Wednesday, FNC host Tucker Carlson reacted to a spate of Department of Justice actions targeting tied directly to politics, which appear to be an effort to “criminalize” political opposition.
Carlson noted a number of these actions, including protesting the 2020 presidential election or opposing Biden policies, could result in FBI agents showing up with search warrants.
Partial transcript as follows:
CARLSON: So in a functioning democratic system, this should be a problem for the people trying to do it. You can’t undermine the country you lead and expect to continue to lead it in a democracy and the Biden administration knows this, and that’s one of the reasons that the signature tactic of the Biden administration, this is our topic tonight, has been the criminalizing of American politics.
Why have a political debate when you can just arrest people who disagree with you? And that has happened far below the media radar since the day Joe Biden was elected.
And tonight, to show it, we want to go through a litany, a list of Americans who have been arrested, detained by Federal law enforcement on the orders of the Biden administration, not because they committed recognizable crimes, but because they disagreed with the political aims of the Biden administration.
Now, again, you’re not reading about this in The New York Times because the rest of the media are pretending that it is not happening. And instead, they’re focused on the January 6 Committee, which has taken, in fact, a lead role in this effort, rounding up enemies of the state.
The entire process is a farce, and that was proved yesterday. If you watch the hearings yesterday, you know how absurd it is.
Democrats, with the help of Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, called up a star witness who testified she heard someone else say that Donald Trump attacked a Secret Service agent and tried to carjack the presidential limousine. Think about that.
The President of the United States tried to seize control of the presidential limousine that he wasn’t driving? It didn’t make any sense. And then by the time that Secret Service agents who were on the scene denied the story to NBC News and other news outlets, nobody cared. They weren’t even pretending that it was true.
The initial story was the point. The shock value was the point, not the factual basis of it. That’s what passes for rigorous investigation in Congress at the moment.
But no media outlet is going to revisit their decision to turn over their airwaves to the January 6 Committee, even after yesterday’s debacle. It is, in fact, a show trial. It is absurd by definition, and its absurdity is the point.
The absurdity of it, the hollowness of it, sends the message, “We run the justice system now. You are powerless.” And that is the same message the Biden administration has sent to America for the last year-and-a-half, with the help of Merrick Garland, the most political Attorney General in history.
Here’s a list of the things they’ve done because no one else has assembled it.
Here we go: January 27, 2021, days after Joe Biden’s inauguration, the Justice Department arrests a man called Douglass Mackey, known online as Ricky Vaughn. You heard very little about this, why? Because Douglass Mackey had extremist political views.
But under the American system, it doesn’t matter if you have unattractive or unpopular views, your views are protected by the First Amendment.
He was arrested, for what, a crime? No. For creating internet memes that made fun of Hillary Clinton. But according to the Justice Department, those memes, “deprived individuals of their constitutional right to vote.” So he went to jail.
Then on February 3 of the same year, 2021, the FBI raids the homes of Russell Taylor and Alan Hostetter. What did they do wrong? Well, they organized a lawful political rally on January 6. They even had a permit for the rally.
Taylor also committed the grave offense of being seen with Roger Stone in the days before January 6. That’s now a crime, too, not in a free country, but in ours.
Then on April 28, 2021, the Feds seized the cell phones and computers belonging to the President’s former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. That didn’t used to be allowed. You can’t seize the records of someone’s attorney. Those are confidential lawyer-client communications.
Now, at the time, we are told that Rudy Giuliani had done something illegal in Ukraine. “The walls were closing in.” He was never charged with anything like that because it was all fake. But they got his privileged communications anyway.
Then on June 24, 2021, the Feds raided the home of a Giuliani associate called George Dixon. The FBI never explained the purpose of that raid, but Dixon was working on a documentary about Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and their business dealings in Ukraine and that’s no longer allowed. A direct attack on the free press not covered by the media.
And then because this list does go on, on January 19, 2021, a journalist at “Infowars” called Owen Shroyer was arrested and charged. Why? Well, according to the Federal complaint, Shroyer told the crowd on January 6, “Today, we march for the Capitol because on this historic January 6, 2021, we have to let our Congressmen and women know, and we have to let Mike Pence know, that they stole the election.”
Now, you may not agree with that or maybe you do, it doesn’t matter, that’s protected speech under our Constitution. But under Joe Biden, it’s a crime.
And then on November 6, 2021, the FBI raided the homes of several more journalists who work for Project Veritas, including the organization’s founder, James O’Keefe. What did they do wrong? Drug trafficking? Human trafficking? No.
They reported on a diary written by Joe Biden’s daughter, Ashley, and in that diary, Biden’s daughter writes, reveals to the rest of us, that Joe Biden showered with her in a way that she described as inappropriate and that she blames for making her sexually compulsive in later life. For having access to that information, the FBI raided Project Veritas.
(BEGIN PROJECT VERITAS VIDEO)
JAMES O’KEEFE: I’m sorry sir, what is this regarding?
FBI AGENT: This is a search warrant, just [bleep] open up.
FBI AGENT: Let me see your hands. Let me see your hands.
FBI AGENT: So, there’s another FBI team coming?
FBI AGENT: Yes.
FBI AGENT: So, maybe we’ll spread out into different areas of the house.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: “Oh, Trump’s a fascist,” remember that? Did Trump’s DOJ raid the homes of a lot of journalists who embarrassed his children? No, you don’t remember that because it didn’t happen. But Joe Biden’s Justice Department has done that. And then they kept going.
Later that same month in November 15th of last year, the Justice Department arrested one of the most prominent critics. That would be former Trump adviser, Steve Bannon. Now, what did Steve Bannon do wrong? Did he commit a crime on January 6th? No, he didn’t, and no one claims otherwise.
Instead, Bannon’s crime was that he didn’t bend the knee for the January 6 Committee. He cited executive privilege. According to Nancy Pelosi, that means Steve Bannon belongs in jail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Do you think people who refuse to comply with congressional subpoenas should be prosecuted by the Justice Department and at the end of the day, go to jail?
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Yes.
TAPPER: You do?
PELOSI: I do. I do. Well, first of all, this you know, people said, well, this hasn’t happened before.
We haven’t had an insurrection incited by the President of the United States and one of his toadies having knowledge of — advance knowledge of that happening.
So, in fact, it’s important for a number of reasons. It’s important for us to find the truth about what happened on January 6, an assault on our Constitution, our Congress, and our Capitol.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Assault on the Constitution, OK. So no, in other words, we don’t arrest people for ignoring congressional subpoenas, particularly when they cite executive privilege, a principle that has a long history in American history. We’ve never done that.
But we can do it now because it was, “an insurrection,” an insurrection that wasn’t armed, wasn’t planned, and didn’t actually insurrect anything, but it was still an insurrection.
Now, you’re beginning to see why it’s been so important from the very first day for the media to describe what happened on January 6th, not as a riot, but as an insurrection, because if it’s an insurrection, they can violate your Civil Rights, and they have and they continue to.
A day after Steve Bannon’s arrest, this would be November 16, 2021, the FBI raided the home of Sherrona Bishop, that’s the former campaign manager for Congresswoman Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
According to Bishop, here’s what happened: “While homeschooling my youngest children, the FBI decided it was necessary to bust open my front door with a battering ram and put me in handcuffs while they trampled through my home, terrifying my family. My daughter was pulled around by the hoodie — by her hoodie, by one of the agents.”
Now, why would you do this to the former chief of staff of a sitting Member of Congress? Well, the FBI gave no reason. They took Bishop’s cell phone and they left, never charged with a crime.
Then that same day, and you didn’t read this in The New York Times either, the Feds hit the home of Mesa County Republican Clerk, Tina Peters. What was the justification for that raid? We’re breaking into a lot of houses all of a sudden of Trump voters. Why?
Well, in this case, DOJ said, “Peters raised doubts about the legitimacy of the last election.” That’s not allowed anymore, can’t question the outcome. They didn’t arrest her. They just tore her house apart.
Peters called the raid evidence of, “a level of weaponization of the Justice Department we haven’t seen since the McCarthy era.” But of course, even during McCarthy, no one did that.
In May, she came on FOX Denver to explain what exactly happened to her. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TINA PETERS, OF MESA COUNTY REPUBLICAN CLERK: My attorneys, when they read the indictment the other day, they — I mean, Harvey Steinberg, and I’ve got the best attorneys, and they just laughed. They said, “Are you kidding?” This is, this is a political maneuver to shine the light on me, to keep me from running against and defeating Jena Griswold.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Oh. So in the name of punishing people for complaining about the last election, they’re subverting elections currently taking place. And last night, the woman you just saw, Tina Peters, lost her bid for Secretary of State, which of course, was the whole point of targeting her.
Peters would not be the last opponent of the Biden administration running for office to be targeted by the Justice Department.
On June 3, Peter Navarro, who was a trade aide to Donald Trump, was arrested at Washington National Airport and put in leg irons and put in jail. Why?
Well, days earlier, he sued the January 6 Committee. He claimed executive privilege in his communications with the President. Again, this is standard, a decades-old standard. And rather than go to Court, the January 6 Committee simply had him arrested at the airport and sent to jail in irons.
Navarro went on this show to explain what happened to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER NAVARRO, FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF TRADE AND MANUFACTURING POLICY: The mission of that partisan witch hunt kangaroo committee, which is unduly authorized and not properly constituted and has no subpoena power, they have only one mission: To concoct a fake hoax around January 6th based on criminal charges against Trump to prevent him from running for re-election and taking back the White House in 2025 January.
That’s all this is about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So a decade ago, the Obama administration was caught sending automatic weapons to Mexican drug cartels, and Congress wanted to know more about this.
Eric Holder, then the Attorney General, had a key role in this: Operation Fast and Furious, you may remember it — so they subpoenaed him and he ignored the subpoena and the media applauded. He was taking a noble position.
But when Steve Bannon or Peter Navarro tried to do something like that, they went to jail. Again, we had this exact same thing happen in public, 10 years ago. A Federal Judge ruled that Holder’s privilege claim was not legitimate and he was still never arrested.
But the rules have changed. Why is that? No one in corporate media ever asked that question. Instead, they celebrated Peter Navarro’s arrest, a 70- year-old man in an airport. It made their day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MSNBC: He was indicted and when you’re indicted, you are arrested.
CNN: What Peter Navarro did, it was so far out of bounds and so indefensible.
MSNBC: This prosecution is really about punishing Navarro based on his blatant disrespect for the congressional subpoena.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: “His blatant disrespect,” by the way, there is no constitutional requirement to have respect for anybody in the U.S. government. In fact, in a free country, you’re encouraged to disagree. You are a citizen. You have that inherent right, but no more.
The media think you should be sent to jail if you show disrespect. And so, of course, with no media to push back against unconstitutional overreach, the Justice Department kept going.
Then on June 9 of this year, the FBI arrested a Republican candidate for Governor of Michigan. In fact, the candidate who polls show was in the lead, his name is Ryan Kelley. He came on our show to explain what happened next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN KELLEY (R), MICHIGAN GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: There was no crime committed, Tucker, no. Never entered the Capitol Building, exercising my First Amendment. Those of us that have questions about the 2020 election results, they want to intimidate us, and they want to threaten us, not just me and my family, but my supporters as well, all of us that love America.
I think a lot of Americans see right through this, Tucker. They understand what the Democrats are up to, and it’s not a big deal to them. They want to know what the, what the government is going to do to actually do the things that are affecting their day-to-day life, to bring solutions to our state and to our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Noticing a pattern here? Speak up against Joe Biden, dare to organize other people to speak up against Joe Biden, dare to run for office against Joe Biden and you raise your chances of the FBI showing up at your house exponentially.
It took months for us to recognize the pattern. In fact, it took coming to Brazil where this kind of behavior is common to realize that’s exactly what’s happening in our country, and as if you needed more evidence, these raids continue.
On June 22 of this month, the feds cornered former Trump attorney John Eastman in a parking lot and seized his phone. They didn’t even provide a warrant before they did that. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FBI AGENT: Go ahead and put your arms up for me?
JOHN EASTMAN, FORMER DONALD TRUMP ATTORNEY: Can I see the warrant?
FBI AGENT: Sir, put your arms out for me.
EASTMAN: Can I see the warrant, please? I’d like to see the warrant. I’d like to see warrant. I’d like to see the warrant.
FBI AGENT: Let me see your hands, sir.
JOHN EASTMAN: I’d like to see the warrant before you take my property.
FBI AGENT: Sir, you’re going to see the warrant right now, sir.
EASTMAN: I want you to see that they took my property before providing me with the warrant. I’d like to read the warrant.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: “Put your hands up, no warrant for you.” What did that man do wrong? We still don’t know.
But again, as if you need more evidence that this is a pattern that nobody is doing anything to stop. In fact, some Republicans in Washington are abetting it and encouraging it, there’s this: A day after that was shot, June 23rd, last week, the FBI searched the home of former Trump DOJ official, Jeff Clark.
Again, there’s no suggestion he committed any crime of anything, that he did anything wrong. What he did was say things that Joe Biden and Joe Biden’s Justice Department didn’t like. So, he was hauled out of his home in his pajamas for maximum public humiliation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFFREY CLARK, FORMER DOJ OFFICIAL: At one point, you know 12 agents and two Fairfax County police officers went into my house, searched it for three-and-a-half-hours. They even brought along something, Tucker I’ve never seen before or heard of, an electronic sniffing dog, and they took all of the electronics from my house.
And, you know, I don’t blame the agents. I think, you know, what you’re talking about in terms of weaponization is really about whose pointing the agents and telling them what to do.
I just think we’re living in a — in an era that I don’t recognize. And increasingly, Tucker, I don’t recognize the country anymore with these kinds of Stasi-like things happening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: “I don’t blame the agents, he says, well, he’s a bigger man than we are because we do blame the agents. Where are the agents who will resign their jobs before participating in the destruction of the U.S. Constitution? We should see them. Any of them.
Is anyone else noticing this? No. And no one is saying a word and because no one is, abuses of power escalate.
This show has just learned that as of this week, the DOJ’s Counterterrorism Division is prosecuting a lawyer involved in a dispute over election integrity. Counterterrorism aimed at people who ask questions about the last election results.
And by the way, if that doesn’t pique your interest about what exactly must have happened in the last election, nothing will. Why are they so angry?
Every election of your lifetime has been contested, every single one. There’s not an election a Republican wins in which Democrats don’t say, “Yes, the voting machines were rigged.” No one knows a thing, but suddenly that’s a crime. And in this case, the lawyer has not attacked the State Capitol of Arizona. Rioters just did that after Roe v. Wade was overturned, not a single one was arrested.
They didn’t burn down a church outside the White House, in the name of George Floyd.
Instead, like every person we just mentioned, his crime was making Joe Biden mad. According to our Justice Department, he is now a domestic terrorist.
Someone needs to stop this before it gets even crazier.
Again, this view is informed by the fact we’re now outside of the country in a political environment that resembles ours in so many ways, except there’s less free speech. There is more police involvement in politics.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor