The Tucker Carlson Show - Tucker Carlson’s Republican National Convention FULL SpeechTucker Carlson’s Republican National Convention FULL Speech
Aired: 2024-07-19
Duration: 11:29


=== A Leader's Duty (08:42) ===

[00:00:00]  Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome journalist, author, and American citizen, Tucker Carlson.
[00:00:07]  So fun!
[00:00:11]  Thank you!
[00:00:15]  Oh, this is wild!
[00:00:19]  Thank you!
[00:00:22]  I've been...
[00:00:23]  Good to see you!
[00:00:27]  Thank you!
[00:00:30]  I feel like I know about half the people in the room.
[00:00:35]  This is wild.
[00:00:37]  What are you doing?
[00:00:39]  Justin Wells.
[00:00:40]  Thank you guys.
[00:00:42]  Okay.
[00:00:45]  Can I just say, Peter Navarro is back.
[00:00:50]  Welcome to Peter Navarro.
[00:00:53]  Suffering the fate that has happened to so many who are friends with Donald Trump.
[00:00:56]  Thank you for having me.
[00:01:02]  I have been to many conventions.
[00:01:03]  I have never been to a more fun convention or a convention with better vibes.
[00:01:10]  They literally let Navarro out of prison.
[00:01:13]  First of all, thank you.
[00:01:16]  This feels a lot different from what I thought it was going to feel like.
[00:01:21]  I can't hear you, but I know it's something good.
[00:01:29]  So, I watched the video of what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania about 15, 50 times.
[00:01:37]  I think I was one of about 8 billion people around the world who watched it.
[00:01:40]  And the more I watched it, the more it struck me that everything was different after that moment.
[00:01:48]  Everything.
[00:01:48]  This convention is different.
[00:01:50]  The nation is different.
[00:01:51]  The world is different.
[00:01:52]  Donald Trump is different.
[00:01:54]  When he stood up...
[00:01:56]  After being shot in the face, bloodied, and put his hand up, I thought at that moment, that was a transformation.
[00:02:03]  This was no longer a man.
[00:02:07]  Well, I think that.
[00:02:08]  I think it was divine intervention.
[00:02:09]  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.
[00:02:19]  This was the leader of a nation.
[00:02:24]  And I think there's a difference.
[00:02:27]  I've spent most of my life in Washington where the president is at the top of the pyramid.
[00:02:32]  Everyone wants to be the president.
[00:02:34]  But if you think about it, the presidency comes with great power, obviously.
[00:02:36]  But if you think about it, that is a title that is bestowed by a process of some sort that can be subverted.
[00:02:45]  And in the end, it does not confer by itself, as no title does, legitimacy.
[00:02:51]  Just because you call yourself the president doesn't mean that much inherently.
[00:02:56]  I can call my dog the CEO of Hewlett-Packard.
[00:03:00]  It doesn't mean she is.
[00:03:04]  It's true.
[00:03:06]  And you hate to say it, but it is also true as a fact that you could take, I don't know, a mannequin, a dead person, and make him president.
[00:03:14]  No, you could.
[00:03:15]  You could.
[00:03:15]  I'm just saying theoretically possible.
[00:03:18]  With enough cheating, that could happen.
[00:03:24]  But being a leader is very different.
[00:03:29]  It's not a title.
[00:03:30]  It's organic.
[00:03:32]  You can't name someone a leader.
[00:03:35]  A leader is the bravest man.
[00:03:38]  That's who the leader is.
[00:03:40]  That is true in all human organizations.
[00:03:44]  This is a law of nature.
[00:03:47]  And in that moment, Donald Trump, months before the presidential election, became the leader of this nation.
[00:03:54]  That was the most obvious to me.
[00:03:57]  And I have to say, you know, I think it changed him.
[00:04:02]  I, you know, reached out to Trump within hours of it that night.
[00:04:07]  And what he said to me that night, having just been shot in the face, he said not a single word about himself.
[00:04:14]  He said only how amazed he was and how proud he was of the crowd, which didn't run.
[00:04:21]  And I thought two things.
[00:04:23]  The first thing I thought was, well, of course they didn't run.
[00:04:27]  His courage gave them heart.
[00:04:29]  A leader's courage gives courage to his people.
[00:04:33]  And the second thing I thought was, this is the selfish guy I've been hearing about for nine years, really?
[00:04:40]  Not a word about himself?
[00:04:41]  About his people.
[00:04:43]  Period.
[00:04:44]  And the second thing I noticed, which I don't think anyone has remarked upon in public, but I'm just going to since I don't have a script, like, why not?
[00:04:50]  Is that he turned down the most obvious opportunity in politics to inflame the nation after being shot.
[00:04:58]  To inflame the nation.
[00:05:00]  Which is an opportunity that almost every other politician I've ever met, and certainly his opponents, would have taken instantly.
[00:05:06]  And they would have said, well, what is this?
[00:05:08]  How did he get shot?
[00:05:10]  Like, how did this happen?
[00:05:12]  And those are real questions that we have to get to the bottom of.
[00:05:14]  But in the moments, the days, the week after the shooting, he did not say that.
[00:05:21]  He did his best to bring the country together.
[00:05:23]  And I thought, this is the divisive figure?
[00:05:25]  This is the irresponsible person?
[00:05:26]  No.
[00:05:27]  This is the most responsible, unifying behavior of a leader I think I've ever seen.
[00:05:34]  So the question is, where is he leading us?
[00:05:39]  And I could go on for hours, but let me just sum it up.
[00:05:42]  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.
[00:05:59]  That's the point.
[00:06:00]  That's the only point.
[00:06:02]  And another word for this is democracy.
[00:06:05]  Democracy, in case you're...
[00:06:07]  A little sick of being beaten in the face with democracy on television?
[00:06:12]  Actual democracy is the proposition that the citizens of a country own that country.
[00:06:16]  They're not renters, they're not serfs, they're not slaves, they are the owners of the country.
[00:06:21]  And for that to be true, their leaders have to represent them, which is another way of saying they have to do what the people want them to do.
[00:06:32]  Or a close approximation thereof.
[00:06:35]  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.
[00:06:45]  And so I think the entire Trump project, paradoxically, is attacked as an enemy of democracy, is to return democracy to the United States.
[00:06:53]  Hey, let's pay attention to what people actually want.
[00:07:00]  And the lack of interest in that question in Washington is something that ultimately drove me out of the city after 35 years.
[00:07:06]  Lawmakers stepping over the prostrate bodies of their fellow citizens ODing on drugs to go cast votes to send money to some foreign country.
[00:07:17]  Yeah, actually, we've lost more Americans from drugs in the past four years than we lost in World War II. Yeah.
[00:07:27]  Our bloodiest war.
[00:07:29]  More than we lost in World War II. Does anybody care?
[00:07:34]  It is pathetic.
[00:07:36]  It is pathetic.
[00:07:37]  And do you hear a single word from Washington about doing anything about it?
[00:07:41]  We know where the drugs are coming from.
[00:07:42]  We know the supply routes.
[00:07:43]  The U.S. military spent billions bombing the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
[00:07:47]  You don't see our commander-in-chief suggesting that we use our military to protect our country or the lives of its citizens.
[00:07:53]  No!
[00:07:54]  That's for Ukraine.
[00:07:56]  And it's too much, actually.
[00:07:57]  It's too insulting.
[00:07:59]  It's too insulting.
[00:08:00]  It's a middle finger in the face of every American.
[00:08:03]  It's a very clear statement, which is unmistakable.
[00:08:09]  And that is, we don't care about you.
[00:08:13]  And Donald Trump, whatever you say about him, and I think he's a wonderful person.
[00:08:18]  I know him well.
[00:08:19]  By the way, the funniest person I've ever met in my life, actually.
[00:08:22]  You can't be funny without perspective.
[00:08:25]  Or without empathy, which is true.
[00:08:27]  But everything else about Trump aside, he actually cares.
[00:08:31]  Because he's interested in the people who live here because that's his job.
[00:08:34]  A father's job, his duty is to his family.
[00:08:38]  An officer's duty is to his men.
[00:08:40]  A president's duty is to his citizens.

=== A President's Duty (02:46) ===

[00:08:42]  And he seems to be the only one who thinks that.
[00:08:46]  And in his choice for vice president, J.D. Vance, he's made that really clear.
[00:08:53]  J.D. 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.
[00:09:06]  And she's wonderful, actually.
[00:09:09]  But J.D. Vance has views that are closer to Trump's voters than anyone else in Washington in office.
[00:09:17]  Therefore, he's the vice president.
[00:09:20]  That's called democracy.
[00:09:23]  So I will stop on just one point.
[00:09:26]  And that is, what's happened over the past month?
[00:09:29]  Since the debate?
[00:09:33]  And particularly on Saturday in Butler?
[00:09:36]  I think a lot of people are wondering, what is this?
[00:09:39]  This doesn't look like politics.
[00:09:40]  Something bigger is going on here.
[00:09:42]  I think even people who don't believe in God are beginning to think, well, maybe there's something to this.
[00:09:47]  Actually.
[00:09:50]  And I'm starting to think, I'm starting to think, It's going to be okay, actually.
[00:09:55]  I do think that.
[00:09:57]  The day after the midterm elections in 2018, Antifa came to my house.
[00:10:05]  The Democratic Party's militia, okay?
[00:10:07]  I was at work.
[00:10:08]  It was obvious when I was at work because it was public.
[00:10:10]  My wife was home alone.
[00:10:11]  They tried to come in through the front door.
[00:10:12]  They terrorized her.
[00:10:14]  She hid in our pantry.
[00:10:15]  It was on television.
[00:10:16]  It was horrible, actually.
[00:10:17]  It was, I mean, I'm not whining about it.
[00:10:19]  It wasn't getting shot in the face, but it wrecked our day.
[00:10:24]  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.
[00:10:32]  She picks it up.
[00:10:33]  Hello?
[00:10:35]  Susie, it's Donald Trump!
[00:10:36]  And it's coming through.
[00:10:37]  I can hear it.
[00:10:37]  You know, I'm lying in bed.
[00:10:38]  Whoa!
[00:10:40]  And the first thing he says is, I'm going to stand guard outside your house.
[00:10:44]  And she goes, oh, that's so nice.
[00:10:46]  And he says, I'll never forget this as long as I live.
[00:10:49]  He says, you know, there's a lot of hate out there.
[00:10:51]  And she said, no, there is, Mr. President.
[00:10:53]  And then he says, but there's a lot of love.
[00:10:56]  There's a lot of love.
[00:10:59]  And we are seeing that love.
[00:11:01]  I don't think it's human love.
[00:11:06]  And I'll just stop with this.
[00:11:08]  I'm not always convinced that I'm on the right side.
[00:11:10]  I've been on the wrong side many times.
[00:11:12]  You'll never hear me say, I'm on God's side, or God's with me, or even I'm with God.
[00:11:18]  I want to be.
[00:11:19]  I'm not sure I am.
[00:11:20]  But I will say this unequivocally and conclusively.
[00:11:23]  God is among us right now.
[00:11:27]  And I think that's enough.