CNN. And when Andy McCabe lied to investigators about leaking to the media, was he charged? No. That wasn’t parading in Congress. Now, he gets his pension back and he is celebrated on national television.
Why is that? Because Andy McCabe is on the right side. He is a member of the National Security state, which the left now venerates because the National Security state is on their side.
The FBI can label political dissidents domestic terrorists, which justifies killing them and everyone applauds when they die.
So Ashli Babbitt hurt not a single person on January 6. She was unarmed and yet, watch this, as any McCabe’s defenders justify shooting her because the FBI says she was somehow a threat to National Security.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: Ashli Babbitt who is a trained Air Force specialist, trained by our tax dollars, to kill. She was a military member. If she had gotten through that door, God knows what kind of harm she could have done.
DEAN OBEIDALLAH, RADIO HOST AND WRITER: His supporters who attacked the Capitol are terrorists. It’s two plus two equals four stuff, like Ashli Babbitt, all those who attacked the Capitol are terrorists because the FBI Director has said it was an act of terrorism.
REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): Ashli Babbitt is the woman that was leading the mob that was about to storm the House floor and she was shot by a brave officer who was the last line of defense for many Members of Congress and many of these members were the slowest, least mobile members because they were having the hardest time getting out.
If they had been overrun by that mob, people would have been killed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Yes, so you watch that and you get frustrated and then you’re reminded these people are so stupid, it is amazing they can breathe unaided, and that is some comfort. They just told you that Ashli Babbitt was trained by the Air Force to kill people. Really? A lot of people in the Air Force trained to kill people?
She was a threat to their safety. She was like 5’2″ and totally unarmed. She was not warned by the way before she was shot to death. We’ve never seen the results of that investigation. We know the man who shot her was completely reckless, he left a loaded firearm in a men’s room in the Capitol. He wasn’t fired for that for some reason. No one in the Federal government is ever fired.
So that’s clearly over the line in a functional country, but then to see those ghouls gloating about the death of an unarmed woman. How would they treat you?
So they’re telling you that for the crime of parading in the Capitol Building, Ashli Babbitt deserves to be executed. At the same time they’re telling you that, they are ignoring other crimes, the ones committed with people by who are actually armed.
An 18-year-old who opened fire in his classroom in Texas shot several people, got out of jail in a single day. He told us he was bullied. Yet another victim of white supremacy and he got a pass and that’s fine.
Hunter Biden got a pass. His firearm winds up in a trash bin behind a grocery store, and then disappears. Threat to public safety, anyone? No, not according to our government. The Feds didn’t care about his gun and said the Secret Service showed up, which was not working for him at the time, went to the gun store to shred the paperwork showing that Hunter Biden committed a felony by lying on a Federal gun form when he acquired the gun.
So, if you’re the President’s son, you can commit a Federal gun felony and nobody cares. The worst they’ll do is invite you on their shows and let you explain it away in a sentence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTHONY MASON, CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Why did you have a gun?
HUNTER BIDEN, SON OF JOE BIDEN: Well, again, you know, the period of my life that was difficult. It was — but you know, I don’t know.
MASON: According to the reporting, at one point, the Secret Service went looking for the record of sale. Do you know anything about that?
H. BIDEN: Nothing. No.
MASON: But you know about the Secret Service being involved?
H. BIDEN: No, I had no idea. I don’t know whether the Secret Service were or why they would be. I don’t think that that’s true.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Right. It’s not on your laptop or anything.
So you commit a gun felony, you lie about it in the laziest possible way, and no one really cares. But if you dare to criticize the incompetent bureaucrats leading say our military as Stu Scheller did, they send you to prison.
If you try to visit your sick daughter in the hospital, you get arrested.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LYNN SAVAGE, ARRESTED DUE TO COVID RULES: I told them that I wasn’t going to leave my daughter’s side. She had taken a turn for the worse and I wanted to stay and I told them that I wasn’t leaving.
She said — the nurse said she’d have to call security. I said, “Do whatever you have to do, but I’m not leaving my daughter’s side.”
CARLSON: Good for you. Good for you. I wish more Americans would take that position.
SAVAGE: Thank you.
CARLSON: Really, thank you for doing that, but they handcuffed you?
SAVAGE: Yes. They handcuffed me behind my back and led me out to the cruiser where I sat for three hours with my hands cuffed behind my back.
CARLSON: What was your — what was your crime? Were you spreading COVID to people? I mean, like what did you do wrong exactly?
SAVAGE: Stayed past seven o’clock.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Oh, handcuffing a grandmother because she stayed past seven o’clock, shooting an unarmed woman in the neck without warning her because you didn’t like what she was saying. But if you torch a Federal Courthouse in Portland, no problem. If you show up at a school board meeting and object to your 14-year-old daughter being raped in a bathroom, that’s when you get thrown to the ground and taken to jail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT SMITH, CONCERNED PARENT: Then I tried to tell the lady what had happened to my daughter and she looked me dead in the face and said, that’s not what happened, and that just struck me like, how do you know what happened? You don’t even know me.
And she started in on me again and threatened my family business, my livelihood — everything that you know, gives my family what we need. She threatened to ruin my business on social media.
The next thing I know, I’m getting touched from all over the place. I didn’t know who was touching me, who was grabbing me. I turned around, the police are grabbing me and the next thing I know, I’m tackled to the ground.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: We could go on and on. We could spend all night giving you example after example. Here is the bottom line: They’re not for defunding the police and we apologize for ever suggesting they were. They are for repurposing the police.
They’re not against the use of force, they embrace the use of force, as long as it’s against their political opponents. They’re for letting criminals off the hook and redefining people who oppose the regime as criminals, the only ones who get punished.
What form of government is this? It’s not democracy, it is anarcho-tyranny. It is selective punishment even as they ignore the rule of law. This is a threat to the very center of the American idea, which is equality under the law. Everyone treated the same by the justice system.
Right now, you can loot a Target in Minneapolis, you can burn Wendy’s and face no consequences, but try to defend your own property like the McCloskeys, try to exercise your constitutional right to state your views about the last election and you go to jail. That’s true.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor