Friday on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” host Tucker Carlson opened his program with an examination of The Bail Project, an organization Carlson contends “sends money to rioters and other violent criminals to help get them back on the streets as quickly as possible.”
Carlson took aim at the funders of The Bail Project, which includes some wealthy contributors.
Transcript as follows:
CARLSON: Many nights this week, we’ve covered the turmoil and the rioting in Louisville, Kentucky. If you watch, you’ll know that on Wednesday night, a BLM supporter in Louisville was arrested for shooting two police officers. Authorities say the man just ran up and opened fire on the cops purely because they were cops.
There’s no context. There was no altercation beforehand, no controversy. The man was trying to assassinate the police apparently for political reasons. It was a pretty straightforward case of attempted murder. It was a case of terrorism, really.
But that’s not what the shooter is being charged with tonight. We thought we’d bring you up to date on that story. Prosecutors have instead charged the gunman with quote “wanton endangerment and assault.” Endangerment and assault for trying to assassinate police officers. That’s a very light charge. Even non-lawyers can tell that.
Why? Why did they charge him with that? Well, you know why? Authorities were afraid of provoking more arson and more destruction if they gave the gunman what he deserved, so they didn’t give him what he deserved because they were intimidated by the mob.
They let BLM control the justice system in Louisville, which is to say control society. What are the consequences of allowing that? Well, the consequences are profound, and they will last far longer than the rioting itself.
Normal people don’t want to live in places where BLM is in charge, places where the streets are blocked by angry nihilist dressed in black, places where families are threatened just for eating in restaurants. We’ve seen a lot of that. Places where would-be assassins who shoot the police aren’t really punished for it.
Normal people flee cities like that and around the country they have, in huge numbers. When they leave, they take the tax base with them. So the effects of a few days of rioting can last for decades. We’ve seen that in city after city over half a century. Detroit has still not recovered from 1967, and it’s happening again.
So just last week, Louisville was a perfectly nice city. Tonight, it’s in long term trouble. The mob destroyed far more than a few storefronts downtown.
So the rest of us should understand how this is happening. Who is abetting it?
Last night we told you about an organization called The Bail Project. The Bail Project sends money to rioters and other violent criminals to help get them back on the streets as quickly as possible. The Bail Project as much as any other group is funding the violence we’ve been watching for the past few months.
Two nights ago, an organizer for the bail project was arrested by police in Louisville for rioting. Another Bail Project employs, a woman called Holly Zoller was caught renting a U-Haul truck to bring riot supplies into the City of Louisville. We showed you that video.
[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS]
CARLSON: So The Bail Project is funding the riots that are destroying our cities. The question is who is funding The Bail Project? Well, we’ve been looking at that. British billionaire Richard Branson sends money to The Bail Project, so does New York music industry executive, Jason Flom.
But according to published documents, the single biggest donor to The Bail Project is the Chairman of its Board, a former hedge fund manager and cryptocurrency trader called Michael Novogratz.
At times, Novogratz has been one of the richest people in the United States. We mentioned him by name on last night’s show, he runs the Board. Almost immediately after we did that, Novogratz sent us a message on Twitter, quote, “Would love to come on your show and discuss the great work that The Bail Project does.” Well, of course, we accepted that request immediately. We wanted to hear his side of the story. We always do want to hear the other side.
So we planned for that tonight. We were going to open our show with an interview with Michael Novogratz. But then just a few hours ago, shortly before airtime, Novogratz apparently panicked, suddenly he didn’t want to talk about the great work The Bail Project does. He was afraid, and so he backed out.
Michael Novogratz will not be joining us tonight. But we still think it’s worth knowing what he has been doing. In the past two years, The Bail Project has paid more than $26 million in bail for suspected criminals. The group says it has bailed out more than 12,000 people from jails.
So who are the people they bailed out? Well, they’re people like Samuel Lee Scott of the City of Chicago. Scott was in jail facing assault charges for punching his wife. After he hit her, reportedly, he said quote, “I might as well finish the job since you’re going to contact the police.”
So he was in jail and then The Bail Project came to the rescue. They sprung him. Hours after Novogratz group did that, Scott allegedly beat his wife to death.
We wish Michael Novogratz were here tonight to tell us what he thinks of that. Does he regret making it possible for Samuel Lee Scott to murder his wife? We’d love to know that. If Novogratz were here, we’d also ask him about a man called Christopher Stewart. He is also from Chicago.
Stewart’s ex-girlfriend got a protection order against him after he fired a pistol at her son’s sixth birthday party. “I should pop you right now,” he apparently said to her. He went to jail. Michael Novogratz’s group got him out of jail, and then Stewart allegedly proceeded to set his ex- girlfriend’s house on fire.
Police had to rescue her from her burning home as she dangled from her kitchen window. Once he was put back in the Cook County Jail, Stewart knew who to thank for his good fortune. He thanked The Bail Project for their help.
The Bail Project he said was, quote, “The best thing that ever happened to me.” His ex-girlfriend was probably less enthusiastic about it.
The Bail Project also bailed out a man called Kenneth King after he was booked for allegedly assaulting a woman. See a theme here? A lot of people hurting women getting bailed out by Michael Novogratz. But they bailed him out again when he committed larceny — twice at least.
Then they bailed out a man called Matthew Richardson after police say he tried to blow up a car in the parking lot of The Pentagon. They helped a man called Vicshawn Blackton (ph) pay his $2,500.00 bail after he was picked up on a first degree robbery charge. Months later, Blockton (ph) was arrested again for armed robbery, et cetera, et cetera.
There are many cases like this. How many are there? Well, The Bail Project won’t tell us, probably, they don’t keep track. What do they care what the consequences of what they do or they don’t. People like Michael Novogratz don’t live anywhere near the neighborhoods these policies destroy.
When The Bail Project got Mario Young out of prison on a weapons charge. They told him they would help him find a job. They gave him a state ID card. But they didn’t, quote, “It never happened.” Young said. A few weeks later, Young was back in jail on cocaine trafficking charges.
You shouldn’t be surprised, violent felons released on bail go on to reoffend at extremely high rates. What’s the left solution to that? We will stop prosecuting them for the crimes they commit. Legalize it then no one goes to jail.
Novogratz agrees. For example, he gave a big donation to a DA candidate in Queens called Tiffany Caban. Novogratz doesn’t live in Queens. He has homes in the safest neighborhoods in America, of course. He could afford to support Caban because he doesn’t have to live with the consequences of her ideas.
Caban ran on decriminalizing drug use and prostitution and other, quote, “crimes of poverty,” as if poverty forces people to commit crime. What a patronizing absurdity that is. But all of this is fine with Michael Novogratz. There are never going to be pimps and junkies outside his family’s house. He gets to pose as a progressive activist by doing this.
And critically — this is the point — by funding The Bail Project and groups like it, he and progressives like him, buy immunity from the obvious questions that actual journalists might ask them otherwise. Questions like, how exactly did you make billions of dollars? And how precisely do hedge funds and cryptocurrency trading make this a better country? Those are the real questions. No one ever asked them.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.