The Tucker Carlson Show - How A Joke About Hillary Clinton Landed Martin Shkreli In Prison
Aired: 2023-11-07
Duration: 06:10


=== A Joke About DNA (04:02) ===

[00:00:00]  So when you find out that you've been sentenced to seven years in prison, and you're a pretty young man at this point, what do you think?
[00:00:08]  Well, you know, I take it a step a few months before that where I was on bail and happy-go-lucky.
[00:00:14]  I was actually getting into the software business at the time.
[00:00:16]  And I figured, you know, you're on bail and getting into the software business.
[00:00:20]  Yeah, I just, I was, I was, you know, I was starting up a small effort to look in.
[00:00:25]  I needed to do something.
[00:00:26]  And, you know, I was expecting to go to prison, but I didn't expect to go for four years.
[00:00:32]  And I made a joke on social media about Hillary Clinton.
[00:00:35]  And all of a sudden, I found myself in front of a judge and they're throwing me in prison.
[00:00:39]  And yeah, I said something stupid, snied.
[00:00:43]  It was a joke.
[00:00:44]  You know, as a comedian, not all your jokes land.
[00:00:46]  And I actually, one of the reasons I have a social media following is I think some people find my stuff funny.
[00:00:51]  And, you know, I try to poke fun at power and authority and all the kinds of people who need to be taken down a peg.
[00:00:58]  And I, you know, I tried to do that.
[00:00:59]  And, you know, this joke fell flat.
[00:01:01]  It was some silly joke about Hillary Clinton's DNA.
[00:01:05]  And it got taken the wrong way by actually a New Yorker reporter, kind of flagged it.
[00:01:10]  This guy named Ali.
[00:01:12]  He sort of flagged it, basically took it to the government and said, look at this.
[00:01:16]  Arrest him.
[00:01:17]  And they did.
[00:01:19]  A New Yorker reporter didn't.
[00:01:20]  They're such monsters.
[00:01:22]  Yeah, they said this is a threat to Hillary Clinton.
[00:01:25]  I'm not threatening anything.
[00:01:26]  That's the joke.
[00:01:26]  It was about if I can get a sample of her hair, I can determine through DNA analysis, one of my expertises, that she may or may not be a lizard person, which is a completely, you know, it's a joke, obviously.
[00:01:39]  You know, she's a human being.
[00:01:41]  But, you know.
[00:01:42]  There's some debate on that.
[00:01:43]  But I mean, but it was a joke.
[00:01:45]  It's clear it was a joke.
[00:01:47]  I don't want Hillary Clinton's hair.
[00:01:48]  I'm not going to do a DNA analysis.
[00:01:49]  No, you don't want her hair.
[00:01:50]  No, you don't.
[00:01:51]  It's all a joke.
[00:01:52]  And, you know, they said this is a serious threat to her safety.
[00:01:55]  The New Yorker reporter said this.
[00:01:56]  And the government took it and ran with it.
[00:01:58]  The judge said, you know what?
[00:01:58]  You're right.
[00:01:59]  Who would find this funny?
[00:02:00]  And my lawyer's sort of sitting there saying, about half of America thinks this shit's funny.
[00:02:05]  And this very liberal judge from Berkeley, great, great judge, by the way.
[00:02:10]  But she said, you know, this is a bona fide threat to her safety.
[00:02:13]  Your bail's done.
[00:02:14]  Why?
[00:02:15]  You got sent to prison for, I guess you're not the first.
[00:02:17]  I mean, we just interviewed someone else who's about to be sent to prison for the same, but I guess you can't make fun of Hillary Clinton.
[00:02:23]  There are limits to the First Amendment.
[00:02:25]  There are very strong limits.
[00:02:26]  And I think that it's another thing I learned is that the First Amendment is this very qualified right.
[00:02:31]  I mean, it's extremely qualified.
[00:02:33]  And I had to learn that the hard way.
[00:02:35]  And I became a constitutional law scholar trying to understand why I can't make a joke.
[00:02:40]  And it was frustrating.
[00:02:42]  I think that making a joke about Trump would not have reached the radar of the government.
[00:02:47]  You think?
[00:02:48]  I mean, I just would have not been that interesting.
[00:02:51]  Wow.
[00:02:52]  So you went back to jail for how long?
[00:02:55]  So basically, from there, I had to stay until my sentence.
[00:02:58]  My sentence was...
[00:02:59]  How long were you in jail before trial?
[00:03:02]  I went...
[00:03:03]  No, I was already convicted.
[00:03:05]  So I was awaiting sentencing.
[00:03:07]  And when it came time for sentencing, I don't think that helped that she had to throw me in for this joke.
[00:03:14]  And it probably, my lawyer says it cost you at least another year or two because it's not a great thing.
[00:03:21]  Did you ever reach out to the New Yorker reporter and say, hey, thanks for throwing me in prison for a joke?
[00:03:25]  It's interesting.
[00:03:26]  That person became, who does like a lot of takedowns.
[00:03:30]  That was their shtick, is that they write these big takedown pieces of this person's awful.
[00:03:36]  Well, I feel bad for that person, actually.
[00:03:38]  I'm a Catholic.
[00:03:39]  And I look at that person and say, this is a sad existence.
[00:03:44]  And that person actually ended up over the years becoming depressed and suicidal and said, I don't want to live like this, tearing people down for a living.
[00:03:54]  Really?
[00:03:55]  Yeah, it was fascinating to see.
[00:03:56]  My girlfriend, who's the reporter who covered my case, sent me in documents that this guy was literally on Twitter saying, I'm suicidal.

=== Guilty Until You Turn Cheek (02:07) ===

[00:04:03]  I want to take my own life.
[00:04:04]  And I look back and I said, those things aren't an accident.
[00:04:06]  I mean, if you spend your life digging up dirt on people, trying to ruin their lives, and it must be a miserable existence.
[00:04:13]  That's, wow, what a wonderful take on that.
[00:04:15]  Because I think you're absolutely right.
[00:04:16]  But you can see past your own bitterness to.
[00:04:19]  You have to be able to turn the other cheek.
[00:04:20]  I mean, I don't even blame the government, to be honest.
[00:04:22]  I mean, it's something where, you know, I've had a great life.
[00:04:25]  I'm halfway done.
[00:04:27]  And I'm going to keep doing great things.
[00:04:29]  And, you know, if nobody can get you down, I mean, for me, it's the hallmark of a good entrepreneur is persistence and perseverance.
[00:04:36]  Okay, four and a half years in prison.
[00:04:37]  Okay, so what was, I mean, that would be enough to get most people down.
[00:04:41]  In fact, to drive them into a city.
[00:04:43]  I had a friend kill himself before.
[00:04:44]  He was a hedge fund guy in the same field as me.
[00:04:48]  And he insider traded.
[00:04:49]  And he got arrested on Monday, killed himself on Tuesday.
[00:04:52]  And it's not easy.
[00:04:54]  But if you're a real entrepreneur, jail is nothing.
[00:04:58]  You know, the ups and downs of your own company, you know, surviving and fighting and a customer wants to pull out, or there's going to be a hit piece on you in Bloomberg, or John is leaving to go to a competitor.
[00:05:09]  This stuff will make your stomach turn.
[00:05:11]  And jail is like a break from reality.
[00:05:14]  You know, it's a four years where you're just on the bench.
[00:05:18]  You know, you're in the penalty box.
[00:05:20]  Were you afraid going in?
[00:05:22]  You know, I, of course, didn't know what was going to happen, but I talked to enough people who said, you know, it's the kind of place where if you want to fight, you'll find a fight.
[00:05:29]  And if you want to be cool, you'll be cool.
[00:05:31]  And I think the number one thing you don't want to be in prison is, I learned this on the spot, is you don't want to be an informant and you don't want to be a child sex offender.
[00:05:41]  Those are the two big kind of red flags.
[00:05:43]  And most of the negative attention kind of goes to those two people.
[00:05:46]  As somebody who went to trial, which almost nobody does because it's a foregone conclusion with the verdict, you're guilty.
[00:05:51]  I mean, there's nobody that's found innocent.
[00:05:55]  And again, my pride for the five charges I was found not guilty of means that the U.S. government made a huge, flagrant error that they accused me of five crimes that I didn't do.
[00:06:06]  Y'all hear people say the news is full of lies on Tanner Day's motor cabinet.