Wednesday, FNC host Tucker Carlson criticized Democrats and other like-minded left-of-center public figures for generating a “mass hysteria” tied to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Fox News host, Americans were not being given a voice in the policies that were directly impacting their daily lives.
Transcript as follows:
It would be pretty fascinating to see the Democratic Party’s latest internal polling on COVID restrictions. We haven’t seen it, but it must have been pretty awful, apocalyptic, because something spooked them bad.
Over the course of less than a week, the same people who have systematically turned America into a quarantine camp suddenly out of nowhere started calling in unison for medical freedom. Suddenly, they sound like Bobby Kennedy, Jr., pretty much all of them, even the whiny hypochondriacs at The Atlantic Magazine, those neurotic cat owners who’ve turned COVID hysteria into a religion are now calling for a total abandonment of all corona restrictions.
Open everything, “The time to end pandemic restrictions is now.” Believe it or not, that was the headline on The Atlantic’s website today. Amazing.
So if even “The Atlantic” has given up on corona restrictions, obviously the pandemic is over. You should know this virus was killed not by science, but by the midterm elections. It turns out the only real cure for COVID-19 is the political ambition of the Democratic Party. That’s the panacea.
By the way, that’s fine. We’ll take it.
Yes, every upside has a downside. It means that pasty NPR listeners are going to emerge from their apartment for the first time in two years, they will be loose on the streets. You’re going to see them at Whole Foods again, shuffling along with their tote bags, looking bewildered and annoyed.
That’s bad, but it’s still worth it, anything to make the insanity go away, we’re celebrating. But we’re also looking forward, and the question is, how do we guarantee that nothing like this ever happens again?
How do we prevent future mass hysteria events in the United States? And the answer is very simple. You restore democracy, you give Americans a voice in the policies that affect their lives. That was a system that we had for a couple of hundred years, it is a pretty good system, we ought to go back to it.
If elected legislators were allowed to vote on COVID restrictions, we’d have far fewer COVID restrictions, and that’s true of everything, every bad idea. If the Congress had to follow the Constitution and authorize our wars, we’d have fewer pointless wars, we definitely would not be moving toward war with Russia right now, because the public doesn’t support that at all.
So virtually every bad thing that has happened over the past two years, or ever, has been imposed by fiat, far outside the bounds of our constitutional democracy. In this case, governors and health authorities got emergency powers at the beginning of the pandemic. Do you remember?
With those powers, they played God for two full years. In case you’ve forgotten what that looked like, here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI (D), LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: That is why tonight I’m authorizing the city to shut off Los Angeles Department of Water and Power service in the egregious cases in which houses, businesses, and other venues are hosting unpermitted large gatherings.
GOV. JAY INSLEE (D-WA): Religious services will be limited to 25 percent of indoor capacity or 200 people, whichever is less and choirs, bands, or ensembles are prohibited from performing.
BILL DE BLASIO (D), THEN MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: Human beings are pretty predictable. If you say your paycheck depends on it or your ability to enjoy life and go do the things you want to do, people will make the practical decision overwhelmingly and they’ll go get vaccinated.
But we aren’t pushing hard enough, we’ve got to go farther.
MAGGIE VESPA, KGW REPORTER: Do you want people calling the police on their neighbors and on emergency lines or 9-1-1?
GOV. KATE BROWN (D-OR): Look, this is no different than what happens if there’s a party down the street and it’s keeping everyone awake. What do neighbors do? They call law enforcement.
MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT (D), CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: And this is how it’s going to be. We will shut you down. We will cite you. And if we need to, we will arrest you, and we will take you to jail. Period.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So they went full fascist immediately, and they weren’t even competent fascists. These are some of the least impressive, least skilled, least accomplished, least intelligent people in our entire country. You wouldn’t hire any of them to clean your gutters, and all of a sudden, they had absolute power.
So it’s probably not too surprising that they went into directions no one could have anticipated, no singing under COVID, no dancing, no working, definitely no exercising. We’re closing the gyms in the name of public health. In fact, we’re closing the oceans.
In 2020, in a moment that should never be forgotten by the sane world, authorities in the State of California arrested a paddle boarder who was exercising by himself off the Malibu Pier. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): Across the coast in California, fines and handcuffs for bad behavior.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: High speed pursuit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): One man arrested in Malibu for paddle- boarding in the Pacific while 22 sunset seekers in SoCal were cited for trespassing on closed beaches.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So everything about that is kind of stunning, less than two years later even, but maybe the creepiest part of it is how nonchalantly the NBC newsman reports it, like it’s totally normal to drag paddle boarders away for swimming alone, because if cops didn’t vigorously police the Pacific Ocean, seagulls could spread disease. Apparently, that was the thinking, or the lack of it.
So our media almost to a person acted like the peasants they are and they cheered on the strongmen, reflexively, because that’s what peasants do. They cheer as the person oppressing them rides by on his horse.
Here is MSNBC excitedly reporting on how police in New Jersey — this is very clever — use drones to spy on homeowners in their own backyards.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please go away from each other and separate
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): Elizabeth, New Jersey is now using drones to spread the lifesaving message.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You’re not immune to this virus.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): The drones make it easier for police to see into certain areas where access by patrol cars is more difficult. That includes tight spaces between buildings, behind schools, and in backyards.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So some robot is screaming at you as you’re having a barbecue in your backyard and MSNBC describes that as the lifesaving message. Don’t depend on these people to save you from tyranny. Of course, they’ll be cheering it on.
That very same month at MSNBC, unbelievable report, we decided to speak to the Governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy. Now Phil Murphy is a not very bright finance hack who got rich. How do these people get rich exactly?
But in his case, thanks to the Wuhan Institute of Technology, suddenly, Phil Murphy found himself King of the Garden State. So we asked, His Majesty, Phil Murphy, where exactly to get the right to suspend Constitutional Rights in New Jersey, and here is what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: The Bill of Rights as you well know, protects Americans right, enshrines their right to practice their religion as they see fit, and to congregate together to assemble peacefully.
By what authority did you nullify the Bill of Rights in issuing this order? How do you have the power to do that?
GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): That’s above my paygrade, Tucker. So, I wasn’t — I wasn’t thinking of the Bill of Rights when we did this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: That’s above my paygrade. So King Murphy has got an IQ of about 70. How did that guy get to be Governor? I mean, that’s bad enough, but to give him absolute power? Let’s go ahead and never do that, again under any circumstances.
Checks and balances exist for a reason. We saw this all over the country. Governors and local officials abusing their authority very specifically to stop Christians from attending church, prevent people from worshipping their God, from exercising their religion, and somehow nobody noticed, but voters noticed.
Last fall, Phil Murphy almost lost his job in New Jersey, which is axiomatically Democratic. It’s the most Democratic state you can think of on the Eastern Seaboard.
So Murphy seemed all confused by this: My subjects don’t like me? Really? I had no idea. So he convened a focus group. Let’s hire McKinsey to find out what’s going on here.
Well, according to “The New York Times,” here is what His Majesty, Phil Murphy found, quote, “Across the board, voters shared frustrations over public health measures, a sense of pessimism about the future, and a deep desire to return to some sense of normalcy.” And by normalcy. Of course, they meant getting Phil Murphy’s boot off their necks.
So Murphy, as we said, seemed a little stunned by this, but he reacted because in the end, these people are very simple organisms. Politicians are. They’re not complex, they’re not ideological. They respond to what they have to do, to blunt stimuli.
So he recognizes the midterm elections are coming, so Phil Murphy, again, not a genius, lifted the state’s mask mandates and that’s happening in a lot of different places — blue states. The Governors of Connecticut, Oregon, Delaware, California, Illinois, they’re all doing it, even in New York with the quote “Governor” Kathy Hochul. That’s what we call an unelected leader who not a single voter actually voted for, “The Governor.” She reached the same conclusion.
Kathy Hochul, “The Governor.” It’s hilarious.
You know, by the way, in a lot of places you can be arrested for impersonating a public official. She’s not the Governor. She was never elected by anybody and no one is arrested. But in any case, she apparently has the power to lift the state’s indoor mask mandate, so she is doing that.
But you should imagine this is over, they still have power, they don’t want to give it up. So, the State Health Department in New York is trying to expand the state’s quarantine powers, just in case they ever have to put you in a camp.
Kathy Hochul has decided not to lift the mask mandate for schools because of course, the teachers unions have more swat than parents do. Meanwhile, the C.D.C. still requires U.S. citizens to get a negative COVID test in order to return to their own country.
So the C.D.C. has the power to bar you from your own country? Really? Where did they get that power? Anyone at the C.D.C. elected? I don’t think so. They’re a bunch of incompetent public health administrators.
Nor by the way, has the Biden administration announced plans to lift the mask mandate on airplanes. Now, why would the Biden administration be in charge of that? Shouldn’t Congress make that call? They’re the ones who voted for that mandate? Oh, no, but they didn’t.
Congress never voted on that mandate, the agencies imposed it. You should know that mandate, by the way does not apply to private jet service. Most people who fly private don’t own the plane, they rent a plane from a jet company and those companies don’t have to comply with the mask mandate, because Democratic donors fly on those plates, so they’re exempt.
The TSA by the way, announced in August that the airline mask mandate would remain in place at least through March 18th. Congress had no role in this. Congress voted to spend trillions of dollars on COVID relief, but nobody in the Congress ever voted on the mandate for masks on airplanes.
Will we have it forever? I don’t know. You’ve been taking your shoes off since Richard Reid tried to ignite his 20 years ago, no one ever voted on that either.
None of this is democracy, not when they make you take your shoes off, not when they make you cover your face. Those decisions are too important for you to weigh in on. It’s not democracy.
So the pandemic is over, but people like Kathy Hochul still have emergency powers and School Boards do, too. They are acting like they have complete power over your children.
In Naperville, Illinois, a Court just issued a restraining order against Governor Pritzker’s statewide school mask mandate. The School Board is simply ignoring it. So on Monday, parents fought back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why? Why are you continuing to enforce a mandate that has been ruled null and void?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This type of evil is exactly what the law was intending to constrain, yet, you continue to perpetrate this evil. The Judge’s words, not mine.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where’s our family choice. You want your kids to wear masks, then give them masks. You want your kids to take their masks off, then take their masks off. It really is that simple.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have hurt her so much with this. Everybody talks about everybody’s got to be safe, everybody’s got to have everything and we’ve left so many children behind.
She was going to be able to see other kids’ smiles, that kids wouldn’t be able to understand her and she would stop being picked on because they could not understand her through her mask because her speech has been delayed even more than her special needs.
I will never forgive myself for not fighting more. I feel that I am failed her for not fighting more.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: They are doing to the School Board what the truckers are doing to Justin Trudeau and let’s hope it has the same effect. Keep in mind, they are in that meeting because the School Board is ignoring a lawful Court order and of course, blowing off the parents they serve.
Now the, answer to all of this is really simple. Strip these reckless morons of their monarchical powers and return this country to democracy. Why is that hard?
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor