At the final night of the RNC on Thursday, Tucker Carlson spoke about the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Tucker Carlson.
00:02So fun!
00:06Thank you!
00:10Oh, this is wild.
00:14Thank you!
00:16I've been...
00:20Good to see you!
00:22Thank you!
00:24I feel like I know about
00:26half the people
00:28in the room.
00:30This is wild.
00:32What are you doing?
00:34Justin Wells!
00:36Thank you guys!
00:42Can I just say, Peter Navarro is back.
00:44Welcome to Peter Navarro.
00:48Suffering the fate that has happened to so many
00:50who are friends with Donald Trump.
00:52Thank you for having me.
00:54Uh...
00:56I have been to many conventions.
00:58I have never been to a more fun convention
01:00or a convention
01:02with better vibes.
01:04They literally
01:06let Navarro out of prison.
01:08First of all, thank you.
01:10This feels a lot
01:12different from what I thought it was going to feel like.
01:16I can't hear you, but I know it's something good.
01:18I know it's something good.
01:24I watched the video
01:26of what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania
01:28about 15, 50 times.
01:32I think I was one of about 8 billion people
01:34around the world who watched it.
01:36The more I watched it, the more it struck me
01:38that everything was different
01:40after that moment.
01:42Everything.
01:44This convention is different.
01:46The world is different. Donald Trump is different.
01:48When he stood up
01:50after being shot in the face,
01:52bloodied, and put his hand up,
01:54I thought at that moment
01:56that was a transformation.
01:58This was no longer a man...
02:02Well, I think that. I think it was divine intervention.
02:04But the effect that it had on Donald Trump,
02:06he was no longer
02:08just a political party's nominee
02:10or a former president
02:12or a future president.
02:14This was the leader of a nation.
02:20I think there's a difference.
02:22I've spent most of my life
02:24in Washington where the president
02:26is at the top of the pyramid. Everyone wants to be the president.
02:28But if you think about it,
02:30the presidency comes with great power, obviously.
02:32But if you think about it, that is a title
02:34that is bestowed by a process
02:36of some sort that can be subverted.
02:40In the end, it does not
02:42confer by itself, as no title
02:44does, legitimacy.
02:46Just because you call yourself the president
02:48doesn't mean
02:50that much inherently. I can call
02:52my dog the CEO of
02:54Hewlett-Packard. It doesn't mean
02:56she is.
02:58It's true.
03:00And you hate to say it,
03:02but it is also true as a fact
03:04that you could take, I don't know, a mannequin, a dead
03:06person, and make him president.
03:08No, you could. You could.
03:10I'm just saying, theoretically possible.
03:12With enough
03:14cheating,
03:16that could happen.
03:18But
03:20being a leader
03:22is very different.
03:24It's not a title.
03:26It's organic.
03:28You can't name someone a leader.
03:30A leader
03:32is the bravest man.
03:34That's who the leader is.
03:36That is true
03:38among human organizations.
03:40This is a law of nature.
03:42And in that moment,
03:44Donald Trump, months before the presidential election,
03:46became the leader of this nation.
03:48That was
03:50the most obvious to me.
03:52And I have to say,
03:54you know, I think
03:56it changed him.
03:58I reached out
04:00to Trump within hours of it that night.
04:02And what he said to me that night,
04:04having just been shot in the face, he said
04:06not a single word about himself.
04:08He said only
04:10how amazed he was and how proud
04:12he was of the crowd, which didn't run.
04:14And I
04:16thought two things.
04:18The first thing I thought was, well, of course they didn't
04:20run.
04:22His courage gave them heart.
04:24A leader's courage gives courage to his people.
04:28And the second thing
04:30I thought was,
04:32this is the selfish guy I've been hearing about for nine years?
04:34Really? Not a word about himself?
04:36About his people. Period.
04:38And the second thing I noticed,
04:40which I don't think anyone has remarked upon in public, but I'm just going
04:42to since I don't have a script. Like, why not?
04:44Is that
04:46he turned down
04:48the most obvious opportunity in politics
04:50to inflame the nation after being
04:52shot. To inflame
04:54the nation, which is an opportunity
04:56that almost every other politician I've ever met
04:58and certainly his opponents would have taken instantly.
05:00And they would have said, well, what is this?
05:02How did he get shot?
05:04Like, how did this happen?
05:06And those are real questions that we have
05:08to get to the bottom of. But in
05:10the moments, the days,
05:12the week after the shooting,
05:14he did not say that.
05:16He did his best to bring the country together.
05:18And I thought, this is the divisive figure? This is the irresponsible
05:20person? No.
05:22This is the most responsible
05:24unifying behavior of a leader
05:26I think I've ever seen.
05:28So the question is,
05:30where is
05:32he leading us?
05:34And I could go on for hours, but let me
05:36just sum it up. I do think
05:38the entire point
05:40from the famous escalator ride
05:42nine years ago until today
05:44of Donald Trump's public life
05:46has been to remind us of one fact,
05:48which is a leader's
05:50duty is to his people,
05:52to his country, and to no other.
05:54That's the point. That's the only
05:56point. And another word for this
05:58is democracy.
06:00Democracy, in case you're
06:02a little sick of being beaten
06:04in the face with democracy on television,
06:06actual democracy is the proposition
06:08that the citizens of a country own that country.
06:10They're not renters, they're not
06:12serfs, they're not slaves, they are the owners
06:14of the country. And for
06:16that to be true,
06:18their leaders have
06:20to represent them, which is another way
06:22of saying they have to do
06:24what the people want them to do.
06:26Or a close
06:28approximation thereof.
06:30But if they completely ignore what people
06:32want, not just one year, but
06:34generationally, say for 50
06:36years, then it may be,
06:38I don't know what, it's not a democracy.
06:40And so I think the entire Trump
06:42project, paradoxically, is attacked as an enemy
06:44of democracy, is to return democracy
06:46to the United States. Hey,
06:48let's pay attention
06:50to what people actually
06:52want.
06:54And the lack of interest in that
06:56question in Washington is something that ultimately
06:58drove me out of the city after 35 years.
07:00Lawmakers stepping
07:02over the prostrate bodies of their
07:04fellow citizens OD'ing on drugs
07:06to go cast
07:08votes to send money to some foreign country.
07:10Yeah,
07:12actually, we've lost
07:14more Americans
07:16from drugs in the past
07:18four years than we lost in World War II.
07:20Yeah.
07:22Our bloodiest war. More than we
07:24lost in World War II.
07:26Does anybody
07:28care? It is pathetic.
07:30It is pathetic.
07:32And do you hear a single word from Washington
07:34about doing anything about it? We know where
07:36the drugs are coming from. We know the supply
07:38routes. The U.S. military spent billions bombing
07:40the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
07:42You don't see our commander-in-chief suggesting
07:44that we use our military to protect our country
07:46or the lives of its citizens. No.
07:48That's for Ukraine.
07:50And it's too much, actually.
07:52It's too insulting.
07:54It's too insulting. It's a middle
07:56finger in the face of every American.
07:58It's a very clear
08:00statement, which is
08:02unmistakable. And that is
08:04we don't care about you.
08:08And Donald Trump,
08:10whatever you say about him, and I think
08:12he's a wonderful person. I know him well. By the way,
08:14the funniest person I've ever met in my life,
08:16actually. You can't be funny
08:18without perspective or without
08:20empathy, which is true.
08:22But everything else about Trump aside,
08:24he actually cares. Because he's
08:26interested in the people who live here
08:28because that's his job. A father's
08:30job, his duty is to his family.
08:32An officer's duty is
08:34to his men. A president's duty is to his citizens.
08:36And he
08:38seems to be the only one who thinks that.
08:40And in his choice
08:42for vice president,
08:44J.D. Vance, he's made that really clear.
08:48J.D. Vance, I'll say this about him,
08:50is a thoroughly decent man, and I'll just admit
08:52it, a friend of mine, one of the very few
08:54politicians in Washington who actually
08:56is very close to his own wife, which is
08:58wonderful to see.
09:00And she's wonderful,
09:02actually.
09:04But J.D. Vance
09:06has views that are closer
09:08to Trump's voters than anyone else
09:10in Washington in office.
09:12Therefore, he is the vice
09:14president. That's called democracy.
09:18So I will stop on just one point.
09:20And that is, what's happened
09:22over the past month,
09:24since the debate,
09:28and particularly on Saturday in Butler,
09:30I think a lot of people
09:32are wondering, what is this? This doesn't look
09:34like politics. Something bigger is going
09:36on here. I think even people who don't
09:38believe in God are beginning to think, well, maybe
09:40there's something to this.
09:42Actually.
09:44And I'm starting to think,
09:46I'm starting to think
09:48it's going to be okay, actually.
09:50I do think that.
09:52The day after the midterm elections
09:54in 2018,
09:56Antifa
09:58came to my house.
10:00The Democratic Party's militia.
10:02I was at work. It was obvious when I was at work because it was
10:04public. My wife was home alone.
10:06They tried to come in through the front door. They terrorized her.
10:08She hid in our pantry.
10:10It was on television. It was horrible, actually.
10:12I'm not whining about it.
10:14I wasn't getting shot in the face.
10:16But it wrecked our day.
10:18And the next morning,
10:20we're lying in bed, and the phone rings
10:22for my wife, and it's Donald Trump,
10:24who's not like a regular text buddy of
10:26Donald Trump's. She picks it up.
10:28Hello?
10:30Susie, it's Donald Trump, and it's coming through.
10:32I can hear it. I'm lying in bed.
10:34And the first thing he says is,
10:36I'm going to stand guard outside your house.
10:38And she goes, oh, that's
10:40so nice. And he says,
10:42I'll never forget this as long as I live.
10:44He says, you know, there's a lot of hate out there.
10:46And she said, you know, there is, Mr. President.
10:48And then he says, but there's a lot of love.
10:50There's a lot of love.
10:52And we are
10:54seeing that love.
10:56I don't think it's human love.
11:02And I'll just stop with this. I'm not always
11:04convinced that I'm on the right side. I've been on the wrong side
11:06many times. You'll never hear me say
11:08I'm on God's side, or
11:10God's with me, or even I'm with God.
11:12I want to be. Not sure
11:14I am. But I will say this
11:16unequivocally and conclusively.
11:18God is among us
11:20right now.
11:22And I think that's enough.
11:24God bless you.