Tucker Carlson speaks at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 18, 2024.
Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome journalist, author and American citizen Tucker Carlson. So fun. Thank you.
Tucker Carlson: Oh, this is wild.
Thank you. I’ve been. Good to see you. Thank you. I feel like I know about half the people in the room. This is wild. What are you doing? Justin Wells. Thank you guys.
Can I just say, Peter Navarro is back. Welcome to Peter Navarro, suffering the fate that has happened to so many who are friends with Donald Trump.
Thank you for having me. I have, I have been to many conventions. I have never been to a more fun convention or a convention with better vibes. They literally let Navarro out of prison.
First of all, thank you. This feels a lot different from what I thought it was going to feel like. I can’t hear you, but I know it’s something good.
So I watched, I watched the video of what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, about 15, 50 times. I think I was one of about 8 billion people around the world who watched it. And the more I watched it, the more it struck me that everything was different, after that moment. Everything. This convention is different. The nation is different. The world is different. Donald Trump is different.
When he stood up after being shot in the face, bloodied, and put his hand up, I thought at that moment that was a transformation. This was no longer a man. Well, I think that, I think it was divine intervention, but the effect that it had on Donald Trump, he was no longer just a political party’s nominee or a former president or a future president.
This was the leader of a nation. And, and I think there’s a, I think there’s a difference, I think. I mean, I’ve spent most of my life in Washington where the, you know, the president is that at the top of the pyramid never wants to be the president. But if you think about it, the presidency comes with great power, obviously. But if you think about it, that is a title that is bestowed by a process of some sort that can be subverted. And in the end, it does not confer by itself, has no title, does legitimacy. Just because you call yourself the president doesn’t mean that much inherently. I can call my dog the CEO of Hewlett-Packard. It doesn’t mean she is.
No, it’s true. And you hate to say it, but it is also true, a fact that you could take, I don’t know, a mannequin, a dead person, and make him president. If, you know, you could, you could. I’m just saying, theoretically possible with enough, with enough cheating, that could happen.
But being a leader is very different. It’s not a title. It’s organic. You can’t name someone a leader. A leader is the bravest man. That’s who the leader is. That is true in all human organizations. This is a law of nature. And in that moment, Donald Trump, months before the presidential election, became the leader of this nation. That was the most obvious to me.
And I have to say, you know, I, I think it changed him. I, you know, I reached out to Trump within hours of it that night. And what he said to me that night, having just been shot in the face, he said not a single word about himself. He said only how amazed he was and how proud he was of the crowd, which didn’t run. And I thought two things.
The first thing I thought was, well, of course they didn’t run. His courage gave them heart. A leader’s courage gives courage to his people.
And the second thing I thought was, this is the selfish guy I’ve been hearing about for nine years. Really? Not a word about himself, about his people. Period. And the second thing I noticed was, I don’t think anyone has remarked upon in public, but him is going to some sort of a script, like, why not? Is that he turned down the most obvious opportunity in politics to inflame the nation after being shot. To inflame the nation, which is an opportunity that almost every other politician I’ve ever met, and certainly his opponents would have taken instantly. And they would have said, well, what is this? How did he get shot? Like, how did this happen? And those are real questions that we have to get to the bottom of.
But in the moments, the days, the week after the shooting, he did not say that. He did his best to bring the country together. And I thought, this is the divisive figure. This is the irresponsible person. No, this is the most responsible, unifying behavior of a leader I think I’ve ever seen.
So the question is, where is he leading us? And I could go on for hours, but let me just sum it up. I do think the entire point, from the famous escalator ride nine years ago until today, of Donald Trump’s public life has been to remind us of one fact, which is a leader’s duty is to his people, to his country, and to no other.
That’s the point. That’s the only point. And another word for this is democracy. Democracy, in case you’re a little sick of being beaten in the face with democracy on television, actual democracy is the proposition that the citizens of a country own that country. They’re not renters. They’re not serfs, they’re not slaves. They are the owners of the country.
And for that to be true, their leaders have to represent them. Which another way of saying they have to do what the people want them to do, or a close approximation thereof. But if they completely ignore what people want, not just one year, but generationally, say for 50 years, then it may be, I don’t know what, it’s not a democracy.
And so I think the entire Trump project, paradoxically, is attacked as an enemy of democracy, is to return democracy to the United States. Hey, let’s pay attention to what people actually want. And the lack of interest in that question in Washington is something that ultimately drove me out of the city after 35 years. Lawmakers stepping over the prostrate bodies of their fellow citizens ODing on drugs to go cast votes to send money to some foreign country.
Yeah, actually, we’ve lost more Americans from drugs in the past four years than we lost in World War II. Yeah, our bloodiest war. More than we lost in World War II. Does anybody care? It is pathetic. It is pathetic. And do you hear a single word from Washington about doing anything about it? We know where the drugs are coming from. We know the supply routes. The U.S. military spent billions bombing the Ho Chi Minh trail. You don’t see our commander in chief suggesting that we use our military to protect our country or the lives of its citizens. No, that’s for Ukraine. And it’s too much, actually, it’s too insulting. It’s too insulting. It’s a middle finger in the face of every American.
It’s a very clear statement, which is unmistakable. And that is, we don’t care about you. And Donald Trump, whatever you say about him. And I think he’s a wonderful person. I know him well. By the way, the funniest person I’ve ever met in my life. Actually, you can’t be funny without perspective or without empathy, which is true.
But everything else about Trump aside, he actually cares, because he’s interested in the people who lives here, live here, because that’s his job. A father’s job, his duty is to his family. An officer’s duty is to his men. A president’s duty is to, as citizens. And he seems to be the only one who thinks that. And in his choice for Vice President JD Vance, he’s made that really clear. JD Vance, I’ll say this about him, is a thoroughly decent man, and I’ll just admit it, a friend of mine, one of the very few politicians in Washington who actually is very close to his own wife, which is wonderful to see. And she’s wonderful, actually. But JD Vance has views that are closer to Trump’s voters than anyone else in Washington in office. Therefore, he is the vice president. That’s called democracy.
So I will stop at just one point, and that is what’s happened over the past month, since the debate, and particularly on Saturday in Butler. I think a lot of people are wondering what is this? This doesn’t look like politics. Something bigger is going on here. I think even people who don’t believe in God are beginning to think, well, maybe there’s something to this, actually.
And I’m starting to think. I’m starting to think it’s going to be okay, actually, I do think that. The day after the midterm elections in 2018 Antifa came to my house, the Democratic Party’s militia, okay, I was at work. It was obvious when I was at work because it was public. My wife was home alone. They tried to come in through the front door. They terrorized her. She hid in our pantry. It was on television. It was horrible, actually. It was, I mean, I’m not whining about it. It wasn’t getting shot in the face, but it wrecked our day.
And the next morning, we’re lying in bed and the phone rings for my wife, and it’s Donald Trump, who’s not like a regular text buddy of Donald Trump’s. She picks it up. Hello, Susie, it’s Donald Trump. And it’s coming through. I could hear it. You know, I’m lying in bed. Oh. And the first thing he says is I’m going to stand guard outside your house. And she goes, oh, you’re so nice. And he says, I’ll never forget this as long as I live. He says, you know, there’s a lot of hate out there. And she said, you know there is, Mr. President. And then he says, but there’s a lot of love. There’s a lot of love.
And we are seeing that love. I don’t think it’s human love. And I’ll just stop with this. I’m not always convinced that I’m on the right side. I’ve been on the wrong side many times. You’ll never hear me say I’m on God’s side. Or God’s with me. Or even I’m with God. I want to be. I’m not sure I am. But I will say this unequivocally and conclusively, God is among us, right now. And I think that’s enough.
God bless you.